|
Wednesday, January 15, 2003
Estrada says he rejected US$14M 'bribe'
MANILA -- Jailed ex-president Joseph Estrada said Tuesday he was offered US$14 million in 1999 to act favorably on a power deal proposed by the Argentine firm Industrias Metalurgicas Pescarmona Sociedad Anomina (Impsa).
But Manila Rep. Mark Jimenez phrased his statement in such a way that it would be hard to consider his offer a bribe, claimed Estrada.
Estrada added he did not accept the money nor issue a sovereign guarantee for the contract.
Such guarantee obligates the government to bear the financial obligations of Impsa, which is being paid US$4 million a month to rehabilitate the Caliraya-Botocan-Kalayaan (CBK) hydroelectric plant in Laguna, in case the Argentine firm is unable to pay its lenders and bankers.
The former president said it was only after resigned Justice Secretary Hernando Perez, two days into his appointment as Department of Justice (DOJ) head under President Arroyo, issued his opinion that a government guarantee was issued to Impsa.
But Perez, interviewed separately Tuesday, said the opinion he issued shortly after President Arroyo assumed office in January 2001 could not have constituted a "sovereign guarantee."
"There was no sovereign guarantee that was made during the Estrada administration, neither is one made during the Arroyo administration. The government undertaking they (Estrada camp) referred to in my opinion is not a sovereign guarantee. A sovereign guarantee cannot be contained in a mere opinion. There has to be a separate document wherein the guarantee appears and the opinion will only state whether it is legal or not," pointed out Perez.
Conditional contracts
Estrada, in his testimony before the Senate panel investigating the Impsa deal, admitted signing as a witness to a series of documents related to the power contract.
But he described the act as merely "ceremonial" in nature and likened it to witnessing an agreement for cultural or trade and economic cooperation between two countries.
When Senator Robert Barbers, the only majority senator who attended the Senate hearing, questioned him further about his signature on several documents concerning the Impsa deal, Estrada explained it was not the final agreement but only a series of contracts that resulted in the mother contract called the Government Acknowledgment and Consent Agreement (Gaca).
Estrada also said he was just doing former President Fidel Ramos a favor. He claimed Ramos lobbied for the deal, explaining it was a commitment he made to the president of Argentina.
"Those are only conditional contracts and have got to pass so many agencies like the National Economic and Development Authority, among others. That's not a final contract so it is a standard operation procedure (SOP) for the president to give his alter ego, the Cabinet secretary, authority. I recall also that even my predecessor (Ramos) also signed several contracts as witness," he said.
But one of the contracts, the supplemental agreement signed during his incumbency in 1998, was used as basis by Impsa to start repairing Kalayaan 1. Barbers questioned this, saying if the contracts were all unperfected, work at the plant should not have commenced.
Estrada said Impsa repaired the Kalayaan 1 Plant "at its own risk."
Repayment scheme
The Kalayaan 1 repair allowed for the contract's repayment scheme to be advanced by three years, and Impsa initially collected US$2.3 million monthly for one year from March 2001 and this later increased to US$4.3 million.
IMPSA repaired the Kalayaan Plant 1 at a cost of $8 million.
While Estrada admitted there was "conditional" approval of the Impsa contract during his administration, the power deal never took off because he refused to issue a government guarantee.
He said he never signed a single contract with a government guarantee. On the other hand, he claimed, Ramos approved 28 contracts, former President Corazon Aquino approved 14 deals, and President Arroyo approved one agreement.
Estrada also insisted the legal opinion Perez issued on the deal turned the indirect guarantee issued by his administration into a direct one.
Government "has validly and effectively consented to the transfer and assignment to the lenders of all CBK's rights under the government understanding," Estrada said, quoting a paragraph in Perez's opinion.
But Perez said his opinion merely reiterated the position of the justice secretary during the Estrada administration.
A Senate committee is investigating government's US$470 million contract with Impsa following allegations by Jimenez that Perez demanded US$2 billion as bribe for the approval of the contract.
Final approval
Estrada said it was for the government guarantee that Jimenez came to him with his US$14 million offer.
He further said he did not know where Jimenez's money went but Senator Panfilo Lacson, a close ally of Estrada, claimed the congressman distributed the US$14 million and that US$2 million allegedly went to Perez, US$4 million to Malacaņang, and $US1 million went "to the boys." He said Jimenez did not provide details about the remaining US$ 7 million.
Senator John Osmeņa, chair of the lead committee, said he would call on Perez and Executive Secretary Albert Romulo to appear during the next hearing.
Also summoned to the Senate hearings are former finance secretary Jose Pardo, former economic development authority director-general Felipe Medalla, former energy secretary Mario Tiaoqui, former National Power Corporation president Federico Puno, and former justice secretary Artemio Tuquero.
Tuquero said an opinion issued by Perez on January 24 paved the way for the final approval of the contract, which Pardo said Estrada stopped for "further study."
Nevertheless, the Government Acknowledgment and Consent Agreement (GACA) was signed under Estrada's term on December 28, 2000 without the explicit approval of the National Economic Development Authority (Neda) and the DOJ.
On January 16, 2001, Neda approved the supplemental agreement and by the following day a request was made to the DOJ for an opinion.
A guarantee was given to Impsa by the Estrada administration, although it was what the former president termed as a "comfort letter" or "government performance undertaking" providing only an "indirect guarantee" to the power firm.
This is what Estrada said Perez converted to a "direct guarantee" when he issued his DOJ opinion on January 24, 2001. Sunnex |
|
|
|
 |
| click
to comment on this article or discuss it with other readers |
[return to top]
[home]
|
|
