Cedric Lee INQUIRER LIFESTYLE FILE PHOTO
CEBU CITY—An attempt by businessman Cedric Lee to clinch an energy deal with the province of Cebu that bore signs of irregularities is starting to share the spotlight with the scandal involving Lee, a female friend and comedian Vhong Navarro.
Officials of the province, while denying that Lee has a live contract to build a power plant using waste as fuel, also revealed details of what some said were signs of irregularities in the project that Lee, who is now facing a string of cases for beating up Navarro for allegedly trying to rape Lee’s friend Deniece Cornejo, has been trying to have the provincial government approve.
Lee, owner of Waste Management Inc. (WMI), first sent representatives to Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale when Magpale took over as acting governor when Gwendolyn Garcia was suspended for six-months on
Dec. 19, 2012 for usurpation of authority.
Lee’s representatives wanted Magpale to sign a contract that would allow WMI to develop a power plant using waste as fuel on the controversial Balili lot in Naga town, Cebu.
“When I read the contract, I asked them ‘Do you know where the property is?’ I told them it would be in the Balili property which is subject to litigation,” Magpale told Inquirer in a phone interview.
Former governor Garcia and seven others are facing graft charges at the Sandiganbayan for the purchase of a 24.7-hectare property in Barangay (village) Tinaan, Naga, worth P98.9 million which turned out to be mostly underwater.
Magpale said Lee’s representatives assured her that the project had been awarded to them. Apparently, the contract was not signed due to Garcia’s suspension. A few days after taking over the provincial government, Magpale said Lee’s representatives again asked her to sign the contract.
“No, I didn’t sign it. I didn’t sign anything,” she said.
Last December, Lee approached Gov. Hilario Davide III in an attempt to revive the project but this time, it would be in Danao City, northern Cebu.
Lee presented to Davide a copy of memorandum of agreement that baffled provincial officials since the contract was not awarded to any company after a failure of bidding.
Ethel Natera, provincial information officer, said Lee’s WMI was supposed to be one of three companies that bidded for the project.
But when the bid was opened, only two companies remained, she added. Yet, Natera said, none of the companies, including Lee’s WMI, qualified for the bidding.
The two companies later decided to form a consortium for the project, said Natera.
But based on minutes of the Dec. 17, 2012 session of the provincial board, Board Member Alex Binghay pushed for the deferment of action on a resolution that would have authorized then governor Garcia to seal the deal with Lee’s WMI.
According to the minutes, Binghay wanted clarification since the board had been informed that the project was supposed to be undertaken by a consortium composed of Lee’s WMI and Singapore-based Bousted Singapore and Synova.
In the contract presented to the board, however, only Lee’s WMI was listed as project proponent.
THEN Gov. Gwen Garcia harvests “bangus” from the Balili property that her administration bought for P98 million but which turned out to be mostly underwater. TONEE DESPOJO/CEBU DAILY NEWS
Former governor Garcia supported the project, though. She had made a presentation on the project, called Proposed Tina-an Ecozone Development Plan, to try to win the provincial board’s approval.
The power plant using waste as fuel would be built under a build-operate-transfer scheme.
The plan for the project shows several facilities would be built including a port, area for light industry and manufacturing, water reservoir and an eco-park.
The project would have cost $150 million and required the project proponent, supposedly the consortium Synova led by Lee’s WMI, to pay P30 per square meter, or P800,000 a month, in lease.
The province, as proposed in the draft contract, would have earned 2 percent from gross revenues of the facility and earn P850 million in 25 years.