Miriam has ‘surprise’ Smokey Mountain witness

Pro-administration Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago revealed yesterday that she has a "surprise witness" who would testify on the allegedly irregular multibillion-peso contract for the development and reclamation of the Smokey Mountain garbage dump in Tondo, Manila.

"This surprise witness is in the know. He was present in Malacañang when the contract was negotiated," Santiago told a news conference.

She refused to name her witness, but when pressed for some specifics, she said he was a "business rival" of big-time contractor Reghis Romero II, owners of R-II Builders, the developer of Smokey Mountain.

She said there was supposed to be an "arrangement" between Romero and her witness, but that the latter "got the bad bargain."

She claimed that former President Fidel Ramos had asked the witness to keep silent, but that Romero’s business competitor is willing to shed light on the Smokey Mountain contract.

Ramos and Romero themselves have indicated that big business interests could be behind the fresh attack on the Tondo project that the Aquino administration conceived, the Ramos government started and the Estrada and Arroyo administrations inherited.

The project developer has said no one paid attention to Smokey Mountain when it "was water and garbage," but that it suddenly attracted some interest now that it has been transformed into a huge housing-commercial-industrial-port complex.

Romero owns and operates the Harbour Center Port Terminal, which is located in the Smokey Mountain area and which is increasingly being used by domestic vessels. It hopes to service international shipping firms as well.

When ousted President Joseph Estrada inherited and approved the Smokey Mountain development and reclamation project, he directed the Philippine Ports Authority to assist "in the operation of a world-class private commercial port" in the project area that is "open to all types of domestic and international vessels."

The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee is expected to open its investigation into the controversy next week. Last Tuesday, Santiago submitted to the committee a list of witnesses she wants invited. On top of the list is Ramos.

The former president has denied Santiago’s claims of irregularity and illegality in the Smokey Mountain contract.

He said the contract was subjected to public bidding, contrary to what his rival in the 1992 presidential elections alleges.

He denied that the government spent for the project, though he admitted that state-owned financial institutions like the Social Security System "invested" in it.