NOT SIMPLE spoils for the victor in the war for the Philippine presidency to possess, but a high-prized booty is the Clark Freeport and its Diosdado Macapagal International Airport.
Stories coming out of the woodwork of the Aquino home on Times Street and home province of Tarlac tell of a brewing internecine war among the leaders of the local yellow army for the Clark booty.
According to our Times Street mole, presumptive President Noynoy Aquino has issued too many political IOUs among his Tarlac leaders and is impelled to redeem them or risk losing face at this early. The problem is that these leaders run short, far too short, of the required man-profiles for national positions. So Clark makes a most interesting proposition to these locals even as it presents the best option for Noynoy to pay his political debts.
It makes it easy – for Noynoy to fill in Clark with his political creditors – that the Clark Development Corp. leadership, to the last woman in its board of directors, were Arroyo faithful, and thus presumed to have had nothing to do with the Noynoy campaign.
Yes, the top honcho was even reported as passionately orange and fanatically anti-yellow up to the PCOS line.
The order of the day at the CDC, so our sources there aver, is the search for padrinos to connect with the Noynoy people.
It’s a different story out of the DMIA.
Instead of simply seeking connections, a high ranking official of the Clark International Airport Corp. has allegedly touched base with the people of Noynoy, at the least kin of people perceived to be among those closest to his family.
His entry point: the Terminal 2 project, as well as what remains of the Terminal 1 expansion of the DMIA.
The CIAC man, ratted our sources, is pushing all within his power and influence for an international consortium to get the contract for the T-2 and T-1 projects. It so happened that the consortium’s lead proponent is reportedly a Philippine company owned and managed by a brother of a Cory Cabinet man married to a Cory confidante now promised a lucrative post by the Cory son. Yes, really close connections there.
A quick review of the DMIA T-1 and T-2 issues.
The T-2 project was stalemated for over two years with the fixity of the CIAC Board, notably its chair, Nestor Mangio, on the proposal of the Kuwaiti firm Al-Mal that would have resulted to a virtual sell-out of Philippine sovereignty and patrimony with the firm gaining not only T-2 but T-1 as well and practically the greater – and premium – part of the civil aviation complex.
After its ignominious failure to launch T-2, the CIAC press released a Malaysian consortium as having offered $150-M for a joint venture agreement with the CIAC for the DMIA terminal expansion.
“Midnight deal,” cried Philippine Star columnist Jarius Bondoc of the Malaysian offer.
Unraveled at about the same time was yet another failure at the CIAC: the T-1 expansion project way past its 90-day completion target – from its December 15, 2009 start, and its extended target of April 5, the last birthday of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as president. Last time we looked – on May 30 – there was still much work to be done to be able to truly say that T-1 is almost complete.
A media tour by Mangio at the DMIA birthed yet another story of yet another consortium of local and foreign groups ready to challenge any offer for the T-2 project.
So is this the alleged group of the brother of the Cory Cabinet man?
Most probably, said our CIAC source who accused the CIAC official of manipulating the recommendation of the joint venture selection committee so that this consortium will get the project, “no matter its inferior proposal, thus its disadvantage to the government; even its lack of documentation.”
Allegedly, the CIAC official was able to convince one other ranking peer – “probably with the promise that he would be retained too” – and succeeded in locking up negotiations for the consortium’s proposal at a recent CIAC board meeting.
Now, buoyed up by these successes to ingratiate himself with the Noynoy people, the CIAC official has reportedly been emboldened to engineer the re-integration of the CDC and CIAC. I just wonder if CIAC President-CEO Chichos Luciano knows anything about this.
Anyways, if all these have the express approval of the presumptive president, then let us brace ourselves for even less of the same, perhaps even worse, at Clark under an Aquino administration.
Stories coming out of the woodwork of the Aquino home on Times Street and home province of Tarlac tell of a brewing internecine war among the leaders of the local yellow army for the Clark booty.
According to our Times Street mole, presumptive President Noynoy Aquino has issued too many political IOUs among his Tarlac leaders and is impelled to redeem them or risk losing face at this early. The problem is that these leaders run short, far too short, of the required man-profiles for national positions. So Clark makes a most interesting proposition to these locals even as it presents the best option for Noynoy to pay his political debts.
It makes it easy – for Noynoy to fill in Clark with his political creditors – that the Clark Development Corp. leadership, to the last woman in its board of directors, were Arroyo faithful, and thus presumed to have had nothing to do with the Noynoy campaign.
Yes, the top honcho was even reported as passionately orange and fanatically anti-yellow up to the PCOS line.
The order of the day at the CDC, so our sources there aver, is the search for padrinos to connect with the Noynoy people.
It’s a different story out of the DMIA.
Instead of simply seeking connections, a high ranking official of the Clark International Airport Corp. has allegedly touched base with the people of Noynoy, at the least kin of people perceived to be among those closest to his family.
His entry point: the Terminal 2 project, as well as what remains of the Terminal 1 expansion of the DMIA.
The CIAC man, ratted our sources, is pushing all within his power and influence for an international consortium to get the contract for the T-2 and T-1 projects. It so happened that the consortium’s lead proponent is reportedly a Philippine company owned and managed by a brother of a Cory Cabinet man married to a Cory confidante now promised a lucrative post by the Cory son. Yes, really close connections there.
A quick review of the DMIA T-1 and T-2 issues.
The T-2 project was stalemated for over two years with the fixity of the CIAC Board, notably its chair, Nestor Mangio, on the proposal of the Kuwaiti firm Al-Mal that would have resulted to a virtual sell-out of Philippine sovereignty and patrimony with the firm gaining not only T-2 but T-1 as well and practically the greater – and premium – part of the civil aviation complex.
After its ignominious failure to launch T-2, the CIAC press released a Malaysian consortium as having offered $150-M for a joint venture agreement with the CIAC for the DMIA terminal expansion.
“Midnight deal,” cried Philippine Star columnist Jarius Bondoc of the Malaysian offer.
Unraveled at about the same time was yet another failure at the CIAC: the T-1 expansion project way past its 90-day completion target – from its December 15, 2009 start, and its extended target of April 5, the last birthday of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as president. Last time we looked – on May 30 – there was still much work to be done to be able to truly say that T-1 is almost complete.
A media tour by Mangio at the DMIA birthed yet another story of yet another consortium of local and foreign groups ready to challenge any offer for the T-2 project.
So is this the alleged group of the brother of the Cory Cabinet man?
Most probably, said our CIAC source who accused the CIAC official of manipulating the recommendation of the joint venture selection committee so that this consortium will get the project, “no matter its inferior proposal, thus its disadvantage to the government; even its lack of documentation.”
Allegedly, the CIAC official was able to convince one other ranking peer – “probably with the promise that he would be retained too” – and succeeded in locking up negotiations for the consortium’s proposal at a recent CIAC board meeting.
Now, buoyed up by these successes to ingratiate himself with the Noynoy people, the CIAC official has reportedly been emboldened to engineer the re-integration of the CDC and CIAC. I just wonder if CIAC President-CEO Chichos Luciano knows anything about this.
Anyways, if all these have the express approval of the presumptive president, then let us brace ourselves for even less of the same, perhaps even worse, at Clark under an Aquino administration.
