Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III belied Bayan Muna party-list chairman Neri Colmenares’s claim that public funds were misused for the renovation project on the former building of the state-run Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dominguez, who is also LandBank chairman, said the renovation of what used to be the headquarters of the LandBank in Makati started in 2019 and is part of the infrastructure works being undertaken by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
“The structure, located along Senator Gil J. Puyat Avenue will be transformed into a ‘green’ building to house the organic personnel of the Office of the President [OP]. Building works started almost two years ago, before the Covid-19 pandemic hit not only the Philippines,” Dominguez said.
Since the project was already included in the DPWH budget under the 2019 national budget, Dominguez said this “means that it was planned in 2018 or earlier.”
Citing official documents, Dominguez said the renovation project in the building has nothing to do with the institution of LandBank and its functions.
“Mr. Colmenares is, as usual, totally wrong. The budget for the project was requested by Malacañang long before the pandemic, and has nothing to do with LandBank,” Dominguez said.
Dominguez issued the statement to disprove claims made by Colmenares, who was a former lawmaker and reportedly planning to run for a senatorial slot, that the renovation project on the former LandBank building was a “deplorable misuse of public funds” amid a pandemic-induced crisis.
Colmenares earlier claimed that P10.3 billion worth of savings from the Contingent Fund were misappropriated to fund “non-essential, pork barrel projects” by DPWH amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Of this amount, Colmenares said, P300 million was used for the repair and rehabilitation of the LandBank Building 1 in Makati.
LandBank moved to its current main office at the LandBank Plaza in Malate, Manila 20 years ago, way before it transferred the ownership of its previous headquarters in Makati City to the national government back in 2011.
Moreover, the DOF also said documents show that OP and DPWH have been in communication regarding the former LandBank building’s “structural retrofitting” project since October 2019 as this was already included in the DPWH budget for that fiscal year under its “Regular Agency Fund, Continuing Appropriations, Republic Act 11260, FY [fiscal year] 2019 General Appropriations Act, Contingent Fund.”
The Department of Budget and Management in July 2020 released the Special Allotment Release Order for the project.