Radaza Strikes Again

A PRIVATE foundation has asked the anti-graft office to look into alleged anomalies in the purchase of supposedly overpriced personal computers by the Lapu-Lapu City Government for use in its public high schools.

The Coralpoint Educational Foundation Inc., represented by its founder and president Efrain Pelaez, accused Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza of facilitating the “anomalous” transaction and of making “P17 million tax-free” from it, on the side. Pelaez addressed his complaint to Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Pelagio Apostol.

Mayor Radaza told Sun.Star Cebu he will answer the accusations in the proper forum.

According to Pelaez, the Lapu-Lapu City Government spent P23,476,500 or about P50,000 each for 470 personal computers (PCs) that, at the time of the purchase, were worth less than half the unit price.

“The actual unit cost could even be less because, as the Commission on Audit (COA) has found out, what was delivered to the schools were PCs of inferior specifications like Celeron instead of the specified Pentium 4 processors with 256 instead of the specified 512 megabytes of memory,” Pelaez said.

He attached the COA report to his letter-complaint to Apostol.

City Hall paid for the computers when City Attorney Vincent Joseph Lim served as chairman of the bidding and awards committee (BAC) and Assistant City Attorney Michael Dignos was among the members.

Both officials said if there was indeed a wrong delivery, the BAC would not know about it because its role ends after declaring the winning bidder.

‘No problems’

“Everything was on the level...there were no problems in the bidding procedure,” Lim said. He has been on a two-week leave beginning last Monday, but reported to his office to write his answer to Pelaez’s demand letter for documents related to the City’s expenses during last January’s Asean Summit.

“I’d like to tell the public that everything Mr. Pelaez has been saying has to be taken with the grain of salt because he has a vested interest,” he added, without elaborating.

Pelaez also attached clippings of Sun.Star Cebu’s March 6, 2005 issue that, on page 38, showed the invitation to qualify and bid that the City Government published to guide any interested bidders. Page 21 of that issue also showed how Max Saver Corp. was selling Pentium 4 units for P19,100 only.

Among other annexes, likewise included was a document showing that 60 computers were sent to schools in the islands of Pangan-an and Caubian, although there isn’t any electricity in these areas.

Impleaded in the complaint were Radaza, City Attorney Lim, City Administrator Teodulo Ybañez, Assistant City Engineer Fernando Tagaan, City Budget Officer Victoria Andoy, City Treasurer Elena Pacaldo, Legal Officer Michael Dignos, Maria Guiao of the Procurement Office, and Technical Working Group members Cipriano Flores, Maribeth Sorono, Rogelio Veloso, Sharon Baguio Buenaventura Igot and Jerico Mercado.

Likewise included were Leandro Dante, Ernesto Imbong and Rogaciano Tampos, inspectors at the Office of the City Accountant, Treasurer and General Services Office, respectively; Lapu-Lapu City Schools Superintendent Serena Uy; and one Jennet Valencia, manager of Kein Enterprises and the supplier of the computers.

One day’s work

Based on the complaint, Uy requisitioned 470 computers at P50,000 in a purchase request she accomplished on Feb. 8, 2005.

On the same day, Guiao signed a certification indicating that the prevailing market price of personal computers was indeed P50,000.

Pacaldo allegedly certified on the face of the purchase request that the needed government funds for the transaction were available.

And likewise on the same day, Radaza signed and approved the procurement.

“It is very obvious that the preparation of the purchase request, the fixing of the unit cost estimate and the approval thereof were either hastily done without a thorough and extensive survey of the prices of computers offered by suppliers in Lapu-Lapu City, Mandaue City and Cebu City, which is a clear case of gross negligence,” Pelaez said.

On March 6 and 12, 2005, the City’s bid committee published its invitation and scheduled the submission of bids and bid documents on March 28.

Only three suppliers—Kein Enterprises, ATX Enterprises and Global Chips Technologies Inc.—submitted bids. The BAC, according to Pelaez, “conveniently disqualified” ATX and Global, making Kein, which bid P23,476,500 for the package, the winning supplier.

‘Reprisal’

Two days after the bidding and the BAC passed a resolution awarding the supply contract to Kein, whose office Pelaez traced to an unmarked apartment in Barangay Apas, Cebu City. The following day, Radaza approved the purchase order and a notice of award.

“The bid of Kein Enterprises of P49,900 per unit for the specified or indicated computers was clearly overpriced as shown by the fact that reputable and prominent computer suppliers in Cebu offered practically similar or better computer packages at a much lesser price,” Pelaez said.

