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4 ex-govt officials in NAIA-3 graft case cleared


The Sandiganbayan has junked due to lack of evidence the graft charges filed against four former government officials, including a Cabinet secretary, in connection with the $350-million Ninoy Aquino International Airport-International Passenger Terminal 3 (NAIA-IPT 3) project. Cleared were former secretary Pantaleon Alvarez, former undersecretaries Wilfredo Trinidad and Primitivo Cal, all from the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC); and former Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) general manager Francisco Atayde. They were accused of unlawfully awarding to People’s Air Cargo & Warehousing Co., Inc. (Paircargo), the Phil. Air and Grounds Services, Inc. (PAGS), and Security Bank Corp. (Security Bank) the contract to construct NAIA-IPT 3 in 1996 despite knowing that the consortium failed to meet all qualifications under the law. Court records show that at the time, Cal was an undersecretary of DOTC and chairman of the Pre-qualification, Bids and Award Committee (PBAC), while Trinidad was a member of the committee. Alvarez was then sitting as chairman of the technical committee of the PBAC and Atayde was PBAC vice chairman. The Office of the Ombudsman, which filed the case in 2004, said the accused awarded the project to the consortium even if it did not have sufficient financial capacity to undertake the project. According to the prosecutors, the consortium could only put up P558 million, which reportedly was way below the required P2.75 billion equivalent to 30 percent of the total project cost. The Sandiganbayan Second Division, however, affirmed the defense argument that the construction and completion of NAIA-IPT 3 “should lay to rest any question of the financial capability of the Paircargo Consortium to undertake the project." “After serious consideration, the Court finds that the evidence presented by the prosecution cannot sustain a verdict of guilt beyond reasonable doubt, and thus resolves to grant the demurrers to evidence filed by the accused," the anti-graft court said in a decision promulgated Tuesday. The court held that there was no evidentiary support to the Ombudsman’s claim that members of the consortium did not meet the minimum amount of equity since the prosecution submitted incomplete audited financial statements of the three companies involved. It noted that pre-qualification required audited financial statements for the past five years prior to pre-qualification in 1996, but prosecutors could only present only 1994 and 1996 statements for Paircargo; 1994 and 1995 for Security Bank; and 1996 and 1997 for PAGS. At the same time a copy of the minutes of the PBAC meeting on the Pre-qualification of Paircargo on September 27, 1996 showed a discussion on the legality of the Joint Venture Agreement as well as the financial aspect. In the same document, Alvarez explained that the financial capability of the consortium ‘could support up to P12 billion project cost.’ Associate Justice Teresita V. Diaz-Baldos penned the 21-page verdict concurred in by Associate Justice Roland B. Jurado and Presiding Justice Edilberto G. Sandoval, division chairman. - KBK, GMANews.TV

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