What Went Before: ‘Overpriced’ Makati Science High School
In December last year, a plunder and graft complaint was filed against Vice President Jejomar Binay and his son, Makati Mayor Junjun Binay, for the alleged overpriced construction of the 10-story Makati Science High School building at Barangay (village) Cembo.
The 11-page complaint of a group called anticorruption advocates led by Renato Bondal, a former barangay captain and Binay ally, urged the Office of the Ombudsman to charge the Binays criminally for allegedly conspiring to defraud the government of Makati City of P862 million in the construction of the school building.
The project cost was originally P470 million, but it ballooned to P1.3 billion, the complaint said. Construction started when the Vice President was still mayor of Makati and continued through the administration of his son.
Also named respondents were former and incumbent Councilors Ferdinand Eusebio, Arnold Magpantay, Romeo Medina, Tosca Puno-Ramos, Alethea Casal-Uy, Virgilio Hilario, Monsour del Rosario III, Vince Sese, Nelson Pasia, Salvador Pangilinan, Elias Tolentino, Ruth Tolentino, Henry Jacome, Leo Magpantay, Nemesio Yabut Jr., Armand Padilla, Israel Cruzado, Ma. Theresa de Lara, Angelito Gatchalian and Ricardo Javier; members of the Makati City School Board in 2009; and Commission on Audit resident auditor Ma. Cecilia Caga-anan, the then members of the bids and awards committee, and the officers of Hilmarc’s Construction Corp., led by engineer Efren M. Canlas.
Bondal was also among the complainants in the first plunder case his group filed in the Office of the Ombudsman in August 2014 in connection with the alleged overpriced Makati parking building, which was also investigated by the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee.
With 54 classrooms, the building was worth P72,500 per square meters when the amount should have been only P25,620 per sqm, based on 2013 pricing, Bondal said.
Mario Hechanova, who headed the Makati general services department when Binay was the mayor, said the science high school building was among no less than 10 projects bid out on Dec. 28, 2007. He said the bidders were always the same and the biddings were rigged.
The same set of three contractors—Hilmarc’s Construction Corp., ITP Construction Inc. and JBros Construction Corp.—supposedly battled it out for the project, which was eventually awarded to Hilmarc’s.
Inaugurated in February last year, the building still lacked four dormitories that should have been included, said Bondal, who claimed that the building’s eighth to 10th floors were off-limits to the public.
The building has 35 regular rooms, 18 labs and special classrooms, and one reading center. It also has a basement, roof deck, an auditorium on two floors, and open spaces that allows one to look down from any of the floors at the lobby.
Administrative offices and biology labs are located on the ground floor, while the second floor houses the computer and speech labs and the audio-visual room. The general science, chemistry and physics labs are on the third floor.
The regular classrooms are on the fourth to seventh floors. Also on the fourth floor are the electronics and robotics labs. The eighth floor houses the dormitory, which has 20 rooms that can accommodate 240 students, toilets and shower rooms.
The building has a spacious staircase, and two elevators that can carry 17 persons each. Behind the elevators are the student lockers.
The Vice President has denied all accusations against him, including allegations that he received kickbacks from infrastructure projects when he was mayor and used dummies to hide his wealth.–Compiled by Inquirer Research
Source: Inquirer Archives
