Add'l CDC consultants justified

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga - Clark Development Corp. (CDC) president Sergio Naguiat justified his hiring of additional consultants even as the state-run firm is projected to have a P62.8-million budget deficit this year.

CDC consultants now number at least 54, their monthly pay totaling some P1.2 million.

"Those whom I hired are all working consultants," Naguiat said, reacting to local newspaper reports lambasting him for allegedly violating Administrative Order 100 freezing the hiring of personnel by government offices and government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs).

CDC consultants receive monthly salaries ranging from P15,000 to P120,000. The highest paid include a consulting firm for the proposed Clark-Subic road, which gets P120,000 a month, and Stephen Lim, whom Naguiat described as the "No. 3 man" in the CDC, who receives P68,000 monthly.

But Naguiat blamed his predecessors for the big number of consultants. He claimed that only 40 percent of the consultants were hired during his term, while the rest were hired by either former CDC president Rufo Colayco or Romeo David.

Records, however, showed that Naguiat has hired no less than 30 of the 54 consultants since he assumed his post last February.

Naguiat said some of the consultants he hired were recommendees of former Pampanga governor Estelito Mendoza. At least two were recommended by Malacañang.

Lawyer Maliz Aragon of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) told The STAR that the AO 100 freezing the hiring of personnel in government offices and GOCCs was issued last December and took effect last January. But there were exemptions to the ban.

Diosdado Mendoza, newly appointed CDC board member, said Naguiat has the prerogative to appoint new consultants despite the hiring ban.

He said that at least one consultant, Lim, was appointed by President Estrada himself.

Mendoza, however, said he was not sure whether the hiring of the other consultants was covered by the administrative order.

When he took over the CDC, Naguiat said the state-run firm is expected to incur a budget deficit of P62.8 million this year. The Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) junked CDC's proposal for a P280-million allocation from the sale of military baselands in Metro Manila, and gave the CDC only a P50-million budget for this year.