Gov’t prefers lawsuits over faulty Ro-Ro deal

THE DEPARTMENT of Transportation and Communications has asked the French consortium Eiffel Matiere to cancel the P11-billion contract for the construction of 72 roll-on, roll-off ports around the country.

The government reviewed the controversial contract—using funds provided by Paris-based BNP Paribas through an official development assistance (ODA) loan—and found that Filipino taxpayers would be paying for ports the country would not need. Also, the ports are not deemed suitable for Philippine sea conditions.

“The contract was reviewed and we want it terminated in its present form,” DOTC Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II said in an interview.

According to Roxas, the government prefers to face any lawsuit to be filed by Eiffel Matiere than uphold a faulty deal.

Earlier this year, the French company threatened to sue the government before an international tribunal if the contract were to be revised or canceled.

Eiffel Matiere, which is backed by the French government, said it had already started construction on some port components because the contract had already been signed.

But Roxas said that the government would be “willing to pay for the components that are already built … but for the others that have not been built, we do not want those because we don’t need them.”

The construction of Ro-Ro ports was one of the landmark projects of the Arroyo administration. But the contract was found to have onerous provisions by the DOTC.