DFA chief off to US to testify on NAIA-3, not to meet with Rice

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo and Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz will appear before the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Washington D.C. in connection with the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 (NAIA-3) arbitration case.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) denied yesterday that Romulo was going to Washington D.C. this week to meet with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and formally request custody of the four US Marines facing rape charges in Olongapo City as earlier reported.

The DFA did not announce the schedule of Romulo’s departure but a ranking DFA official said the secretary was leaving today.

Foreign Affairs spokesman Gilberto Asuque said Romulo will be in Washington for the NAIA-3 arbitration case, not in his capacity as Secretary of Foreign Affairs, but to give testimony on his official acts in his previous capacity as Executive Secretary.

Cruz, on the other hand, is being invited in his capacity as former presidential legal counsel when the expropriation order was issued.

During Romulo’s US visit, he will primarily work with the Philippine legal team, headed by Solicitor General Alfredo Benipayo, on the arbitration case.

The Philippine International Air Terminals Co. (Piatco), a consortium composed of German firm Fraport AG and Filipino companies, built the $650-million terminal under a deal with the government in 1998.

President Arroyo, however, revoked the contract in 2002 after her advisers said the terms were unfavorable to the government and the government took over the terminal.

Fraport AG demanded $465 million in just compensation while Piatco itself is asking for $565 million.

A case was filed by Fraport against the Philippine government before the ICSID while Piatco lodged a complaint before the Singapore-based International Court of Arbitration.

Last December, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s earlier decision directing the government to pay Piatco over P30 billion as a prerequisite to taking over the facility.

Diplomatic sources, however, said it is not unusual for the DFA to withhold the Foreign Affairs Secretary’s schedule of meetings with representatives of foreign governments during his visits abroad.

The officials cited Romulo’s unannounced meeting with US Director for National Intelligence John Negroponte last September in which he briefed the American official on the political situation in the Philippines following reports about US spying activities on Philippine officials and the alleged destabilization plot against the government.

Romulo attended the 60th United Nations Millennium Summit in New York last September but he went to Washington for the unannounced meeting with officials of the Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC) regarding the Philippines’ application for the $20-million anti-corruption funding under the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA). — Pia Lee-Brago, AFP