|
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Solons to Senate chief: Apologize to Beijing over charges v. Northrail project
TWO administration congressmen have asked Senate President Franklin Drilon to say sorry to China for "allegedly issuing damaging remarks about the North Luzon Railway (NorthRail) project."
Representatives Edwin Uy of Isabela and Monico Puentevella of Bacolod City, chairman of the House special committee on bases conversion and committee on transportation, respectively, said Drilon was "misled by the University of the Philippines Law Center (UPLC) on the Northrail issue" when he uttered words that "were hurtful and insulting" to the top leaders of China who had studied the railway project and picked China National Machinery and Equipment Corporation (CNMEC) to do it.
The two urged the Senate President to "apologize to China to repair our ties with an ally and restart our much needed fast train to North Luzon."
Drilon initiated a Senate investigation into alleged anomalies in the Northrail contract for CNMEG to build the 32-kilometer double-track railway systemthat will stretch from Caloocan City to Malabon. He said the Chinese state has no capability to build a railway in China or elsewhere because it is supposedly a mere import-export company.
It was on the basis of the UPLC opinion that Drilon pushed for the investigation that had prompted Chinese Ambassador Wu Hongbo to decry "destructive politics" derailing the project.
Uy and Puentevella said the UP law professors mistook CNMEG for one of its subsidiaries, the China National Machinery and Equipment Import-Export Corporation or CNMEC. They said only an apology from the senator will repair the damage to the Philippines-China ties and restart the long-delayed works.
"As for UPCL, let it say sorry to Drilon for its sloppy research. They admitted on television that they did not bother to check with the Chinese embassy or with Northrail officials but relied solely on what they got from the Internet. But they happened to have keyed in the wrong acronym, CNMEC the import-export subsidiary, instead of CNMEG the mother company that until 1997 used to be China's Ministry of Machineries and Equipment," the congressmen said.
They also criticized UPLC when it stated that no bidding was conducted for the Northrail project, and that CNMEG has no license to operate in the Philippines, both of which ware violations of the Government Procurement Reform Act of 2003.
The two explained that the law covers only local suppliers because the government cannot impose its rules on foreign lenders. They added that the foreign builders are not required to have Philippine licenses.
The UP law professors, in their opinion submitted to Drilon last August 25, said research on the Internet revealed that the company - CNMEC - is a trading company focusing on construction machinery, electricity, pumps and vacuum equipment and mining machinery. They said railway construction and equipment were not mentioned as one the firm's core competences.
But Uy and Puentevella said UPLC "searched the Internet for the wrong company, CNMEC, a mere ancillary of CNMEG Group with which the Northrail management signed the construction contract.
They said CNMEG built many railways projects overseas like the 200-kilometer railway in Jamaica, rehabilitation of a 78-kilometer railway in Angola, subway electricity and ventilation in Iran, 90 locomotives and 74 trains to Turkmenistan and the Karachi light railway. In China, they added, CNMEG laid the Qing Shen tracks of 400 kilometers and 300 kilometer per hour trains, Shuo Huang rail), Jing Bing light, Chongqing light rail, Guangzhou subway Line 2 and Line 4 and Nanjing subway. (JFF/Sunnex)
(October 13, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
|
