ANGELES CITY – It’s not about corporate social responsibility (CSR). It’s about making profit.
This was how Global Gateways Development Corp. (GGDC) legal counsel Karen Jimeno pictured Peregrine Development International in its rehabilitation effort in Eastern Visayas which was devastated by super typhoon Yolanda.
Speaking to reporters recently, Jimeno said Peregrine made money in doing rehabilitation work in Eastern Samar.
“In fact, they even made money, Peregrine, from doing rehabilitation work because the one who’s funding the rehab work there is GGDC,” she said.
How Peregrine made money
Jimeno explained that Peregrine gets a percentage from GGDC on everything the company does. “By (Peregrine’s) contract with GGDC, everything that they do they get about eight percent so they even made money in their CSR,” she said.
“By the time that they did something in Balangiga, I told our office so as to coordinate more so that the unfinished projects will be finished. So they went there,” Jimeno said. “But to be fair to Dennis (Wright), he was the one who proposed Balangiga.”
“Let’s do this for Balangiga (Wright said) but the one who funded was GGDC because these are all foreigners so they don’t know anybody there, isn’t it?” Jimeno said. “But in any case and one day during the ribbon cutting, (Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery (Panfilo) Lacson even went there personally to look at all the work they did,” said Jimeno.
Lacson surprised
Jimeno recalled that one day while she was in her office and a few months after the dispute between Peregrine and GGDC broke out, Dennis Wright came down to Balangiga to attend a meeting with Lacson.
She said she remained inside her office even if she knew then that Wright was already in the conference room with Lacson so that he (Wright) won’t feel “awkward.” But then, Jimeno said, Lacson’s secretary came in and told her he (Lacson) wanted her to join them.
She said that’s when she found out that “he (Wright) booked the meeting saying he’s going to talked about Balangiga because of the rehab.” But she said during the meeting, Wright suddenly came out with a power point presentation on Clark and the ongoing Peregrine-GGDC dispute.
At this point, Lacson reportedly asked: “Why are you showing me this when I don’t have anything to do with Clark?” Jimeno, who is currently working with Lacson as his assistant in the rehabilitation and recovery work particularly in Yolanda hit areas in Eastern Visayas, said she hasn’t informed Lacson on the row because she felt “it’s none of his business.”
Peregrine no more money for rehab
“Because he is only concerned with Balangiga, Samar,” Jimeno said of Lacson. “So when Wright came up with his presentation, we were surprised, but in the end Wright said his group cannot continue its work there because it didn’t have the funds.”
GGDC has terminated its contract with Peregrine and withdrew the money in the working capital account (WCA) which explains why Wright has suddenly ran out of funds, she explained. “But my point is, bakit ka nag ba black propaganda sa isang tao na wala nanamg kinalaman sa Clark? (…why did you dished out black propaganda to a person who has nothing to do with Clark?),” Jimeno asked.
“After that he was asked why did they (GGDC) unilaterally cancel the contract and he (Wright) hesitated. Then maybe because I was there as if he just pointed to the dollar sign,” she said. But Jimeno said GGDC has ready funding for another $150 million for 2015 but Peregrine will not be the contractor anymore.
