By: Rigoberto Tiglao
Philippine Daily Inquirer
3:18 am | Thursday, June 9th, 2011
In the 45 weeks since he assumed office, President Benigno Aquino III has convened a total of four meetings of the Cabinet, a crucial body which in most republican democracies serve as the head of the government’s executive committee and council of advisers.
Mr. Aquino seems so convinced that the Cabinet is a useless body or one that is so unwieldy for him that he has effectively broken it up into five parts, and may even be on the way to dissolving it in effect, through Executive Order No. 43 which he issued on May 13. It is a totally unprecedented, and radical restructuring of the Philippine presidency.
Ostensibly in order to create a more manageable, focused organization, the EO fragments the Cabinet into five “Clusters.” That’s “Cluster” with a capital C, according to the EO, thereby inventing a new type of body in the Philippine presidency. Under the EO, these are not mere coordinating entities, in the way former Presidents Fidel Ramos and Gloria Arroyo occasionally called for meetings of “clusters,” more often the specialized National Security Cluster.
The EO emphasizes that the Clusters “serve as the primary mechanism of the Executive Branch for directing all efforts” of the administration. Nowhere in the EO is reference made to Cluster decisions being presented to the Cabinet as whole.
In response to future media questions why the Cabinet isn’t meeting, Aquino or his spokesman will now reply, and correctly if the EO is to be complied with: “The meetings are all in the Clusters.”
The Clusters are those on: (1) Good Governance and Anti-Corruption, headed by Mr. Aquino himself, with seven Cabinet members; (2) Human Development and Poverty Reduction headed by the social welfare secretary, with 12 members; (3) Economic Development headed by the finance secretary, with 10 members; (4) Security, Justice and Peace headed by the executive secretary, with six members; and (5) Climate Change and Mitigation headed by the environment and natural resources secretary, with 10 members.
The EO in effect excludes Vice President Jejomar Binay from Mr. Aquino’s core of leadership, as it does not mention the Office of the Vice President at all. Binay is even effectively demoted, since as chair of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, he is a member of both the Poverty Reduction Cluster and the Climate Change and Mitigation Cluster. The fact that he is the second highest-ranking official of the land is ignored: he is chair of neither Cluster, with the social welfare secretary heading the Poverty Reduction Cluster and the environment secretary chairing the Climate Change Cluster. The Vice President is in effect being ordered under the EO to report to two department secretaries.
Former Sen. Mar Roxas has admirably taken on a huge task as the new transportation secretary. However, with EO 43, he would have to forget his wish to be in the inner core of Mr. Aquino’s presidency. The transportation secretary is just one of 11 members of the Economic Development Cluster, chaired, a bit ironically, by Finance Secretary Cesar Purisma whose career in government is entirely due to Roxas.
Under the EO, all Cabinet members except the Cluster heads will report not to the President but to their respective Cluster chair. The incoming transportation secretary, Mr. Aquino’s running mate in the 2010 elections, will therefore be reporting to Purisima.
Other than one-on-one meetings and telephone conversations, Cabinet meetings serve as a department head’s means of communicating with the President and providing inputs to the administration’s policies, including those not related to his department. This will no longer be the case under EO 43.
Rather than just being a collection of heads of departments, the Cabinet was evolved by republican democracies (including ours) as the president’s core of advisers, and the equivalent of a corporation’s executive committee. Mr. Aquino has demolished this crucial set-up utilized by all presidents.
That the EO may have been the result of sloppy job is reflected in three boo-boos:
1. The Commission on Information and Communications Technology to which the DOTC in 2004 transferred all authority and responsibility involving communications is not assigned to any of the Clusters.
2. The secretariat of the Security Cluster, headed by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, is the National Security Council. But the President heads the council. The EO demotes the President to head of the secretariat of Ochoa’s Cluster.
3. There is no such official as “Secretary, National Economic and Development Authority” as specified in the EO. What we have is a secretary for socio-economic Planning. The President chairs the Neda, which has a director-general.
