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| L-R: Peter Jimenea and Manuel "Boy" Mejorada |
Iloilo City
June 6, 2015
The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee and
the Office of the Ombudsman are a big let down in the fight for
clean, responsive and transparent governance, bewails seasoned
journalist Manuel “Boy” Mejorada.
In brief, they are inutile in the fight
against corruption.
“I am disappointed” says
Mejorada, resource person of Kape kag Isyu cable TV talk show. “They
want to bury the monumental and flagrant thievery of the public
treasury.”
Mejorada is referring to the way the
two office handled, to be more precise, mishandled the construction
of the Iloilo Convention Center (ICC) that could be completed by P200
M but ballooned to P750 M.
“It is programmed to be a white
elephant and eventually handed over on a silver platter to
Megaworld,” he adds.
Mejorada shows the contract between
Megaworld realty developer and the government through the Tourism
Industry Enterprize Zone Authority (TIEZA) where the former donated
two hectares in exchange for the commitment from TIEZA to erect a
P200 M ICC which, when completed, must be handed over to a private
entity for management and operations.“All the cards are stacked against
the government, it is extremely disadvantageous to the taxpayers,”
bewails Mejorada. “But corrupt public officials callously exposed
taxpayers to this precarious situation.”
Mejorada adds that in case government
fails to find the private entity: “Megaworld the donor is
automatically empowered by the penalty clause in the contract to
unilaterally rescind it and seize the land donated. “Now if they
get back the land, the overpriced structure erected by government
goes with it.”
Mejorada's expose prompted the Senate
Blue Ribbon Committee to summon him in an inquiry that was aired live
on TV last year. The Upper House though terminated the investigation
after Mejorada said in answer to the query answerable only by yes or
no that he had “no evidence” on corruption and overpricing in the
ICC construction.
“I am extremely disappointed at the
Senate,” notes Mejorada. “How can it twist my answer literally: I
might not have documents on hand then but the proof lies in the
structure itself. It takes time to gather documentary evidence which
I have now.”
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| Panelist Joel Estuche |
Mejorada slapped graft charges with the
Ombudsman against Senate President Franklin Drilon because the fund
spent on the ICC came from his Development Acceleration Program (DAP)
that the Supreme Court ruled as a “pork barrel” and “illegal”.
Ombudsman, same old self: instrument of powers-that-be
The Ombudsman though trashed his complaint against Drilon “like a four o'clock train”. He filed the complaints against Drilon et al November 2014; the Ombudsman dismissed it March this year for lack of probable cause.
“I had high hopes before when Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez resigned and was replaced by Onchita Carpio Morales,” rues Mejorada. “Now, Ombudsman Morales has transformed herself into another Merceditas Gutierrez.”
“It takes the Ombudsman on the average one to two years to resolve a complaint,” grumbles Mejorada. “But it hastily dismissed my complaint (against Drilon et al) in just four months.”
The Ombudsman has the power to conduct its own investigation motu proprio without waiting for complaints to be filed before it. If the complaint filed is short of proofs, it has its field office to investigate to support the complaint Mejorada says: “(T)here are proofs of overpricing, of the loop-sided contract against government, and the criminal misappropriation of funds due to the DAP pork barrel and the fact that the ICC was not programmed in the GAA” (General Appropriations Act) of either 2013 or 2014.He shows the e-copy of the contract that binds government to plunk in P200 M to build the ICC.
“Megaworld knew that with only P200 M, government can build the ICC but crooks in government ballooned the budget,” he explains.
Mejorada though has filed a motion for reconsideration though with hesitation since he now calls Carpio-Morales, "an instrument of the administration".
The ICC overpricing can be gleaned from
its costing per square meter, which is P60,000, even costlier than
the controversial Makati City Hall II for which VP Jejomar Binay is
being crucified now by the administration.
“They are trying to reduce the per
meter costing by including the roof deck into the floor area,”
explains Mejorada. “Without the roof deck, the floor area is
P68,000.”
The two-storey ICC costs twice as much
as Injap Tower, the tallest at 21 stories in Iloilo City. Injap's
cost of construction, at P23,000 per square meter, falls even lower
than the industry estimate of P25-P35,000, adds Mejorada.
“Could you believe that? Injap tower
costs that low though it has all the features like carpeted floors,
individual rooms with furniture, toilets and wash areas including
microwave ovens?” asks Mejorada.
Mejorada though paid for his vigilance
with at least eight libel charges slapped on him all pending, four by
Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog at the local regional trial
court (RTC) and four by the Senate President at the RTC of Pasay
City, the solon's place of work. ###
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