The House committee on good government hearing on the projects implemented by Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) amounting to P30 billion revealed that no more than 10 contractors have cornered the projects with at least one contractor linked to a member of the House of Representatives. During the hearing presided over by panel chairman, Pampanga Rep. Oscar Rodrigiuez, Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone, principal author of House Resolution 592, called on the Commission on Audit (CoA) to conduct a special audit on the allegedly “missing” funds sourced from the funds of the Road Board and the DPWH. HR 592 called for a congressional inquiry into reports that P30 million has been spent for various infrastructure and public works projects under questionable circumstances. At the same hearing, Deputy Speaker Carlos Padilla provided his colleagues with evidence of anomalies attending the expenditures. Padilla complained that a budget report indicated that at least P300 million in projects were “downloaded to his district” during the previous government administration. “I didn’t know the Arroyo administration allocated that much for Nueva Vizcaya as congressional insertion. It was very unlikely that the past administration will allocate that much because I was a critic of that administration,” said Padilla. Padilla said he found it incredible that his district got P300 million in funding for various infrastructure and public works project when a very close ally of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo received only P40 million. But DPWH Secretary Rogelio Singson said only P10.6 billion of the questioned P30 billion was released and that all have been spent on various projects although stating that whether or not the awarding of the contract went through regular procedures is another matter. Despite the huge amount involved in the projects, only 10 construction firms cornered the contracts, some through dubious circumstances. Mindoro Oriental Rep. Doy Leachon moved to subpoena officials of the construction firm as he noted that two of them, the JSG Construction Co. and E. Gardiola Construction, were owned by Judy Gardiola and her husband, Edwin Gardiola. JSG was awarded some P5.7 billion worth of DPWH contracts while Gardiola, P2.3 billion. Singson admitted that while a big portion of the contracts were awarded during the administration of Arroyo, at least P900 million worth was bagged during the first three years of the Aquino administration. Ramon Allado chairman of the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board, testified that there were also questions about how the Gardiolas acquired their triple A contractors rating. Evardone said the Gardiola firms, together with eight other contractors, will have to explain the circumstances about their contracts in the next hearings of the committee. On motion of Leachon, the good government panel decided to summon the following firms in the next hearings: Meditechtrade Development; Hi Tone Construction and Development Corp.; GCI Construction, Sunwest Construction and Development Corp., LR Tiqui Builders Ind., Northern Builders Inc. Ulticon Builders and Grace Construction Corp. Sunwest Construction is alleged to be owned by lawyer Zaldy Co, said to be the brother of Ako Bicol Rep. Christopher Co. Sources also claim that Co’s partymate, Rodel Batocabe, used to be a director of the said construction firm
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 02:28:22 +0000
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