Sen. Manny Villar must be hurting at the C-5 extension scandal. With the majority bloc in the Senate bent on promulgating the findings and conclusion of the Senate committee of the whole?s recommendation that he be censured for conflict of interest, his allies in Congress are trying to turn the tables on Sen. Noynoy Aquino who is still ahead of him in the surveys on the presidential derby in spite of Villar spending billions in advertisements.
Cavite Rep. Jesus Crispin Remulla, who was a panelist at last Monday?s Kapihan sa Manila, together with the Biazons, father and son (Sen. Rodolfo and Muntinlupa Rep. Ruffy) and senatorial candidate Susan Ople, declared that Noynoy also has a road scandal, just like Villar. That is the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) that runs through Hacienda Luisita.
If the C-5 extension road that runs through Villar?s properties in Parañaque and Las Piñas was overpriced, so was the portion of Hacienda Luisita through which the SCTEX passed, Remulla said. If the C-5 extension was realigned to make it pass through the Villar properties, so was SCTEX realigned to make it pass through Luisita, which is owned by Noynoy?s family. If the construction of C-5 extension was overpriced, so was SCTEX, he said.
The crux of the SCTEX issue is that Hacienda Luisita was paid by the government P80 million for the right of way for 83 hectares of land that was made part of the expressway. The issue is also one of overpricing, Remulla said, because the P80 million translates to P100 paid by the government to Luisita for every square meter of land ROW, at a time when the selling price of farm land in Tarlac was only from P6 to P8 per square meter. Therefore, the Luisita land paid for by the government was overpriced by at least P92 per sq.m.
On top of the P80 million, government also used P170 million of taxpayers? money to construct a road interchange that connected Luisita?s private road to SCTEX. Other private companies like Mamplasan, Asia Brewery, Greenfields and Southwoods paid the government so their properties would be connected to the South Luzon Expressway. These companies paid the Philippine National Construction Corp. (PNCC) P241 million each for the interchanges that connected their properties to SLEX. So how come it is the opposite with Luisita? Instead of Luisita paying the government for the interchange that connected Luisita?s private road to SCTEX, it was the government that paid Luisita, Remulla said. The overpricing has been confirmed by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) during a congressional hearing.
But it was not the government alone that got a raw deal from the SCTEX project, Remulla continued. The poor farmers who had been toiling at Luisita for decades also got a raw deal. As the supposed owners of 32.5 percent of Luisita, the farmers should have gotten at least P25 million of the P80 million ROW payment. Instead, they were only given dividends ranging from 50 centavos to P1, Remulla said.
The Biazons, members of Noynoy?s Liberal Party (Remulla is a Nacionalista) merely laughed off the Caviteno?s tirade. SCTEX cannot be compared to C-5 Extension, they said. Noynoy had nothing to do with SCTEX whereas Villar used his personal influence to have C-5 realigned and have another P200 million inserted in the budget to fund the right-of-way.
Remulla: A House committee investigation established that ?Noynoy used his influence as a congressman in 2004 to have the original route diverted to Luisita which at that time was largely inaccessible. In fact, Noynoy served as the proponent of the SCTEX project that directly benefited his family.
The congressional hearings elicited the fact that Noynoy used his influence as a legislator not only to push the SCTEX project, but specifically the inter-connection of Hacienda Luisita to it, at a huge cost to the government and the taxpayers. The net effect of Noynoy?s machinations is that from its original estimate of P18.7 billion in 1999, the SCTEX project cost was adjusted to P21 billion in 2004 and, by the time it was finished, the cost had ballooned to a whopping P32.808 billion, or twice its original price.
?Noynoy made sure he was present in most meetings related to the construction of SCTEX. To show their disdain for the congressional committee investigating the SCTEX scandal, Noynoy and the Cojuangcos ordered Luisita?s security men to bar congressmen from making an ocular inspection of the Luisita road interchange. The government funded the P170-M interchange, but the representatives of the people were prevented from visiting the site,? Remulla said.
While all this was going on at Manila Hotel?s Roma Ristoranti, Noynoy was somewhere else in the hotel with Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, having just come from the unveiling of his mother?s monument nearby. In fairness to him, I sent somebody to look for him so he could reply to Remulla?s accusations, but the messenger was unsuccessful.
Anyway, in the name of fairness and balanced reporting, we will give Sen. Noynoy Aquino every opportunity to answer Remulla?s accusations regarding the SCTEX-Luisita project.