Under the EO, several Cabinet secretaries will find their time consumed by endless meetings. For instance, the interior and local government secretary, who already has a dozen offices under him, the biggest of which is the National Police, and who has to oversee over 100 local government entities, is a member of all five Clusters, and therefore has to attend to so many meetings.
What is likely to happen is that department secretaries, especially since the President isn’t in the Cluster meetings (except for the Governance Cluster), will gradually ask their undersecretaries to attend them. The undersecretaries would most likely later on ask their assistant secretaries to represent them. In a few months, only lower ranking officials would attend the meetings of Mr. Aquino’s “primary mechanism” for governance, with everyone knowing that the meetings are a waste of time since they cannot give their own inputs and are there only as stenographers to their department secretaries.
The crucial body in the Executive Branch of government, the Cabinet will by then be in effect dissolved, perhaps to be replaced by a kitchen cabinet, or in this case a shooting-range cabinet.
My email: tiglao.inquirer@gmail.com Archive of columns at trigger.ph
Thursday, June 09, 2011
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Why Ping de Jesus was sacked, the inside story
By Dr. Dante A. Ang
THE Manila Times story on the forced resignation of DOTC Secretary Jose “Ping” de Jesus was as clear as the sky on a fine day. De Jesus did not resign from the Cabinet. He was fired by President Benigno Aquino 3rd for loss of confidence, to say the least.
De Jesus was summoned to Malacañang on Monday morning at ten by the President. The meeting was brief; merely 15 minutes. He was distressed and looked teary-eyed after his meeting with the Chief Executive.
I do not know de Jesus personally. Never met him before. Fact is, he strikes me as a no-nonsense former Lopez executive. I have absolutely no reason to write ill of the man who, if you believe his spin doctors, resigned out of frustration for not getting the support from the President for the agency’s various projects and over the Virgie Torres issue.
I have it on good authority that several questionable, if not dubious decisions by the DOTC have conspired together that led to the sacking of de Jesus by the President. Chief among them were the Radar Control System, MRT maintenance and privatization, Stradcom’s interconnectivity agreement with LTO and its P1.2-billion claim against the government.
In fairness to the President, he tried to put a lid on the “firing” of de Jesus perhaps out of respect for the man who had served his mother, the late President Corazon Aquino. The Press Office wanted to announce the resignation that very Monday but PNoy gave specific orders to “hold the announcement.” He must have wanted to give de Jesus a graceful exit.
Before the announcement could be made on Tuesday, de Jesus asked the Press Office to hold it for another day. De Jesus’ resignation was leaked to the media on Wednesday but was denied by the Secretary. The denial was published Thursday in the Star.
And so it came to pass that it was a DOTC Undersecretary who made the announcement of de Jesus’ departure from the Cabinet effective end of the month.
Prior to the meeting of the President with de Jesus on Monday, PNoy reportedly made a long distance call to a member of his family who was in Paris at the time to break the news of his decision to let go of the DOTC Secretary. “Ping has to go” the President reportedly said over the phone.
Prior to the long distance call, de Jesus had no inkling that all the while the President had been gathering information from independent sources about the contracts entered into by the previous administration. It was during these consultations that PNoy came across the questionable transactions in the DOTC.
Immediately after getting the data from his sources, the President crosschecked and validated the information with an expert who confirmed the attendant anomalies involving the radar project. A series of consultations occurred with the resource person. An “aide memoir” was finally sent to the President for his study.
The P 7.3-billion radar project was awarded to Sumitomo-Thales consortium during the Arroyo administration. It was perfected during the early months of the Aquino administration. The first phase was for P 4.8 billion, the second, P 2.5 billion.
The bidding process was flawed. The award to Sumitomo-Thales was illegal according to the Commission on Audit. It objected to the award, noting that some years ago, when the Japanese-Australian consortium was still called CSF Thompson it abandoned a project, “Global Maritime Distress Signal System (GMDSS).” COA also slammed DOTC in a memorandum sent to the agency’s officials for “not disqualifying spurious bidders.”
In short, the bidding was rigged to favor Sumitomo-Thales. Despite the COA findings, de Jesus authorized the release of P58 million to the consortium representing 15 percent as mobilization fee. The P58-million mobilization fee was subsequently disallowed by COA.
