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Nancy Binay walks out after dispute with Cayetano over cost of new Senate building

July 3, 2024 | 5:41pm

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano and Sen. Nancy Binay on Wednesday butted heads over the computation of the total cost of the new Senate building — a heated discussion that ended with Binay walking out on a disgruntled Cayetano mid-sentence.

During the Senate accounts committee's hearing into the construction of the new Senate building in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, the panel's current and former chairpersons got into a heated debate over whether it was accurate to tag the total cost of construction as P23 billion, which included the cost of land acquisition.

Binay, citing official Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) documents, said that the grand total of the new Senate building was only P21.73 billion and not P23 billion as flagged by Cayetano in a letter sent to Senate President Chiz Escudero on June 6.

Cayetano, meanwhile, insisted that the computation should include the land acquisition cost, which is an additional P1.6 billion.

"Kapag bumili ka ng bahay, tatanungin mo ung broker, magkano all in, kasama taxes (When you buy a house, you will ask the broker how much is the total, including taxes)," Cayetano said.

Binay said as reply: "Pero pag magpapagawa ka ng bahay hindi mo isasama cost ng refrigerator at TV as cost of building (When you buy a house, you will not add the cost of a refrigerator and TV)."

The discussion devolved into personal attacks after Cayetano accused Binay of feeding reporters with pre-planned questions to frame the issue as an offshoot of the political rivalry between the local governments of Makati and Taguig.

Binay denied Cayetano's allegation, saying: "Bakit ako magbibigay ng questions sa media? Baka gawain mo ang magbigay ng tanong sa media (Why would I give questions to the media? Maybe that is your practice)."

Cayetano later said he was referring to radio and not television media in his allegation.

Binay then asked the DPWH representatives to confirm whether a P23 billion figure ever appeared in the documents of the construction of the new building. The senator walked out after obtaining a "no" from the DPWH while Cayetano was speaking and calling for order.

The Senate inquiry comes after Escudero ordered a suspension of the construction of the new Senate building to give way to a "comprehensive review" of the project.

Escudero was informed by Cayetano of the escalating costs of project barely a month after assuming the Senate presidency.

The DPWH confirmed during the Senate hearing that the construction of the building has been delayed by 852 days — an admission Cayetano had to squeeze out from the project manager.

"Those delays are because of the variation orders," said the DPWH engineer Soledad Florencio, referring to changes in construction that may affect its final design and quantity.

Florencio earlier maintained that there was nothing irregular about the construction of the building, whose contract was awarded to Hilmarc’s Construction Corporation by the DPWH.

Hilmarc's Construction Corporation is the same firm that undertook the construction of the overpriced Makati City Hall Building in 2014, which the Commission on Audit said had signs of being irregular, such as being completed with undue haste, minimal variance between bids and the approved budget, lack of other bidders, among others.