COA go-signal needed before Piatco payment – Abaya

MANILA, Philippines - Despite a Supreme Court order for the government to pay $513 million in just compensation to the contractor of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3, there is no request from the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) for such appropriations under the latter’s proposed P45-billion budget for next year.

Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya has told the Senate finance subcommittee that the agency cannot yet make any payment to the Philippine Air Terminals Co. Inc. (Piatco) pending a go-signal from the Commission on Audit (COA).

“In essence, any claim on government has to have COA approval,” he said.

Abaya said his position on COA was based on a recommendation by his legal team, which backed the filing of a motion for consideration on the SC decision.

“I am a lawyer and any decision of the court that is final and executory should be complied with. Its eventual payment should comply likewise with government policies and procedures,” the DOTC secretary added.

In the budget hearing, Abaya maintained the payment processes should conform to government policies despite the SC’s decision.

“I believe eventually, when this is made final and executory, there is policy that it may need to go through COA process. Then government in general will take effort into putting it into the National Expenditure Program,” he said, in explaining why the amount has not been considered in the 2016 budget.

It was Sen. Loren Legarda who grilled Abaya about the PIATCO issue during yesterday’s budget deliberations.

She said she was wondering why an SC decision would need to go back to a government department before it could be carried out. “How can the COA, which has fiscal autonomy in the executive, validate a unanimous SC decision which is final and executory? I am not certain that your lawyers are accurate in saying that,” Legarda told Abaya.