Malacañang assures Ayala, Pangilinan of due process

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador made this clarification after President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday threatened to arrest and indefinitely detain the owners of Metro Manila’s water concessionaires. (File photo: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson/Facebook)

MANILA — Malacañang assured Fernando Zobel de Ayala and Manuel V. Pangilinan of due process in case warrants of arrest are issued against them.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador made this clarification after President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday threatened to arrest and indefinitely detain the owners of Metro Manila’s water concessionaires.

Pangilinan’s Metro Pacific Investments Corp. owns a controlling stake in Maynilad while Manila Water is a subsidiary of the Ayala Corp.

“Ang ibig sabihin, idedemanda ang mga dapat idemanda (This means that government will file cases against them),” Panelo said in an interview over dzIQ on Sunday. “That is on the assumption that there are warrants of arrest.”

Panelo, also Chief Presidential Legal Counsel, said once cases are filed against the water firm owners, it would still be up to the judges in court to issue warrants of arrest against them.

“Lahat ‘yan padadaanin sa proseso (All of it will be accorded due process),” he added.

In a speech in Davao City on Friday, Duterte warned the water concessionaire owners against filing temporary restraining orders (TROs) against the government or he just might arrest them “one night”.

“One night, hulihin ko silang lahat. At diyan lang kayo. Kailan ko kayo palabasin? Hanggang gusto ko. Si Marcos, 27 years. Gawain ko akin, 30 years (One night, I’ll just arrest them all. And you’ll stay behind bars until I say so. Marcos had 27 years, I’ll make mine 30),” Duterte said.

Marcos was President for 20 years, ruling for 14 years as a dictator after imposing martial law in 1972.

Panelo said Duterte and Marcos were alike in such a way that they both shared a strong sense of “political will.”

Currently, the government is attempting to strike a new deal with the two water concessionaires after discovering that the original contracts contained “onerous” provisions.

Ayala and Pangilinan have both expressed willingness to cooperate with the government.

Duterte’s verbal attacks against the Ayala and Pangilinan firms began when the Permanent Court of Arbitration in Singapore, in its separate rulings, compelled the Philippine government to pay PHP3.4 billion and PHP7.39 billion to Maynilad and Manila Water, respectively, for supposed losses and damages suffered by the two water firms.

On January 7, the President gave Manila Water and Maynilad the option to either accept the new water contracts or face cancellation of their present deals.

Since finding out that the contracts were “disadvantageous” to the government and the public, Duterte said he would not hesitate to have the tycoons detained over syndicated estafa or plunder raps and floated the possibility of asking the military to take over water operations.

LRT deal

Meanwhile, Panelo also assured that all contracts with private firms that would be found detrimental to the Filipino people will be rectified.

Duterte earlier sought the review of the state-run Light Rail Transit Authority’s existing contract with the Light Rail Manila Corporation (LRMC) after he learned Ayala and Pangilinan also have key roles in its operations.

“Lahat ng anomalya titignan ng goberyno (All anomalies will be reviewed by government),” Panelo said.

The LRMC is a consortium of the Ayala-led AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Pangilinan-owned Metro Pacific Investments Corp., and Macquarie Infrastructure Holdings (Philippines) Pte. Ltd.

In April 2019, there was also a directive from the President to the Office of the Solicitor General, the Department of Justice, and other state legal departments to look into all of the government contracts with private companies and other countries.

Duterte’s order in April last year was meant to remove all “onerous” provisions of the contracts that would “put the Filipino people at (a) disadvantage or are in violation of the Constitution.”