Another contentious issue that unsettled the President was the privatization of the MRT.
PNoy and de Jesus have been at loggerheads over the details of the privatization. As opposed to the position of the President, the Secretary wanted to pay the winning bidder P15 billion over three years. Instead of a Private Public Partnership (PPP) arrangement, de Jesus favored awarding what he calls a “Service Contract.”
The President was against it. PNoy preferred an arrangement that is straightforward, very transparent, no-nonsense, and with no out-of-pocket expense for the government. He wanted the winning bidder to take over the operations and maintenance of the MRT at no cost to the government in exchange for an extension of the 25-year contract, depending on the amount of investments the private operator puts in the project.
LTO Chief Virginia Torres had nothing to do with the sacking of de Jesus by the President. If at all, Torres was only one of those who briefed the President on the real score involving the P 1.2 billion that Stradcom was trying hard to collect from the government, contradicting what Velasco earlier told PNoy. It was the LTO chief who refused to release the P 1.2-billion payment to Stradcom given what she described as an “anomalous contract.”
At one point, the President reportedly confronted Velasco and told him straight to his face, “You’re not telling me the whole story.” In effect, PNoy accused Velasco of lying to him.
On another issue, showing extreme displeasure, PNoy reportedly confronted de Jesus about why the MRT coaches malfunction very often and why despite his order, the coaches remain decrepit. The President must have been hurt by the incessant public criticisms over the frequent malfunctioning of the MRT coaches. He had expected the DOTC boys to solve the recurring problems in the MRT to spare him the negative publicity being generated by the incompetence of some government officials.
Three DOTC undersecretaries namely, Dante Velasco, Glicerio Sicat and Ruben Reinoso called a press conference on Friday to announce that they too were resigning their posts effective June 30 to “give the incoming Secretary a free hand.”
At the same time, they accused the President of extending passive support for DOTC’s programs. Reinoso also announced that he was going back to his old job at NEDA and Velasco to the Office of the Executive Secretary. Until that press conference, nobody knew Velasco was holding on to two positions on a concurrent capacity.
After putting the President in a bad light, these two now want to go back to their “old jobs.” What gall.
THE Manila Times story on the forced resignation of DOTC Secretary Jose “Ping” de Jesus was as clear as the sky on a fine day. De Jesus did not resign from the Cabinet. He was fired by President Benigno Aquino 3rd for loss of confidence, to say the least.
De Jesus was summoned to Malacañang on Monday morning at ten by the President. The meeting was brief; merely 15 minutes. He was distressed and looked teary-eyed after his meeting with the Chief Executive.
I do not know de Jesus personally. Never met him before. Fact is, he strikes me as a no-nonsense former Lopez executive. I have absolutely no reason to write ill of the man who, if you believe his spin doctors, resigned out of frustration for not getting the support from the President for the agency’s various projects and over the Virgie Torres issue.
I have it on good authority that several questionable, if not dubious decisions by the DOTC have conspired together that led to the sacking of de Jesus by the President. Chief among them were the Radar Control System, MRT maintenance and privatization, Stradcom’s interconnectivity agreement with LTO and its P1.2-billion claim against the government.
In fairness to the President, he tried to put a lid on the “firing” of de Jesus perhaps out of respect for the man who had served his mother, the late President Corazon Aquino. The Press Office wanted to announce the resignation that very Monday but PNoy gave specific orders to “hold the announcement.” He must have wanted to give de Jesus a graceful exit.
Before the announcement could be made on Tuesday, de Jesus asked the Press Office to hold it for another day. De Jesus’ resignation was leaked to the media on Wednesday but was denied by the Secretary. The denial was published Thursday in the Star.
And so it came to pass that it was a DOTC Undersecretary who made the announcement of de Jesus’ departure from the Cabinet effective end of the month.
Prior to the meeting of the President with de Jesus on Monday, PNoy reportedly made a long distance call to a member of his family who was in Paris at the time to break the news of his decision to let go of the DOTC Secretary. “Ping has to go” the President reportedly said over the phone.
