Trillanes: Senate probe not a demolition job vs Binay

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV insisted on Monday that the Senate Blue Ribbon Sub-Committee inquiry into the Makati City Hall II parking building is not a demolition job against Vice President Jejomar Binay.

"Contrary to the allegations that the investigation on the Makati carpark building is being conducted in aid of demolition, and not in aid of legislation, I have submitted a list of proposed measures which we came up with in light of the findings of this investigation," Trillanes said.

One of the measures to be proposed, Trillanes said, is the removal or abolition of the resident auditor system in the national government and local government units, which would adopt a raffle system for the periodic rotation of assignment of auditors to avoid over-familiarization, fraternization and collusion among officials.

Another eyed legislation would include the actual measurement of the total floor area of a government building project as part of the requirements for formal acceptance or technical audit process being conducted by the Commission on Audit (COA)

Trillanes also proposed the adoption of the Davis Langdon and Seah (DLS) Construction Cost Handbook or other acceptable industry standards by the Department of Public Works and Highways, COA and procuring agencies as the basis for agency estimates and as standard reference material for all government infrastructure projects.

Also among the proposed measures would require the video recording of all government procurement procedures and activities.

Trillanes also responded to criticisms that the Senate has lost time for its law-making duties since it is swamped with investigations of various government anomalies.

He claimed that he remains to be one of the most productive senators in the Senate despite criticisms on the time and effort spent on the inquiry into the allegedly overpriced Makati carpark building.

Trillanes said that as of the latest tally of the Senate, he ranks first based on the total number of bills principally sponsored and third on the total number of bills, resolutions and committee reports filed.

"This record disproves the allegations that we in the Senate are failing to perform our law-making mandate due to the Makati Building probe. In fact, there are many hearings which are concurrently being conducted by other committees, aside from our regular Plenary sessions, wherein we deliberate measures to be passed into law," he said.

Trillanes has accused Binay of pocketing public funds as kickbacks from various projects in Makati and of using dummies to conceal his allegedly ill-gotten wealth.

Binay has branded Trillanes' sub-committee probe as a kangaroo court that is aimed to derail his presidential bid.