DOJ indicts 16 on anti-dummy law raps

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Justice (DOJ) has indicted the former general manager of the Mactan Cebu International Airport and 15 executives of the airport concessionaire for violation of the Anti-Dummy Law.

A panel of prosecutors indicted suspended airport general manager and chief executive officer Steve Dicdican and 15 Filipino and foreign executives of GMR Megawide Cebu Airport Corp. (GMCAC) based on the complaint filed by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) last December.

The NBI and private complainant Larry Iguidez alleged that Dicdican violated the amended Commonwealth era Anti-Dummy Law for awarding the airport operations concession to a consortium that is not majority Filipino-owned.

The NBI also alleged that the Mactan Cebu International Airport is operated and managed by non-Filipinos with the knowledge of the Filipino officers of the airport and GMCAC.

GMCAC, a consortium between Filipino company Megawide Construction Corp. and the foreign company GMR Group, was awarded a 25-year concession to operate and maintain the airport in 2014.

Liable

In a resolution dated October 8 but announced on October 14, the DOJ prosecution panel found Dicdican liable for “knowingly … abetting the commission of a violation of the Anti-Dummy Law.” Dicdican, who was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte in 2016, will be charged before a regional trial court in Eastern Visayas, said the DOJ.

He was placed on preventive suspension by the Ombudsman on December 16.

Separate charges will be filed against the 15 GMCAC executives.

Prosecutors found that foreign nationals Andrew Acquaah-Harrison, Ravi Bhatnagar, Ravishankar Saravu, Michael Lenane, Sudarshan Madhav Doddathota, Kumar Gaurav, Magesh Nambiar and Rajesh Madan acted as executives, managers or employees of the corporation “in the guise of being advisors, experts and/or technical personnel.”

The DOJ said the foreigners conspired with the officers and members of the board of directors of GMCAC Srinivas Bommidala, P. Sripathy, Vivek Singhal, Manuel Louie Ferrer, Edgar Saavedra, Oliver Tan, Jez de la Cruz, who “allowed and permitted [the] foreign nationals who do not possess the qualifications required by the Constitution or existing laws to acquire, use, exploit or enjoy a right, franchise, privilege, property or business … to intervene in the management, operation, administration or control of the GMCAC.”

“The exercise and enjoyment of [these rights] are expressly reserved by the Constitution or existing laws to citizens of the Philippines,” said the DOJ.

The 15 GMCAC executives will be charged before a regional trial court in Central Visayas.