{"id":31494,"date":"2014-11-14T13:32:52","date_gmt":"2014-11-14T05:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=31494"},"modified":"2014-11-14T13:32:52","modified_gmt":"2014-11-14T05:32:52","slug":"senate-begins-probe-into-drilons-iloilo-convention-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/11\/14\/senate-begins-probe-into-drilons-iloilo-convention-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate begins probe into Drilon\u2019s Iloilo Convention Center"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_11415\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11415\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Franklin-Drilon.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11415\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Franklin-Drilon.jpg\" alt=\"Senate President Franklin Drilon. Photo courtesy of Drilon's official Facebook page.\" width=\"960\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Franklin-Drilon.jpg 960w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Franklin-Drilon-300x187.jpg 300w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Franklin-Drilon-600x375.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11415\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Senate President Franklin Drilon. Photo courtesy of Drilon&#8217;s official Facebook page.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>MANILA, Philippines \u2013 Senate President Franklin Drilon\u2019s pet project, the Iloilo Convention Center (ICC), is the subject of an investigation launched on Thursday by the Senate blue ribbon committee.<\/p>\n<p>The committee, headed by Senator Teofisto Guingona III, is looking into allegations that the P747-million project, awarded to Hilmarc Construction Corp., was overpriced.<\/p>\n<p>Instigated by Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago\u2019s resolution, calling for the investigation of purported \u201canomalous transactions involving multibillions of pesos in public funds between Hilmarc\u2019s Construction Corp. and certain local government units,\u201d the committee is looking into allegations that the two-story convention building was overpriced by P531 million.<\/p>\n<p>Reportedly, the project was funded by Drilon\u2019s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel in 2012, as well as by the Disbursement Acceleration Program in 2013.<\/p>\n<p>A complaint about the purported overpricing of the ICC have also been filed at the Office of the Ombudsman by former provincial administrator Manuel Mejorada. Likewise, Kabaatan Rep. Terry Ridon some months ago authored a resolution in Congress, seeking an investigation into the project.<\/p>\n<p>Drilon has constantly denied the allegations. He said that the complaint about the project was being overpriced was \u201cmalicious\u201d and \u201cbaseless,\u201d primarily since it started with Mejorada, who was fired as consultant in the project by Drilon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MANILA, Philippines \u2013 Senate President Franklin Drilon\u2019s pet project, the Iloilo Convention Center (ICC), is the subject of an investigation &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":11415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,95],"tags":[3238,4772,7822,3891,3251],"class_list":["post-31494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news-ph","tag-blue-ribbon-committee","tag-drilon","tag-hilmarcs","tag-icc","tag-senate","mauthors-angie-duarte","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31494","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=31494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}