Prior to the long distance call, de Jesus had no inkling that all the while the President had been gathering information from independent sources about the contracts entered into by the previous administration. It was during these consultations that PNoy came across the questionable transactions in the DOTC.
Immediately after getting the data from his sources, the President crosschecked and validated the information with an expert who confirmed the attendant anomalies involving the radar project. A series of consultations occurred with the resource person. An “aide memoir” was finally sent to the President for his study.
The P 7.3-billion radar project was awarded to Sumitomo-Thales consortium during the Arroyo administration. It was perfected during the early months of the Aquino administration. The first phase was for P 4.8 billion, the second, P 2.5 billion.
The bidding process was flawed. The award to Sumitomo-Thales was illegal according to the Commission on Audit. It objected to the award, noting that some years ago, when the Japanese-Australian consortium was still called CSF Thompson it abandoned a project, “Global Maritime Distress Signal System (GMDSS).” COA also slammed DOTC in a memorandum sent to the agency’s officials for “not disqualifying spurious bidders.”
In short, the bidding was rigged to favor Sumitomo-Thales. Despite the COA findings, de Jesus authorized the release of P58 million to the consortium representing 15 percent as mobilization fee. The P58-million mobilization fee was subsequently disallowed by COA.
Another contentious issue that unsettled the President was the privatization of the MRT.
PNoy and de Jesus have been at loggerheads over the details of the privatization. As opposed to the position of the President, the Secretary wanted to pay the winning bidder P15 billion over three years. Instead of a Private Public Partnership (PPP) arrangement, de Jesus favored awarding what he calls a “Service Contract.”
The President was against it. PNoy preferred an arrangement that is straightforward, very transparent, no-nonsense, and with no out-of-pocket expense for the government. He wanted the winning bidder to take over the operations and maintenance of the MRT at no cost to the government in exchange for an extension of the 25-year contract, depending on the amount of investments the private operator puts in the project.
LTO Chief Virginia Torres had nothing to do with the sacking of de Jesus by the President. If at all, Torres was only one of those who briefed the President on the real score involving the P 1.2 billion that Stradcom was trying hard to collect from the government, contradicting what Velasco earlier told PNoy. It was the LTO chief who refused to release the P 1.2-billion payment to Stradcom given what she described as an “anomalous contract.”
At one point, the President reportedly confronted Velasco and told him straight to his face, “You’re not telling me the whole story.” In effect, PNoy accused Velasco of lying to him.
On another issue, showing extreme displeasure, PNoy reportedly confronted de Jesus about why the MRT coaches malfunction very often and why despite his order, the coaches remain decrepit. The President must have been hurt by the incessant public criticisms over the frequent malfunctioning of the MRT coaches. He had expected the DOTC boys to solve the recurring problems in the MRT to spare him the negative publicity being generated by the incompetence of some government officials.
Three DOTC undersecretaries namely, Dante Velasco, Glicerio Sicat and Ruben Reinoso called a press conference on Friday to announce that they too were resigning their posts effective June 30 to “give the incoming Secretary a free hand.”
At the same time, they accused the President of extending passive support for DOTC’s programs. Reinoso also announced that he was going back to his old job at NEDA and Velasco to the Office of the Executive Secretary. Until that press conference, nobody knew Velasco was holding on to two positions on a concurrent capacity.
After putting the President in a bad light, these two now want to go back to their “old jobs.” What gall.
'GOCC Act a milestone law under Noy government'
By Delon Porcalla (The Philippine Star)
Updated June 07, 2011 12:00 AM
Updated June 07, 2011 12:00 AM
President Aquino signs into a law the Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations (GOCC) Governance Act. of 2011 at Malacañang yesterday. Witnessing the signing are Senate President Juan Ponce Enrilre, (seated 2nd from left), House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. (seated right), Sen. Franklin Drilon, and other officials. Willy Perez | Zoom
MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang said yesterday that the Government-Owned and Controlled Corporation Governance Act of 2011 that President Aquino signed into law was a “milestone and the first important law” under the current administration.
The law is a reform measure that ensures a level playing field for all government institutions.
