Senate to probe Pagcor coffee

MANILA, Philippines - The P1-billion coffee expenses incurred by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) in the past administration is next on the agenda of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee.

“It is in the pipeline,” said Blue Ribbon chairman Sen. Teofisto Guingona III.

This developed as the company that supplied the coffee to Pagcor said yesterday that there was nothing irregular in its contract with the state gaming firm.

Carlota Cristi Manalo-Tan said the allegations made by Pagcor chairman Cristino Naguiat that her company cornered the bulk of the P1-billion spending of the agency on coffee were “entirely baseless and absurd.”

Manalo-Tan also stressed that as a private person who has her own legitimate business to protect, she merely wanted to avoid any hint of impropriety, as she happened to be the wife of Johnny Tan, a friend of former Pagcor chairman Efraim Genuino.

Tan is one of the respondents along with Genuino in a plunder complaint filed by the agency’s new management.

She said the fact that Promolabels Specialty Shop was a sole proprietorship and not a corporation registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission is a non-issue as it is a legitimate and duly registered business since 2001 engaged in the coffee shop and restaurant business.

On the allegation that her company was awarded the contract without public bidding, she said that as far as she knows, not one of the service providers in Pagcor underwent any bidding process.

In the meantime, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile would rather not allow the Senate to be dragged into the issue because criminal charges have already been filed against former Pagcor officials.

“I don’t relish investigating civet coffee. It sounds funny, but it is not really funny when you think about it,” Enrile said, but lauded President Aquino for his strong stance in stamping out corruption under his administration.  

“At least, one thing I noticed is that there is a strong resolution on his part to stamp out venalities in government, in his reformist speech. I appreciated his candor. Imagine, he found out about P1-billion coffee in Pagcor. That is no joking matter,” he said.

“If you quantify that, according to him, P10 billion over ten years, so P100 million per year divided by 365 days, my God, they would be spending about less than P300,000 for coffee alone per day in Pagcor. Who were the drinkers of coffee there? What kind of coffee are they drinking? The most expensive coffee on earth, civet coffee?  They must be importing civet coffee,” he said.    

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, on the other hand, said there is a need to dig into Pagcor’s coffee anomaly especially after the issue was specifically mentioned by Aquino in his SONA.

He said there is a need to conduct an inquiry especially if documents uncover more anomalies involving Pagcor funds.

A quest for truth

The Blue Ribbon committee will also start its probe into the anomalous sale of two choppers passed off as brand new to the Philippine National Police (PNP) in 2009. It has summoned top police officials to the 9 a.m. hearing today at the session hall.

Lacson said he wanted to know from the Manila Aerospace Products Trading Corp. (MAPTRA) why they sold the two Raven helicopters to the PNP when bidding regulations specified that the equipment should be brand new.

The senator also revealed information that the helicopters were used by members of the family of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“Let’s see how far the hearing will go if it can be established that the first owners of the two choppers were the Arroyos,” Lacson said.

A former police chief, Lacson said he wanted to squeeze details from PNP officials – both retired and incumbent – as to why they decided to pursue the purchase.

In the last few weeks, Lacson questioned why the flight logs of the two refurbished Robinson Raven 44 helicopters revealed that they frequented Area 3 of Malacañang, which is a no fly zone, and only the President can use the helipad in the Palace.

“How can they explain that these two choppers frequented A3 (area 3 in) Malacañang. Only the president can land or only the presidential chopper or the chopper carrying the president can land in Area 3,” he said, even as he vowed to pin down the Arroyo couple on the anomalous sale because he has documents to back his allegations.

Lacson also wants to dig into how the PNP utilized its P2-billion annual budget for its Capability Enhancement Program (CEP) after he received reports that the P105-million funds used in the purchase of the choppers were reportedly from the CEP fund in 2008.  

The CEP is a five-year plan to upgrade equipment and facilities of the PNP, which were allocated in its regular budget.

Holding a copy of PNP document dated June 30 this year, Lacson quoted a report from the chief of the PNP Air Unit to PNP chief Director General Raul Bacalzo informing the latter that the choppers were “pre-owned.”

He said he has expressed concern over the two Robinson Raven 44 choppers, which were passed off as “brand new” to the PNP in 2009, and not the Bolkow helicopter, which was previously owned by the Arroyo-controlled corporation.

Lacson even lamented that the Manila hostage-taking incident last year could have not ended tragically had the police force been properly equipped during the botched rescue at the Quirino Grandstand.

“A fully equipped Robinson Raven chopper has an infrared capability. If it was used during the hostage taking, the police could have monitored the movements of hostage-taker Rolando Mendoza,” he said, comparing the chopper’s capability to the movie “Terminator” where images inside the tourist bus can be seen.

Lacson said the June 30 PNP report showed that “the 2 Robinson standard Raven were not brand new when received by the PNP on Sept 24, 2009 due to its accumulated flight time record of more than 500 hours.”

“This is the contention of the PNP we are not even sure if it’s only 500 hours. The service bulletin and mandatory maintenance inspection conducted since it was reassembled in March 2004,” he said.

Arroyos owned five choppers

Lacson added he received reports that the Arroyos bought at least five helicopters, which were used in the 2004 elections – the election year marred with the “Hello Garci” controversy.

“Why March 2004? Because they bought five helicopters to be used during the campaign. One of the helicopters crashed in Mountain Province wherein Governor Singson was one of the passengers, they were candidates for the senatorial race,” he recalled, referring to Luis Singson who ran but lost in his senatorial bid under the administration party.

Lacson said the police officials were least to be blamed in the transaction because it was obvious that the purchase was forced upon them.

“In the first place, why will you buy a second-hand unit, which costs about $100,000 or $150,000 per unit or about P7 million?  But how much did they sell these? P105 million for all three,” he said. “I know that the PNP did not earn anything from this, in fairness to them. How will you get kickbacks when you are dealing with powerful people who owned the aircraft?” – Helen Flores