Puwersa ng Bayaning Atleta (PBA) Party-list Representative Jericho Nograles has called on Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade to censure the management of Megawide Construction Corporation for dragging President Rodrigo Duterte in a desperate bid to reverse the decision of government to reject the Original Proponent Status for the expansion of the into the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
Nograles, a member of the House Committee on Economic Affairs said that Megawide is making it appear that Duterte is backing Megawide despite the position of the Department of Finance (DoF) and the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) and the Board of Directors of the Manila International Airport Authority that it is not compliant with the requirements to continue enjoying the benefit of Original Proponent Status for the NAIA expansion project.
Nograles also criticized Megawide for making a false claim that it was in consortium with Indian firm GMR when it submitted its unsolicited proposal to expand NAIA.
“It is a fact that GMR and Megawide only inked a deal on 11 November 2020 to form a consortium for the NAIA project. The Law is clear that you first form a consortium before you submit an unsolicited proposal. Based on official documents, Megawide submitted an unsolicited proposal on March 2018 without an equity sharing agreement with GMR,” Nograles said.
In an unauthored story entitled “Duterte praises Megawide for work on Mactan-Cebu airport; firm eyes NAIA next” published at the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the article made it appear that the President Duterte is endorsing Megawide for the NAIA expansion project despite its failure to comply with the requirement set by law and the decision of the NEDA-ICC and MIAA to turn down their unsolicited proposal.
It turned out that the quotes attributed to President Duterte in the article were all lifted from a speech that was delivered in Cebu two years ago on 07 June 2018 during the inauguration of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Terminal 2, Nograles said.
Nograles said the story was published in an obvious bid to downplay the joint letter issued by NEDA-ICC to Transportation Secretary Tugade formally rejecting the unsolicited proposal of Megawide. The three-page memo that was signed by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez and Neda Acting Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua advised Tugade to return the NAIA expansion proposal to Megawide.
“Hindi pwedeng mag shortcut sa project. Dapat dumaan sa tamang proseso. Kaya nga kanselado na yung OPS status ng Megawide dahil akala nila madadaan sa para-paraan. Sorry, not under this administration. So I reiterate, do not use the President’s name to win a project especially if you are unqualified. Bawal yan at low blow yan,” Nograles said.
Nograles also noted that the story was run following newspaper reports that the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) Board of Directors has already revoked the Original Proponent Status of Megawide for the NAIA expansion deal.
This also came after the National Bureau of Investigation filed anti-dummy and graft charges against top officials of Megawide and the decision of MIAA Director Leoncio Dakila Nakpil to withdraw and retract his assent to the MIAA Board Resolution granting Original Proponent Status for Megawide.
“As a supporter of the President, I would like to point out that the direct quotations of the President are misleading since these pronouncements were done two years ago. In fact, in that very same speech, the President said, ‘walang transaction sa gobyerno, airports, MRT, highways, hindi dadating ‘yan sa table ko. I do not. For the life of me.’ Using the President’s name for a government project is downright despicable and reeks of desperation, perhaps because recent articles published showed that the MIAA Board has cancelled the Original Proponent Status of Megawide,” Nograles said.
“In his many years of public service, the President was never known to favor contractors and demands that public bidding through the correct processes be followed. The article puts a shade that the President favors a certain contractor, huwag naman ganyan. Please be fair to the President,” he added.