PARTY-LIST Rep. Carlos Isagani T. Zarate of Bayan Muna has called for a “thorough, serious due diligence vetting on projects to be undertaken by foreign governments and corporations in the country.”
Zarate made the call as reports claimed that some “big-ticket projects” clinched in China during President Duterte’s state visit were allegedly awarded to companies previously involved in a string of accidents in other countries or banned owing to malpractices.
Even the Chinese company contracted to do the reclamation for a port in Davao City has been tagged as the conrtractor that undertook the reclamation work for a man-made islands in the Spratlys being claimed by the Philippines.
“We must be very careful so as to avoid a repeat of deals, like the Northrail and NBN-ZTE during Gloria Arroyo’s term and the numerous MRT [Metro Rail Transit]-LRT [Light Rail Transit] contracts of the Aquino administration. These deals cost taxpayers billions of pesos, yet, nothing to their benefit came out of it,” Zarate claimed.
“Hindi natuloy ang Northrail at NBN-ZTE deal pero nagbayad pa din tayo. Bulok pa din ang MRT at LRT pero nagbabayad pa din tayo,” he said.
Among the supposed banned companies include the China Road and Bridge Corp. and the China Harbour Engineering Co. Ltd.
Issues were also raised on the supposed undercapacity or underfunding of some of these companies, like the MVP Global Infrastructure Group.
“These allegations should be seriously looked into as this may even undermine the administration’s development plan. Hindi na dapat maulit ang mga anomalous deals ng mga nakaraang administrasyon,” Zarate also said.