BIZ BUZZ: Under scrutiny: Not just infrastructure but weapons too
As the nation remains riveted to an ever-worsening saga of infrastructure-related corruption, similar undertones are permeating other areas of the government-contracting process.
Biz Buzz was alerted to how this homegrown firm and its foreign joint-venture (JV) partner are taking opportunities on contracts worth hundreds of millions of pesos—with one costing close to P1 billion—despite allegedly willfully not meeting bidding requirements.
Documents shown to Biz Buzz indicate that the government itself has placed the JV under a two-year blacklist status that lasts until the second quarter of 2027.
The blacklisting came after the JV had been disqualified from a bidding for a supply contract with a law enforcement agency for “submission of eligibility requirements containing false information or falsified documents” and “submission of bids that contain false information or falsified documents, or the concealment of such information in the bids in order to influence the outcome of eligibility screening or any other stage of the public bidding.”
The two partner firms had appealed the blacklisting, but both the contracting agency and the executive department that supervises it denied the appeal.
This prompted the JV group to raise its concern to the Office of the President (OP). At the same time, they sought from a regional trial court a preliminary injunction against the blacklisting. They cited as justification their appeal pending with Malacañang.
The OP dismissed their appeal and upheld the disqualification of the joint venture. But the court, just last August, granted the preliminary injunction, which allows the two companies to continue participating in government procurement activities—even contracts related to units of the Armed Forces.
So what are the contracts about? The supply of various firearms to different uniformed service entities.
More than substandard or nonexistent flood control infrastructure, farm-to-market roads or irrigation systems, these contracts put on the line not just the lives of personnel but the security of the nation as well.
Observers lament that this is but another demonstration of how preliminary injunctions and temporary restraining orders are used to undermine administrative processes and secure contracts “despite clear violations.”
