MANILA - Presidential frontrunner Manuel Villar allegedly deceived the government into overcompensating his real estate properties traversed by the C-5 realignment road project through a spurious zonal valuation.

In the ethics hearing at the senate hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Jamby Madrigal alleged that the government paid Sen. Villar twice the acceptable value of his properties as road right-of-way compensation for the Las Piñas-Parañaque link road.

Madrigal said Villar priced the lots of his companies, Adelfa Properties Inc. and Golden Haven, at P13,300 per square meter each.

She stressed this was way above the original zonal valuation of the adjacent lands, which the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) had appraised for only P1,600 to P3,350.

Overpriced?

Madrigal explained in her presentation that Villar was paid around P30 million as road right-of-way compensation for the properties of his companies.

The Las Piñas-Parañaque link road traversed 4 lots of Golden Memorial Park and one belonging to Adelfa Properties Inc., all of which are found at Brgy. Manuyo Uno in Las Piñas City.

Madrigal questioned the value paid to the lots owned by Vilar’s companies since she said the other parcels of land nearby were paid a much lower price.

She compared Villar’s lands to the lots owned by a certain Geronimo Arevalo and Pedro Lombos. Arevalo’s 1,005 square meter lot was valued at P3.4 million, while Villar’s lot, which was only 885 square meters, was priced at P11.7 million.

Lombos’s property, a 1,800 square meter-lot, was pegged at P1,600 per square meter. The government paid P3 million for it, while Villar was given thrice, or P21 million for his 1,600 square-meter land.

Madrigal said that the discrepancy stems from the possibility that Villar instead used the zonal valuation for Brgy. Pulang Lupa, which is near the lots of Villar’s companies in Brgy. Manuyo Uno

Brgy. Pulang Lupa, however, is a commercial area, which could account for the higher valuations.

Madrigal said that in the next hearing, which is yet to be scheduled, she would require BIR officials to attend and shed light on the ‘unfair’ zonal valuation used for Villar’s properties in Las Piñas.

Common practice

Madrigal also wanted to establish that Villar breached ethics when he inserted the proposed P200-million road extension project in the budget, which legislators craft.

Yolanda Doblon of the Senate Legislative Budget and Research Monitoring Office (LBMRO) confirmed that Villar proposed the P200-million insertion for the C-5 road extension project.

She narrated that Villar called her up to his office in November 2007. A certain “Mr. Adriano” “enumerated, not dictated” 3 to 4 amendments in the 2008 budget, she said, adding that she assumed Adriano was part of Villar’s Senate staff since she often sees him at the Senate.

But Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile explained that the exchange between Villar’s staff and Doblon is a common practice when the upper house is proposing amendments to the appropriations law.

He added that after they debated over the issues in the proposed law, individual senators could submit their individual amendments to expedite the law’s passage. “That is why in this particular case, Senator Villar submitted their amendment to LBMRO through lawyer Yolanda Doblon.”

LBRMO director general Doblon, under questioning by complainant Sen. Ana Consuelo Madrigal’s lawyer, Ernesto Francisco, confirmed that senators’ amendments in the budget bill are submitted to the Committee on Finance, and these are then included by the LBRMO in its preparation of the committee report on the proposed General Appropriations Act.—with Business Mirror