“This is a milestone bill that the President personally considers as the first important law to be signed during his administration,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said, in reference to the newly signed Republic Act 10149.
The new law – the second law that Aquino signed after the General Appropriations Act of 2011 – provides for the rationalization of salaries and benefits of officials and employees of government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) and government financial institutions (GFIs).
“The President has already indicated that the often bloated compensations of those at the helm of GOCCs is a major factor in the unwieldiness of such institutions,” Lacierda said in a statement.
“Worse, it contributes to a culture of political transactionalism, deeming such positions as mere political currency – to be granted based on expediency and proximity to those in power, rather than on character and competence,” he added.
Lacierda said the law effectively paves the way for wider-ranging reforms in public corporations.
“From now on, there will be no more excessive, unreasonable and unnecessary perks for GOCC and GFI executives, unlike in the past,” he said.
The objective of the GOCC law is to “promote financial viability and fiscal discipline in GOCCs and strengthen the role of the state in its governance and management to make the GOCCs more responsive to the needs of public interest.”
RA 10149 covers all GOCCs, GFIs and its subsidiaries, but “excludes the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, state universities and colleges, cooperatives, local water districts, economic zone authorities and research institutions.”
The law also provides for the creation of a Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG), which shall be attached to the Office of the President and will be the “central advisory, monitoring and oversight body with authority to formulate, implement and coordinate policies.” The GCG will be composed of five members to be headed by a chairman with the rank of Cabinet secretary and two members with the rank of undersecretary who shall all be appointed by the President.
Secretaries Florencio Abad of the Department of Budget and Management and Cesar Purisima of the Department of Finance will be sitting as ex-officio members in the five-man GCG.
The GCG is authorized to evaluate the performance and determine the relevance of a GOCC, implement the reorganization, merger or streamlining of a GOCC, unless otherwise directed by the President.
The five-man supervising body will also recommend to the President the abolition or privatization of a GOCC and, upon approval, will carry out the same, “unless the President designates another agency to implement such abolition or privatization.”
“It shall also conduct compensation studies, develop and recommend to the President a competitive compensation and remuneration system which shall attract and retain talent, at the same time allow the GOCC to be financially sound and sustainable,” a provision stated.
Under the law, the “term of office of all incumbent chief executive officers and appointive members of the board of GOCCs will end by June 30 (2011), unless sooner replaced by the President.”
“However, they shall continue in office until the successors have been appointed by the President,” the law stated.
The law is a reform measure that ensures a level playing field for all government institutions.
“This is a milestone bill that the President personally considers as the first important law to be signed during his administration,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said, in reference to the newly signed Republic Act 10149.
The new law – the second law that Aquino signed after the General Appropriations Act of 2011 – provides for the rationalization of salaries and benefits of officials and employees of government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) and government financial institutions (GFIs).
“The President has already indicated that the often bloated compensations of those at the helm of GOCCs is a major factor in the unwieldiness of such institutions,” Lacierda said in a statement.
“Worse, it contributes to a culture of political transactionalism, deeming such positions as mere political currency – to be granted based on expediency and proximity to those in power, rather than on character and competence,” he added.
Lacierda said the law effectively paves the way for wider-ranging reforms in public corporations.
“From now on, there will be no more excessive, unreasonable and unnecessary perks for GOCC and GFI executives, unlike in the past,” he said.
The objective of the GOCC law is to “promote financial viability and fiscal discipline in GOCCs and strengthen the role of the state in its governance and management to make the GOCCs more responsive to the needs of public interest.”
RA 10149 covers all GOCCs, GFIs and its subsidiaries, but “excludes the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, state universities and colleges, cooperatives, local water districts, economic zone authorities and research institutions.”
The law also provides for the creation of a Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG), which shall be attached to the Office of the President and will be the “central advisory, monitoring and oversight body with authority to formulate, implement and coordinate policies.” The GCG will be composed of five members to be headed by a chairman with the rank of Cabinet secretary and two members with the rank of undersecretary who shall all be appointed by the President.
Secretaries Florencio Abad of the Department of Budget and Management and Cesar Purisima of the Department of Finance will be sitting as ex-officio members in the five-man GCG.
