Calida agency bagged P39.5-M deals to secure Luneta, Paco parks

The security agency owned by the family of Solicitor General Jose Calida bagged almost P40 million worth of contracts with the National Parks Development Committee, documents obtained by GMA News Online showed.

Documents showed Calida's wife, Milagros, in her capacity as chairwoman and president of VISAI, signed a contract with the NPDC in June 2017 and another in January 2018 for security services for the Rizal Park and the Paco Park.

These deals cost P10.3 million and P29.2 million, respectively.

Calida's camp, however, said there was nothing irregular with the deals worth a total of P39.5 million because these underwent public bidding.

A fact sheet sent by Calida's office said there was also no conflict of interest as he had already resigned as president and chairman of VISAI on May 30, 2016, a month before he took his oath as the government's chief lawyer.

It added that the solicitor general did not regulate, supervise or license security agencies, an act prohibited by Republic Act 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.

In the event of a conflict of interest, government officials and employees are required by this code to resign from any private business enterprise and divest himself or herself of his or her shareholdings within a set period from assumption of office.

The Calida fact sheet claimed that his stake in VISAI was declared in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth in 2016.

A separate statement by NPDC executive director Penelope Belmonte said the Calidas' security agency had "satisfactorily" performed its duties.

Both the Calida fact sheet and Belmonte said NPDC first contracted VISAI's services in 2014.

A general information sheet (GIS) for VISAI from the Securities and Exchange Commission covering April 2016 but received by the SEC in September that year showed Calida owned 60 percent of the firm.

His wife Milagros and their three children owned 10 percent each at the time, according to this SEC filing. No other stockholders were named in the GIS.

Apart from NPDC, VISAI is also alleged to have bagged contracts with at least three other government agencies: the National Economic Development Authority, the National Anti-Poverty Commission, and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation.

That VISAI allegedly bagged contracts from these state bodies due to Calida's alleged influence forms part of a graft complaint against him at the Office of the Ombudsman. Other charges include an alleged extramarital affair and bias for the Marcos family.

Calida's accuser before the Office of the Ombudsman has also requested him to bare his Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) to reveal whether or not he had "accurately declared" his family's ownership of the security agency. —with a report from Sandra Aguinaldo/NB, GMA News