Solons seek Alvarez presence in House investigation

Congressmen are demanding the presence of Transportation and Communications Secretary Pantaleon Alvarez in the public hearings of the House good government committee on the controversial Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 project to personally answer the serious charges against him.

"There are many allegations against Alvarez that only he can adequately answer," Rep. Enrique Garcia said during last week’s hearing of the committee chaired by Rep. Ruy Elias Lopez. In the previous two hearings, Alvarez sent DOTC Undersecretary Wilfredo Trinidad.

Garcia said the committee, which has already conducted several hearings on the issue, should compel Alvarez to appear in the next hearing "to particularly answer the (issues) that appeared in today’s advertisements alleging some wrongdoings."

The solon was referring to the advertisements that appeared last week in some national dailies accusing Alvarez of allegedly betraying the people’s trust. The ads urged the Commission on Appointments (CA) to reject his nomination.

The ads, addressed to the CA, accused the DOTC secretary, among other charges, of choosing to implement an alleged onerous contract (RP-Philippine International Air Terminals Co. Inc. agreement) entered by the ousted Estrada administration and of allegedly coddling a favored concessionaire of the previous administration, referring to businessman Jeffrey Cheng, Alvarez, according to the ads, remains heartless for allowing the displacement of thousands of airport workers once the Terminal 3 becomes operational.

Garcia also asked the committee to look into the ads’ allegations that when Alvarez was congressman, he was very vocal against the contract during a committee investigation. "But as we found out later, his company landed P300-million worth of contracts with PIATCO," he said.

This prompted Lopez to order the secretariat to obtain copies of transcripts of the hearings conducted by the committee on transportation and communications on the government-PIATCO contract during the 11th Congress.

Rep. Clavel Martinez said it is only Alvarez who can explain the third supplement to the contract dated June 22, 2001 since he was one of the signatories.

"The information I gathered so far is that there had been material amendments in the contract so much that they are very strong deviation from the original contract," Martinez said.

Some members of the good government committee were also surprised to have learned that the House committee on transportation and communications chaired by Rep. Jacinto Paras has come out with a report on a similar investigation despite conducting only one or two hearing.