The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) will sign memoranda of agreement (MOAs) with three government agencies to speed up the recovery of funds allegedly stolen from the flood control projects.
Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon said the MOAs will be signed next week with the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC), and the Insurance Commission.
‘After we sign this, the process of recovering our countrymen’s money will be even faster,’ Dizon said in Filipino in a press conference on Friday.
According to the DPWH chief, the first MOA that will be signed next week is with AMLC.
Dizon mentioned that AMLC has been with them in the investigation, citing the first five freeze orders that the council recently released in connection to alleged flood control anomalies.
‘Next week we will have a formal agreement with them so that we can make our steps more structured and clearer. But you have noticed, even though there is no agreement yet, we will immediately take action together with AMLC,’ Dizon said.
‘So you can expect that because of the agreement we will sign with AMLC next week, the freeze will also be expedited,’ he said.
Dizon likewise said that after the freezing of accounts, the DPWH and AMLC will then discuss the next step, which is to restitute the properties and money that have been allegedly stolen from the public funds.
Meanwhile, the DPWH chief said the second MOA that they will sign next week is with PCC.
Dizon mentioned that he already talked to PCC chair Mike Aguinaldo at the Independent Commission on Infrastructure (ICI) on Thursday.
He added that Aguinaldo assured him that the commission will speed up the investigation on the bid rigging complaints against construction companies allegedly involved in flood control irregularities.
‘As they say, the burden of proof, the amount of evidence needed to prove bid rigging is not as high as a criminal case filed with the Ombudsman or the court. The threshold of evidence, the strength of evidence in bid rigging is lower. That’s why he said, ‘Secretary, don’t worry, we’ll speed it up,” Dizon said.
‘So that’s what will be solidified in our MOA with the PCC,’ he added.
It was in January 2016 when PCC was created to ‘implement the national policy of prohibiting anticompetitive agreements, abuse of dominant position, and anticompetitive mergers and acquisitions.’
As for IC, Dizon said the MOA signing next week aims to have a clear way on how they will restitute all the insurance that was included on the contracts involved in anomalies.
‘[This is] so that we can have a clear way on how we can recover all the insurances included in the contracts signed and the insurances, bonds included in the various contracts that will be anomalous, with evidence of anomalies so that we can recover that as well,’ the DPWH chief said.
Dizon reiterated that he will do everything to return the money of the public from the flood control anomalies.
He likewise said that the agency will give weekly updates for people ‘to know what we are doing and the results of these.’
On Thursday, Dizon said 421 of 8,000 inspected flood control projects nationwide were found to be ‘ghost projects.’
He added that the inspections were conducted by the DPWH in coordination with the Department of Economy, Planning and Development, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and the Philippine National Police. /mcm /mr