Belmonte sees no need for House probe on ICC

The House leadership is not convinced that there is a need for the Lower Chamber to step in and conduct a parallel probe on the allegedly overpriced Iloilo Convention Center (ICC).

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. shrugged off allegations made by Kabataan Partylist Rep. Terry Ridon that the House leadership is "dragging its feet" and blocking the probe on possible cases of corruption and overpricing involving government infrastructure projects contracted with Hilmarc’s Construction Corporation.

"The Senate has already gathered a lot of information on Hilmarc and will proceed to look into his other government contracts. There is no need to duplicate what they are already doing," he pointed out in an interview.

Last September, Ridon filed House Resolution No. 1466 to investigate not only the ICC, but review all other government projects contracted by the HCC in the past decade. He claimed that in the past decade, HCC was able to clinch no less than 20 government infrastructure projects.

“The House leadership may be afraid to open the can of worms, considering that an investigation of Hilmarc’s government dealings may include projects contracted by close allies, and even those in the leadership itself,” Ridon said.

Baseless innuendos Meanwhile, Liberal Party Secretary General and Samar Congressman Mel Senen Sarmiento expressed belief that the Senate Blue Ribbon committee may put to rest its ICC probe, saying that the supposed explosive revelations Former Iloilo provincial administrator Manuel Mejorada Jr. turned out to be nothing but baseless innuendos after he could only present the “Wikipedia” as the basis of his claim.

“The only basis of Mejorada in claiming that there was overpricing in the construction of the ICC is the wikipedia and flawed mathematical formula. It would be a real waste of time and money for the Senate to continue investigating this kind of an allegation,” he said.

He even branded as "mere assumptions and faulty calculations" the conclusions made by Mejorada that Senate President Franklin Drilon, Public Works and Highways Secretary Rogelio Singson and Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez purportedly conspired to jack up the actual cost of the R700million ICC.

“Even at the beginning of the Senate probe, the allegations made against Vice president Binay and his family are based on testimonies, documents that even include pictures and the expert opinion of third-party experts. The ICC case on the other hand was only based on the say-so of a disgruntled former provincial government employee who can only present the wikipedia as an evidence,” Sarmiento said

“Clearly, the Senate must continue the probe on the allegations of corruption in Makati but there’s no reason to do the same in the case of the ICC,” he pointed out.

During the Senate Blue Ribbon panel hearing last Thursday, Mejorada, an ex- Iloilo provincial administrator and former ally of Drilon failed to show documentary proof pinning Drilon as the "unseen hand" in the alleged overpricing of the ICC.