Palace downplays plunder raps against GMA

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang dismissed yesterday the move of a militant group to file a plunder complaint against President Arroyo and Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap in connection with the purchase of overpriced ice making machines.

Deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar said the complainants do not appear to be serious in pursuing the case but only wanted to gain media mileage and to malign Mrs. Arroyo.

“Now they (complainants) are trotting this command responsibility to try to show that the President is somehow involved (in the overpricing) and somehow should be sanctioned for this,” Olivar said.

“Let’s stop making the President a punching bag,” he said.

He said he was not sure if Mrs. Arroyo’s lawyers would formally respond to the complaint “given where these particular charges are.”

“As you know, a lot of things (complaints) land in the papers and nothing happens in the courts. Obviously, the objective is to get media mileage,” Olivar said.

But the militant officials seem determined to file a complaint against Mrs. Arroyo and Secretary Yap and asked the Office of the Ombudsman to place the two under preventive suspension.

Akbayan party-list group Reps. Rafael Mariano and Joel Maglunsod; Anakpawis secretary general Cherry Clemente; and Pambansang Lakas ng mga Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) chairman Fernando Hicap and vice chairman Salvador France filed plunder charges against President Arroyo, Yap, and National Agribusiness Corp. (NABCOR) officers.

They said these officials should be suspended “to preclude the possibility of the public respondents from exerting undue influence or pressure on the witnesses against them.”

The complainants said a preventive suspension order would likewise prevent possible tampering of documentary evidence within the offices that they occupy.

The case stemmed from NABCOR’s P455.7-million post-harvest equipment contract with Integrated Refrigeration System and Services Inc. (IRSSI), the lone bidder for the project who allegedly bagged the contract after an irregular bidding process by the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC).

The complainants said the 98 ice-making machines are overpriced since each unit is being bought for P4,648,000 which is more than double the amount of a normal three-tonner ice-making machine sold locally or internationally at only P2.3 million per piece.           – With Michael Punongbayan