Hardly anyone expected President B. S. Aquino III in his State of the Nation Address to say anything about the allegations that his sister Ballsy and her husband Eldon Cruz had tried to extort $30 million from a Czech company trying to sell trains to the Department of Transportation and Communication. And nobody was surprised he did not. But many expected Aquino to fire Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon after fuming mad about the corruption in the Bureau of Customs. Nearly everyone was surprised he did not. His failure to sack Biazon and his reportedly turning down the commissioner’s mock resignation can only cost him whatever presumption of incorruptibility he has enjoyed until now. This is not to say Biazon or any of his next of kin is personally involved in smuggling at the piers. No one has come out to publicly charge him. But the BOC has become such a beehive and symbol of corruption that Biazon, as its head, must be made accountable. That is how the cookie crumbles. Now, what has he got on the President that the latter can no longer seem to touch him? Is it because he takes all his orders directly from Malacañang? Or because Malacañang owes him so much for giving up his plan to run for the Senate in the last election in order (allegedly) to help raise funds for Team PNoy? This is not the fairest of questions. But the other questions are not any better. Is PNoy really determined to wipe out corruption, or is it pure show? Is not his display of outrage limited only to the corruption of others, notably those identified with his immediate and one other distant predecessor? Does he not tend to coddle his own people? Suddenly the burden is on PNoy. Suddenly people want to know who in his immediate circle is/are receiving the regular take from the various lucrative crimes—jueteng, narco trade, human smuggling, etc. And not surprisingly they would like Congress to dig deeper into the Ballsy and Eldon Cruz affair. So we are back to where we started. Even those (rather especially those) who believe the Cruz couple are innocent would like to know who had reportedly suggested that the Czech company Inekon pay the Cruz couple $30 million. Since the Czech ambassador, who has cleared the Cruz couple, will not come forward, and the government can do nothing to compel him, it would probably help if we heard directly from Pete Nicomedes Prado, Eldon Cruz’s business partner. Prado served as DOTC secretary under President Cory Aquino from March 23, 1991 to June 30, 1992, and he, together with Steve Psinakis, the Greek executive who married into the Lopez family, was reportedly present in the meeting with the Czech delegation. Prado has the longest experience with the Czech on light rail transport matters. He was there from the very beginning. I had some dealings with him even after his DOTC stint when in 1993, on my first term in the Senate, I questioned his award of the $350-million EDSA LRT III project (this ballooned later on to twice or more than twice that figure) to a corporation capitalized at $998. Together with Senators John H. Osmeña and Rodolfo Biazon, I went to the Supreme Court after that in a vain effort to stop its implementation by DOTC Secretary Jess Garcia, under the Ramos administration. But this is a digression, for which we have neither time nor space now. Our government’s conversations with the Czechs on the LRT issue began in 1990 when Cory Aquino named Oscar Orbos as DOTC secretary. Appointed on Jan. 13, 1990, Orbos visited Prague in March that same year, and assured his hosts of his “intent” to acquire train coaches from Tradeinvest/CKD Tatra, a Cezch company, for the proposed LRT III project in the pipeline. Orbos did not stay long at DOTC. After a year, he was appointed Executive Secretary and replaced by Arturo C. Corona on Dec. 20, 1990. That was when some problems began. Corona, a brother to the former Chief Justice Rene Corona, was a brilliant and honest young lawyer who worked with me as a legal officer in my early years as Minister of Information. As DOTC Secretary, he found the proposed EDSA LRT project questionable on many counts. But all sorts of pressure were being made to bear on him to fast track the contract, in Malacañang’s name. His conscience would not let him, so after fending off all pressures he went to the President to ask for her full backing. But when he told Cory his predicament, she simply said to him, “Why don’t you just give it to them?” Corona saw the heavens fall, but without losing his cool, he thanked the President warmly, and gave her his letter of resignation. On March 23, 1991, Prado was named DOTC Secretary. As early as November of 1990, Prado, as general manager of the Philippine National Railways, had been discussing with Eli Levin of the E.L. Enterprises the latter’s proposal to build the LRT III. On Nov. 7, 1991, they finally signed a build, lease and transfer contract, over the misgivings of NEDA, the Secretary of Finance and the Governor of the Central Bank on its financial viability, and doubts on the legality of the contract from the Department of Justice. Prado may be the one resource person who could enlighten us all on this affair. manilastandardtoday/2013/07/26/back-to-the-ballsy-and-eldon-cruz-affair/
Posted on: Fri, 26 Jul 2013 16:28:12 +0000
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