The GCG is authorized to evaluate the performance and determine the relevance of a GOCC, implement the reorganization, merger or streamlining of a GOCC, unless otherwise directed by the President.
The five-man supervising body will also recommend to the President the abolition or privatization of a GOCC and, upon approval, will carry out the same, “unless the President designates another agency to implement such abolition or privatization.”
“It shall also conduct compensation studies, develop and recommend to the President a competitive compensation and remuneration system which shall attract and retain talent, at the same time allow the GOCC to be financially sound and sustainable,” a provision stated.
Under the law, the “term of office of all incumbent chief executive officers and appointive members of the board of GOCCs will end by June 30 (2011), unless sooner replaced by the President.”
“However, they shall continue in office until the successors have been appointed by the President,” the law stated.
Monday, June 06, 2011
President fired de Jesus
Aquino order to review award of dubious deals totally ignored
BY JOEL M. SY EGCO ASSIGNMENTS EDITOR
PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino 3rd had fired Secretary Jose “Ping” de Jesus over a number of “questionable if not dubious decisions” that he made involving three controversial deals that the President wanted amended but were nonetheless pursued by top officials of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a highly-reliable government source told The Manila Times that de Jesus and his subordinates were actually “asked to resign” after they drew the ire of President Aquino for ignoring his instructions to have certain contracts further scrutinized on suspicion that these may be riddled with anomalies.
These projects are the Communication Navigation and Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) System, the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) 7 Project and the inter-connectivity contract between the Land Transportation Office (LTO) and information technology provider Stradcom Corp.
“The President has gone past the learning curve, meaning that he is actually in control and calling the shots, contrary to public perception. By asking these [DOTC] officials to leave, he has proved that when it comes to corruption, there will be no compromise,” The Times source said.
The source claimed that the President has come across the questionable decisions by agency officials on the controversial deals.
“The review of government contracts is necessary to weed out corruption during the GMA [Gloria Macapagal Arroyo] administration.
One can argue that its significance can be a national security concern.
Now, we have to deal with many contracts in DOTC. Similar [to those] in almost every [other] agency, these contracts were rushed or put in motion prior to GMA’s stepping down,” The Times source pointed out.
“One of the closest loyalists of GMA [a former general], was in charge of DOTC. It is not surprising that projects and contracts prepared by this agency were designed to help fuel various [groups of] political [machinery that are] being used to destabilize the [Aquino] government. One solution is to close the valves that fuel this tool for destabilization,” the source said.
While contracts or bid processes that miss their target closures abound, The Times source noted that the same corrupt structure remains with these projects.
Some of these, the source said, have been identified and reviewed but continued by de Jesus despite having been informed by concerned quarters about the tainted projects.
“If [they are] not used to destabilize this government, [these projects still] carry with [them] the stench of corrupt practices that we are trying to get rid of,” The Times source added.
Radar contract
Besides being expensive, the Japanese-funded air traffic management (ATM) project was criticized for allegedly being “flawed,” “futile” and “redundant” since existing air traffic facilities can very well handle anticipated increase in international and domestic flights in the next five years.
Airport sources have said that the CNS/ATM System Project worth P13 billion should be quashed because the existing Manila Air Control Center (MACC) can still effectively manage air traffic.
At the most, the sources added, an upgrade of the MACC should be undertaken.
Questions on the propriety of the CNS/ATM project came after the
Transportation department awarded Package 1 of the project to Sumitomo/Thales Joint Venture on December 23, 2010.
This phase costs P4.2 billion.
“The Commission on Audit stated they [DOTC] cannot award [the project] to Thales considering that they have abandoned the project called the global maritime distress signal system. At [the] time, their name was Thompson CSF. The disqualification of other bidders was also spurious,” The Times source said.
The CNS/ATM project has seven major components—the construction of the air traffic management automation, communications, navigation, surveillance, meteorological system, consulting services and land acquisition.
It aims to achieve greatest operational flexibility, airspace capacity and system efficiency.
