MANILA, Philippines—An ally of Senator Manuel Villar in the House of Representatives will ask the Senate ethics committee to investigate Senator Benigno "Noynoy’’ Aquino III for allegedly lobbying and benefiting from an toll expressway inside his family’s sugar estate in Tarlac, Hacienda Luisita.
Cavite Representative Crispin Remulla said that since Aquino was already a senator when the SCTEX (Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway) was completed, the Senate ethics committee was duty bound to look into the alleged windfall obtained by the Aquino-Cojuangco family from the purchase of Luisita land that the highway traverses in Tarlac.
"He (Aquino) should tell the public if their corporation (Hacienda Luisita Inc.) and his family gained from this interchange. Did he and his family pay for the construction of the interchange or the taxpayers? Please answer if he and Kamag-Anak Inc. benefited from this project, yes or no,’’ said Remulla in an interview with Kartada Escalera on DZXL radio.
Aquino has denied this allegation, claiming that it was payback for the Senate’s on-going probe of Villar for allegedly lobbying to get P200 million to fund the C-5 road extension project which was diverted near his residential subdivisions.
Last week, Remulla told members of the House oversight committee looking into the alleged price padding of SCTEX that Aquino and his family had lobbied the Arroyo government in 2004 to have the SCTEX Tarlac exit built inside Hacienda Luisita. Aquino was Deputy Speaker at that time and the late President Aquino was still an ally of President Arroyo.
Remulla said the government not only paid the Aquino-Cojuangco family P83 million for the right-of-way purchase of road inside the Hacienda, it also built an interchange for P170 million.
He claimed that this was highly unusual considering that owners of private land pay the government for the privilege of having a toll way connected to an expressway because it would boost the value of their assets.
He cited as an example Greenfield/Asia Brewery exit along the South Luzon Expressway whose private owners paid P240 million to the government for the privilege and shouldered the cost of building the interchange themselves.
"In the case of the (Aquino-Cojuangco family), not only did they benefit from it, they even got compensated for it. They are rent-seeking oligarchs who treat the farmers as their muchachos whom they can evict anytime,’’ said Remulla.
Remulla said he would compile information on how much the private land owners along the North and South Luzon expressways paid for the privilege of having a toll way built near their properties and who spent for the interchange.
Remulla said the favor given by the Arroyo government to the Aquino-Cojuangco family has become even more glaring after it was revealed that the government had turned down a request by Rep. Herminia Roman to have a toll exit built in Hermosa, Bataan to benefit the marginalized people in her hometown.
"I talked to Congresswoman Roman and she was furious how she was turned down several times by the BCDA (Bases Conversion Development Authority),’’ said Remulla.
Aside from the government bonanza, Remulla said Aquino should also explain why the Hacienda’s farmers, who own nearly 34 percent of Luisita, got only P800,000 in total dividends while his family got P83 million.
On Aquino’s claim that the issue was politically motivated, Remulla noted that the resolution to look into into the SCTEX overprice was filed by his party-mate, Quezon Rep. Lorenzo Tanada III of the Liberal Party. Remulla pointed out that the 94-kilometer SCTEX was only budgeted at P15.3 billion under President Estrada in 1998 and it ballooned to P32.8 billion in 2007 under the Arroyo administration.
"To Senator Noynoy, just tell us the truth. You claimed that this election is a fight between good and evil and that they are the good ones. But these skeletons in your closet that have been there since the time of the Japanese occupation are finally coming out,’’ said Remulla.
