THE MOMENT OF TRUTH

M’lang Airport Controversy

By Manny Pinol

www.mannypinol.net

Today, between 12 to 1 p.m., I will be the guest of a radio program sponsored by the local government unit of M’lang and aired over the respected broadcast station of DXND, one of several broadcast media entities operated by the Notre Dame Broadcasting Corp.

This will be the first time I will allow myself to be interviewed by the media over the controversy over the airport being constructed in the town of M’lang whipped-up by former vice governor Jose Tuburan, Jr., former M’lang Mayor Luigi Cuerpo and incumbent congressman Jose Tejada, all allies of the sitting governor of North Cotabato.

The three are also members of the dubious Provincial Monitoring Group created by the incumbent governor supposedly to oversee the completion of the M’lang Rural Airport or the Central Mindanao Airport.

The organization of the PMG came three years after the incumbent governor declared through the media after the 2010 elections that she will not continue the construction of the M’lang Airport, my pet project, because it was substandard.

It also closely followed the release of P154-M by the Dept. of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) on orders of President Noynoy Aquino for the completion of the airport after it was mothballed for almost three years.

The release of the funds and the start of the construction of Phase II of the airport project came after I personally sought President Aquino’s support.

The funds were released not through the efforts of the incumbent Governor but through the representation of Representatives Jesus Sacdalan of the First District and Nancy Catamco of the Second District.

For me, the involvement of the provincial government in the project now through the PMG is a case of a “forced-to-ride-on” because of the decision of the President to finish the construction of the airport.

However, the PMG, instead of facilitating and aiding in the fast-tracking of the airport project, has created a controversy which could lead to legal actions and which could derail the early completion of the project.

As expected, they have trained their guns on me by making basically two accusations:

1. Tuburan went to town and lambasted me in the media after he allegedly “discovered” documents showing that there were two Deeds of Sale covering the acquisition of the 64-hectare property from the heirs of Don Tomas Buenaflor which is now the airport area.

While I have not personally seen the documents that Tuburan is showing around, the first Deed of Sale covering the first 32 hectares, according to Tuburan, was signed between me and the owners of the first batch of lots in 2003 without the qualifying phrase that I was signing “on behalf of the Province of North Cotabato.”

He said that the second Deed of Sale covering the second 32 hectares, which I still obviously signed because I was the Governor of the province at that time, carried that qualifying phrase, according to Tuburan.

Tuburan claimed that because of this discrepancy “it would appear that Emmanuel F. Pinol” is the owner of the first 32 hectares now part of the airport area.

By the way, both Deeds of Sale were prepared and notarized by the same lawyer, former board member Freddie Baynosa, who is now incapacitated and confined to a wheelchair.

The purchase of the 62-hectare area at the price of P200,000 per hectare was approved by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of North Cotabato in 2003 and a corresponding resolution authorizing me to sign on behalf of the province was passed by the SP.

Baynosa, who is not my political ally, could have shed light on this issue but he could not speak and his cognitive faculties have been seriously impaired.

Tejada, who is now congressman of the newly-created Third Congressional District, has full knowledge of these transactions because he was a board member when the SP approved the project, the purchase of the land and the authority for me to transact and sign on behalf of the province.

He, however, has remained mum on the issue.

2. Tuburan has also been peddling around a story that the Air Transportation Office (ATO) reportedly released P450-M in additional funds to pay for the lots acquired by the province.

He reportedly has in his possession documents signed by former Gen. William Hotchkiss, head of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, which listed the people who received the funds from the ATO.

Tuburan also made insinuations that people, obviously including myself, received money from ATO because this accusation conveniently fits into his claim that I own 32 hectares of the airport property.

This claim by Tuburan, however, is made incredulous by the fact that ATO has been abolished since 2008 and that the office is now called CAAP.

He also did not exercise due diligence and prudence by first checking with Gen. Hotchkiss, who he claims to know personally, whether the CAAP really released funds amouting to P450-M this year to pay for the lots.

Had Tuburan checked this story further, he would have known that earlier this year, a well-dressed man claiming to be representing ATO approached the former owners of the lots acquired by the province.

The man, according to M’lang Mayor Lito Pinol, reportedly showed the former landowners documents that the ATO had P450-M in additional payments to the landowners and that he could facilitate the release of the money.

The next line, of course, was a familiar reprise.

The man said he needed funds so he could facilitate the release of the money and some of the landowners who fell for the scam reportedly gave a total of about P200,000.

After getting the landowners’ money, the man disappeared leaving behind the documents which are apparently what Tuburan is holding on to now and is using to accuse me of wrong-doing in the airport project.

In addition to these issues, former mayor Luigi Cuerpo who was with me as the vice mayor when we started dreaming of the airport project, further muddled the issue by claiming that some signatures of the landowners in the Deed of Sale were forged.

Cuerpo, however, conveniently forgot that in the sale of the property to the province in 2003 and 2004, it was his late brother, Gustavo, Sr., who personally worked on the transaction and that Mayor Cuerpo was the designated attorney-in-fact of the Buenaflor/Cuerpo families.

Today, I will give straightforward and clear answers to the following questions:

1. Do I really own the first 32 hectares covered by the first Deed of Sale?
2. Did the ATO really release an additional P450-M payment for the land acquired by the province and did I make money out of that?

I will discuss in passing former mayor Cuerpo’s rantings because I do not believe that he deserves serious attention given the inconsistency of his statements.

There is one thing that I can assure the people of M’lang and North Cotabato, former mayor Cuerpo can howl like a mad dog and play like a jukebox but he can never accuse me of receiving even one peso from the sale of the Buenaflor/Cuerpo families properties to the provincial government.

I can face anybody and look at him straight in the eye because I never made money in the airport project transactions.

For me, all these issues being raised are part of a grand and evil scheme to delay the completion of the airport, a project which, without me even desiring for it, is closely identified with me.

This is a perfect example of a very important infrastructure project being waylaid and ambushed by people with selfish political interests.

Source: Manny Piñol