Ombudsman Urged to Re Open Plunder Case vs Speaker Alvarez Over NAIA Contracts

An advocate group on Monday, December 11 has urged the Office of the Ombudsman to re-open the plunder case against House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, who was earlier accused of profiting from a build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract between Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and the Philippine International Air Terminals Co Inc (Piatco).



In a 16-page letter complaint submitted by a group called Pinoy Aksiyon for Governance and Environment (PAGE), Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales is being urged to revisit the complaint filed by the Manila International Airport Authority-NAIA Association of Service Contractors (MASO) against Alvarez back in 2001, and was dismissed in 2002.

“We write in our capacity as Filipino citizens to intervene in, or to at least supplement the plunder complaint docketed as case number OMB 0-01-0693, which was remanded to your Honorable Office by the Supreme Court in MIAA-NAIA Association of Service Operators vs. Ombudsman Desierto (473 SCRA 245),” the group’s letter said.

"We are not unmindful of the fact that this Complaint was initiated by the MASO, but We, the People, are no less interested in its just resolution. We appeal to the Honorable Ombudsman to shine a light on MASO’s Complaint," PAGE added, noting that then-Ombudsman Aniano Desierto had prematurely dismissed the complaint.

According to PAGE, Alvarez was the Senior Assistant General Manager Chief Operating Officer of the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) and the chairperson of the Technical Committee of the Department of Transportation and Communications' Pre-qualification Bids and Awards Committee, when the contract was awarded to PIATCO.

In 1998, Alvarez left the MIAA post and ran for congressman of the first district of Davao Del Norte, and eventually won. But according to PAGE, he still continued have a financial interest in the contract through the company Wintrack Builders Inc. in which his wife Emelita Alvarez was one of the incorporators and owned 33 percent of the company.



On March 19, 2001, Desierto dismissed the said case due to “lack of evidence,” adding that the deal with Piatco was “proper and valid.” In 2005, the Supreme Court (SC) granted MASO's petition for certiorari and directed the Ombudsman to conduct a new investigation. But according to PAGE, no resolution has yet been made as of now.

Contributed by Salvi Dalida