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Sunday, September 10, 2006
Court of Appeals lifts freeze order on terminal 3
MANILA - The Court of Appeals has paved the way for the government's claim over the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminal 3 by revoking its restraining order, Malacañang claimed Saturday.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said he received word from Solicitor General Eduardo Nachura late Friday that the Court of Appeals lifted the temporary restraining order (TRO) it issued a week ago.
"We received word from Nachura that the Court of Appeals lifted the TRO it issued a week ago. So by Monday we can pay the proffered amount that is held in escrow at the Land Bank, amounting to P3 billion," Ermita said in a radio station dzRH interview.
With this development, he said the government is in a position to complete a test-run of the terminal before the yearend and start full operations in early 2007.
"The terminal is actually ready for operation but the electronic devices there need to be tested because they have been inactive for so long," he said.
Ermita said the lifting of the TRO should eventually prompt the Pasay City Regional Trial Court to issue a writ of possession in favor of the government.
He added that the development will allow the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) to continue its rehabilitation and equipment-testing on Naia 3.
Legal cases had hampered the government from operating Naia 3 following legal wrangling with the Philippine International Air Terminals Company (Piatco).
Malacañang said it is now ready to pay Piatco the proffered amount of P3 billion to take possession of Terminal 3.
Meanwhile, the Sandiganbayan has dismissed the graft cases filed by the government against Piatco president Cheng Yong, former transportation officer-in-charge Wilfredo Trinidad, Piatco consultant Alfredo Liongson, and German nationals Hans-Arthur Vogel and Bernd Struck, representatives of German construction giant Frapor A.G.
The court said the case filed by the state against the five accused lacked probable cause and does not warrant a trial.
With this reason, the court dismissed the case.
The resolution was penned by Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta and concurred by two other justices, Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Teresita Leonardo de Castro, and Alexander Gesmundo.
The dismissed case was just one of the five graft cases involving Piatco deal filed by the government and now pending before the various divisions of the Sandiganbayan.
It was in 2004 when government lawyers filed the case against the five accused on allegation of conspiracy that later gave undue advantage to government by allowing the contractor to modify the concession agreement which did away with a $2.5 million access tunnel, which was supposed to connect Naia Terminals 2 and 3.
What was done, according to the prosecutors, was a surface access road was built instead of a tunnel.
But the court said, "The existing evidence is insufficient to establish probable cause."
"In arriving at the conclusion that the probable cause exists to prosecute the accused-movant, the Ombudsman relied on supporting documents, all of which do not show any reasonable ground to believe that the act complained of constitutes the offense charged," the ruling said.
What is more, the court said, the prosecution has failed the court by not providing facts that will support its allegation that the modification of the agreement caused undue injury to the government -- an essential element of the graft charge.
"Even the resolution of the Ombudsman finding probable cause used words that are plainly speculative and without any fact to stand on. The allegation plainly indicates a hypothetical, speculative and conjectural approximation of the undue injury required by law," the Sandiganbayan said.
The court also explained that based on the original bid documents, the construction of the access tunnel was still to be negotiated hence Piatco was under no obligation to build it.
It held that rather than giving supposed "immense savings" to Piatco, the construction of the surface access road in fact "became even an added obligation."
The government is expected to file a motion for reconsideration. (Sunnex)
(September 10, 2006 issue)
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