ON Tuesday, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said it will launch a probe into infrastructure projects put up for the country's hosting of the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, primarily the construction of the main hub New Clark City complex in Tarlac and its controversial cauldron.
According to NBI director Melvin Matibag, the bureau will look into fresh information that a private contractor was awarded the New Clark City project without public bidding and received close to P10 billion that came from a Congressional insertion in the General Appropriations act (GAA).
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The funds have yet to be liquidated until now, Matibag added.
“There was no bidding, yet P10 billion was paid out immediately. We will look into it,” the NBI chief said.
Matibag added investigators will also look into the Clark complex's cauldron, which earned infamy as the SEA Games 'kaldero' that cost the government over P50 million to build, according to multiple reports.
Complex problem
From the onset, the Philippines' hosting of the 2019 SEA Games was beset by problems, initially by the government executive branch's decision to insert P7.5 billion allotted for the hosting into the budget of the Department of Foreign Affairs, then led by Secretary Allan Peter Cayetano.
When the funding arrangement was questioned on the Senate floor since sports was not part of the DFA mandate, the budget was transferred to the Philippine Sports Commission, although the funds were put under the control of PHISGOC (Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee) and not the PSC.
PHISGOC was a private organization created to organize and manage the hosting of the SEA Games. It was chaired by Cayetano, who by then was Speaker of the House under a term-sharing agreement with Lord Allan Velasco - a position he held when the P10B Congressional insertion into the GAA alleged by the NBI happened.
The construction of the New Clark City Sports Complex, which was made up of an athletics stadium, an aquatics center, a warm-up track and an Athletes' Village, proceeded relatively smoothly with less hiccups under the BCDA (Bases Conversion and Development Corporation).
However, then BCDA president and CEO and now DPWH Secretary Vince Hizon, along with three other respondents, faced criminal and administrative charges filed by an anti-corruption watchdog for an alleged anomalous P8.51-billion contract entered into with a Malaysian contruction firm for construction of the sports complex.
Kaldero controversy
But attracting a bigger furor was the Games cauldron, which came under fire in the Senate for its looks - derided as a 'kaldero' by former Senator Franklin Drilon - and its huge price tag, having been built to the tune of P55 million.
Cayetano, however, was quick to put up a defense, saying the cauldron was a 'work of art' and that its huge expense was appropriate, considering Singapore, he said, spent P63 million for its own cauldron the last time it hosted the Games.
Final word
On Wednesday, Cayetano, now a member of the minority at the Senate, questioned the timing of the NBI probe into the alleged irregularities, saying it was meant to 'intimidate' him as senator-judge in Vice-President Sara Duterte's impeachment trial.
However, Matibag said the NBI probe into the alleged funding irregularities was only 'incidental' and had nothing to do with Cayetano, saying it was triggered by "documents that have come out [only] now."
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