Other than heading the foundation, Pelaez is also the president of the Mactan Island Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MICCI).

The group is turning out to be the Radaza administration’s most vocal critic, pointing out in various forums reported incidents of corruption and inefficiency within Lapu-Lapu City Hall. Its observers attended its first City Council session yesterday.

Asked why the complaint was lodged in his capacity as the head and representative of the foundation instead of as the MICCI, Pelaez said he wanted to shield the individual MICCI members from possible reprisals from City Hall.

“They are already asking us for a list of our individual members. What for? They already know who the incorporators and the officers are,” he added.

Solo flight

He said not involving the MICCI in the filing of the complaint is also to show the Radaza administration that he isn’t afraid to monitor the City on his own.

“Clearly, there is a conspiracy among Radaza and some of his department heads, and we are really flabbergasted,” Pelaez said in a press conference.

Former General Services Office (GSO) Chief Cleofe Solis was no longer involved in procurement beginning Sept. 11, 2001, but as the chief of GSO, she received the computers based on the remark “as to quantity” from her inspectors. (This meant the number of computers delivered matched the figure in the delivery receipt.)

She welcomed the filing of the complaint. “Ganahan ko ana kay kining tawo nga wala’y sala dili gyod mahadlok (Those who have done no wrong have no cause for fear),” she said, adding she never saw the computers herself and relied only on the reports of her inspectors when she signed the delivery receipts.

Solis is currently the City’s consultant for the solid waste management program. She quit the GSO in July 2005, about five months after the purchase of the computers.

Source: sunstar.com.ph

Erap's Other Chix

THE TRAIL of houses frequented or occupied by President Joseph Estrada and his mistresses leads to some of his closest friends such as businessmen Dante Tan, Mark Jimenez, Lucio Co and Jaime Dichaves. Other presidential friends such as Lucio Tan and Eduardo ‘Danding’ Cojuangco are also said to have made sure that the President’s women would be well provided for, and have even given them or members of their families either businesses or jobs that come with huge incomes.

This has raised serious questions of conflicts of interest, since many of these presidential friends are engaged in various businesses that inevitably need or seek out help from the government. Some of these pals have even found themselves entangled with the law, and many have noted the seeming inability of authorities to deal with them because of their perceived ties with the President.

For instance, a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation of Dante Tan’s alleged insider manipulation of shares of his company, BW Resources, fizzled out almost as quickly as it began in June 1999.

Curiously enough, it was also during this time that Tan acquired a 660-square-meter lot on Mindoro St. in Manila Marina Bay Subdivision in Parañaque. A two-story beige-colored house with a swimming pool now sits on the property, whose records show that it was bought from Tan just last March by Eugenia J. Muñoz for P18.5 million. The residence’s main occupant, however, was former Philippine Airlines attendant Rowena Gomeri Lopez, who is said to be among the President’s mistresses.

The President has denied having a relationship with Lopez, who was introduced to him last year by his friend, taipan Lucio Tan, during a trip to the United States. Since then, however, Lopez has been promoted to PAL consultant and has moved out of the house she and her ex-husband Felipe Neri Lopez shared with their three children in Pag-asa Subdivision in Bacoor, Cavite. Sources say she was also given a brand new BMW car, a Rolex watch, and cash, among other gifts.

According to sources close to Lopez, the erstwhile flight attendant is now four months pregnant with the President’s child. Relatives say she left the country in mid-November for the United States, where she is supposed to stay until after she gives birth.

The supposed owner of the Marina Bay property, Muñoz, is the corporate secretary of Professional Managers Inc. (PMI), a Makati-based holding firm. She was unavailable for an interview there as she was supposedly on health leave till January 2001. But her fellow employees said she lives in Sucat, Parañaque and they were not aware she had property in Marina Bay.

Another Parañaque property that the President is said to frequent is a split-level 615-square-meter penthouse at one of four high-rise condominium buildings called Golden Bay Towers near the Marina Bay Subdivision. Unit 30-D is on the northwest corner of the Cleveland Towers condominium. The penthouse, which has a commanding view of Manila Bay, is worth P50 million.

Various sources, including Ilocos Sur Governor Luis ‘Chavit’ Singson, have said the Cleveland Towers penthouse is where President Estrada frequently played mahjongg with his friends, among them Tan and plastics king William Gatchalian. His presence is difficult to miss, residents there said, because the President arrives with a whole retinue of escorts and friends. Lopez herself used to be an occasional visitor to the penthouse. Tower residents, however, said Estrada hasn’t been there in the last three or four months.

