WB execs hinted at stopping loans to RP, says Lacson

MANILA, Philippines — Executives of the World Bank hinted Tuesday they may stop lending to the Philippines if Philippine authorities do not act on its report on alleged bribery and collusion in its projects. Opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who attended a briefing on WB procedures at the Senate, said stopping the lending was one of the “options" available to the institution. “That was very vivid in my mind when it was mentioned. It was mentioned nonchalantly, hindi talaga diniin, pero sa tingin ko it was good enough para iparating sa atin ang mensahe do something about this WB report na pinadala sa atin. Kung hindi, they may exercise their option not to lend the Philippines anymore," he told reporters. [That was very vivid in my mind when it was mentioned, even if nonchalantly. The message was that we have to do something about the report they gave us. If not, they can exercise that option not to lend to us anymore.] Lacson was among several senators who attended the closed-door technical briefing of World Bank officials led by country director Bert Hofman, and regional counsel Anthony Toft. Also present were Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Senatore Manuel Roxas, Joker Arroyo and Loren Legarda. From the executive branch, present were Finance Secretary Margarito Teves and Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya. Lacson said the WB executives indicated they expect a country’s authorities to act on the information they provide, particularly the body that has jurisdiction over the matter. “One important information na nabanggit kanina, ang sabi ng WB representative, kung sakaling makita nila ang gobyerno, kung sino ang may jurisdiction over the firms that they debarred, ay walang ginawang aksyon doon sa kanilang binigyan na information na pwedeng pagbasehan ng ebidensya, ang isang option nila is not to lend anymore," he said. [One important information mentioned earlier was that if they see the government is not acting on the information they provide, one of the options available to them is to stop lending.] Last month, the World Bank announced that it has blacklisted three Filipino construction firms, three Chinese firms and an individual, after finding that they had rigged bids for local road projects funded by the multilateral agency. Budget Secretary Andaya subsequently announced that the government had also decided to bar the firms, although temporarily, from entering into public works contracts. Among those debarred were E.C. de Luna Construction Corp. and its owner Eduardo C. de Luna, Cavite Ideal International Construction and Development Corp., and CM Pancho Construction Inc. The debarred Chinese construction firms were China State Construction Corp., China Wu Yi Co. Ltd. and China Geo-Engineering Corp. De Luna, according to the report, was reputed to be close to First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, who had been linked by the opposition to various scandals involving government projects. Arroyo and De Luna have both vehemently denied the charges. During Tuesday briefing, WB executives “did not deny" the claims made by a Japanese contractor about the “rough treatment" on alleged bribes that marred WB-backed projects, Lacson said. He said he mentioned he had snippets of the report, such as statements by Japanese contractor Suzuka on alleged bribery. “They did not deny, they just smiled," he said. New hearing Lacson said the briefing also provided “useful information" showing that some members of the executive branch still had a lot of explaining to do. He said there were still many questions that the Department of Finance and the Office of the Ombudsman needed to answer. He said he wanted particularly to know why the Ombudsman claimed to have received additional documents on the report only two weeks ago when the World Bank said they sent it as early as November 2007. “Gusto kong malaman kung saan itinago ang (I want to know where they hid the additional documents that could serve as basis for the Ombudsman to initiate criminal proceedings against those who were mentioned in the report," Lacson told reporters. Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez has denied sleeping on the World Bank report. - With Amita Legaspi, GMANews.TV