Cusi willing to face another Senate hearing on Malampaya deal, says legal counsel

Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi is willing to face another Senate hearing in connection with the buy-in of Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy’s business into the Malampaya consortium, according to his legal counsel on Wednesday.

At the Laging Handa briefing, Cusi’s legal counsel Ruy Orendain said the government official is open to the call of some senators for additional hearings on the Malampaya deal.

“I suppose, depende (it depends.) Hindi namin napag-usapan ‘yan, pero kung makakatulong, (We haven’t talked about that but if it helps) I don’t see why he should refuse,” he said.

This comes after proposals have been made for the Senate to conduct another probe regarding Malampaya Philippines Pte. Ltd.’s buyout of the Chevron Philippines stake in the gas field off Palawan. Uy’s firm has since been renamed to UC MPPL.

During a hearing in late September, Senate energy committee chairperson Sherwin Gatchalian released a document submitted by the Department of Energy that UC MPPL’s available working capital was -$137.156 million, with a bank balance of $39.170 million.

This compares with the working capital requirement of $64 million in 2020, and $73 million in 2021.

According to GMA News Research, Uy was one of Duterte's top contributors during the 2016 campaign with P30 million in contributions, while his wife, Cherylyn, gave P1 million.

In October, Cusi denied that the buy-in of Uy’s business into the Malampaya consortium was a midnight deal, as he said the transaction is beyond the department’s purview.

Last week, Cusi filed a libel complaint against several news organizations that published stories about him and Uy facing a graft complaint involving the Malampaya transaction.

According to Orendain, it would depend on the response of the news organizations to determine whether or not the charges would be dropped.

“I-e-evaluate ‘yan depende kung ano ‘yung sinabi ng complaint at tsaka kung mayroong good faith. Kailangan i-file muna ‘yung counter-affidavits nila under oath para ma-evaluate kung i-a-atras ‘yung libel,” he said.

(That will be evaluated depending on what the complaint says and if there was good faith. The counter-affidavits need to be filed first under oath so that it can be evaluated whether or not to withdraw the libel suit.) — VBL, GMA News