Lawyer Manuel Mejorada confessed before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee
yesterday that he had no documentary proof pinning Senate President
Franklin Drilon as the “unseen hand” in the alleged overpricing of the
Iloilo Convention Center (ICC).
Mejorada, an ex-Iloilo provincial administrator and former ally of
Drilon, came up with the admission as he was questioned by Senator Juan
Edgardo “Sonny” Angara during the panel inquiry.
Angara directly asked the resource person what was Drilon’s
involvement in the supposed overpricing of the ICC, which would be used
for the scheduled Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings in
the country in 2015.
“May paper trail po tayo (There is a paper trail),” answered
Mejorada, who proudly referred to himself as an “investigative
journalist” several times in front of the senators and implicated
Cabinet secretaries.
Funding for the project reportedly came from Drilon using the
lawmaker’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or “pork barrel”
in 2012 when it was still legal.
The builder of the still unfinished ICC – Hilmarc’s Construction
Corp. – was also the contractor of the Makati City Hall Building II,
which is similarly being investigated by the Senate for its alleged
overpricing.
Mejorada filed plunder charges against Drilon, Tourism Secretary
Ramon Jimenez Jr. and Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson last month
regarding the “anomalous” Iloilo project.
Pressing on with his line of questioning, Angara this time sought evidence of collusion from Mejorada.
“Your theory is that there was conspiracy. So what is your evidence
that there was collusion to overprice the ICC and to earn from it?” the
senator asked.
“Mr. Chairman as the Senate President said, I have to admit right now
there is no evidence because I have no subpoena powers. But as I’ve
said, as an investigative journalist, there are paper trails that will
lead to the conclusion that there was somebody orchestrating all this,”
Mejorada said.
According to him, the “hastened” processing of the documents and the
violation to the procurement law in connection with the negotiated
procurement participated in by Hilmarc’s “leaves opportunities, big
opportunities for corruption.”
“I assert that value engineering in a negotiated procurement is
illegal,” Mejorada said earlier in the panel hearing, noting that the
ICC contractor erred in that regard.
But Jimenez deemed the award of the first phase of the ICC by the
DPWH was regular. The DOT owns the ICC at Mandurriao, Iloilo City having
been donated to it by Andrew Tan, president of Megaworld Property Inc.,
in 2012.
People somewhat scratched their heads when the former Iloilo
provincial official admitted that he lifted information from Wikipedia,
an open-source online encyclopedia, to strengthen his claims of
corruption.
“Mr. Chairman I am an investigative journalist and I have to rely on
published records, what is available in publications and especially in
online sources your honor,” Mejorada said during a separate
interpellation by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.
“Nakalagay rin po sa Wikipedia based on published sources eh 6,400
square meters. Iyan po ang ginamit ko sa pag-compute and at P679 million
to complete Phase 1 and 2, eh aabot po sa P106,226 per square meter po
(It’s also indicated on Wikipedia based on published sources that the
ICC has a floor area of 6,400 square meters. That’s what I used to
compute and at P679 million to complete Phase 1 and 2, the cost will
reach P106,226 per square meter),” he explained.
Mejorada said that the industry standard is only P30,000 per square meter.
“Because of the figures involved here, most of the architects in
Iloilo are afraid to speak out although they whisper to me. The P30,000
is what my friends in the industry tell me,” he added.
But Singson, who was invited to the hearing along with Jimenez, said
that the floor area of the ICC is over 11,000 square meters.
Singson also vowed to resign if anyone can prove that he received
even P1 from the construction of the ICC estimated to cost P705 million
when completed.
Trillanes, for his part, said he’d rather have more definitive
details on the alleged overpricing than what Mejorada was bringing to
the table. “I’d like to believe you but I’d rather you give us
documents… to convince the committee and the public.”
“In the case of the Makati parking building, there was an appraiser,
an industry recognized and acknowledged expert who assessed the value,”
Trillanes stressed.
Jimenez said that information on Wikipedia, which can be edited from time to time, should not be used in a professional forum.
“If one million people say that apples are square, then apples will
be square on Wikipedia tomorrow,” the secretary told the panel.
Sounding off on the matter, Senator Sergio “Serge” Osmeña III said:
“I used Wikipedia too because it’s so convenient. But I wouldn’t swear
by it.”
During the hearing Singson revealed that funding for the project came from the DPWH budgets in 2013 and 2014.
Drilon said that the P300-million DPWH funding could have come from
his pork barrel (Priority Development Assistance Project) allocation or
from the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) released by Malacañang
after he requested financial support from President Aquino.
Jimenez said the DOT also gave a P200-million funding for the project because it is a tourism drawer.
Malacañamg said the construction of the ICC was “aboveboard,”
especially since it was supervised by two Cabinet members known for
integrity and professionalism.
“We have never doubted that the bidding for the Iloilo Convention
Center was done according to the process,” Presidential spokesman Edwin
Lacierda said in a media interview at the Palace.
“We are confident that Secretary Singson and Secretary Jimenez were
able to explain in full and are prepared to continue to explain whenever
it is required on the mechanics of the bidding process of the Iloilo
Convention Center,” he added.
