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By Efren L. Danao, Senior Reporter
The Senate blue-ribbon committee will look into
the $932-million SouthRail project after it finishes the inquiry
into the national broadband controversy. Also waiting in the wings
are the TransCo and Cyber Education Project investigations.
Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, the committee
chairman, said he has only one witness for the SouthRail controversy
so far, not enough to immediately start the investigation. Besides,
he added that the blue-ribbon panel is still busy with the broadband
issue.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson had filed a resolution
calling for a Senate inquiry into the SouthRail project after
broadband witness Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada Jr. testified that it was
among the graft-ridden projects that had escaped public attention.
Lozada identified Anthony Hwang and a certain
“Mallari” as the alleged Malacañang intermediaries who worked
for the approval of the project.
“They said they will take care of Malacañang.
They are the Abalos of the SouthRail project,” Lozada said,
referring to resigned Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. of the Commission
on Elections whom he had alleged to be brokering the broadband deal.
Abalos denied the allegations.
Lozada alleged that the first phase of the
project from Manila to Calamba, Laguna, was overpriced by 22
percent, or about $70 million.
The 558-kilometer SouthRail project seeks to
rehabilitate the railway line from Manila to Legazpi City, and then
build a new line from there to Sorsogon. Like the aborted
$330-million national broadband project, the SouthRail will be
funded by loans from the Export-Import Bank of China.
Lozada said the project was one of the three
projects he had handled for the National Economic and Development
Authority, the others being the national broadband and the
Philippine Postal Corp. He said the latter project was “clean.”
Earlier, Sen. Joker Arroyo said he is opposed to
starting the SouthRail inquiry, since Senate has not come up with
the results of its investigation into the $500-million NorthRail
project.
He said the Senate still has to produce a report
on the “gargantuan” NorthRail project, even after concluding the
inquiry in the Thirteenth Congress. For that probe, the Senate
constituted itself as the committee of the whole.
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