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Verified Tsikot Member
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October 11th, 2005 01:41 PM #41Originally Posted by CoDer
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October 11th, 2005 01:43 PM #42
Lawyers to ask SC to void Northrail contract
MEMBERS of the UP Law Center will ask the Supreme Court to nullify the multimillion-dollar North Luzon Railways Corp. (Northrail) contract.
The group, together with the League of Urban Poor for Action (LUPA) whose members come from areas to be affected by the project, will file a petition for certiorari with a prayer for a temporary restraining order.
Lead counsel Harry Roque said they wanted the tribunal to stop the implementation of the contract pending the resolution of the case.
"This way, we [will] delay or better yet we will be able to stop the demolition of the affected areas," Roque told INQ7.net.
Implementation of the contract will mean dislocating 40,000 families, Roque said.
The contract involves rehabilitating a 32-kilometer railway from Caloocan City in Metro Manila to Malolos town, Bulacan province.
The contract was awarded to the China National Machinery and Equipment Corp. (CNMEC) using a loan secured from China's Export-Import Bank (Eximbank).
The Philippine government will shoulder some 100 million dollars of the 503 million-dollar cost of the project.
Roque said they would tell the high tribunal that the contract was flawed because it violated accounting and auditing laws of the country.
The group said the contract did not include a "certification of availability of funds," a vital component of any government contract that requires funding participation from the government.
In such contracts, the lawyers said a certification was required as proof that the funds were available or the government could not spend on anything.
Roque also noted that their study showed that the contract did not undergo public bidding.
The contract was one of the cases that pro-impeachment legislators wanted to present at the impeachment trial of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had the House of Representatives upheld the complaints against her last month.
http://news.inq7.net/breaking/index....story_id=52970
Saving face? Smoke and mirrors?
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Nagtatanim ng kamote
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October 11th, 2005 06:53 PM #43Drilon apology sought over Northrail probe
First posted 04:52pm (Mla time) Oct 11, 2005
By Maila Ager
INQ7.net
SENATE President Franklin Drilon should apologize to China and to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for using a "sloppy" report as basis to investigate one of its firms in the North Luzon Railway project, two lawmakers urged Tuesday.
Bacolod Representative Monico Puentevella, chairman of the committee on transportation, and Isabela Representative Edwin Uy, chairman of the special committee on bases conversion, made the call after the University of the Philippine Law Center (UPLC) “falsely claimed” that China Machinery and Equipment Corp (Group) or CNMEG had no capability or experience to build a railway in China or elsewhere because it was a “mere import-export company.”
The two lawmakers also said that as for the UPLC, it should also apologize to Drilon for its "sloppy research."
The UPLC opinion became the basis of a Senate inquiry by Drilon, which prompted Chinese Ambassador Wu Hongbo to denounce the investigation as “destructive politics” that had derailed the project.
Puentevella and Uy said Drilon should not only apologize to China but to the President and House Speaker Jose de Venecia and to repair the damage to Philippine-China ties.
“Mr. Drilon, by apologizing, hindi mababawasan ang pagkalalaki nyo [your masculinity will not be diminished]. Madadagdagan pa ang pagkatao ninyo [Your stature will even get a boost],” they said in a joint statement.
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Mahiya naman ang UP Law Center!
wala kasi kwenta kahit ano pa tollroad yan eh kung sabay-sabay kayou uuwi. Ang lunas talaga jan...
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