Sacked officials still working at PEA

Two months after President Arroyo abolished the Public Estates Authority and dismissed its officials, five PEA officials she fired are still holding office and drawing their salaries.

PEA deputy general manager for finance legal and administration Theron Victor Lacson, deputy general manager Manuel Beriña, assistant deputy general manager Jaime Milan, deputy manager Bernardo Viray and senior corporate counsel Ernesto Enriquez are still holding office in PEA and signing papers, PEA employees told The STAR.

In his Dec. 16, 2002 letter to the chairman and members of the PEA board, Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo said the President approved the Nov. 28, 2002 recommendation of the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) dismissing the erring PEA officials and meting the corresponding penalties. The five PEA officials were also barred from public service.

However, documents obtained by The STAR indicate that the five dismissed PEA officials continue to receive their paychecks in spite of the President’s order. Enriquez also still continues to report to the PEA, it was learned.

While one of the penalties meted to the five fired PEA officials is the forfeiture of their benefits, PEA documents showed that all of them, except Enriquez, received combined total wages of P60,233, or 4.93 percent of the total PEA paycheck of P1.22 million as of Dec. 31 last year.

Moreover, Lacson, Beriña and Milan all have existing car and salary loans.

Mrs. Arroyo abolished the PEA last Nov. 30. The abolition announcement was part of the President’s policy speech, in which she cited the controversies surrounding the PEA, particularly its overpricing of the President Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard (PDMB) in Pasay City’s reclamation area.

The President appointed three new officials to the PEA, even as Malacañang warned dismissed PEA officials to immediately stop signing documents and leave their offices.

Teodorico Taguinod replaced PEA acting general manager Gen. Diomedio Villanueva (ret.). Tomas Alcantara and Datu Ibrahim Paglas III, meanwhile, were appointed PEA directors.

Villanueva, was acting PEA general manager prior to his new appointment as postmaster general, replacing Nicasio Rodriguez.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said Taguinod, Villanueva and Alcantara were appointed to the PEA to facilitate the dismantling of the firm’s operations. "This demobilization or deactivation will take place only upon the passage of a law which abolishes the agency. In the meantime... certain persons have to be in charge of the operation."

Bunye earlier warned the sacked PEA officials who refuse to vacate their posts that more forcible measures will be used to remove them from PEA.

He said any documents executed by and contracts entered into by the five would be illegal.

PEA marketing and public relations manager Sonny Cuenco expressed the concerns of several of the agency’s employees regarding the status of the dismissed officials.

Cuenco said these dismissed PEA officials should immediately step down and seek redress afterwards, as a matter of principle.

He said Taguinod was repeatedly asked why the five sacked officials continue to hold office despite the President’s order, but has failed to provide any justifiable answer.

Cuenco also said Taguinod does not want to implement Malacañang’s order because he fears that the five fired officials might sue him, as they are all career executive service officers of the PEA.