The losing bidders were Marubeni Corp. (Indra Systemas), Selex Sistemi-Kanematsu Cor. Joint Venture and Sojitz Corp. (Rayheon Corp.).
The scope of the more expensive Package 2, which is yet to be awarded, includes the installation of an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) Ground Station, En-route Radar (Secondary Surveillance Radar Mode-S), Terminal Radar (Airport Surveillance Radar/Secondary Surveillance Radar), VHF Terminal and Remote Control Air-Ground (RCAG) Communications facility, Microwave link and Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT).
Previously, Civil Aviation Authority (CAAP) insiders proposed that instead of embarking on a “complex” project, the Transportation department should just put the newly upgraded MACC into action.
The insiders said that the MACC, at a fraction of the cost of the new CNS/ATM with almost the same functionality, is ready for commissioning.
Filipino-made
Besides, the MACC is home-brewed and Filipino-made.
In comparison, the upgrade of the new MACC would only cost P550 million, way below the CNS/ATM Package 1 that costs P4.2 billion.
Besides being expensive, the CNS/ATM project has no back-up system to speak of and its technology could be rendered obsolete soon because of current research and development works in the US and Europe.
“Chances are, we would be paying so much for something that could be of very little or no use at all,” The Times source noted.
According to other sources, the crafting of the project’s terms of reference was riddled with anomalies all the way to the bid process itself. “Despite this, pressure to pursue this project has come from the upper echelons of the [DOTC].”
Interestingly, DOTC Undersecretary for Plans Ruben Reynoso, who runs the technical and planning aspects of the department, was a member of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) board that approved the project.
“He [Reynoso] is in direct conflict of interest since he is defending the same projects in the pipeline (that) were reviewed when he sat in the NEDA board during GMA’s time,” The Times source said.
MRT 7
Also, Reynoso was noted to have approved of the MRT 7 project during his stint at NEDA.
The MRT 7, practically a repeat of the “disadvantageous” MRT 3 project that was done through a build-operate-transfer (BOT) scheme, was to have been awarded by DOTC during Mr. Aquino’s incumbency.
“Aside from its apparent overprice, the government is giving again full sovereign guarantee, thereby, removing any risk to the proponent during operations. This runs counter to the President’s PPP (public-private partnership) policy,” the source said.
Mr. Aquino, according to The Times source, wanted an amendment of the project to prevent the same mistakes committed in the past involving the MRT 3 project which the government continues to pay for to this day.
Frequent breakdowns and accidents at MRT stations had somehow contributed to the dent in the popularity of the President.
Interconnectivity
While Stradcom Corp was awarded the LTO-IT project using the build-operate-own scheme under the Ramos administration, actual implementation of the project kicked in during the past administration.
At the time, the project’s scope went beyond its original contractual engagement, which was limited to vehicle registration and driver’s license interconnection.
From these two items, Stradcom was able to expand its operations to and derive income from private emission testing, insurance and drug testing, radio frequency identification device, online driver’s license renewal and interconnectivity with the Bureau of Customs, among others.
Since Stradcom’s operations were suspected of being used as a milking cow by personalities identified with the previous administration, LTO chief Virginia Torres took on the company and attempted to replace its heads.
Recently, the IT firm filed criminal charges against Torres for allegedly refusing to pay the P1 billion owed the former for services rendered.
Torres believed that the interconnectivity project was illegal and improper because Stradcom took absolute control over the database, which the government owns.
Torres said that government should have a share in the fees collected by Stradcom from motorists because it is the owner of the database.
She even questioned the legality of the contract with Stradcom.
“It [Stradcom] has full control over the database. Not even authorized DOTC representatives can gain access to the servers or audit the systems it owns. While the LTO head has taken the initiative to take on Stradcom, the DOTC secretary has provided relief for the same,” the source claimed.
Torres refused to pay up despite an order from the DOTC on April 1, 2011 when Undersecretary Dante Velasco, replying to a letter complaining about Torres, informed Stradcom officials that she had been ordered to pay the company.
Instead of complying with the order, she filed an inter-pleader suit asking the courts to settle the issue of Stradcom’s ownership where a rival group in Stradcom led by Aderito Yujuico and Bonifacio Sumbilla has claimed ownership of the IT firm and tried to take over its offices at the LTO in December.
