Palace papers: Estrada signed Impsa contract

Deposed President Joseph Estrada did sign in early 2000 a controversial government contract awarded to an Argentine firm, according to two Malacañang documents obtained by The STAR yesterday.

The documents contradicted Estrada’s earlier claim that he did not sign anything with regard to the contract between Industrias Metalurgicas Pescarmona Sociedad Anonima (Impsa) and state-run National Power Corporation (Napocor) to build a hydroelectric plant in Laguna.

Estrada had maintained that he did not approve the contract, which, according to him, was concluded during the administration of his predecessor Fidel Ramos.

However, two official Malacañang documents obtained by The STAR bore the signature of Estrada, who signed the contract as a "witness" on Feb. 10, 2000.

One of the documents was a one-page memo, also signed by then executive secretary Ronaldo Zamora, who signed under the line "by the President."

In it, Estrada "confirm(ed) the authority" of then Napocor president Federico Puno or his representative, Asisclo Gonzaga, then Napocor senior vice president and chief operating officer "to conclude, sign, execute and deliver, on behalf of (Napocor)" the contract with Impsa.

The other document, the Impsa contract itself, also bore the signature of Estrada, who signed under the line "signed in the presence of."

The contract, dated Nov. 6, 1998, was signed by Puno and Impsa representative Francisco Ruben Valenti.

Sought for his comment, Zamora, now a congressman representing Estrada’s hometown of San Juan, said Estrada "never denied" signing anything related to the Impsa contract.

"He signed that document as a witness and I signed that as attestation ‘by the president’ to establish the fact and authenticate that he indeed signed it," Zamora told The STAR, adding that the signing was even covered by the press.

However, Zamora insisted that the document "was not the operative document by itself."

"Because what Impsa wanted was not just a contract but also a sovereign government guarantee that would allow it to finance this rehabilitation project which was in several tens of thousands of dollars," Zamora said.

Impsa was not able to proceed because it could not secure funding from international financial institutions unless it obtained a government guarantee, which Estrada refused to grant because of questions about the contract’s legality, Zamora said.

Estrada sent the contract for review to then finance secretary Jose Pardo, who in turn referred it to the Department of Justice, then headed by Artemio Tuquero.

"Because the legal opinion of the justice secretary would set into motion the process by which the government assumes a sovereign obligation as prescribed by law," Zamora explained.

However, Estrada was toppled by a military-backed massive protest in January 2001 and replaced by then vice president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo before Tuquero could issue a legal opinion, Zamora said.

Tuquero’s successor, Hernando Perez, then issued a legal opinion on the contract. "Secretary Tuquero did not sign it but (Perez) signed it, and this went to the finance department," he said.

The deal was then signed by Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho or his predecessor, now Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo, Zamora said.

"I just don’t know if the President also signed it because if you go by the rules, the President eventually must sign it also," he said.

In a Malacañang statement released last Saturday, President Arroyo denied claims from the political opposition that she had a hand in the Impsa contract.

"If they (the Arroyo administration) say that this is the operative contract, so why was there a need for the justice secretary to sign it?" Zamora argued.

"Because the contract is useless without the funding by the international banks and that funding would be released after the international lending agencies get the sovereign guarantee of the Philippine government."