Senator Mar Roxas last week chided Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane of the Department of Public Works and Highways for not acting immediately to stop the illegal collusion among contractors in the bidding of government infrastructure projects.
"If I was secretary of DPWH, I will feel insulted. I will feel ‘How can you say that?’ How can you say that we are allowing this?’ I would have conducted an investigation. I would have asked ‘How can the World Bank say that there is collusion under my watch?" Sen. Roxas’ thinking revealed during last week’s Senate hearing into the World Bank’s ban against three Philippine contractors from partici-pating in any WB-financed projects in the Philippines.
Roxas was referring to Ebdane’s failure to order an internal investigation into the WB finding of collusive practices among contractors participating in DPWH biddings for road projects.
Stressing that bidding for infrastructure projects fall within the auspices of the DPWH, he said Ebdane should have looked into the allegations from the international lending agency and punished officials and contractors involved in the anomaly.
"What (the World Bank executives) are in fact saying is the defective bidding under the auspices of the DPWH because that bidding did not produce the best price and the best quality for the Filipino people. This bidding allowed a collusive product or a collusive outcome to come about," he said. "What is central to this is the bidding undertaken by the DPWH or the rules and regulations of the DPWH in fact allows this collusion to happen," Roxas added.
He asked Ebdane: "Were you not concerned how they could have found this? Did you ask for data? For an internal investigation? Did you ask them, who were your witnesses? What is your evidence? And so on and so forth? Was there such coordination?" to which the secretary replied: "I did not want to jump the gun on the World Bank investigation."
Ebdane said during the hearing that he knew of the WB investigation into the anomaly as early as November 2007, or even before the decision of the WB executives were released to the public.
The Ilonggo senator said it was important that the DPWH took the WB decision seriously.
"The(WB investigated the issue) for them in their effort to protect their money. They undertook this investigative process. The World Bank and their executives are responsible to the governments of the world who all contribute to the ownership of the World Bank, including the Philippine government. We have a contributory share in the ownership of the World Bank, all of the governments of the world are pretty much co-owners of the World Bank. So the World Bank, in arriving at these findings, simply is saying: In our investigation, these companies appear more likely than not to have engaged in collusion. So we no longer will want to deal with them. It’s as simple as that," he said.
"If a respected entity says in their own investigation they have found collusive practice by these contractors, the relevant question for us as a government is: What did we do to follow-up on this? Okay lang ba sa atin na other agencies have found out about this collusive practice? Or are we ourselves interested to find out what happened? Was there anything in our laws or regulations that may have contributed to it? Or were there people that may have in fact aided and abetted it?" he also said.
Roxas Tells Legacy: Pay Plan Holders/Depositors
Mar Roxas last week said, Legacy Group owner Celso de los Angeles should first compensate his pre-need plan holders, bank depositors, and creditors before the Philippine Deposit Insurance Cor-poration (PDIC) bails out his bankrupt companies.
"It is important that the depositors and plan holders recover their hard-earned money, and the govern-ment’s job is to ensure they get paid. I am certain that Delos Angeles has other properties which he can sell to pay his plan holders and depositors. The government cannot pay for his financial obligations." Roxas pointed out.
Delos Angeles has applied for corporate dissolution of his group of companies, which include the Legacy Consolidated, Inc. and 13 rural banks with 29 branches, with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in December 2008.
Seven of these banks have been closed down by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and placed under receivership last month. The BSP said, "it had uncovered certain irregularities - including making loans without collateral and documentation, and use of bank funds to pay for obligations of affiliated pre-need companies - in some of the Legacy-affiliated banks."
"Delos Angeles has obligation to the parents who trusted their hard-earned monies to his company in the hope of securing the education of their children. He cannot run away from them," Senator Roxas stressed.
He reiterated his call to SEC chairperson Fe Barin to immediately go to court and request for the issuance of attachments against Delos Angeles’ properties to prevent him from disposing his assets, to the detriment of plan holders and bank depositors and investors.
Delos Angeles had earlier admitted to senators he had sold his P55 million real estate in Ayala Alabang shortly before he applied for voluntary dissolution with the SEC.
"The SEC should act now. They should now go to court and ask for an attachment order against Delos Angeles’ assets. They are really very slow to act. Do we always have to tell them what to do?," Roxas fumed who had earlier called on Barin and other SEC officials to resign for their "deliberate" negligence in protecting the interests of pre-need plan holders after their delayed action on the financial difficulties being experienced by pre-need firms. /MP
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