Torres was then forced to go on leave for two months.
News about de Jesus’ resignation was confirmed just a day after Torres had returned to the LTO.
Another day later, three DOTC undersecretaries, including Velasco, and
one assistant secretary also resigned.
Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., according to The Times source, may be next in the President’s “uncompromising” campaign against wrongdoing in his Cabinet.
Ochoa, it was learned, was instructed by Mr. Aquino to revisit the same three projects that undid de Jesus but apparently ignored the order.
Saturday, June 04, 2011
Streamline business processes, improve education, Philippines urged
By: Abigail L. Ho
Philippine Daily Inquirer
9:06 pm | Friday, June 3rd, 2011
The government should work harder to streamline business processes and improve the quality of education if it wants to be able to compete with its neighbors in attracting investors.
Robert Vinje, vice president for sustainable expansions at SunPower Corp., compared the business environment of the Philippines with that of Malaysia where SunPower also had a plant.
In particular, Malaysia had a lot of task forces and relevant agencies that helped investors in accomplishing various requirements for their business operations.
“The Philippines needs to improve in the area of facilitation and follow Malaysia’s example,” he said in a presentation at the Philippine Solar/Photovoltaic Summit.
He said the country should also improve its utilities, particularly power, as good power facilities were among the biggest and most crucial requirements of manufacturers when locating to a certain country.
Another area of improvement for the country, he said, was education. To attract more investors, the country would have to further improve its higher education system to ensure that graduates had the right skills that industries were seeking.
He added that public and private sector cooperation would also have to be enhanced.
“The Philippines needs to start tying the private sector, foreign investors, and the government together. That’s what will make the Philippines win more investors,” he said.
In terms of tax breaks, he said the Philippine Economic Zone Authority was already doing a good job in that area.
In general, he said, any country that wanted to attract more investors had to have a banner-carrier, or an agency that would rally investors’ interest, much like the Peza; a firm stand against corruption; and “relentless positivity.”
“You should focus on the positives, and know that success breeds success. If the Philippines helps us, we will also do our part,” he said.
Vinje’s comments echo suggestions made over the years by foreign and local businessmen to help the country attract more investments.
The creation of Peza in 1995 was a direct response to such calls, as was the creation of various one-stop shop units in various government agencies involved in licensing and issuing business permits.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
9:06 pm | Friday, June 3rd, 2011
The government should work harder to streamline business processes and improve the quality of education if it wants to be able to compete with its neighbors in attracting investors.
Robert Vinje, vice president for sustainable expansions at SunPower Corp., compared the business environment of the Philippines with that of Malaysia where SunPower also had a plant.
In particular, Malaysia had a lot of task forces and relevant agencies that helped investors in accomplishing various requirements for their business operations.
“The Philippines needs to improve in the area of facilitation and follow Malaysia’s example,” he said in a presentation at the Philippine Solar/Photovoltaic Summit.
He said the country should also improve its utilities, particularly power, as good power facilities were among the biggest and most crucial requirements of manufacturers when locating to a certain country.
Another area of improvement for the country, he said, was education. To attract more investors, the country would have to further improve its higher education system to ensure that graduates had the right skills that industries were seeking.
He added that public and private sector cooperation would also have to be enhanced.
“The Philippines needs to start tying the private sector, foreign investors, and the government together. That’s what will make the Philippines win more investors,” he said.
In terms of tax breaks, he said the Philippine Economic Zone Authority was already doing a good job in that area.
In general, he said, any country that wanted to attract more investors had to have a banner-carrier, or an agency that would rally investors’ interest, much like the Peza; a firm stand against corruption; and “relentless positivity.”
“You should focus on the positives, and know that success breeds success. If the Philippines helps us, we will also do our part,” he said.
Vinje’s comments echo suggestions made over the years by foreign and local businessmen to help the country attract more investments.
The creation of Peza in 1995 was a direct response to such calls, as was the creation of various one-stop shop units in various government agencies involved in licensing and issuing business permits.
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