The listed owner of the penthouse is Aries Holdings Inc., a real estate company based in Makati. The company’s registration papers show that among its incorporators are family members of presidential crony Mark Jimenez, who was born Mario Batacan Crespo.

Aries Holdings was formed by Ma. Aleli P. Crespo, Jimenez’s first wife, and his children Einez P. Crespo and Myla Crespo-Villanueva, who is listed as the firm’s treasurer. Also an incorporator of Aries Holdings is Edgardo B. Francisco, Jimenez’s long-time lawyer. The company was registered in December 1998, six months after Estrada became president.

The United States government considers Jimenez a fugitive from justice, having been found guilty of making illegal contributions to the re-election campaign of President Bill Clinton. He is also wanted for tax evasion and wire fraud and is being sought for questioning by U.S. authorities for information on drug dealers in Latin America, where Jimenez also does business.

Jimenez was once hailed by President Estrada as a “corporate genius,” and even became a presidential adviser on Latin American affairs until the U.S. government sought his extradition. Jimenez fled to the Philippines shortly before the 1998 elections.

Documents show that Aries Holdings acquired the Cleveland Towers penthouse in July 1999, around the time that Jimenez bought the Manila Times newspaper from the family of taipan John Gokongwei. Crespo-Villanueva herself played an active role in the takeover of Manila Times.

Other interviews and records indicate that several other presidential friends have been buying real estate properties that they have not ended up using. Co and Dichaves, for example, were instrumental in providing a home for another mistress of President Estrada, Joy Melendrez, in an upscale village in Quezon City. Co, the owner of duty-free shops, has been investigated for smuggling while Dichaves is best known for being Estrada’s “wine butler” and champion campaign fund raiser.

Melendrez, with whom the President has a young son, is the daughter of a former Pasig policeman. Before the 1998 elections, she moved from Alabang to 73 Swallow Drive, Greenmeadows, Quezon City. Brokers who are familiar with the purchase of that property say P38 million was paid to acquire the land and house. Of this, P23 million was split between Co and Dichaves, said brokers familiar with the transaction.

The P15-million down payment was made by Bunny German, wife of Estrada supporter Aurelio “Reli” German, these brokers added. Before she was exposed for her involvement in a notorious “pyramid scam” in 1998, German was also acting as an informal real estate broker for Estrada, these brokers said.

The Swallow Drive property is neither in Melendrez’s nor the president’s name. Land records show that the 829-square-meter lot and the two-story house are still in the names of their previous owners, spouses Rodrigo and Teresita Enriquez. But that is where Melendrez and her son live, and it is also where the President was occasionally seen late at night by residents.

Dichaves, whose loyalty to the President is well known, has helped in the acquisition of other properties. He is said to have bought a log cabin in Tagaytay Highlands for the President, and is now being made to appear as the real owner of the shares held by Yulo in St. Peter Holdings.

Yulo, a drinking buddy of the President, is the chair and majority owner of St. Peter, which holds the title to the infamous “Boracay” property in New Manila.

But in an affidavit submitted recently to the National Bureau of Investigation, Yulo said that he is simply Dichaves’s nominee in St. Peter. This supposed admission would spare Yulo from having to explain where he got the wherewithal to purchase the Boracay property. Although he belongs to a wealthy landowning clan, Yulo has virtually been cut off from his father’s will and has no share in the family-owned Terelay Investment and Development Corp.

In the affidavit executed on Nov. 14, Yulo said his shareholdings in St. Peter are “beneficially owned by Mr. Jaime Dichavez (sic) who had provided the funds and arrangements for its organization.” He also said he facilitated the sale from the Madrigals to Dichaves, from which he was to earn substantial returns.

Yulo, who was named chairman of the Presidential Commission on Mass Housing shortly after the sale, said Dichaves gave 2,496 shares at St. Peter Holdings in late 1999.

He said he later endorsed the certificate for these shares in blank back to Dichaves “to facilitate its conveyance or transfer to whomsoever Mr. Dichavez (sic) chooses.” He said he also signed a deed of assignment and a declaration of trust of the shares.

Yulo confirmed that presidential mistress Laarni Enriquez stayed at Boracay from August to October this year, “while a residence in which she was supposed to move to was still unavailable.”

Dichaves, in fact, is a business partner of Enriquez in her three firms, Star J Management, Star J Bingo and Star J Games. But he is also a director of Belle Corp., a publicly listed property and gaming company that owns the upscale, members-only Tagaytay Highlands resort.

