‘Former GMA ally behind PEA exposé’

A senior government official linked yesterday the whistle-blower in the alleged scandal in the construction of the President Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard (PDMB) to a prominent civil society leader who had a falling out with President Arroyo.

The source, who requested anonymity, told The STAR that the civil society leader was also the one who reportedly linked First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo to the alleged overpricing of the PDMB by as much P600 million.

The source was privy to the Public Estates Authority (PEA) Central Boulevard Road project, which was later renamed as PDMB at the Manila Bay reclamation area.

At Malacañang, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye strongly denounced yesterday attempts to link Mr. Arroyo to the alleged anomaly.

Bunye said such attempts were obvious bids by the President’s political enemies to besmirch the family name and indirectly attack her.

In an interview, the source said the civil society leader, whom he refused to name, was also responsible for distributing to the media the report made by Sulficio Tagud Jr., a director of PEA, claiming irregularities in the contract of Jesusito D. Legaspi Construction (JDLC), which built a 2,153-meter portion of the five-kilometer long PDMB.

"This civil society leader is said to have been the one spreading the news that Mr. Arroyo is behind the alleged overpricing of the boulevard," said the source.

Aside from Tagud, this civil society leader could also be working with other prominent political figures out to discredit Mrs. Arroyo’s administration, the source said.

In a separate interview, PEA chairman Ernest Villareal admitted that he was a friend of Mr. Arroyo, but vehemently denied that the First Gentleman was involved in this particular scandal.

"PEA general manager Benjamin Cariño and I confirm in unequivocal terms that there is no Malacañang connection whatsoever. The First Gentleman has never even once talked to us about the road, with the exception of the planning for its inaugural on the birthday of the President," Villareal told The STAR.

Villareal said the PEA board would submit to Malacañang answers to charges made by Tagud through a comprehensive report, which PEA was still preparing.

Lie-detector tests

Villareal said he and Cariño were now accepting an offer that Tagud made that they should take a lie detector test. Tagud made the challenge on Sept. 18 when they confronted Tagud about the leak to the media of the alleged overpricing scandal.

"We’re accepting his challenge. We could take the lie detector test next week," Villareal said.

At the same time, PEA board director Rodolfo Tuazon challenged Tagud and suspended PEA assistant general manager Pelagio Lalap to take a lie detector test with him, after Lalap denied in an affidavit that he admitted to Tuazon that he took P2.1 million from JDLC owner, Jesusito D. Legaspi.

The money was allegedly intended as a payoff to get the board’s approval for the P42 million price adjustment in the JDLC’s contract. Lalap has been suspended for another extortion case involving a security agency contractor.

Tuazon executed yesterday an affidavit claiming that aside from the P2.1 million, Lalap also received from Legaspi a post-dated cheque worth P14 million.

In the affidavit, Tuazon said Lalap had told him that the cheque was now in the possession of "a third person whose identity he refused to reveal."

Despite having paid Lalap, Legaspi still complained to the PEA board about Tagud and Lalap’s alleged extortion activities.

The PEA officials believe that Tagud leaked his allegations to the media to pre-empt the possible investigation into his alleged involvement in the reported extortion incident.

Villareal maintained that the PDMB contact of PEA with JDLC worth P584.3 million was aboveboard and was in fact approved by the Commission on Audit (COA).

In her Third Indorsement report dated Oct. 6. 2000, a copy of which was obtained by The STAR, corporate auditor Manuela E. Dela Paz noted that the contract cost between PEA and JDLC was 8.22 percent above the COA estimated cost of P539, 957, 408. 74 but the variation was considered reasonable being within the allowable limit of variance per COA resolution No. 91-52 dated Sept. 17, 1991.

In his Sept. 10 report to the PEA Board, Tagud had claimed that the original contract cost of JDLC was only P298 million and pointed out to the Board the alleged overprice.

Villareal said Tagud was the one who asked for the executive session on Sept. 10 to present what the director believed were reasons why the JDLC contract was overpriced.

Tagud’s report was supposed to be confidential but for some reason, copies of it were passed around, along with computations made by an unknown person. Tagud was very upset, the PEA chairman said.

In a press statement, Villareal said that the amount Tagud quoted was only for the Phase 1 of the project, covering the stretches of the Financial Center Area, the Manila Bay Development Corp., and the Asiaworld Property. "The desk estimate of the project is P584 million," Villareal said.

Villareal reiterated that Tagud should not compare the contracts of JDLC, R-1 Consortium and another company because they were all governed by different scopes of work.

Meanwhile, in an open letter to Mrs. Arroyo, PEA employees asked her to pressure the board to resign en masse and "spearhead a lifestyle check on her appointees."

The employees alleged that they have been denied benefits due to government employees from rice allowances to back pay.

"Our Board members currently enjoy a marked increase in allowances, million-peso car loans, and other bonuses and privileges which the members themselves approved while paying lip service to legitimate claims of employees that have reached over P37 million," the employees said.

"It really looks like some people have made it a habit to implicate the First Gentleman in any supposed anomaly. I think they think that if they hit the First Gentleman often enough, that would have an impact on the President," Bunye said.

"But so far, they have not been successful and they have not presented one ounce of evidence to support their allegations. Their strategy is to keep repeating the lies, thinking that if repeated often enough, this would have the semblance of truth," hee said.

"The accusations seem to be very wild. Sometimes, all things that happen were being blamed on the First Gentleman. It’s a pity," he said.

He similarly rebuked a claim by Linda Montayre, Philippine Consultative Assembly secretary general, that Mrs. Arroyo herself was involved in the reported PDMA anomaly.

In an interview, lawyer Jose de Jesus, director of the evaluation and preliminary investigation bureau of the Office of the Ombudsman, said the Ombudsman is authorized to investigate moto propio (on its own initiative) any complaint against public officials or employees.

De Jesus cited that under section 15, paragraph 1 of Republic Act 6770, the Office of the Ombudsman was empowered to investigate and prosecute independently any complaint field by any person against any public officials or employees.

"We can run a parallel investigation with any other investigating body. We can take a parallel investigation, if we want to," De Jesus said.

Meanwhile, Sen. Juan Flavier said yesterday officials implicated in the alleged overpricing of the PDMA should go on an indefinite leave to allow an impartial investigation of the case.

Sen. Rodolfo Biazon said he was preparing a resolution calling for an investigation on the alleged overpricing, while Sen. Ralph Recto sought full compliance on government regulations requiring the posting of the cost, duration, proponent and contractor of an infrastructure project. – with reports from Jose Rodel Clapano, Katherine Adraneda, Sammy Santos