Sotto nixes SEA Games probe: ‘Huwag ganun. Me Ombudsman naman’

Senate President Tito Sotto on Friday said he’s not inclined to support a call for a Senate inquiry into the alleged anomalous P9.5 billion loan facilitated by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) for the construction of sports facilities used during the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.

‘We garnered an unprecedented medal haul in the recent SEA Games and instead of Congratulations, we will reward the people behind with investigations?” he said in a Viber group with reporters.

“Huwag ganun. Me Ombudsman naman, if warranted,” Sotto said.

He added: “Ombudsman mag investigate. Pwede din sa kanila file complaint.”

Last Tuesday, Senator Risa Hontiveros called for a Senate probe as there were signs that the project was a “fake joint venture” funded with a “behest loan” disadvantageous to the public.

Hontiveros urged the Senate to probe the issues surrounding the multi-billion credit arrangement involving the BCDA and Malaysian developer MTD Capital Berhad, which entered into a suspect Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) for the construction of sports facilities in New Clark City.

“Given the billions that went to building the facilities used in the 2019 SEA Games, we must see to it that the transactions related to this project did not violate existing laws and policies, and were not prejudicial to the public. Mukha kasing naluto ang agreement na pinasok ng BCDA at, dahil doon, nalugi ang gobyerno at ang publiko,” she said.

Under the JVA signed in February 2018 by BCDA President and CEO Vince Dizon, who is currently facing graft and corruption charges before the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with the conduct of the 2019 SEA Games, MTD was to “advance” the entire project cost of P8.5 billion, while BCDA was to provide the land on which the facilities would be built.

But Hontiveros noted that MTD actually advanced nothing as the capital it was supposed to provide was funded by a P9.5 billion loan from government-owned Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) which was approved in March 2018, one month after the JVA was signed in February.

Aside from being contractually obligated to facilitate the loan, the BCDA was also obliged to reimburse MTD for the capital it had supposedly “advanced”, which the BCDA did in December 2019, when it paid the full amount of the loan using a P9.544 billion appropriation in the 2019 national budget.

Thus, the project was funded not by capital from MTD Berhad, as the “Joint Venture” would make it appear, but rather by taxes paid by the Filipino people, she said.

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)