Flagged

In a speech last Sept. 18 at the Philippine International Convention Center, Vice President Jejomar Binay parried accusations of corruption leveled at him, especially in relation to the allegedly overpriced Makati City Hall Building II constructed during his watch as mayor, by posing a challenge. He said it was built in a period of five years, “and after every year that a portion of the building was completed it passed through the strict audit of the COA.” He said all other Makati projects were subjected to the same meticulous scrutiny by the Commission on Audit, which found no irregularity: “Sa loob ng sampung taon, sampung audit ang kanilang ginawa, pero wala silang nakitang anomalya.”

That was a gauntlet thrown down, firstly at his critics, whom he described as political opportunists and embittered rivals who had long lusted for the mayor’s seat of the country’s premier city, and secondly at a larger demographic—the tens of millions of voters up and down the archipelago who might now be harboring doubts about the presumed presidential front-runner because of these charges of chicanery. Don’t listen to senators and other politicians with a dubious agenda on their mind and even more dubious accusations that would not stand in court, was his message to his audience. The COA itself has certified him and his projects clean. That is all one has to believe.

The VP must now be regretting that he invoked the COA in such a light—as the oversight agency whose badge of approval on the Makati projects testified, in effect, to the integrity of his public record. The commission’s year-by-year seal of good housekeeping, as it were, was his best defense against widespread but unsubstantiated talk that he had amassed wealth beyond his means as mayor of Makati.

The COA has spoken, and its words are not what Binay had promised Filipinos they would hear. In testimony before the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee last Thursday, a special team of auditors said their preliminary investigation had revealed a “very significant” difference between the contract cost of the controversial parking/office building and the COA’s own “evaluated cost.” The discrepancy amounts to about P124 million. In brief, the building that the VP and the incumbent mayor, his son Junjun Binay, had characterized as “world-class” to justify its astronomical cost may indeed be what its critics say it is: overpriced.

The auditors had more damning findings. The project was “implemented with undue haste as there were no construction plans yet when it was bid out and awarded to Hilmarc’s Construction Corp.” The negotiated settlement entered into by the city’s bids and awards committee for a contract covering architectural and engineering services was “improper,” because the conditions required by law such as failed bids or an emergency case were not present. And when the city started the procurement process for phase 3 of the five-phase project, no appropriation for it had even been approved.

Audit Commissioner Heidi Mendoza expanded the terrain of possible irregularities by citing similar overpricing schemes during the term of the VP’s wife, Elenita Binay, who held the mayor’s seat from 1998 to 2001. Medical equipment purchased for the Ospital ng Makati appeared to be overpriced by as much as P61 million, testified Mendoza. Hospital beds, sterilizers, ultrasound machines and the like were bought for huge amounts but the actual total costs were relatively minuscule. The supplier was made out to be the exclusive distributor of the equipment, so no public bidding was conducted.

Those are grave charges, and in these interesting times it seems certain that guns will be trained on Mendoza, who has previously testified against the VP’s wife in a case at the Sandiganbayan. She will be dismissed as a paid operator engaged in a “politically motivated” demolition job. After all, her sterling qualities as auditor did not help her get confirmed as audit commissioner. She had to pass through the proverbial eye of the needle at the Commission on Appointments, apparently because of a powerful lobby.

It was the VP himself who put a premium on what the COA had to say about his projects when he was mayor of Makati. But the commission has flagged those projects as suspicious at the very least. Has he painted himself into a corner?