Why this vicious barrage of character assassination against Gloria Tan Climaco?

What both fascinates and appalls many in the heat of the controversy over the PIATCO Terminal 3 deal, which is facing amendment and drastic revision, is that most of the attacks – increasing daily in volume and vilification – are being directed at Presidential Adviser on Strategic Projects Gloria Tan Climaco.

What is the "bad thing" Secretary Tan Climaco is supposed to have done? Her "sin" was to thoroughly study the delicious sweetheart deal given the Cheng-controlled Philippine International Air Terminals, Inc. (PIATCO) to construct and run the prospective airport Terminal 3 at NAIA. She then advised the President that certain terms of the concession are onerous to the government, the project cannot continue under the terms of the "project agreements", and that the deal be drastically revised.

That’s what she did. In short, she only did the job assigned to her by the Chief Executive.

Now, fire and brimstone are being poured on Gloria Tan Climaco’s head from the supporters and bugle-blowers of the "majority" owners of PIATCO; namely, Mr. Cheng Yong, chairman of the group, son Jeffrey Cheng, and their lawyer Eduardo "Dindo" de los Angeles (of Philippine Stock Exchange "fame") from their legal counsel, Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc & De Los Angeles.

What I’d like to know is whether it’s true that what’s "coming out" in the media and elsewhere is being orchestrated by no less a heavy-hitter than an even more influential Malacañang intimate, the President’s own spin-doctor and image-maker, Dante Ang.

Since President Macapagal-Arroyo constantly "consults" Dante Ang, what’s this? If Ang is indeed, involved, the next question would be: Do the President and First Gentleman Mike Arroyo know what Ang is doing? It can’t be that they "approve" of Ang siding with PIATCO, di ba? Wasn’t it the President, after all, who herself declared that the PIATCO deal must be reviewed, revised, and a new "amicable settlement" found between the government, the Fraport AG (the giant German firm which wants to pull out since it has poured more than $400 million, fruitlessly, into the Terminal 3 project) and PIATCO.

The smear campaign against Tan Climaco has gone into high gear. Her detractors are asking, either in privilege speeches delivered in the House of Representatives by congressmen renowned for their …er "colorful" past activities, or in press releases: Who is this Gloria Tan Climaco?

The real question, and which one should be asked and answered, is: WHO are the Chengs? How did this father-and-son tandem get to be so powerful? How much did they themselves really invest in the Terminal 3 project? (Sixteen million dollars only? Or much more?) What is their background?

They’re testifying today in Congress. Perhaps then we’ll get some answers.

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Okay: Let’s look at Tan Climaco. As Presidential Adviser, she briefs President Macapagal-Arroyo on economic and regulatory issues related to business and infrastructure; i.e., water, utilities, airport terminals and aviation, among other matters.

In her previous career, she sat in the boards of various companies in the manufacturing and service industries, both in the Philippines and in Singapore. She was also a founding member of the Board of Trustees of the Asian Corporate Governance Association, an NGO formed under the sponsorship of the Asian Development Bank or ADB, and Calpers (USA).

Climaco was president and CEO of Crown Equities Inc. for five years, running that investment-holding firm as well as serving as co-managing director of Argosy Partners, Inc., an investment advisory firm for foreign investment transactions by institution like E.M. Warburg Pincus, J.P. Morgan, Chase Capital Partners, Inc., G.E. Capital, and the Bass Brothers of Texas.

Prior to that, Climaco spent 20 years in SyCip Gorres Velayo (SGV), rising from the ranks to become the youngest and only female Chairman and Managing Partner of SGV & Co. She also served in the Central Bank as Special Consultant to the Governor (equivalent in rank to Deputy Governor) in 1984. In 1991, she was an Outstanding CPA for Public Accounting and one of the Outstanding Young Men (Women) or TOYM awardees, later becoming president of the TOYM Foundation.

The following year, Climaco received the well-known TOWNS award – meaning The Outstanding Woman in the Nation’s Service award. In 1994, she was named Outstanding Professional of the Year in the Field of Accountancy, and received the "Global Leaders for Tomorrow Award" from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that same year.

By the way, Climaco comes from Zamboanga City, where she graduated magna cum laude from the Ateneo de Zamboanga, earning a degree in Bachelor of Science in Business. She went to Northwestern University in the United States, earning a Master’s in Business Administration.

At the very least, now you know that Climaco is no fly-by-night operator or "fake" expert. Her credentials are impeccable. Her detractors claim they will "unmask" her. If they do so, what will they find? A hidden agenda? By their deeds thou shalt know them, the revered old adage goes. Where are the dark deeds in Climaco’s part? How could she benefit from the PIATCO deal’s revision or rejection?

Incidentally, the Germans of Fraport AG were the ones who offered to turn the Terminal 3 project over to the government – it was not the government that wanted to "seize" the project "Hitler-style". There’s a compromise offer (which the Chengs apparently and vehemently reject) under which – with no immediate cash-out on the part of our government – a "loan" of $400 million could be made to the Philippines by Fraport. This would enable us to complete Terminal 3 without pain.

