Binay not yet off the hook over parking building

MANILA, Philippines - Contrary to claims of the Makati City government, the Commission on Audit (COA) has not yet cleared city officials of possible overpricing in the construction of a parking building at the city hall compound.

COA Chairman Ma. Gracia Pulido-Tan made this clear before the Senate Blue Ribbon committee yesterday, the first day of the panel’s inquiry into allegations that the parking building was overpriced.

In defending the project, Makati City Mayor Junjun Binay had presented a COA memorandum dated Feb. 17, 2014 supposedly declaring the project aboveboard.

But Tan said what the mayor was presenting was just the front page memo of former resident auditor of Makati Cecilia Caga-anan to her immediate superior, the director of the COA’s National Capital Region office.

This developed as lawyer Roderick Vera, president of a group calling itself the Philippine Association for the Advancement of Civil Liberties Inc. (PAACL), filed plunder and graft complaints yesterday against Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano and his wife, Taguig Mayor Maria Laarni Cayetano.

Sen. Cayetano said the allegations against him and his wife were “completely fabricated and malicious” and smacked of politics.

“This is a warning shot by the Binays to all of those who are criticizing them. They are saying that if you criticize the Binays, you will be prosecuted even if they are all lies,” Cayetano said.

The plunder case was filed against Mayor Cayetano and 16 incumbent and former councilors of Taguig for their alleged involvement in the hiring of 3,188 casual workers in 2012.

Sen. Cayetano, for his part, was facing graft charges for alleged unexplained wealth.

“I don’t know how the city of Makati got a copy of it. It is just an internal memo and is still being reviewed by the central office. In this stage, it is just a report,” Tan said at the hearing.

Caga-anan, who was also present during yesterday’s hearing, clarified that when she took over as resident auditor of Makati City, the project was already on its fifth and last phase, which covered a mere 6.32 percent of the total contract.

Based on the claims of lawyer Renato Bondal, one of the individuals who filed the plunder charges against Vice President Jejomar Binay, Mayor Binay and other officials of Makati City, the parking building cost a total of P2.7 billion or P84,000 per square meter.

According to Caga-anan, the city government of Makati was able to disburse a total of P2.28 billion for the construction of the building, exclusive of the furniture and other fixtures.

Tan told the committee that the findings of the regular audit conducted on the project would now be part of a special audit to be handled by the central office of the COA.

“One thing is definite, this is not going to go through a regular audit anymore because (this) has been done but it will go through a special audit,” Tan said.

Asked by Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, who presided over the hearing, if it was normal for projects such as the Makati building to be divided into five phases where bidding was done separately for each phase, Tan said that “in the usual course, it’s a red flag.”

“I think what we saw now is that it appears there was some problem with the project being considered phase by phase. Because this is just one project, in effect one building. So we are really going to look into it,” Tan said.

“To implement it phase by phase is one thing. Because implementing in phases is really just a matter of timing – when will you do this, and then what comes next. Phasing is a matter of sequencing. But in this case, for each phase there was one contract. In each phase it was bid out and each one had its own work plan,” she added.

Mayor Binay said that he could not answer for the events that took place before he took over the office from his father in 2010.

Upon questioning by Cayetano, Binay did admit that he just acted on whatever was recommended to him by the bids and awards committee of the city.

“We have to rely on the recommendation of the bids and awards. I’m the last to sign. You have to rely on the documents presented to you,” he said. – With Delon Porcalla, Michael Punongbayan, Paolo Romero, Mike Frialde