DOTC chief to file raps vs brains behind smear job

Transportation and Communications Secretary Pantaleon Alvarez said yesterday he will file criminal charges against those behind the smear campaign against him and his department.

Alvarez said he is a victim of a multimillion peso demolition campaign being waged by business interests who are quarreling with the developers of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3.

His claim of a well-funded smear drive against him was bolstered when Venner Mendoza, whom MIA-NAIA Association of Service Operators (MASO) claimed was its sole witness against Alvarez, went to the Office of the Ombudsman to claim that his signature on an affidavit submitted by the group was forged.

Earlier MASO accused Alvarez of plunder, claiming that the DOTC chief participated in overcharging the government of work done in the construction of Terminal 3. MASO presented as witness an affidavit allegedly signed by Mendoza.

Mendoza, in disowning his signature on the MASO-submitted affidavit, told the Ombudsman that he was offered $200,000 to testify against Alvarez.

The DOTC secretary said MASO and the people behind it should answer for the lies they are spreading, claiming that it is not only his person that is being ruined but also the country’s integrity and economic prospects.

Alvarez said there is a big rush to destroy him considering that the Commission on Appointments will soon deliberate on his permanent appointment as DOTC head.

The secretary has been a subject of demolition jobs from interest groups who want to place their own men in the department, sources at the DOTC said.

The first black propaganda campaign against Alvarez fizzled out when business interests in the communications industry were exposed to be behind the smear drive that also intended to destroy First Gentleman Mike Arroyo.

An undersecretary at the DOTC is reported to be feeding parties intending to destroy Alvarez with derogatory reports that later turn out to be baseless.

"Some parties are interested on the post of Alvarez and cannot wait for their time," insiders said, adding that the undersecretary is being pushed by MASO to take over Alvarez.

Alvarez, however, will not take these affronts against his person sitting down, claiming that he will file appropriate charges in courts "to teach these people a lesson."

"They want to derail the economic progress we are working on, they should pay the price for their irresponsibility," he said, adding that in the process of muscling the government to force it to accept their terms, "they are destroying the same government."