House probes payola by Jap bizman to PAGCOR

By JUNE S. BLANCO 

QUEZON CITY. – The Lower House will investigate shortly the alleged US$30 million payola that a Japanese businessman had given to a PAGCOR consultant.

Introduced by Rep. Erico Aumentado (2nd District, Bohol), House Resolution 2931 states that the investigation, in aid of legislation, will probe the payola that Japanese billionaire Kazuo Okada’s Universal Entertainment to one Rodolfo Soriano in 2010 – for lobbying to secure tax and other government concessions for the Japanese firm.

The resolution said the sum is six times the amount initially confirmed by Reuters that Okada’s Hongkong-based firm Universal Entertainment had sent to Soriano in a series of payments made in the first half of 2010. Soriano is alleged to have close ties with then PAGCOR Chair Efraim Genuino.

It further states that Genuino was acknowledged to be the brain behind the establishment of a gambling strip in Metro Manila “in the mold of Las Vegas and Macau where Universal Entertainment has allegedly applied to set up a US%2 billion casino facility.”

The reported Universal payments to Soriano were described at a company meeting to be “a complete bonus” for his help in clearing remaining hurdles for the casino, including an exemption from corporate tax and foreign ownership restrictions – people involved in the project were quoted in the Philippine Daily Inquirer to have said.

Aumentado said there is a need for the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to look into the alleged payola, especially the paper trail, help determine the parties involved and benefited in the apparent bribery and violation of the anti-graft and corrupt practices act.

He also said there is a need for the House of Representatives to determine the appropriate legislation to plug the loopholes, if any, in the laws involved and transactions related to gambling casinos at the Metro Manila strip for the purpose.

The resolution also provides that the house Committee on Good Government and Accountability to probe the alleged payola and recommend the necessary remedial legislations which may be necessary as a consequence of the inquiry.

It further tasks the National Bureau of investigation (NBI) to investigate the criminal aspect of the alleged payola.

House urges probe on sale of NKTI lots

National Kidney and Transplant Institute

Quezon City, Metro Manila

 

By JUNE S. BLANCO 

QUEZON CITY. – The Lower House is pushing the investigation in aid of legislation the alleged sale of lots reserved for the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) by the National Housing Authority (NHA) to the SM Development Corporation.

Introduced by Rep. Erico B. Aumentado (2nd District, Bohol), House Resolution 2930 states that the NKTI has been granted usufructory rights over the lots it now occupies including parking areas and other appurtenances.

Aumentado explained that these rights are vested in Presidential Proclamation 2381 considering that NKTI is a government owned and controlled corporation (GOCC) attached to the Department of Health (DOH). It is the leading kidney and transplant institute in the country. Its operation stands to be jeopardized if its property holding will be diminished by sale.

The Bohol solon said NKTI Medical Director Jose Dante Dator had learned of the impending sale of two areas – once covering 8,402 square meters, and the other, 7,932 sq. m. – only through newspaper ads published by NHA last September. One lot is the institute’s parking area while the other is the subject of a dispute involving alleged illegal settlers.

The resolution stated that there seems to be bad faith on the part of NHA because Dator had said until the publication of the notices of disposition, the NKTI and the NHA had been negotiating for the transfer of the land from the housing agency to the hospital and had agreed on the mode of payment – medical services for NHA workers.

The resolution recognizes the need for the establishment of a business hub as envisioned by the Quezon City government and NHA but such development must be balanced with the requirements of NKTI.

On top of the House probe, the resolution also provided that the House Committee on Government Enterprises and Privatization will also probe the alleged sale and to recommend the appropriate legislations on the issue under consideration.

Rep. Rico: Build more Bohol power projects

Rep. Erico B. Aumentado

By JUNE S. BLANCO

  

REP. Erico Aumentado (2nd District, Bohol) will push for more hydroelectric and biomass power projects for the province to ensure against shortage the Department of Energy (DOE) projects to hit Central Visayas in 2016.

This after Engr. Rey Maleza, DOE Energy Management Division supervisor said Central Visayas will need 50 megawatts more in three years to support business, industry and service connection needs.

Aumentado said Bohol is abundant in rivers, dams and biomass materials waiting to be tapped for renewable energy – among them the proposed Cantakoy Hydroelectric Plant in Danao town. However, the solon rued, this project is being challenged by the Provincial Board, particularly by Board Members Josephine Socorro Jumamoy and Romulo Cepedoza and Trinidad Mayor Roberto Cajes. The lawmakers had separately expressed their opposition in separate privilege speeches.

Aumentado said he could not get heads or tails on their opposition because pre-feasibility studies show that the project is for the common good of the Boholanos who are the citizens that public servants are supposed to have sworn to serve.

He said the P1.3-billion Cantakoy Hydroelectric Plant funded by the Ayalas and the Sta. Clara Power Corp. that formed the Quadriver Power Corporation as a joint venture can generate 10 megawatts of additional power for Bohol.

He said Jumamoy’s opposition is apparently due to apprehension that while the siltation and power dams are to be designed to prevent the submerging of Inabanga town, it might adversely affect the sand and gravel quarry she is operating under the name allegedly of other persons as permittees in a move to circumvent tax laws and other duties.

On the other hand, Aumentado said, politics is the unseen hand holding Cepedoza because he had endorsed the Cantakoy project until he and his brother Jose, the incumbent vice mayor, clashed with Mayor Louis Thomas Gonzaga and the latter’s family over dissenting political stands in spite of their being close relatives..

