State firm PEA Tollways Corp. (PEATC) allegedly employed gaslighting techniques to make it appear that it was maneuvering to wrest control of the Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway Project (Cavitex).

An official of the Cavitex Infrastructure Corp. (CIC), speaking on condition of anonymity, said the PEATC had used an old Commission on Audit (CoA) report, for instance, to justify the PEATC confiscation of the Cavitex project.

PEATC special assistant to the president, Ariel Inton, cited a 2018 CoA audit report to defend the filing of a writ of mandamus with the Court of Appeals.

Subsequent CoA reports, however, recognized the efforts by PEATC and its parent, Philippine Retirement Authority, to discuss the Cavitex conflict with CIC.

The CIC official said that its mother company Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. had submitted all the information requested by PEATC regarding the CoA audit, but PEATC had deliberately ignored the numerous replies of CIC to its demand letters.

The PEATC ultimatum was issued while negotiations were ongoing between the PRA and MPTC on a resolution of the dispute over the concession contract.

The CIC official told DAILY TRIBUNE that PEATC officer in charge Dioscoro Estreban lied to the appellate court when he stated under oath that his demand letters were unheeded by CIC.

PEATC must answer

“The responsibility to answer CoA’s concerns rests with PEATC and Esteban and not with a private company like CIC which is outside of CoA’s jurisdiction,” according to CIC.

It revealed that Esteban even dismissed a key employee in PEATC’s treasury department who could have been the official who could answer the CoA’s concerns. Without the official whom Esteban dismissed, PEATC remained unable to address the CoA issues.