BY PRINCE GOLEZ
Manila Reporter
MANILA – If Makati City’s Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Jun-Jun” Binay Jr. were to be believed, Iloilo City’s two-storey P700-million Iloilo Convention Center is more expensive than their 11-storey P1.56-billion car park building.
The center is a pet project of Ilonggo senator Franklin Drilon, a Liberal Party stalwart.
Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III said he will “volunteer” to lead the investigation on the alleged overpricing of the convention center if any senator files a resolution calling for such.
Pimentel will lead today’s Senate probe on the reported overpriced Makati City car park.
Mayor Binay’s sister, Sen. Nancy Binay, urged Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV who filed a resolution to investigate the Makati City parking building to also call for an investigation on the Iloilo Convention Center.
But Trillanes, an administration ally, told the neophyte senator to “file that resolution herself.”
“Siya ay senador din. Baka bakante ang oras niya. Hindi natin napag-aralan ‘yun (Iloilo Convention Center). So, kung napag-aralan niya at meron siyang mga dokumento, she can file it,” said Trillanes.
In a television interview, Mayor Binay defended the building, saying that on the basis of National Statistics Office data, it was even cheaper than the Iloilo Convention Center.
The convention center is currently under construction in Iloilo City’s Mandurriao district. Target date of completion is before this year ends.
“I am looking into the activities and decision-making processes of local government units (LGUs) because I have my bill, Bigger Pie, Bigger Slice, which seeks to give more resources to them,” said Pimentel.
He wanted to know how funds in the local government level were being used.
Senator Drilon, who allocated P100-million Disbursement Acceleration Program fund to the convention center, defended the project.
“What we are building in Iloilo is a state-of-the-art international convention center in preparation for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation ministerial meetings in 2015,” said Drilon.
The Makati structure, on the other hand, is just a “plain parking building”, said the veteran legislator. “It’s like comparing apples to oranges,” said Drilon.
According to him, the bidding process for the convention hub was conducted by the Department of Public Works and Highways.
Lawyer Renato Bondal and Ching Enciso earlier charged Mayor Binay and his father, Vice President Jejomar Binay with plunder before the Ombudsman, saying the car park building was overpriced by P1.3 billion.
Construction started when the Vice President was still the mayor of Makati City.
“People are calling this a parking building. It’s not merely a parking building. Only five out of 11 floors were allocated for parking. The rest are office spaces. We have an office for business permits, licenses and senior citizens,” said Mayor Binay.
He said the Iloilo Convention Center should also be investigated as funds for its construction were sourced from the national government.
“Kung tama ang figure na-compute namin, P109,000 per square meter for a two-storey structure with an area of only about 6,400. Compare that to our (Makati City Hall) Building II which is about 33,000 square meters ang area,” said Binay./PN
