IN the latest plunder charge that has the media buzzing—this one, against Senate President Franklin
M. Drilon and involving the Iloilo Convention Center (ICC)—there is one thing that stands out: Hillmarc’s Construction Corp.—the contractor that built that controversial Makati City Hall II parking building, for which Vice President Jejomar C. Binay is being pilloried in the august halls of the Senate—is also the contractor of the now-controversial ICC.
On paper, the nation’s No. 2 and No. 3 officials’ odds of being charged with plunder in connection with allegedly overpriced buildings and tapping the same company to construct them look very small, but that’s exactly what happened. Also, the chances that the accusations of overpricing that were hurled at those officials by their former confidantes seem very slim, but, again, that’s precisely what happened.
As a result, businessmen are betting that the same scenario being played out in the Senate would also play out for Drilon and the plunder complaint thrown at him by Manuel Mejorada, whom the Senate President accused of having an ax to grind. They expect the controversy that complaint has created to generate noise that is similar to the one made by former Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado of Makati, whom Binay accused of being an ingrate.
Mejorada’s complaint is worth noting, though, for it compared the construction of the P679.8-million ICC, which, he said, was overpriced by more than P400 million, with that of the P500-million, 12-story Richmonde Hotel Iloilo, which stands across the convention center. According to Mejorada, ICC was built at a cost of P106,226 per square meter, which is much higher than the stardard P30,000 per sq m.
While Drilon insists that Mejorada’s charge is ludicrous, the latter has bared the reason for his cutting ties with the Senate President: a story he wrote in July 2011 that implicated
the lawmaker in the scandalous purchase of an overpriced piece of agricultural land that was to be used as a relocation site for informal settlers in Iloilo.
Should the Senate hold an inquiry into the complaint, this question may crop up: Would this inquiry lead to an inspection of the land that the government had purchased and planned to use as a relocation site?
It’s worth noting that Hillmarc’s odds of being involved in two plunder cases involving allegedly overpriced buildings was almost nil, and, yet, that’s what happened. Hillmarc’s has, indeed, made a mark.
Nlex gets plaudits
THE Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC), the builder and concessionaire of the North Luzon Expressway (Nlex), recently earned another coveted certification from United Kingdom-based Certification International for the various management systems it has in place, as well as its corporate practices that hew closely to topnotch standards in quality, environment, and occupational health and safety.
It’s no small wonder for the MNTC to win that certification for the third time, as the company has been consistent in its delivery of great service. In fact, before starting a particular repair or rehabilitation work along the 90-kilometer Nlex, the company taps a top Davao City-based traffic-engineering firm to audit how many vehicles pass through the road segment to be repaired or rehabilitated in order to determine what barriers to erect, and to know how to deal with the inconvenience that drivers would experience.
The MNTC received the certifications ISO 9001:2008, ISO 14001:2004 and OHSAS 18001:2007 for the effective implementation of its integrated management systems, making it the country’s first tollway concessionaire to get them. The
latest certification it received, which is valid until September 2017, is on the “operation and maintenance management of the toll roads; construction management, including outsourced design; and construction implementation.”
“We are pleased that our efforts to mitigate our environmental impact, and provide quality service and a healthy, safe workplace for our employees have, again, been recognized as one [on a] par with international standards,” MNTC President Rodrigo Franco said.
Trouble at OSS Center
THERE is trouble brewing at the One-Stop Shop Inter-Agency Tax Credit and Duty Drawback Center (OSS Center), a government agency that takes care of tax certifications and other incentives that the Department of Finance accords to the country’s exporters.
Thirty-eight OSS Center officials and employees, led by Deputy Executive Director Carmelo Casibang, sent to Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima last month a petition to remove the newly named officer in charge of the center, lawyer Sheila Castaloni, from her post because of her emotional immaturity and attitudinal problems, among others.
“Although we have wanted to work in harmony with her, Atty. Castaloni is totally unfit for the job. In brief, she is incapable of leading the OSS Center and carrying out the mandate of this office,” the petition said. With angry words such as these, Purisima needs to act fast.