MALAYA EDITORIAL: CORRUPTION IS ISSUE IN NAIA 3
MANILA, JANUARY 6, 2011 (MALAYA) 'The actual cost incurred by Piatco also remains a mystery to this day.'
IF there are indeed foreign companies who want to do business in the Philippines but won't because of the experience of Fraport AG, the German partner in the construction of Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, they can stay where they are comfortably ensconced now. These are the carpetbaggers the Philippines can do without.
In 2003, the Supreme Court declared the contract void ab initio because of the huge kickbacks and payoffs which resulted in the bloated contract price of the facility. Fraport, in its efforts to take back the facility, can invoke the country's bilateral investment treaty with Germany in any venue it cares to go to but will get nowhere while the stench of corruption continues to surround the contract to built and operate NAIA 3.
The original proponent of NAIA 3 was Asia's Emerging Dragons Corp. But "proponent" is not actually the right word to describe the role of AEDC. It was originally President Fidel V. Ramos who wanted to build an additional NAIA terminal. He asked the country's five leading taipans to undertake the project. The taipans agreed. Thus, AEDC was formed to serve as the corporate vehicle for the project.
AEDC then submitted an "unsolicited proposal" (again a misnomer considering Ramos's role in the project) to build NAIA 3 for $35 million dollars. Out of the blue, Philippine International Air Terminals Corp., a joint venture between a local forwarding company and Fraport, surfaced and offered to build the terminal for $30 million.
Under the Swiss challenge rules of the Build-Operate-Transfer Law, AEDC sought a copy of the proposal so it could decide on matching Piatco's "improved" offer. Piatco balked and AEDC went to court to assert its rights as original proponent.
This was where things stood until a new administration took over. Powerful Palace officials pressured the principals of AEDC not to proceed with the case and the contract was then awarded to Piatco. Subsequently, the original terms of Piatco's offer were changed under a so-called amended and re-stated concession agreement. Under the amended contract, the project cost ballooned to $500 million.
By the time the contract was voided by the Supreme Court, Piatco claimed it had spent $1.2 billion and accordingly sought payment for that amount in its arbitration complaint before the International Chamber of Commerce in Singapore.
The suspicion was that part of the money Piatco claimed it had spent on the construction of the terminal ended up in some people's pockets. Such suspicion became an established fact when the Supreme Court came up with its 2003 ruling.
In that same ruling, the Supreme Court ruled that the government must pay Piatco just compensation. In compliance with the Supreme Court ruling, government sought to gather documents relating to expenses.
The documents yielded a cost of $40 million, nowhere near the figure claimed by Piatco. Incidentally, Assistant Solicitor General Nestor Bellocillo had with him the documents when he and his son were shot dead near the Parañaque City Hall in 2007.
More than three years has passed since the murder of the Belocillos. The case remains unresolved. And the actual cost incurred by Piatco also remains a mystery to this day.
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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