Ridon: House leadership dragging its feet on investigating Hilmarc's

A party-list lawmaker on Thursday criticized the House leadership for “dragging its feet” on a  proposal to investigate the contractor building the allegedly overpriced Iloilo Convention Center (ICC) as the Senate began its own probe on the project.
 
In a statement, Kabataan party-list Rep. Terry Ridon noted he filed a resolution to investigate the involvement of Hilmarc’s Construction Corporation (HCC) in possible corruption and overpricing of government infrastructure projects before Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago filed a similar one at the Senate.
 
Santiago’s Senate Resolution No. 906 was the basis for the blue ribbon committee’s investigation into the P700-million construction project that was partly financed by Senate President Franklin Drilon’s pork barrel fund allocation. The Senate panel held its first hearing on the ICC controversy Thursday.
 
Ridon said he received a verbal commitment from House Majority Leader and Committee on Rules chair Rep. Neptali Gonzales II in September that the probe will push through.
 
Until now, however, the measure is still lodged with the Committee on Rules and has not been forwarded to the House Committee on Public Works and Highways for proper action.
 
“The House leadership may be afraid to open the can of worms, considering that an investigation of Hilmarc’s government dealings may include projects contracted by close allies, and even those in the leadership itself,” Ridon said, adding that Gonzales and House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. appear to have backtracked on their earlier commitment that they will proceed with investigating the HCC.
 
All Hilmarc's projects
 
Gonzales was recently quoted in media reports as saying the House has “other better legislative things to do” than probing the allegations involving HCC and other government-funded construction projects.
 
Belmonte and Gonzales have yet to respond to Ridon’s statement as of posting time.
 
In contrast with Santiago’s Senate resolution, Ridon said his measure seeks to probe all the construction projects HCC constructed using government funds in the past decade, not just ICC.
 
HCC was also the contractor responsible for constructing the allegedly overpriced Makati City Hall Building II, which the Senate is also investigating.
 
Ridon earlier alleged the ICC was pricier than the world-renowned Beijing National Stadium, more popularly known as the Bird’s Nest—in terms of building price, with the former’s construction cost pegged at P109,375 per square meter compared to the latter’s P79,216.
 
“It is deplorable that while the Senate is already investigating the ICC, the leadership of the Lower House is hell-bent on stopping any such probe, much less [on] HCC’s other projects,” the lawmaker said. — Xianne Arcangel/JDS, GMA News