NBI To Probe 2019 Clark Project; Cayetanos See Intimidation

The National Bureau of Investigation will look into anomalies surrounding the New Clark City Sports Complex in Tarlac, built in time for the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, the biennial sporting event whose organizing committee was chaired by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano.

NBI Director Melvin Matibag said the bureau “incidentally” stumbled upon the matter after the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) handed over 70 hectares of land in New Clark City for the NBI Academy.

Cayetano and his sister Sen. Pia Cayetano said Matibag’s announcement smacked of intimidation, coming on the heels of Alan Peter questioning the NBI chief’s request to reset his Senate testimony so he could attend a symposium in Bangkok, Thailand.

Matibag said the NBI is already “in possession of documents” to justify its probe into the sports complex.

“There’s a huge amount of money involved here. There was no bidding conducted and (the funds) were unliquidated, so there are a lot of things that need to be looked into here,” the NBI chief told reporters on Wednesday, July 15.

Matibag has created a task force to handle the probe, consisting of their financial investigation and special action units. The bureau will also coordinate with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commission on Audit and the BCDA.

In a separate interview last Tuesday, July 14, the NBI chief said part of the investigation includes the P10 billion given to a Malaysian company that allegedly came from an insertion and was unliquidated.

BCDA entered into a joint venture agreement with MTD Capital Berhad to develop New Clark City Phase 1A despite an adverse opinion from the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) in January 2018.

Then BCDA chief Vince Dizon, now the public works secretary, stressed that the agreement was implemented in the “most transparent” and “aboveboard” way possible.

Former OGCC head Elpidio Vega eventually cleared the agreement of legal obstacles in an October 2018 review.

MTD Capital Berhad wanted to build office spaces in New Clark City, but the government at the time insisted on including sports facilities.

Reports showed that the Malaysian firm eventually secured a P9.5-billion loan from the Development Bank of the Philippines, and that the deal was designed to skip public bidding.

Matibag said the NBI would also look into the controversial P50-billion cauldron inside the sports complex that critics saw as lavish.

Cayetano – who led the Philippine Southeast Asian Organizing Committee (PHISGOC) despite his role as foreign affairs chief and, eventually, House speaker – defended the price tag as the cost of the design created by the late National Artist for Architecture Francisco Mañosa.

The budget for the 2019 SEA Games was also a point of contention because the original P7.5 billion was initially included in the foreign affairs budget, which has no mandate to conduct sporting events.

Discovered during the Senate plenary deliberations on the 2019 budget, the funds were reduced to just P5 billion and transferred to the Philippine Sports Commission.

The Office of the President took out another P1 billion from its contingency fund to boost the SEA Games’ budget.

PHISGOC, a private foundation, received P1.5 billion of public funds as “financial assistance.”

Despite these alleged irregularities, former president Rodrigo Duterte declared in 2019 that Cayetano “is not involved in corruption.”

Matibag has not yet publicly identified personalities involved in the probe, but he vowed to “go where the evidence leads us.”

On Day 6 of Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial, Cayetano called Matibag’s remarks “quite exhaustive” and dared him to “go ahead” with the investigation.

His sister, Sen. Pia Cayetano, claimed that the NBI chief’s remarks are being used to pressure and intimidate senator-judges.

“I am bothered. There is no jurisdiction in the world that allows a judge to be pressured and intimidated. And I ask each one of you, are we OK with this? Are we like this now – With Marc Jayson Cayabyab, Ghio Ong