Trade groups are assembling to again take up the cudgels for the people in the widening protest against corruption, as a march is being organized to pressure the government to act against the social scourge that has afflicted the nation for ages.
Protest organizers are currently not happy with the fragmented mass actions, where pro-Duterte groups have the loudest voices.
Executives want to recreate the confetti revolution that fueled the People Power Movement in 1986. This time around, the movement aims to unify protest groups under the business sector, which is the most affected by political instability.
“The business group is very potent. I’m talking about the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Management Association of the Philippines, Makati Business Club, Financial Executives of the Philippines, and the Bankers Association of the Philippines,” one of those privy to the planned mass action told Nosy Tarsee.
Remember, the beginning of the end for the Marcos Sr. regime was when the confetti and the Makati, Ayala protests started, the source said.
“It doesn’t have to be a big rally. But we will support it. It’s the business community that’s rallying,” the source added.
“We’ll try to organize something. We’ll try to discuss it first, and then we’ll develop it so that it can be announced,” he said.
“There should be no distraction from the DDS (Duterte diehard supporters) or the left.” The source said that such interference will not be allowed.
A bidding was held to privatize the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), but the results were pre-arranged in favor of the giant San Miguel Corp (SMC).
The participants knew the rates, but many airport stakeholders didn’t participate, so they had no idea. “So basically, there was nothing,” a NAIA source divulged to Nosy Tarsee.
There was no public consultation before they came up with Administrative Order 1, which prescribed higher rates. So, only those who participated in the bidding for privatization knew about it. But even then, the new rates were released just one day before the submission of bids.
The bid submission was on 27 December, and the final version of the AO1 was released on 26 December. Who was at the DoTr then? Jimmy Bautista, who is close to New NAIA Infra Corp. (NNIC) president and chief operating officer Ramon S. Ang — “but he should’ve been neutral.”
“We really thought we were the ones who’d win the bid. We kind of expected it,” according to the source.
Three companies made up 90 percent of the consortium’s equity: San Miguel Corp. with 33 percent, and two other unknown companies that split the rest. “These two other members of the consortium were incorporated on the same day and even had the same address,” Nosy Tarsee was told.
Based on the requirements of the bid, the source said they already had news from the Bids and Awards Committee, “of course, confidential,” that San Miguel Corp. and another consortium would be disqualified for too many technical deficiencies.
Still, the winning bidder for the rehabilitation project was the SMC-SAP & Company Consortium, which won by offering the government a revenue share of 82.16 percent. The project is a 15-year concession aimed at modernizing the airport, at a total estimated cost of P170.6 billion.
Nosy Tarsee, however, was reminded that the SMC group is notorious for revising the terms of the contract after winning the deal. For instance, in the energy sector, San Miguel Global Power (SMGP) sought the revision of the terms of its contract.
SMGP then sought to recover over P34 billion from its power supply agreements due to a “change in circumstances,” primarily caused by soaring fuel costs from the war in Ukraine and the Covid pandemic.
Despite initial denials from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), court rulings have now pushed the ERC to act on the request for price adjustments.
One of the evaluators of the NAIA rehabilitation deal was the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
“At first, we were assured they would indeed be disqualified — that the technical deficiencies couldn’t be justified. Who said that? A member of the bank. And as the weeks went by, its position slowly changed,” according to the source.
Later, the evaluators were asked, “Are they still going to be disqualified?” They said, “We’re still studying it because San Miguel is very litigious.”
Eventually, it became: “There are technical deficiencies, yes, but not enough to disqualify them.”
That’s how it went—their position changed week by week. ADB recommended disqualification. But when it reached the DoTr, they said the issues weren’t serious enough to warrant it.
“Was there a formal endorsement of ADB’s recommendation? I think there was, but it wasn’t made public. All of ADB’s recommendations were confidential—we were never given copies. We kept asking for them, since the technical evaluation was already done.”
The bottom line was: why was no case filed?
“We were part of a consortium. But the other members didn’t want to take it to the final stage — they didn’t want to rock the boat. Many of them also had business ties with San Miguel.”