Under the tentative "turn-key" plan, such a loan would give the government a three-to-five year "grace period" in principal and interest (i.e. no money spent), then a minimum 15-year repayment scheme at a fixed interest rates of 6.2 to 6.8 percent, depending on what is agreed.

What’s so wrong in that? C’mon. Let’s can all that hysteria. What we need is to get the Terminal 3 problem solved. Right now, no international airline – and even our own flag carrier, Philippine Air Lines (PAL) – wants to sign any agreement to utilize that Terminal 3. What do the current bosses of PIATCO want? They want the government to force the airlines to sign up. This is what a lot of that howling is all about.

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PIATCO invited yesterday the media to visit the unfinished shell of Terminal 3 to see for themselves that thousands of workers are busily at work there "almost round the clock", rushing to complete Terminal 3 because the Chengs have announced it will be in operation by November 26.

The Americans have an expression: "I’m from Missouri!" (Translation: I’m one of those skeptics from Missouri who don’t accept anything unless it can be clearly shown.) I’m worse than that: I’m from Ilocoslovakia.

Of course, what media surely found yesterday were perhaps 3,000 workers banging away, piecing things together, equipment in full hum et cetera. The idea would be for some people to monitor what takes place days, weeks, and months from now. Will the same feverish activity be going on a week or two weeks from today? Unless PIATCO has in its kitty at least $100 million more, I don’t think they’ll get that terminal open for business by the magic date of November 26. Or December 26. Or January 26. In March or April, perhaps?

Seeing is believing. I’m eager to believe. Let’s see. And what about the airlines? Will they be willing to pay the price?

Last August 13, Mr. Moises S. Tolentino, Jr., Vice President for Public Affairs, PIATCO indignantly wrote the editors of the STAR that "Mr. Soliven continues to peddle LIES about the project." He took strong exception to my allegations that the construction of Terminal 3 had become a "white elephant" (May 2, 2002) and an abandoned project" (June 2, 2002), and that work has been "at a standstill for months" (August 13, 2002).

He asserted that "many people… including scores of respectable media people (paid the project a visit), and they have seen the feverish pace at which the finishing work at the terminal building is being pursued. Some 3,000 workers continue to work almost round the clock, and only a blind man will say that no work is going on at the site."

Without giving advance notice, this writer sneaked over to the site on three occasions since then, one of them at night (to check out the "round the clock" bit). Those must have been holidays, since there were no shifts of thousands of workers there – just about eight or nine fellows. Again, I must have blundered in at the wrong time. So I’m eager to give you guys the benefit of the doubt. The bottom line is: Get that Terminal 3 in operation by the PIATCO’s avowed deadline of November 26. Will we see aircraft flying in and out of there by then?

I suspect, alas that would be one for Ripley!

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Let’s not kid ourselves. Despite the cheerful promise of Malaysia’s Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohammad that the arrest and deportation of Filipinos from Sabah would be temporarily "suspended," those deportations will go on.

In Kudat, Northern Sabah, the local UMNO Liaison Committee Chairman, Datuk Haji Musa Aman, was quoted in the SABAH TIMES (September 1, 2002) pledging that deportations will go on "despite anti-Malaysia street demonstrations in the Philippines Indonesia." (Te United Malays National Organization or UMNO is the ruling political party.)

Musa, who is also Minister of Finance, declared that "there can be no compromise. Malaysia will defend its sovereignty at whatever cost. We respect the laws of our neighbors, and we expect them to respect outs in turn."

Musa, when asked how he viewed the anti-Malaysia street demonstration in Manila at which pictures of Mahathir and Malaysian flags had been burned, replied that it "saddened" to hear and read of such things.

A few days ago, an Indonesian crowd tried to storm the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta, too, and burned the Malaysian flag. Both demonstrations, the SABAH TIMES"averred, were "to protest the alleged ill-treatment of nationals of those two countries detained by Malaysian authorities for repatriation."

The newspaper quoted Musa as stating "there is no truth to allegations of mistreatment of foreigners facing deportation in our detention centers".

The same daily claimed, in a story datelined Kota Kinabalu, that the Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur had no plans to investigate the allegations of ill-treatment. It quoted Embassy Second Secretary Giovani E. Palec as making this assertion.

Is it true that Palec said (according to the SABAH TIMES) that "the allegations ... made by the illegal immigrants upon arrival in the Philippines could have possibly been blown out of proportion by the Filipino media"? Susmariosep, Palec.

The fellow was further quoted as declaring the conditions in the Menggatal, Sandakan and Tawau detention centers and the facilities provided "were good." (Not even "overcrowded").

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THE ROVING EYE...The building of that secret submarine base in Sepangar (not Sepangor), north of Sabah’s capital of Kota Kinabalu, was started two years ago. The PASCAL not TASCAL, as misspelled in transmission yesterday) or the Special Naval Commando training base, for Malaysia’s equivalent of the US Navy Seals or the Special Sea Warfare Group is located in Semporna,, which is on the eastern side of Sabah, directly facing the southern tip of Palawan and Western Mindanao. The French are poised to arm the Malaysian submarines being acquired with Exce?? missiles (with a range of 40 kilometers, capable of being delivered by sub to any Philippine target).