Friday, February 29, 2008 House to probe 'Spratly deal' between RP, China
THE House committee on agriculture is looking into the report that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and ousted Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. might have signed a so-called "Spratly deal" with Beijing in exchange for loans involving bribery and corruption, which may include the national broadband network (NBN), the Cyber-Education, and the Northrail deals.
The panel chaired by Palawan Representative Kahlil Abraham Mitra has already started its investigation into the 31 agreements signed by the Philippine and Chinese governments last year, which supposedly would "promote bilateral trade and development in agricultural, fisheries, and food products" in the next 10 years.
The investigation's sponsors, party-list Representatives Cripsin Beltran of Anakpawis and Ana Theresia Hontiveros-Baraquel of Akbayan, said they want to find out if the agreements have something to do with the alleged graft-ridden deals with China and if this is connected with the shady Spratly deal that could lead a possible oil exploration by the Chinese on Philippine territorial waters.
The 31 memorandum of agreements (MOA) include the Framework Agreement on Expanding and Deepening Bilateral Economic and Trade Cooperation between RP and China.
Beltran said the House must know the agreement's "implications in the economic welfare of Filipinos and their possible violations against provisions in the Philippine Constitution on economic sovereignty and patrimony."
Based on a position paper by the Initiatives for Dialogue and Empowerment through Alternative Legal Services (Ideals), Beltran said the 31 RP-China agreements cover a broad range of obligations which include "questionable financial grants and concessional loans, the undue removal of technical but protective barriers to trade, Chinese investment through the lease of more than 1.5 million hectares of Philippine land, aquaculture and all-around marine fishing, and the utilization of Philippine lands to establish bio-fuel plants to be produced for Chinese consumption."
Reports said Arroyo and de Venecia may have committed treason if the Philippine government signs the Spratly deal and ignoring the fact that all minerals and marine resources are owned by the country whose domain extends 200 nautical miles from its nearest shoreline.
A source who supports the deal told Beltran that the mode should be a joint venture, not an executive agreement.
But then a lawyer claimed that a joint venture is a blatant mode of a circumventing the treaty ratification required by the Constitution.
The lawyer said a joint venture is not acceptable because it is a commercial transaction while a treaty is a sovereign act that must be ratified by the Senate.
Under a treaty required by the Constitution, the Philippines partly or wholly cedes its sovereign rights.
Nueva Ecija Representative Edno Joson said the deal, once signed, could be a culpable violation of the Constitution and could be another ground to impeach the President.
During Tuesday's hearing of the agriculture committee, Bayan Muna party-list Representative Teodoro Casiño revealed that the Commission on Audit (COA) has discovered irregularities in various official development assistance (ODA) projects "ranging from non-compliance with the procurement law and auditing rules, unliquidated cash advances, the absence of inventories and overstatement of accounts to project delays involving at least P4.66 billion."
According to COA's 2006 report on ODA, at least 38 out of 47 projects were plagued with irregularities which Casiño said means that "corruption was built into these projects just like the controversial NBN-ZTE and Cyber-Education projects."
"ODA has always been regarded by government as development project bonuses with lower interest rates and longer payment terms. But under the Arroyo regime, financial burdens in the form of cost overruns and gross mismanagement beset most ODA projects," he said.
The other COA findings include the following: unliquidated cash advances and fund transfers totaling P1.56 billion; 15 projects lacked inventory-taking, records, reports, property, plant and equipment ledger cards, and non-reconciliation of balances of property, plant and equipment and their respective physical inventory reports totaling P314.46 million; and 14 projects with double-recording of unrecorded/erroneous transactions and understatement/overstatement of various accounts resulting in an overstatement reaching P2.61 billion.
There are also 14 projects violating accounting and auditing rules and regulations, agreements and contracts involving P14.45 million and a delayed completion of projects or low rate of accomplishment, which cost the government P159.9 million.
Arroyo recently suspended 11 ODA projects funded by the Chinese government in the wake of the NBN-ZTE scandal.
Among these are the NorthRail project, Banaoang Pump Irrigation project, General Santos Fishing Port Complex Expansion/Improvement project, Manila South Railway project phase 1, and Non-Intrusive Container Inspection System project phase 2. (WV/Sunnex)
