Rivera, 3 others charged in NAIA deal

Transportation Secretary Vicente Rivera, a Chinese presidential friend and two others were charged with graft by a Pasay City resident in the Office of the Ombudsman yesterday in connection with the government's alleged "lopsided deal" with a private firm constructing Terminal III of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Complainant Rogelio Estrella lodged the taxpayers' suit against Rivera, presidential friend Henry Go of the Philippine International Air Terminals Co. (PIATCO), former Ninoy Aquino International Airport Authority (NAIAA) general manager Francisco Atayde and Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) chairman Victorino Basco for allegedly violating the anti-graft law. Go was charged as co-conspirator.

In an eight-page complaint, the president of the non-governmental organization Bangon Pasay Movement said the deal put the "government (in) a very disadvantageous position" because PIATCO was only made to pay P20 per square meter a month (as rental) for developing the 65-hectare lot within Villamor Air Base.

Rivera refused to comment until such time that he officially receives a copy of the complaint, his aides said yesterday afternoon.

"The government will lose some P100 billion in revenue in the 25-year duration of the deal. There is so much more to discover, things so shocking and revolting. I'm left wondering: What is happening to our country?" Estrella said in a news conference.

He also raised fears that PIATCO will have a "virtual monopoly of all airport-related industries" as it has now ventured into expanding the airport after the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) granted it the "sole authority to operate and maintain international airports in Luzon."