COMMENTARY: Insult to position

Feb 10-16, 2011

Fresh official actions are coming out now relating to the controversy on the security services contract bagged by the Christian Investigation Security Agency for the Davao del Norte provincial government.

On Tuesday, Governor Rodolfo del Rosario met with the members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan including Vice Governor Victorio Suaybaguio Jr purposefully “to patch up perceved differences” relating to the CISA controversy, and so far we heard that the dinner-meeting failed to resolve issues relating to the CISA transaction as the meeting was reportedly more of a monologue than a dialogue (although at this writing we still don’t know what really happened).

If things on the current controversy over the CISA transaction can be appraised by the public, the attention to what has been let out thus far by concerned officials on events and official statements relating the issues is valuable. The matter at hand is a public interest issue given the key figures or entities essential to provincial governance involved in here- the executive and legislative departments, and consequently their current relationship, the controversy’s implications to politics, and each of their powers that have apparently collided. Above all, this is about transparency and public accountability as the CISA transaction was obviously kept under wraps during the December 20, 2010-Jan. 8, 2011 incumbency of the acting governor whose position is ought to be respected by the Capitol Triumvirate composed of provincial administrator Rufo Peligro, Bids and Awards Committee chairman and PGSO Samson Sanchez and provincial legal officer Atty. Jennifer Namoc, even if shall we say the person temporarily occupying the acting governorship is not to be respected.

Still, there are new questions to be asked – now particularly on what happened in the hours of December 20, 2010 when the transaction was awarded to CISA. What were the deficiences of the lowest bidder United Field Sea Watchman and Checkers Agency (UFSWCA) that it was knocked out by the BAC on that day? What time was it when the BAC decided to knock out UFSWCA? What was the gap of time on that same day when CISA was informed that it was the bid winner and the time when CISA Manila headquarters e-mailed the lacking/insufficient document? The Notice of Award, as told by CISA Tagum Branch officials, was dated and presumably received on the same day. What time was it received? Verily, there was only a matter of hours that the probing COA auditor can count from one BAC activity to another last Dec. 20 while really the concerned executive officials led by Peligro were racing a limited time as the year 2010 was almost about to end.

Dec. 29 and Dec. 30 were still working days and within these days they had never formally informed the sitting acting governor about the CISA transaction like he was made a scarecrow in the field. Who is he who sit as the acting governor from Dec. 20-Jan. 8? He is an elected vice governor and by the law he was serving as the very governor at that period, who had all the powers of the governor except the (hiring and) firing of the triumvirate. He was a former mayor for THREE TERMS of the city of Tagum, and one of the few living senior politicians-incumbent in Davao del Norte and Compostela Valley provinces, a so cautious and careful chief executive in matters of government finances and governmental rules and regulations, also a stateman (to borrow an apt description of Tagum City Vice Mayor Allan Rellon). And evidently, they bypassed Vice Gov. Suaybaguio when they hid all the BAC bidding and awards documents from him and had ordered- by their obsessed reasoning and invocation of the new law on government procurement- the posting of the CISA guards on the New Year’s Day, a manpower change that is certaintly new when it threw out over 60 contractual security personnel from their work, their source of livelihood for their respective families, and drastically changed the way the security is handled for the Capitol.

They, fearing for a vacuum of security? This is a cute reasoning as the sitting acting governor has all the powers to mobilize personnel and resources for the exigency of public service and demand obedience from the provincial police to beef up the 17 remaining permanent guards to secure the Capitol while contract issues have yet to be resolved, command virtues which cannot and will not be fully found in the appointed officials. The last thing the triumvirate should do pending the COA finding is to apologize in public to the vice governor for insulting his position mandated by the people and law. (cha monforte)

Filed under: davao del norte officials, vice governor victorio "baby" suaybaguio, davao del norte officials, vice gov. victorio suaybaguio jr

Peligro replies: “Basig magkahiyaan na hinoon”

 jan 20-26, 2011

 “There’s trial by publicity, grandstanding for the media, fishing expedition”

 By Cha Monforte

Davao del Norte provincial administrator Rufo Peligro has replied to the charges thrown by several members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan last Monday’s session saying that they have been engaging in “trial by publicity”, “grandstanding for the media”, “fishing expedition”, and “if we go there, basig magkahiyaan na hinoon” in a session aired live by DXDN Radyo Ukay Tagum.

