Again while we weren’t looking - GOTCHA by Jarius Bondoc

I wrote last Monday how, while we were all busy watching Joseph Estrada’s impeachment, MMDA and Presidential Flagship Projects Office pulled a fast one by cooking biddings for the Metro Manila waste program. Well, they did it again – some other guys, this time. While we all weren’t looking, the Asset Privatization Trust tried to sell the foreclosed Philippine National Construction Co. (PNCC) at bargain prices.

Geez, were they trying to make hay on the few remaining days that the sun is shining on them? It would seem so, from the timing and the amounts involved.

Finance Secretary Jose Pardo had announced sometime mid-2000 that government would sell PNCC, one of its last remaining prime assets, to raise money to reduce the looming P90-billion budget deficit. (Actually, it has grown to P125 billion.) He said that the Committee on Privatization had earlier valued the company at P7 billion. But since part of the shares are still under litigation – government is appealing a court ruling that the Cuenca family legally owns stocks – P5 billion would be okay.

The APT set the auction for Oct. 30, at the height of public outrage with Juetengate. Ten days before, it met with ten interested buyers to announce three unusual rules – that it would reveal its exact desired price only on auction day; that it reserves the right to reject any bid, including the highest one; that it reserves the right to award the sale to any bidder, not necessarily the highest one.

The bidders were stunned. All three items were contrary to public bidding laws and previous COP-APT rules. Government must announce its minimum asking price so that bidders can make sound judgments and fair bids. And, of course, only the highest bidder can win.

Something unusual also stirred in the sidelines. Bidders found out that after buying bid documents at P40,000 apiece, they must pay another P400,000 to peek into a new appraisal made by Philippine National Bank.

That new appraisal didn’t even contain explanatory notes, just bare figures. Worse, it valued PNCC’s assets at only P1.7 billion, a peek of sorts at the government’s asking price, but way below the P7 billion that Pardo dreamed of, or the P5 billion that COP thought was a good enough price.

Smelling a rat, eight of the ten prospective bidders backed out. The Nation was already being rocked by political crisis from exposes of crooked deals. They wouldn’t want to be dragged into a new one. The two bidders who did submit bids priced the assets at only P1.5 billion after finding out there was a catch: Only PNCC equipment that weren’t covered by the court appeal were to be handed over.

Fortunately, APT had no choice but to declare a failure of bidding since nobody met the secret floor price. But that’s only for now. It hasn’t stopped a well-connected firm – the one that’s been winning lately all government computerization programs – from working on a negotiated sale. The favorite son of a very powerful official is about to strike again.

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INTERACTION. Amb. Hermenegildo G. Cruz (ret.), cs.com: Foreign service is any country’s first line of defense. It abdicates its role if an ambassador abroad sends misleading information to his/her government. Amb. Tita de Villa talked with a low-level Vatican official and passed it off as the views as that of the Vatican. This is disinformation. We’re seeing the total collapse of morality in RP.

Lou Pasetes, ps.com: Another very credible witness – I salute Clarissa Ocampo (Interaction, 25 Dec. 2000) – has testified in no uncertain terms that Velarde is Erap, who must now consider his only option left: to resign.

Laurence Go, asia.com: Regarding Malacañang black propaganda on AM-radio (Gotcha, 23 Dec. 2000), the best defense is offense. Identify the bribed stations and commentators, and organize a listener and advertiser boycott.

Greg Campomanes, mindspring.com: Will somebody now file a case of perjury and obstruction of justice against Jaime Dichaves (Gotcha, 20 Dec. 2000), or will they let him get away with false claims?

Pat Atienza, Pasay City: Is the nomination of senator-judge Miriam Santiago to the UN court an advance payment for acquittal in the impeachment trial (Interaction, 20 Dec. 2000)?

E. Gustilo, yahoo.com: To your column, "Obeying illegal orders" (Gotcha, 13 Dec. 2000), I suggest that "accountability" and "liability" be added to the word "morality." I am appalled by the loss of morality in government, by the brazen actions and statements of such officials as the "balato twins" who now even sit as senator-judges.

Corinna Serrano, Calgary, Canada: I wonder what bliss Chavit Singson feels these days, that in spite of the selfish reasons that made him come out, he’s now doing things in the interest of truth. I wonder how he’ll compare it to the thrills of his vices; those thrills must pale in comparison – by light years.

Thank you, Arch. Danilo Y. Reyes, Ronnie Dulay, Dr. Conrad G. Javier, Oswaldo Pacheco, Atty. Mario Valderrama, Prof. M.P. Bulaon, Jo Valenzuela, Eddie S. de Asis, Miko Nepomuceno, Hanzel Leano, Raquel Vivar, Manuel Martinez, M.T. Lacsao, Dave Militar, Carlos Manalastas, Louie Tordillo, Augustus C. Mamaril, Mel Orosa, Ben Bie, Ma. Dalisay Camacho, Devino Garcia, Felipe Torres, Boy C. Gaa Jr., Gerry Kaimo.

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It’s amazing how Cabinet members pretend to hear nothing, see nothing from the prosecution evidence in Estrada’s impeachment trial. It’s amazing how they delude themselves with the notion that they’re serving the best President any country ever had, and thus refuse to leave him so the country can begin to pick up the pieces.

Fine, so they must have told themselves that Chavit Singson blew the whistle just to keep operating jueteng in Ilocos. They must have added that Emma Lim and Menchu Ichon corroborated Singson out of loyalty to their employer. Again they must have added that Rufo Colayco testified about Estrada’s secret ownership of Fontana-Fountainbleu hotel-casino to avenge his unceremonious dismissal as Clark Development Corp. head.

But after professional banker Clarissa Ocampo swore that mystery-man Jose Velarde is actually Estrada, what else can they tell themselves? And after lawyer Manuel Curato upholds Ocampo’s testimony, how else can they find the wildest excuses that Estrada has no unexplained wealth stashed in Equitable-PCIBank?

Perhaps it’s time for the closest friends, loving parents, children, brothers, sisters of these Cabinet members to talk sense into them. Cut and cut clean for the sake of their posterity. Don’t leave behind a legacy which they’d be ashamed of for the rest of their lives.

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