{"id":202822,"date":"2019-02-18T22:10:55","date_gmt":"2019-02-19T03:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=202822"},"modified":"2019-02-18T22:10:55","modified_gmt":"2019-02-19T03:10:55","slug":"andayas-claim-govt-owes-contractors-p100-b-is-vague-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/02\/18\/andayas-claim-govt-owes-contractors-p100-b-is-vague-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"Andaya’s claim gov’t owes contractors P100-B is ‘vague’: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said he does not see the connection between the failure of the Departments of Budget and Management (DBM) and Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to pay contractors and corruption. (File Photo<\/a>: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANLA<\/strong>\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Monday described as \u201cvague\u201d the allegation by House appropriations committee chair Rolando Andaya Jr.<\/a> that government owes private contractors PHP100 billion in 2018 because of corruption.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo<\/a> said he does not see the connection between the failure of the Departments of Budget and Management<\/a> (DBM) and Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to pay contractors and corruption.<\/p>\n

\u201cMalabo yata iyon<\/em>\u00a0(I think that\u2019s vague). Why should the government owe the contractors because of corruption?\u201d Panelo said in a Place briefing.<\/p>\n

Panelo said it can only be considered corruption if contractors bribe the government in exchange for something.<\/p>\n

\u201cMagkakaroon ng korapsiyon iyong mga\u00a0<\/em>contractors\u00a0kung may nilalagyan sila para makuha sila. Pero iyong ang gobyerno ang may utang sa kanila, walang koneksiyon sa korapsiyon<\/em>\u00a0(There would be corruption if the contractors used bribe to get something. But if the government owes them something, it has no connection to corruption),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

He said if government failed to pay them, the only reason could be that the contractors did not finish the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cKung hindi sila nababayaran, siguro<\/em>\u00a0incomplete\u00a0iyong ginawa nila<\/em>\u00a0(If they weren\u2019t paid, perhaps their project is incomplete). The government will not pay you unless completed\u00a0ang project mo<\/em>\u00a0(your project is completed),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo, meanwhile, said Andaya should not be \u201clawyering\u201d for the contractors, saying they could file their own complaints.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the contractors have something to complain, they should themselves file the complaint and address their concerns to the respective departments or to Department of Public Works,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEh kung hindi, hindi nga yata nagrereklamo iyong mga<\/em>\u00a0contractor (If not, it doesn\u2019t seem like the contractors are complaining) How can you be more popish than the Pope?\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Andaya claimed that concerned employees of the DBM and DPWH said the agencies owed contractors billions of pesos because of “an old system that forces contracts to cough up kickbacks just to be paid for completed infrastructure projects”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANLA\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Monday described as \u201cvague\u201d the allegation by House appropriations committee chair Rolando Andaya Jr. that government owes …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":188943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-202822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}