Agent of Tomatu Suzuka denies meeting between FG and Japanese contractor

MANILA, Philippines - An agent of Japanese contractor Tomatu Suzuka testified at a Senate hearing that the alleged meeting of the Japanese with First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo and the late Sen. Robert Barbers to discuss bribe money for a World Bank-funded road project in the Philippines probably did not take place.

“I don’t think that he (Suzuka) met (with the First Gentleman). I don’t know where they (World Bank) got the information,” Suzuka’s local agent Trix Lim said during Thursday’s hearing into the WB’s blacklisting of contractors for alleged bribery and collusion to rig the bidding for government projects.

Lim said he had lost contact with Suzuka a few years ago and that the Japanese was probably interviewed in Japan.

Mr. Arroyo, in a statement, also said the meeting with Suzuka never took place and that he did not know the Japanese contractor. He said the WB reports were hearsay and bereft of evidentiary value.

WB investigators had interviewed Suzuka, who claimed that money was important to do business in the Philippines and that bribe must be paid to officials “as high up as the president.”

The Japanese said he met Mr. Arroyo and Barbers, who had a “rough approach” in discussing the bribe needed for him to win a contract in the country.

Suzuka said Barbers even wanted him to shoulder the late senator’s trip to Japan.

Meanwhile, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya said the government had initiated necessary reforms in the bidding for government infrastructure projects and the WB had accepted the changes.

He said the problems in the National Roads Improvement and Management Program 1 encountered by the WB had been addressed and the process was replaced with one governed by the country’s laws rather than that of the WB.

For instance, Andaya said a civil society group, Transparency and Accountability Network, had been tapped to monitor the bidding processes, which the WB did not have for NRIMP 1.

Andaya said the WB awarded the country a $230-million loan, which is much bigger than the $33-million for NRIMP 1.

He said the WB was offering another P300 million loan.