PIATCO exec gives side

"How could the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) president claim that Rep. Jacinto Paras was teaching (Philippine International Airport terminal Corp. (PIATCO) how to answer questions raised in the House Committee on Good Government hearing when the committee’s chairman, Rep. Ruy Elias Lopez, had barred us from responding to questions that the committee members wanted to ask?"

This was the reaction of Moises Tolentino Jr., PIATCO’s vice president for public affairs, to published report that Paras, the Committee on Transportation chairman, was teaching PIATCO how to answer questions propounded by members of the Committee on Good Government.

The good government committee is the second body in the House looking into alleged irregularity in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Passenger Terminal 3 project awarded to PIATCO under the build-operate-transfer Law.

Earlier, the Committee on Transportation and Communications had concluded its own inquiry and reportedly came out with a favorable finding.

On the fourth and fifth hearings held by the Committee on Good Government, Tolentino, together with a team of PIATCO lawyers, was present but neither he nor the lawyers were given the opportunity to answer.

On the other hand, Manila Airport Service Operators (MASO) representatives led by Perfecto Yasay, who had already been given ample time to air their charges against the PIATCO deal during the first three hearings, were afforded every opportunity to rebut answers from the DOTC and MIAA representatives.