Belle insiders say that in 1998, Dichaves bought the biggest and highest-priced Canadian cedar log cabin at 1 Woodlands Drive in 1998 for Estrada.

“Dichaves wanted to buy the house to give it to Estrada,” said a company official. “When it was presented to the board, there was significant discussion in the pricing because it was a bigger unit and the pre-cut log cabin kits were not appropriate.”

The insider rebutted a press statement issued by Belle Corp. that the firm had not sold the unit linked to the President, but had reserved it for use of the incumbent and future president, and was planning to make available another house for the vice president. “There was no such plan,” he said.

He added that the log cabin at 1 Woodlands Drive or Unit No. 128 was sold for P75 million to Mercury Ventures, a company incorporated by A. Bayani Tan and his colleagues at the Tan and Venturanza Law Offices. The law firm’s clients include Belle Corp. and companies of several Belle stockholders including Dichaves, Gregorio Tiu, Wilson Sy and Willy Ocier, a cousin of Dichaves.

The official said Belle Corp. reported the sale of the unit in its 1998 financial report. This was also reflected in Belle Corp.’s sales report for March 20 to Dec. 17, 1998.

He said, however, the title to the cabin—as well as other cabins—remained in the name of Belle Corp. only because the firm had not completed the process of segregating the mother title and issuing individual titles to all the owners.

In Belle Corp.’s site development plan, the owner of Unit No. 128 or 1 Woodlands Drive is listed as “J. Estrada,” short for Joseph Estrada, the source said. The plan was drawn up based on the identities of the owners of the cabins, he said.

The Belle official said the President himself supervised the construction, and had the kitchen, veranda and a room on the ground floor that eventually became the card room redone. Like his other houses, the President wanted a bigger kitchen because he likes to cook, said the insider. He also said the President ordered the construction of the cabin rushed so that Belle personnel had to work round-the-clock.

Meanwhile, other Presidential friends have been plying Estrada’s women and their gaggle of relatives with lucrative positions or business ventures. Lopez’s father, Hernan Gomeri, for example, now holds a position at the Bureau of Customs’ Warehousing Assessment and Monitoring Office. A former overseas contract worker in Saudi Arabia, he was jobless for some time until late last year, when he was appointed special assistant to the Customs commissioner.

Since early this year, Gomeri and his wife, Teresa, have also been operating a huge San Miguel Beer distributorship in Las Piñas City. With a warehouse in Pulanglupa, the distributorship covers Kabihasnan in Parañaque up to Zapote in Las Piñas. The warehouse is operated by a firm called TNT Marketing, which stands for Teresa and Toto, Hernan Gomeri’s nickname.

But Melendrez is doing even better than Lopez and her parents. Although she has had little work experience before meeting Estrada, Melendrez has been quietly making inroads in the securities industry in the last several months.

She chairs Topwin Securities, a broker and dealer in securities based in Makati. Incorporated in late 1999, Topwin is mostly foreign-owned, with 99.98 percent of its shares owned by Topwin Ventures Ltd., reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a British firm. Her election as chairman was reported in a report filed with the SEC in June 2000.

Newspaper reports said Topwin is now a member of a “favored circle” of securities dealers that corner the juiciest transactions, especially with government financial institutions whose securities acquisitions are larger than average. The Social Security System, for example, has been coursing its trading through Topwin Securities, among just a few others.

Formed in September 1999, Topwin’s incorporators include Trade Undersecretary Tomas Apacible, an Estrada political ally who was appointed to the Land Bank board by the President, and UP Professor Mila A. Reforma, a colleague of presidential brother-in-law Raul de Guzman. Reforma is a United Coconut Planters Bank director and presidential assistant on local government; she is also an officer of the Erap Muslim Youth Foundation, which received P200 million in jueteng collections.

Apart from mistresses, others who have found themselves recent owners of real property include Teresita and Joel Eduardo ‘Jojo’ Ejercito, the product of the President’s liaison with Peachy Osorio, a movie director’s daughter whom Estrada met before his marriage to the First Lady.

Teresita now owns six townhouses and an adjoining residence worth P11.3 million on Gomezville St., Mandaluyong, which was transferred to her by JELP Realty, a company owned by the First Family. Records show that the property was transferred in September 1999 through a deed of sale to El Mundo Equities Corp., a shelf company formed for her by the de Borja law office.

Teresita’s brother, meanwhile, recently moved in to a spanking new and sprawling residence on 175 Wilson corner Asiñas Sts. in San Juan, in property that is under the name of Star J Management, in which the chief stockholder is presidential mistress Laarni Enriquez.

