(Eagle News) — Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Wednesday said neither the Palace nor Special Assistant to the President Bong Go intervened in the Navy’s P15.7-billion frigate acquisition project.
“There was neither hint nor guidance from (them) to influence the implementation of the project. There is a contract for the FAP which was crafted mainly by the Philippine Navy and it will be implemented strictly to the letter,” Lorenzana said in a statement.
He said that he only “assumed” that the white paper that endorsed a supplier for the frigates’ Combat Management System came from Go–head of the Presidential Management Staff that routes documents to government agencies–because it was “handed to him at the Palace.”
In reality, he said the document came from Hanhwa that “post-qualified” for the project.
Lorenzana then gave the document to then Navy Flag-Officer-In-Command Vice Admiral Ronald Joseph Mercado “for appropriate action.”
The document then reached then-Frigate Project Management Team chair Commodore Robert Empedrad.
“Adm. Empedrad wrote a reply to the document stating the preferred CMS of the Philippine Navy, subject to the terms and conditions of the contract,” Lorenzana said.
Lorenzana’s statement came after Mercado’s denial Go had intervened in the project.
“…On my side as the FOIC, when I was FOIC, he [Go] never once, with so many times we were together in many foreign Navy ships, and there was never an instance, not once that he even asked me about the frigate, never,” Mercado said.
