Batuhan seeks opinion on MCIAA honoraria

CEBU, Philippines – Undersecretary Aristotle Batuhan, who will be assuming the chairmanship of the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority and Cebu Ports Authority, will seek for a legal opinion from the Office of Government Corporate Counsel whether it is legal to grant honoraria or per diems to the government representatives to the board.

Batuhan, who was appointed as Undersecretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) for legal services, administration and comptrollership, has been tasked to chair the MCIAA and CPA Board of Directors.

According to Batuhan those government representatives to the Board of Directors of MCIAA and CPA should not be given per diems or honoraria because it can be considered already as double compensation, which is prohibited by law.

Batuhan said he will start to preside the separate meetings with the MCIAA and CPA boards tomorrow afternoon, but Batuhan said he will not collect allowances yet from these two government entities until after he can have the legal opinion of the OGCC.

"I will also make sure that the instructions of President Aquino and DOTC Secretary Jose de Jesus will be strictly followed at the MCIAA and CPA," Batuhan said.

He was referring to President Aquino's State of the Nation's Address (SONA) questioning and criticizing the granting of huge honoraria by some Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations.

Batuhan, a Cebuano lawyer, said that the government officials who are sitting as members of the Board of Directors of any GOCC are not entitled to honoraria, per diems, and fat bonuses.

Once Batuhan will preside over the meetings of the MCIAA and CPA, he will discuss the matter with its members. "We already heard the thrust of President Aquino and why we should further aggravate the country's fiscal crisis?"

Although Batuhan said he will not interfere with the activities of the MCIAA during the previous administration, but he said the detail of then Tourism regional director Patria Auroa Roa with the MCIAA was highly questionable. 

Batuhan said when he reviewed the law he learned that only those Department Secretaries, the Undersecretaries and Assistant Secretaries are allowed to sit as members of the boards, but Roa has been an alternate member of the MCIAA for the past 15 years.

The Ombudsman-Visayas is still investigating the legality of the MCIAA Board's move of granting Roa a severance pay of P500,000 because the Commission on Audit (COA) said she is not entitled to such benefit.

But MCIAA general manager Danilo Augusto Francia insisted that the law allowed the members of the Board to receive honoraria and other benefits. (THE FREEMAN)