JULY 4, 2012 DATE

NR # 2790B
REF. NO.

House to probe the P1-billion PNP license deal

A lawmaker has called for a congressional probe into the P1-billion license deal that the Philippine National Police (PNP) entered into with a private corporation allegedly without proper public bidding. Reps. Rufus Rodriguez (2nd District, Cagayan de Oro City) and Maximo Rodriguez, Jr. (Party-list, Abante Mindanao), authors of House Resolution 2459, said the license deal which was entered into between the PNP and the Nanjing Industrial Tools and Equipment Co. has circumvented the proper bidding process. Rodriguez urged the House Committee on Public Order and Safety to summon the police officials, Nanjing representatives and other concerned government agencies to shed light on the issue. Rodriguez said the PNP signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with Nanjing for the printing of license cards for the service firearms of police officers and security guards over a 15-year period in March 2010. The signatories are former PNP Chief Jesus Versoza, PNP Director for Logistics Luizo Ticman and Romeo Macapinlac, president of Nanjing. Under the said MOA, Nanjing would print the license cards at P150 each, which when computed based on the average of 21,818 cards per month for the PNP's Firearms and Explosives Division (FED) and 20,245 cards per month for the PNP's supervisory Office for Security Agencies that had been printed, would amount to P1.135 billion within the 15-year contract. The contract between the PNP and Nanjing allegedly had not gone through the proper bidding and contained other irregularities, Rodriguez said. Rodriguez also expressed concern over reported ambiguous provisions that included the authority for Nanjing to pull out all its materials and equipment in the event the project was aborted or cancelled prior to its completion. A review of this particular contract is necessary so we can fine tune and strengthen the government procurement reform law for the sake of public interest, Rodriguez said. Rodriguez cited Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act which states that all procurement shall be done through competitive bidding and the law shall apply to the procurement of infrastructure projects, goods and consulting services, regardless of source of funds, whether local or foreign, by all branches and instrumentalities of government, its departments, offices and agencies, including government-owned and/or controlled corporations and local government units. One such provision that merits review states that the P150 fee for license cards be paid directly to Nanjing without a standard government payment order, Rodriguez said. (30) dpt

JULY 4, 2012 DATE

NR # 2790B
REF. NO.