From Makati to Pag-IBIG: Senate hounds security agency linked to VP Binay

From Makati to the Pag-IBIG Fund—the Senate investigation has moved on to another Binay territory. 

The Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee investigation that started with the allegations of gross overpricing  in the construction of the Makati Parking Building II during the mayoralty of Vice President Jejomar Binay opened a can of worms that later led to the scrutiny of other Makati infrastructure, its suppliers and contractors.

With its first hearing this year, the subcommittee gave a preview of the direction the investigation will be taking in the next hearings and it has moved outside the boundaries of the Makati City government. 

Senators and the chief officer of the government’s procurement policy office looked into the holes of the security contracts awarded by Pag-IBIG Fund—or the Home Development Mutual Fund—to a security company allegedly owned by the Vice President. 

Pag-IBIG Fund President and Chief Executive Officer Darlene Berberabe was put on the spot in Thursday's hearing as she defended  the multi-million-peso contracts secured by Omni Security Investigation Inc from Pag-IBIG that did not go through public bidding but via negotiated contract. 

GMA News Research as early as 2013 reported that the security firm that bagged almost P300 million worth of contracts from the Makati City government has also secured deals from the housing loans provider. [Read: Special Report: Makati supplier is also PAG-IBIG contractor]

Berberabe told the Senate subcommittee that the contract between Omni and Pag-IBIG Fund had reached more than P5 million from 2011 up to present. The Pag-IBIG chief admitted in an interview with GMA News last year that Binay recommended the services of Omni. 

Binay, who had served as Makati City mayor for more than two decades before being elected Vice President and appointed the Aquino administration's housing czar, is the chairman of Pag-IBIG Fund. 

His former vice mayor, Ernesto Mercado, alleged in the early hearings of the Senate subcommittee that Binay owned Omni through several dummies. 

 

Inviting Berberabe to the next hearing, subcommittee chairman Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III gave the Pag-IBOG president a copy of the proposed Senate resolution expanding the investigation from the overpricing of the Makati City Hall Building II to alleged irregularities at the Pag-IBIG Fund and Boy Scouts of the Philippines. 

Both entities are under the leadership of the Vice President. 

 

Negotiated contracts with Omni 

 

The more than P5 million security contract awarded to Omni by Pag-IBIG did not go though public bidding.

Berberabe said negotiated contracts were allowed by government procurement laws under certain conditions. In this case, she said it was justified by the urgency of the need for security. 

The procurement law allows negotiated procurement in case of “imminent danger to life or property during a state of calamity, or when time is of the essence arising from natural or man-made calamities.”

"Let me just put on record that I disagree with you na hindi kailangan ng bidding," Senator Alan Peter Cayetano said. "If there was a threat to you in 2010, at kailangan mong kunin agad, at in-excuse ng COA iyan, sabihin mong question mark iyon, but after that, may time na kayong mag-bid eh."

Government Procurement Policy Board’ executive director Dennis Santiago agreed that there could have been room for bidding in the case of the security procurement. 

In response to Berberabe’s contention that public bidding would have taken four months, Santiago said, "Public bidding can be shortened to 28 days."

"So I would agree that this can be submitted for bids after the first contract," Santiago added. 

Berberabe explained that Pag-IBIG later changed the nature of the security contract to a consultancy—a move that Cayetano found irregular as well.  

"Pag consultants kasi, walang agency fee. Pag consultant, iyong tao diretso," he said, noting that Pag-IBIG was paying an agency fee to Omni.  "Kung consultant, ibigay nyo nalang lahat sa tao,” Cayetano said. 

Santiago agreed with the senator that the engagement of a consultant must be involve an individual.

The revised implementing rules and regulations of RA 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act states that a Highly Technical Consultants can be hired through negotiation when “primarily confidential or policy determining, where trust and confidence are the primary consideration for the hiring of the consultant”.

Berberabe had argued that “trust and confidence” were the essential factors she considered in deciding to shift the contracts to consultancy rather than to entrust her security to the lowest bidder. 

Conflict of interest

“Medyo pagalitan ninyo iyong legal [officer] ninyo kasi may conflict of interest,” Cayetano told the Pag-IBIG chief, laying out another irregularity in securing the service of Omni  for Pag-IBIG. 

 

Hirene Lopez, the treasurer of Omni, is the wife of Tomas Lopez, a member of the board of trustees of Pag-IBIG. 

Berberabe said that she did not know that Hirene and Tomas were spouses.

“Ako po, ngayon ko rin lang tiningnan iyong GIS (general information sheet of Omni), sino ba iyong officers diyan, dahil nga department manager lang iyong papasok dito sa contract. Noong tiningnan ko po na nandoon nga iyong Hirene Lopez na hindi ko po siya kilala nang personal at hindi ko rin po alam iyong pangalan, naririnig ko rin lang po siya galing doon sa Senate investigation,” Berberabe said.

 

Binay connections

The Pag-IBIG chief admitted that she was appointed to her post upon the recommendation of the Vice President. 

Cayetano said, too, that Binay's chief of staff was Berberabe’s brother-in-law. 

When asked if she knew Gerry Limlingan, a close ally of the Vice President, Berberabe  said the last time she saw him was last year before the Senate invesigation started. 

“(Limlingan) is actually a consultant of HUDCC. So, that’s why there are some meetings in Pag-IBIG Fund that he would join,” Berberabe said.

Mercado has alleged that Limlingan is Binay’s bagman. 

GMA News Research reported last year that some officers of Omni were contributors to Vice President Binay’s election campaign in 2010. 

Hirene Lopez contributed P300,000 and Bernadette Portollano gave P5,000.

Based on available SEC documents, Lopez  has been Omni’s treasurer since 2010. She was Omni’s corporate secretary in 2009. In Omni's Affidavit of Non-Holding of Annual Meeting, Lopez was the company’s acting secretary in 2003, 2004, and 2005. 

Portollano is the company’s current Corporate Secretary.

Both Portollano and Hirene Lopez are also officers of Agrifortuna Inc., a company alleged to be owned as well by Binay.  This is the same company that allegedly owns the controversial Batangas farm that was later acquired by Antonio Tiu. 

Hirene Lopez has been Agrifortuna’s Corporate Secretary since 2008, while Portollano has been the administrator since 2011.  

Tomas Lopez Jr. is the treasurer of Agrifortuna company, a post he has held since 2008. —NB/KBK, GMA News