MANILA, Philippines - Agusan del Sur Rep. Rodolfo Plaza has accused the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) of overpricing the record books of thousands of Filipino seafarers by at least P7 million.
In a privilege speech, Plaza said Marina administrator Elena Bautista had ordered the printing of 130,000 copies of seaman’s identification and record book (SIRB) between February and May last year.
Bautista gave out three contracts to the Apo-NEDA (National Economic and Development Authority) Production Unit without going through public bidding as required by law, he added.
Plaza said one contract worth P7,311,360 was given on Feb. 26, another for P7,920,640 on March 20 and a third for P9,139,200 on May 25.
A fourth contract was given on Oct. 29, 2008 for the production of 50,000 SIRBs worth P14,416,000, he added.
The orders totaled 130,000 SIRBs at a price of P304.64 apiece, he said.
Plaza said Apo-NEDA acted only as a middleman and subcontracted the printing to C and C Security Printing, a Hong Kong-based company.
“The seaman’s book is an accountable document issued by Marina to seafarers that serves as identification and record of sea service of the holder,” he said.
“It contains security features unique to the issuing agency to prevent falsification. Just like a passport, its printing cannot be left to a foreign company. So how did the SIRBs land on Chinese soil?” he said.
Plaza said being an accountable document, the seaman’s book has always been printed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
He could not understand why Bautista chose to have Apo-NEDA and its Chinese subcontractor do the printing, he added.
Plaza said the National Printing Office (NPO) and the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) had offered to print the seaman’s book “at a much lower price of P250 and P255 apiece.”
The fact that Marina preferred Apo-NEDA and its Hong Kong subcontractor over NPO and PITC meant a “huge overprice of P54.60 per book or a total of P7.098 million,” he added.
Plaza also accused Bautista of soliciting funds from shipping companies for her agency’s expenses.
“In one letter she sent to the Philippine Inter-island Shipping Co. on March 13, 2009, she solicited P772,051.40 apparently for advertisements for her ‘Marina Making Waves’ program,” he said.
“This is a violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits public officers from directly or indirectly requesting any gift, present or other pecuniary or material benefit from persons, particularly those transacting business with their offices.”
Plaza urged President Arroyo to replace Bautista as Marina administrator.
“I ask the President, how many more shipping accidents and anomalies should happen before you decide to listen and replace Madame Elena?” he asked. – Jess Diaz, Mike Frialde