Blue Ribbon panel to probe Piatco

The Commission on Appointments will no longer pursue its investigation of the government contract with the Philippine International Air Terminals Co. (Piatco) with the resignation of Transportation and Communications Secretary Pantaleon Alvarez.

Sen. Edgardo Angara, the CA minority leader, said that details of the Piatco contract for the construction of Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport would no longer be asked in the upcoming confirmation hearing of DOTC secretary-designate Leandro Mendoza, the current director general of the Philippine National Police.

Unlike Alvarez, Mendoza had no hand in the preparation and review of the controversial Piatco contract.

"The in-depth investigation of the Piatco contract would now have to be undertaken by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee," Angara said.

He said the Blue Ribbon Committee would call the first hearing on the Piatco contract a week before the July 22 opening of the Second Regular Session.

Angara was elected chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee last June 3 in place of Sen. Joker Arroyo.

"Joker sat on many of our resolutions when the Blue Ribbon is supposed to be the main committee of the Senate. It is supposed to be the most active," Angara said.

He said that Senators Ramon Magsaysay, Loren Legarda and he filed during the early period of the First Regular Session a resolution calling for an investigation of the Piatco contract.

The resolution was referred to the Blue Ribbon Committee but Arroyo never conducted a hearing on the contract.

Instead of the Blue Ribbon, the CA committee on transportation and communications headed by Quezon Rep. Rafael Nantes became the venue in examining the Piatco contract. Most of the committee documents pertained to the contract, sought to help members determine the moral fitness and integrity of Alvarez.

Some, however, had questioned the direction of the CA confirmation hearing, saying it was turning the CA into a fact-finding body like the Blue Ribbon.