Trillanes pushes Senate probe on Makati City Hall’s overpriced carpark building

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV. Photo courtesy of Trillanes’ Facebook page.

MANILA – Senator Antonio Trillanes IV on Monday filed a Senate resolution seeking for inquiry into alleged overpriced construction of 11-storey parking and 22-storey city hall buildings of Makati.

In his Senate Resolution No. 826, Trillanes said the Filipinos have the right to information specially on matters involving alleged graft, corruption and plunder of high officials at all levels of government.

”It is the foremost duty of the legislature to ensure that bidding and procurement procedures contain safeguards against misuse of public funds for illicit personal gain as well as to ensure that public funds are used to benefit the Filipino people,” Trillanes said.

Last July 22, plunder and graft charges have been filed against former Makati City mayor and now Vice President Jejomar Binay; his son incumbent mayor Jun-Jun Binay; and 23 others, due to alleged “unconscionable overpricing” in the construction of the parking building.

Based on the report of the Commission on Audit, the total amount paid for the carpark building has reached PHP 2.367 billion, placing the actual overpriced of PHP 1.601 billion.

”Hence, the City of Makati actually spent around PHP 2.4 billion for the said building thus placing the actual overpriced sum in the amount of PHP1.601 billion. It added that this overpriced amount could have built more than 3,000 classrooms, inclusive of toilets and furniture,” Trillanes stated in the resolution.

“The PHP 2.4 billion cost of the 11-storey Makati City carpark building is indeed shocking when compared to the cost even to the most luxurious buildings in the country like the 46-storey Shang Grand Tower, the 19th tallest in the country, which was built for only PHP2 billion,” Trillanes added.

As for the 22-storey Makati city hall, the resolution said the building constructed in the 1990s was also overpriced by PHP100,000 per square meter.

Trillanes also wanted to include in the Senate probe the purported PHP 230 million informercial campaign which started in 2009, using Makati funds.

The resolution was referred to the Senate blue ribbon committee but panel chairman Teofisto Guingona III yielded to subcommittee chairman Aquilino ‘Koko’ Pimentel III.

Asked for comment, Binay’s daughter Senator Nancy Binay said: “Bring it on.”

Senator Binay said her brother can answer all the allegations, clarifying the building was not for parking but an office building.