Smokey Mountain deal whistle-blower seeks PNP protection

MANILA, Philippines - A lawyer who blew the whistle on an alleged attempt to forge a midnight deal involving the National Housing Authority (NHA) paying P1.84 billion to a contractor of the Smokey Mountain development and reclamation project is seeking the protection of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Lawyer Roderick Gabrillo, in a letter dated June 22 to PNP chief Director General Jesus Verzosa, expressed concern for his safety since he filed last June 17 a plunder complaint against Vice President Noli de Castro, chairman of both the NHA and the Home Guaranty Corp. (HGC), as well as R-II Builders’ Reghis Romero and his son Michael.

Gabrillo said the street where he lives used to be quiet, but now strangers in cars and motorcycles pass by at all times of day and night.

He said that on June 22, two men approached him, seeking donations, and forced him to accept an envelope. He dropped it and ran into his house.

“In this regard, may I res-pectfully request for police protection for myself and my family’s safety,” Gabrillo asked Verzosa.

Gabrillo had filed the multiple plunder charges despite an announcement by De Castro that neither he, the NHA and HGC board of directors, nor R-II Builders signed a memorandum of agreement wherein the NHA would pay HGC and the contractor P4.5 billion in allegedly questionable payables.

Gabrillo said of the P4.5-billion payment, some P1.83 billion will go to R-II Builders despite its failure to fully finance the P6-billion project and other obligations under the joint venture agreement forged during the time of then President Fidel Ramos.

He said that due to its lack of finances, R-II Builders had to take out loans from government financial institutions such as the Philippine National Bank, Social Security System, the Government Service Insurance System, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, the Land Bank of the Philippines, and some others. These loans were all guaranteed by HGC, he said.

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago had branded the project as highly anomalous and unconstitutional.

She said the joint venture agreement should have been rescinded because, although it provided that R-II Builders would fully finance the project, it turned out that government institutions financed the project at a cost of P3.1 billion.