Palace to study if Road Board executive must go on leave

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang said yesterday that it would study the possibility of having Danilo Valero of the Road Board secretariat take a leave of absence now that the Senate will file plunder charges against him and former Public Works secretary Hermogenes Ebdane.

The Senate, upon the initiative of Sen. Miriam Defensor- Santiago, has recommended the filing of plunder charges against Valero, Ebdane, former Road Board executive Dodie Puno and his brother Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno for alleged misuse of P60.5 billion of the Road User’s Tax fund.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said there has been no instruction from President Arroyo about this matter yet but considering that there is already a move by the Senate to file plunder charges, the Palace would evaluate what must be done with the public officials involved.

“We’ll have to find out whether there is really a need for Valero, who is in charge of the road users tax, if there is compelling reason for him to go on leave,” Ermita said.

“We have to go through certain legal processes. We’ll take a look at it. But as of now we have not received any instructions from the President,” he added.

Meanwhile, Isabela Rep. Rodolfo Albano III called yesterday for a House inquiry into the allocation of billions in Road Board funds among congressional districts.

He made the call upon learning that out of the four districts in his province, his constituency did not get Road Board money in 2007 and 2008 based on documents submitted to the House.

Albano said he could not understand why his district was left out in the allocation of funds.

“I am happy for the other districts, but the Road Board should have also given what is due to my constituents,” he said.

He said all districts should be allocated Road Board funds since these are generated from registration fees paid by motor vehicle owners throughout the country.

The documents submitted to the House show that out of the P1.5-billion worth of projects awarded to an obscure contractor, more than P700 million were undertaken in Isabela’s second, third and fourth districts. Albano represents the first district.

According to the documents, the Road Board awarded the projects to Meditech Trade and Development Corp. in less than two years, starting from early 2007 up to the middle of last year.

Meditech gave its address as 178 Barcelona Street, San Juan, Metro Manila. It is a single proprietorship owned by John Tansipek.

Its P1.5-billion contracts in the three districts in Isabela and in the first and second districts of Bataan were mostly for “pavement markings” and “guardrails.”

There were reports that Meditech also cornered similar projects worth nearly P2 billion in Nueva Ecija and Laguna.

The biggest beneficiary in Isabela was the fourth congressional district with P375.1 million worth of projects. The third district received P248.6 million and the second, P94.8 million.

Congressmen Edwin Uy, Faustino Dy III and Giorgidi Aggabao represent the second, third and fourth districts, respectively.

The second district of Bataan was the site of projects worth P366.2 million. The first district received P57.6 million.

Albert Garcia, son of Bataan Gov. Enrique Garcia, and Hermina Roman represent the second and first districts, respectively.

Several congressmen have denounced what they described as the inequitable distribution of Road Board money.

Most of Meditech’s contracts are for less than P20 million each and are for a short duration of three months to four months.

For instance, on March 18, 2008, the Road Board gave it three contracts for a uniform P19.137 million each for the installation of road guardrails in Isabela’s third district, for a total of P57.4 million.

The projects were finished in less than four months on June 26.

While these were ongoing, Meditech was given two more contracts worth P19.134 million each on April 4, and another two for P19.134 million and P19.218 million one week later on April 11, for a total of P76.6 million.

The projects were finished again in less than four months on July 13 and 20, 2008.

The same pattern of splitting of contracts took place in the other congressional districts.

In Isabela’s fourth district, Meditech’s P375.1 million worth of contracts were divided into less than P20 million each, mostly for P19 million. Most of the contracts were given between March and July in 2008.

The same thing happened in Bataan. Meditech was awarded four contracts worth P18.7 million each on Feb. 29, 2008 and two contracts for the same amount less than a month later on March 17, for a total of P112.2 million.

It finished the projects in two months, in April and May. –Jess Diaz