The National Bureau of Investigation on Friday announced the filing of charges before the Justice department against five Filipinos, including a high-ranking official of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority, and 11 foreigners for violation of the Anti-Dummy Law.
NBI Officer-in-Charge Director Eric Distor identified the suspects as MCIAA General Manager and Chief Executive Officer Steve Dicdican, GMR MEGAWIDE Cebu Airport Corp. Filipino officers Manuel Louie Ferrer, Edgar Saavedra, Olover Tan, JZ dela Cruz, and foreigners Srivinas Bommidala (Indian), P. Sripathy (Singaporean), Vivek Singhai (Indian), Andrew Acquaah-Harrison (Ghananian), Ravi Bhatnagar (Indian), Ravishankar Saravu (Indian), Michael Lenane (Irish), Sudarshan Md (Indian), Kumar Gaurav (Indian), Magesh Nambiar (Indian) and Rajesh Madan (Indian).
Distor said the case stemmed from a complaint over the awarding of the operation and management of Mactan Cebu International Airport, which was awarded to GMCAC under a 25-Year Concession after winning the bid for P14.4 billion.
The concession is for the expansion and operation of MCIA, which consists of the construction of a new passenger terminal with all associated infrastructure facilities, rehabilitation and expansion of the existing terminal along with all associated infrastructure and facilities, installation of the required information technology and other equipment commensurate with the operations, and operation and maintenance of both passenger terminals during the concession period. GMCAC is a consortium between MEGAWIDE Construction Corporation and the GMR Group.
MEGAWIDE is a company incorporated under Philippine Laws, while GMR Group is a foreign infrastructure company. The complainant said the subjects conspired, connived, colluded, schemed and acted together to violate the 1987 Constitution and the Anti-Dummy Law.
The complainant said that, based on the evidence, the MCIA was operated, administered and managed by non-Filipinos more particularly by an Irish, a Ghanaian and several Indians who had profound control over a Philippine public utility, with the knowledge and approval of the Filipino officers of MCIAA and GMCAC among whom are the suspects Dicdican, Saavedra, Ferrer, Tan and Cruz.
The evidence submitted by the complainant and gathered by the investigators showed that the foreign nationals were actually performing executive and managerial positions.
Thus, the NBI-AFD filed charges against the subjects before the Department of Justice for violation of the Anti-Dummy Law.