Iloilo leaders rally behind Drilon

Senate President Franklin Drilon. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/ JOAN BONDOC

MANILA, Philippines–Iloilo City officials, led by its congressional representative and mayor, expressed Wednesday their support for the P700-million Iloilo Convention Center (ICC) that is at the center of an overpricing scandal that has snared its proponent, Senate President Franklin Drilon.

The city’s leaders have crossed party lines to issue an appeal that the project be “insulated from political mudslinging and bickering,” said Iloilo City Rep. Jerry Treñas in a statement.

Treñas and Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog, who both are affiliated with the ruling Liberal Party along with Drilon, led a coalition that includes Vice Mayor Jose Espinosa III, a member of the Nacionalista Party, eight city councilors, 177 barangay leaders and six other officials of the Association of Barangay Kagawads, who signed a manifesto stating their approval of the ICC, citing “its tremendous benefits.”

Padded costs

Drilon, Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson and Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr., have been named in a plunder complaint at the Ombudsman over the allegedly “padded” construction costs of the ICC.

The project was reportedly funded using Drilon’s allocations under the congressional pork barrel, or the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), and Malacañang’s Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), both of which were voided by the Supreme Court.

The manifesto assailed the “controversies raised through uncorroborated claims,” in reference to the questions raised about the construction cost of the ICC, which will be the subject of a Senate blue ribbon committee investigation today.

“The issues on the alleged anomalies and over-costing of the Iloilo Convention Center have been mainly used as part of political chicanery and mudslinging by bickering political groups,” it said.

The Ilonggo leaders said the ICC was a “vital project which will be used as the primary venue of the 2015 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) ministerial meetings.”

Iloilo’s selection to host the Apec meetings has brought “great pride and joy” to the city and province as it validates the city’s status as one of the most progressive and highly developed urban cities in the nation, they said.

No comment

Meanwhile, former Iloilo Rep. Augusto Syjuco Jr. has asked to be allowed to take part in the Senate blue ribbon committee investigation of the project.

Neither Drilon nor committee chair Sen. Teofisto Guingona III has commented on Syjuco’s request. Neither has responded to questions from the Inquirer.

It was Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago who relayed Syjuco’s request to Guingona.

To avoid a possible conflict of interest, Drilon earlier vowed to inhibit himself from the inquiry but said he would answer questions directed at him.

Syjuco earlier filed a plunder complaint against Drilon over the ICC but the Senate investigation was prompted by a more recent complaint filed by Manuel Mejorada, a former provincial administrator of Iloilo.

Mejorada has been invited as a resource person, as are Drilon’s coaccused—Singson and Jimenez.

Syjuco, who claimed to have filed 11 complaints, including 10 involving possible plunder, against Drilon, complained that these have not moved in the Office of the Ombudsman.

“The Ombudsman (Conchita Carpio-Morales) has been unusually protective of Drilon, for while she has elevated to the Sandiganbayan for weak and misplaced cases against me, she has not moved at all in the plunder cases I filed against Drilon,” he said in an open letter to the Senate.