The solon added that Cajes’ opposition to the project is similarly politically motivated – to get the sympathy and votes of Jumamoy and her son Jono the incumbent mayor of Inabanga, and their followers.

Aumentado said records at the Bohol Investment Promotion Center (BIPC) would show that the province now has only 103.3 MW of power of which 75 MW are the average load already during peak hours. The increase is brought on by more businesses and private residences applying for power connections, explained General Manager Carlos Itable, manager of the Bohol II Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Boheco 2) that serves the power distribution needs in northern and eastern Bohol.

Aumentado said the current excess will fall short when the New Bohol Airport in Panglao Island will be operational, hence the need to lay the groundwork now for more generation to avert outages like what the Ayala and Sta. Clara joint venture has been doing. Engr. Asisclo Gonzaga heads Sta. Clara. Companies like Quadriver are in the best position to devewlop hydroelectric power as well as even giant irrigation dams, he explained.

This is also his reason in pushing for the Bohol Northeast Basin Multi-purpose Dam (BNBMPD) project that can irrigate some 19,000 hectares in Danao, Dagohoy, San Miguel, Trinidad, Bien Unido and Ubay towns. On top of the 10 MW of power the dam can generate, it will also serve as flood control for low-lying areas in Danao, Inabanga, Dagohoy and San Miguel, with eco-agri tourism to boast of to boot, Aumentado explained.

He added that concreting of the access road to the proposed plant site from the Carmen-Dagohoy boundary to Brgy. Concepcion in Danao is almost finished. The P114-million concrete road with another P130 million for a bridge along this road on top of comfort rooms for travelers are support infrastructure for the BNBMPD, he added.
 

At the same time, Aumentado is also pushing for the Bayongan Dam Hydro Power project that the Sunwest Power and Water Corporation will construct next year. It is expected to generate at least another three MW that experts say will not divert, lessen  or waste of the dam’s irrigation water for San Miguel, Trinidad ug Ubay, as well as the potable water for the San Miguel Waterworks System using modern Korean technology in filtration and chlorination system.

“Compromise” bill to benefit coco farmers, coco industry

sample photo only

 

By JUNE S. BLANCO

  

REP. Erico Aumentado (2nd District, Bohol) has filed a “compromise” bill seeking to allocate the coconut levy fund for coconut farmers and to develop the coconut industry.

House Bill 6714 proposes to allocate the over P84 billion coconut levy fund adjudged by the Supreme Court to be owned by the government to be used only for both purposes – “marrying” the positions of Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala and Senator Joker Arroyo.

Alcala wants to use the fund exclusively for the rehabilitation and development of the coconut industry. On the other hand, Arroyo wants the fund to be given directly to the coconut farmers as desired by them.

In a recent decision, the Supreme Court declared that the CIIF companies are owned by the government. The CIIF Oil Mills Group constitutes the biggest and the most integrated conglomerate in the Philippine coconut industry.

In his explanatory note on the bill, Aumentado named these companies to be the Southern Luzon Coconut Oil Mills (Solcom), Cagayan de Oro Oil Co., Inc. (Cagoil), Iligan Coconut Industries, Inc. (Ilicoco), San Pablo Manufacturing Corp. (SPMC), Granexport Manufacturing Corp. (Granex), and Legaspi Oil Co., Inc. (Legoil), and 14 holding companies – Soriano Shares, Inc., ACS Investors, Inc., Roxas Shares, Inc., Arc Investors, Inc., Toda Holdings, Inc., AP Holdings, Inc., SMC Officers Corps, Inc., Te Deum Resources, Inc., Randy Allied Ventures, Inc., Rock Steel Resources, Inc., Valhalla Properties Ltd., Inc. and First Meridian Development, Inc..

Together with the CIIF Block of San Miguel Corporation (SMC), these companies own stocks totaling 33,133,266 shares as of 1983, as well as all dividends declared, paid and issued, plus increments, but not limited to the exercise of pre-emptive rights (Petitioners COCOFED, et al. G.R. Nos. 177857-58 and Danila S. Ursua, G.R. No. 178193).

To resolve the Alcala-Arroyo impasse, Aumentado said his measure aims to install a compromise mechanism: 40% for all coconut farmers cash share; 40% for the development of the coconut industry; and 20% as revolving fund for the scholarship program of the coconut farmers’ children to pursue their education, dreams and aspirations.

The revolving education fund can be accessed exclusively by the farmers’ children as a concessional loan to be paid on installment basis from their employment the soonest possible time.

Those who will take up agriculture courses shall be prioritized in the availment of the student loan fund. This aims to encourage more students to take up agriculture and provide the necessary technicians and experts to develop the agriculture industry in the country, the solon explained.

Further, he said, the legislation could avert a possible agrarian problem if the coconut farmers are totally divested of their just share of the coconut levy fund which they had contributed in the first place, if all of the said fund shall be channeled to the development of the coconut industry which was the very foundation and reason of the coconut levy created under Presidential Decree (PD) 755.

The proposed “Coconut Levy Fund Allocation Act of 2013”.provides that the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), in consultation with the coconut farmers’ cooperative officials and the Department of Agriculture shall promulgate the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) the new measure within a period of 90 days from its enactment into law.

It wll take effect 15 days after its publication in at least two national newspapers of general circulation, or the national gazette.