Clark demolitions didn't benefit Aetas

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga, Philippines – Scrap materials from 17 buildings recently demolished in the aviation complex here were estimated to be valued at around P30 million to P192 million, but Aeta leaders who were supposed to be the beneficiaries yesterday denied they received that much.

“What we got were P15,000 and 100 sacks of rice and that was in 2009,” Aeta Robert Rivera, president of the Bamban Aeta Tribal Association (BATA), told The STAR.

He said the benefits that his group got were from the sale of materials from only two demolished buildings.

Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) chairman Nestor Mangio said Rivera and other Aetas insisted in a meeting with him the other day that they have never received more than the P15,000 and the 100 sacks of rice since last year.

In a telephone interview, Mangio said as many as 17 buildings had been demolished, most of them only recently. He quoted a member of the demolition team as estimating that the scrap materials from the buildings could be worth at least P30 million.

But Candaba Mayor Jerry Pelayo, who holds a usufruct contract covering two buildings in the area, said the materials were of high quality and that engineers had valued them at around P192 million.

He said the demolition scuttled his plans to use some of the buildings for agriculture projects. He said he plans to file plunder charges against those involved in the demolitions.

CIAC president Victor Jose Luciano, in a press conference here the other day, admitted he authorized the demolition of the idle buildings left by the Americans in this former US Air Force base, following a series of letters and telephone calls from the Presidential Management Staff (PMS) and the Presidential Action Center (PAC) in Malacañang.

Luciano said the PMS followed up the request of Rivera’s group for donations of scrap materials from two idle buildings in the CIAC’s jurisdiction that covers 2,500 hectares of this freeport, including the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA).

The first letter dated June 23, 2009, signed by then PMS head Hermogenes Esperon Jr. and addressed to Luciano, stated: “Please be informed that the Office of the President has approved the request of Mr. Oscar Rivera, chairman, Bamban Aeta Tribal Association, for donation of DMIA’s old buildings and other old materials for their livelihood programs.”

At the press conference, Luciano distributed copies of another letter from the PAC dated April 26, 2010 and signed by director Bobby Dumlao, inquiring into what action he had taken on the request of another Aeta, Catalino Saplala.

The letter, however, did not specify whether the request also pertained to donations of scrap materials from demolished buildings.

Luciano insisted that all proceeds from the sale of scrap materials from over 14 buildings already demolished, mostly recently, were supposed to go to the Aetas.

“The Aetas deal with scrap dealers in the demolition, and the CIAC had nothing to do with the matter beyond that,” he added.

Rivera noted that in at least two buildings demolished last year, a certain Josie Gomez, whom he identified as an associate of Luciano, was the one who signed the demolition permit for them.       

Pelayo added that Gomez was also the contractor for the recent demolition of other buildings.

Inquiries made by The STAR with the CIAC public affairs and engineering offices showed there was no CIAC employee named Josie Gomez.

Mangio said the CIAC’s “matrix” on the powers of Luciano is not clear on his authority to donate properties, even without CIAC board approval.

Luciano himself admitted this, saying the CIAC board, in a recent meeting, cited his donations as done in good faith.

Mangio, however, said the donations seemed to have violated Commission on Audit Circular No. 96003 issued in 1996 and Department of Budget and Management Circular No. 425 issued in 1995 covering procedures on the disposal of government properties.

Luciano said the demolitions were carried out only after the Building, Utilities and Regulatory Department (BURD) of the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) certified that the buildings were unsafe.

But BURD assistant manager Angel Pineda said his office issued a demolition clearance largely on the basis of Luciano’s request.