BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya—The Department of Justice (DOJ) is looking into the alleged overprice of a P5-billion breakwater project at the Cagayan Special Economic Zone and Freeport (CSEZFP), a Malacañang official said on Tuesday.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has formed a task force to investigate charges that the cost to build the breakwater at Port Irene in Santa Ana, Cagayan province, is bloated, said Secretary Manuel Mamba, chief of the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office.
“It is about time that authorities look into this, because if we try to look at the figures, this is a scam much bigger and more scandalous than that building in Makati,” he said, referring to the supposed overprice in the construction of the Makati City Hall Building II.
Mamba, a former Cagayan representative, noted the “staggering discrepancy” between the cost of the CSEZFP dike and the cost estimates of similar projects prepared by at least three groups.
“The estimates that we have gathered would seem to indicate that the Port Irene breakwater was overpriced by at least P4 billion, making the Makati building pale in comparison,” he said.
Nilo Aldeguer, senior deputy administrator of the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (Ceza) that manages the free port, denied any irregularity in the construction of the breakwater project. He dismissed comparisons on the construction costs of the CSEZFP dike with those of other projects, pointing out that its design was the first of its kind during its time.
“It’s like comparing apples and oranges. Ours was more expensive because it was built using a special design that is different from all others because it was really meant to withstand any natural disaster, like strong water surges,” he said.
Documents showed that the kilometer-long breakwater was built in four phases from 2006 to 2015, with a total cost P5.1 billion.
The construction, according to Commission on Audit documents, was part of the commitment of Ceza to ensure the protection of seaport facilities at Port Irene.
Last year, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago expressed suspicion on how the breakwater’s construction of all four phases was cornered by Santa Elena Construction and Development Corp., whose owners had ties with lawyer Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes, former chief of staff of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile.
The senator, who is detained on a plunder charge, was Senate President for most of the nine-year construction of the breakwater. He is the author of the law that created Ceza.
One of the documents submitted to the DOJ as basis for comparison was a detailed plan for the construction of a breakwater “for the coastal area of the northeastern tip of Cagayan Valley,” the location of Port Irene, prepared by the Philippine Ports Authority.
It placed the maximum cost of the project at P1.07 million for every meter, or a total of P1.1 billion per kilometer.
Another study prepared by a team of engineers from Cagayan State University (CSU) pegged the total cost at P1.3 billion for a breakwater project for Port Irene.
A detailed engineering plan prepared by Harold Olalia, a senior structural engineer at Aecom, a New York-based engineering consultancy firm, for a 9-meter tall breakwater was estimated to cost P1.14 billion.
Aldeguer declined to present documents, such as the breakwater’s detailed plan and program of work. “We are no longer allowed to release any document because of the ongoing investigation,” he said.