In an interview Wednesday with the Valley & City Chronicle, Peligro said that the transcripts of the other week’s SP session particularly where Boardmember Alan Dujali made his privilege speech would seem to insinuate that some officials in the Capitol were trying to let Governor Rodolfo del Rosario sign documents without his full knowledge.

When they consulted the governor about it and the subsequent invitation of the SP to them, Peligro said: “Miingon siya (governor), if that’s the basis, ayaw mo’g attend (don’t attend).”

“The source of our authority and power is the governor himself. The governor is our boss. Whatever he decides we abide. But sa amo lang, mora na mag insulto to sa governor,” he said referring to Dujali’s insinuations.

He said that the governor has been at the helm of the Capitol, “a stateman being there for decades” and throwing such charge at him is unfair and uncalled for.

Peligro clarified though that they are still willing to attend to the SP session when invited, if the governor authorizes them to.

In the same interview with the Valley & City Chronicle, the provincial administrator said that grandstanding SP members would seem to engage in “trial by publicity” “kay gitirahan dayon mi sa media” although he said that the SP “has the discretion to call (us) but di lang unta i-abuse nila.”

He also questioned the basis of their invitation for having “no legislative proposal” for the executive department to respond.

“If they have prerogative, we have also our rights, at least our human rights should be respected,” he said lamenting on the some SP members’ accusations at them.

“There would be fishing expedition if we go there,” he added even as he said that when the concerned boardmembers based their questions on the old law on government procurement, “basig magkahiyaan na hinoon” hinting that they might have known well of the Republic Act No. 9184 otherwise known as Government Procurement Reform Act. “We have a new law and they’re banking on the old law.”

Under RA 9184, he said, the procurement of goods and services “is under the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) and even “the governor’s signature (for it) is only ministerial.”

He said further that the “purchase of services” and even the purchase order (PO) would no longer pass the SP as “it falls under theprovinceofBAC.”

He said that the transaction relating to Christian Investigation and Security Agency (CISA) which is now securing the Capitol since January 1 “is legal” and that each BAC’s decision is always legally scrutinized as the provincial legal officer Jennifer Namoc is a member of it in the first place.

He also said that they are “looking for the big picture” saying that the Capitol has been saving resources to meet the demands of the salary standardization law which he said would double up the present salary rates of Capitol employees by 2013. “We really have to sacrfice.”

Several SP members during the last Monday’s session took turns questioning and lamenting over the “snubbing” of Peligro, provincial BAC chairman Samson Sanchez and CISA branch manager Rolando De la Cruz to the SP’s earlier invitation for them to shed light on the contract and other information about CISA which bagged the P6.3-million contract for the Capitol’s security services.

They were up in their arms in the last session appearing that the legislative department is going on a collision course with the executive department as triggered by the sudden privatization of security services in the Capitol which has thrown out over 60 contractual personnel from their work.

Earlier, some boardmembers charged that they were not consulted and bypassed by the executive department when the contract for the security services was awarded to CISA. (cha monforte)

Filed under: davao del norte gov rodolfo del rosario, davao del norte officials, Davao del Norte provincial administrator Rufo Peligro, Davao del Norte provincial administrator Rufo Peligro

NEWS: Davnor gov-less, mayor-less due to China trip

april 22

Davao del Norte has virtually no governor and municipal mayors starting today as they are bound already to China for a study tour.

“The tour would last for 8 to 10 days,” Tagum Vice Mayor Allan Rellon said in an interview yesterday morning

He also said that Governor Rodolfo del Rosario is heading the province’s delegation composed of city and municipal mayors and their accompanying technical men.

He said that Mayor Rey Uy is joining the tour which would expose the delegation to diverse fields of interest such as lawmaking, infrastructure and agriculture developments in various cities and places of China such as Beijing, Shanghai and Macau.

He added that the Dept. of Interior and Local Government had already approved applications for permit of the governor and all of the 11 mayors in the province to go out from the country for the China trip.

“There are 25 names in the delegation based on the letter already prepared by the Consul General of the Chinese Embassy,” Rellon said.

He said that earlier the invitation for the province’s chief executives to go for a study tour came from the Chinese Embassy.

“It was addressed to Gov. Del Rosario, who in turn invited all the mayors to join the study tour,” he added.

Rellon by now is the OIC City Mayor. (Cha Monforte/Rural Urban News)

Filed under: davao del norte mayors, davao del norte officials, governor rodolfo del rosario, davao del norte mayors, davao del norte officials, governor rodolfo del rosario