Diwalwal 'bidding' to benefit crony?

The admin’s rush to bid out the Diwalwal gold mine aims not only to cover up its earlier illegal grant of mining rights to Chinese ZTE Corp. The “sham bidding”, insiders aver, also will favor a Malacañang crony.

The crony, until recently a Palace official, represents a major Chinese miner and its Filipino partner, sources say. He also was instrumental in Malacañang’s mining deal with ZTE Corp. in July 2006. No longer in government, the crony was recently in the limelight bringing the Chinese miner to Manila. It was not immediately clear if the Chinese miner has ties to telecom supplier ZTE.

The Philippine Mining Development Corp., DENR’s corporate arm, is hurrying the bidding of Diwalwal to a private operator. Under tight schedule, prospectors must file intent by Oct. 14 and qualify by Nov. 7 to bid on Nov. 24.

But PMDC can junk any bid at will, according to its invitation to apply for qualification published in September. In effect, the agency may pick the winner it prefers, not necessarily the highest bidder. That rigs the process in favor of the crony, sources lament.

PMDC’s floor price has also been lowered to $20 million over five years, to accommodate the crony’s Chinese principal, sources say. About this time last year, the PMDC also organized a bidding that fizzled out, its minimum price then was $70 million up front. An internal study placed the worth of one of Diwalwal’s eight gold veins alone at P750 million.

A Supreme Court litigant, Southeast Mindanao Gold Mining Corp., is grumbling that the PMDC bidding preempts a ruling on six pending cases. Dragging since 2006, the cases concern the constitutionality of Arroyo’s conversion of Diwalwal from a forest reserve into a mineral reserve.

Insiders murmur that the crony, while still in government, used his position to survey the country’s best mine sites. It was also he who brought ZTE International to Manila for a $4-billion contract. The deal included gold mining in Diwalwal and North Davao (Maco), both in Compostela Valley. It also gave birth to the overpriced but needless $330-million national broadband network.

 Atty. Harry Roque has been questioning the ZTE deal signed July 12, 2006 by DTI Sec. Peter Favila on “special authority” from President Arroyo. He says it is unconstitutional because only Filipinos or corporations at least 60 percent owned by them may operate mines. Foreigners like ZTE can join only as financial or technical assistors to the government, and the President must report it to Congress within 30 days. Favila disclosed the contract only last March 2008 during a Senate hearing on the NBN. Although a signatory-witness as then-presidential chief of staff, Mike Defensor has been denying the contract.

The PMDC was rocked by resignations in the wake of the ZTE deal. The resignees allegedly resented pressures for them to grant ZTE a 90:10 sharing of net profits from Diwalwal and North Davao.

Insiders organized last year’s aborted bidding to free themselves from Favila’s grant of mining rights to ZTE. The new bidding aims to free Arroyo from a new impeachment for culpable violation of the Constitution in authorizing Favila to sign. Simultaneously it will formalize the crony’s long desire to retake Diwalwal.

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Timelier than ever is Tanghalang Pilipino’s staging of Mga Gerilya ng Powell Street. Adapted for theater, the novel narrates the travails of Filipino World War II vets who fight a half-century for recognition and recompense. Playing out today in the US Congress is a bitter debate on how to grant the wish.

Last Sept. 24 the US House of Reps passed a bill — 62 years late — to repay some 18,000 Filipino vets who were promised benefits as American GIs. The bill would allocate a one-time payment of $15,000 for those living in the US, and $9,000 elsewhere, supposedly to make up for a broken vow. In 1941 the US, attacked at Pearl Harbor, called on Filipinos to enlist in its Army, and receive benefits like regular US soldiers. But five months after war ended, the US Congress reneged. The Recision Act left the vets in a lurch.

Gerilya is about their plight. As many of them died of disease and old age, they sought official credit and just compensation for their sacrifices. What they’re getting under the bill is a pittance, with no thank you from Uncle Sam. It still has to pass the US Senate. The bill does not include those who died waiting since 1946, or their widows.

Palanca awardee Rody Vera wrote Gerilya’s script from the novel of Bing Pimentel, with Chris Millado directing. It will run the whole month of November: Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., with matinees on Saturdays and Sundays at 3 p.m., at the CCP Tanghalang Huseng Batute. For info on tickets and bookings, call Tanghalang Pilipino at (02) 8323661.

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