Open Letter on the Internet to Tadao Chino
Tadao Chino 27 April, 2000
President
Asian Development Bank
ADB Avenue
Mandaluyong, Metro Manila.
Your commitment to take direct action against the corruption in the ranks of the ADB clients by strengthening the anti-fraud squad is heartening and encouraging to us who are victims of the harassment and corruption in the projects of Bank clients.
You have been quoted as saying that the Bank is "paying very serious attention" to the issues of corruption. Here in Olongapo, there is ample evidence of corruption in the project made possible by funds from the ADB and the World bank to your clients.
Your clients have been involved in the erection of power lines that emit electromagnetic radiation endangering the many children at the PREDA Children's Home. This project has benefited local politicians because not only has it been over designed and priced but an extra pylon was erected to to reroute the power lines away from the private property of the local politicians but they would not give the same benefit to the Children recovering from abuse at the PREDA center.
I have written to the World Bank President James Wolfensohn who is committed to social justice. The NGO criticisms of the bank would not be so strident if the ADB and the World Bank paid attention to victims of these projects riddled with corruption.
Many people have written to the finance ministers of ADB donor countries to request the ADB to 'pay serious attention' to this problem. We at PREDA Foundation are campaigning on the internet and in public lecture tours in Europe, Canada and the USA for people to support us in our effort to right these social wrongs.
I ask you to help protect the PREDA Children's Home at Kalaklan Olongapo City, Philippines from the Electromagnetic radiation from a power cable erected in 1996 by your clients, the city government of Olongapo and the National Power Corporation (NPC). At first the NPC agreed to route the 230 KV. cables away from the Children's Home (at lower cost too) but later changed the plan to accommodate the family of the city mayor and instead the NPC diverted the cables away from their private property.
The ADB claimed that there is no danger to the children from the cables but never explained why the mayor had the cables diverted from their private houses. The bank officials also claimed that the Bank did not fund that portion of the project. But these two entities are long standing clients of the Bank.
The Evidence of Alleged corrupt practice. Not only did the local political family of the city benefit personally by ordering the power company to erect an extra pylon at government cost but the project is over designed and overpriced. The NPC erected pylons and cables for a 230 KV line but the power grid only uses a smaller 69 KV line according to NPC's own admission during a Philippine congressional hearing. Besides there has been, and there still is, another existing kV line feeding the same destination. The project was probably, a white elephant, unnecessary in the first place.
A recent NPC survey confirms that there is another shorter, safer and less expensive route for the cables. In fact to divert the cable will take only three pylons and allow 11 pylons to be removed and reused on other projects. This will right a terrible wrong and help undo the corrupt practice that benefit private individuals and endanger the public and children.
Sincerely,
Father Shay Cullen Mssc
President and Executive Director PREDA Foundation.
Nobel Peace Prize Nominee for 2001