In addition, Estrada’s mother, Mary Ejercito, is the proud owner of a new home at 82 Kennedy St., North Greenhills, which was purchased and renovated not long after her son became President. Mrs Ejercito shares that home, which has a grandiose living room with a grand piano and a state-of-the-art kitchen, with her daughter Pilarica.

Another daughter, Patrocinia, who is married to Raul de Guzman, will move in soon to a big two-story house on Madison St., also in North Greenhills. Sources close to the family say that the new house is being constructed for the couple by the President, who had earlier asked them to move out of their home on Polk St. so the Estrada family home can be expanded to include their property.

ZTE deal facts

MANILA, Philippines -- Last April, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was in Hainan, China, to witness the signing of two multimillion-dollar loans to finance the $789-million Cyber Education Project (CEP) and the National Broadband Network (NBN).

In May, the Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) and the Foundation for Worldwide People Power (FWWPP) issued the following statement:

“We view the Cyber Education project -- as well as its hefty price tag -- with deep concern.

“While we welcome more investment into the ailing Philippine education system, we question the wisdom of the chosen input considering the huge amount of funds involved. It is, after all, our firm belief that a key lever for reversing the education crisis is not only the provision of more funds but also how such funds shall be converted into effective inputs.

“We maintain that the priorities for additional funding for education must be the building of a strong foundation for the education system. “Thus, these strategic inputs must include more teachers and teacher training, more classrooms, workbooks for all students, and additional years of basic education.

“Most certainly, $789 million (P35.5 billion) can make a world of difference for any one of these critical gaps. In fact, a study on financing education, completed in 2006 by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), estimates the 2007 resource gap to meet our Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets for education at P30.6 billion.

“Cyber education is primarily a supplementary tool in education. Academic experts -- both local and international -- agree that such an input helps, but it is not necessary especially in the context of a system with very basic gaps. In fact, the value of supplementary tools is easily nullified in a context of inadequate facilities and ill-trained teachers; in such a situation, the project can therefore become a mere wasteful use of our scarce resources.

“The private sector and civil society have made a commitment to work with government on a non-political platform to help reverse the education crisis through various interventions, programs and projects.

“Invaluable man-hours and a significant amount of funds, not to mention donations from individuals, have been and continue to be mobilized for education.

“Will spending P35.5 billion on a supplementary intervention that may be for naught augur well for our most valuable partnership? Through extensive consultations and dialogues among educators and other experts, the Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education, concerned business executives and NGOs, a consensus now exists on what are the fundamental and priority needs of Philippine education: more teachers and teacher training, more classrooms, workbooks for all students and two additional years of basic education. We believe addressing these basic needs should be the focus of our combined efforts.

“As its partner in making quality education for all Filipino children a reality, we call on government to instead put the financial resources where they are needed more and where they can make a bigger difference.”

In fact, we are now pursuing a continuing dialogue with the Department of Education on this.

The CEP and NBN elicited closer public scrutiny with the release of a study titled “Lacking a Backbone: The Controversy over the National Broadband Network and the Cyber Education Projects,” done by Dr. Raul V. Fabella and Dr. Emmanuel S. de Dios of the UP School of Economics.

In that paper, the two university professors pointed out that sometime in November 2006, at a Cabinet meeting, President Arroyo “reportedly raised the question whether there was even a need for a government network backbone.” With the signing of the CEP and NBN loans, however, the Philippine government incredibly ended up with two “publicly owned government broadband backbones … when ultimately the only backbone the government needs is a moral one.”

In a recent press conference, Education Secretary Jesli A. Lapus described the CEP as “probably the best thing to happen to public education since the Thomasites.”

At first glance, it certainly seems that way.

Imagine being able to broadcast key learning concepts to every school in the country in real time via satellite, in much the same way our major television stations bring their popular “telenovelas” [TV soaps] and game shows to our TV screens all over the archipelago.

Imagine also a scenario where a public school teacher out there in one of the “barangay” [neighborhood districts] in Marawi City actually interacting with master educators sitting in a TV studio at the DepEd main office in Pasig City, about teaching and learning strategies -- again in real time via satellite.

Now wouldn’t that be something?

Yes it would, and it would be even better if we actually had the high-quality academic infrastructure to leverage a hyperfast content delivery system like this. Apparently, our teachers’ proficiency levels have yet to approach world-quality standards. The majority of our pupils and students can barely master the curriculum-prescribed competencies, and that’s just scratching the surface. The woes of public education are truly mind-boggling.