Syjuco to Noy: Be sure of your facts

MANILA, Philippines - Former Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) director general Augusto Syjuco Jr. yesterday expressed deep disappointment over how President Aquino accused him of involvement in alleged procurement anomalies in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday.

“When you deal with a person’s integrity and good name, you have to make very sure that you are not just depending on hearsay. You have to be sure of the facts yourself,” Syjuco said.

Syjuco, a former Iloilo representative, appealed for fairness on the part of Aquino.

Syjuco resigned from TESDA a few months after the Arroyo administration ended. He said his being mentioned in the SONA “is a very serious thing for the rest of history to see.”

“It affects not only me but my children and grandchildren. It’s very serious,” he said.

Syjuco said Aquino might have been misled by erroneous information since he was never involved in any procurement anomaly.

“I fought graft and corruption in TESDA. And when you fight graft and corruption, it fights back. I am a hero here, not a villain. I protected the government from any disadvantage,” he said.

Syjuco reiterated he did not pay a single centavo for the deficient deliveries of overpriced cookie cutters, medicine cabinets and others that he rejected as deficient in 2007.

He added that he did not allow the payment of any undelivered items and even confiscated more than P5 million for unliquidated damages.

“Allow me a few minutes to present to him my own story,” he told The STAR, explaining that President Aquino should learn how to listen and not just be dependent on hearsay or information fed him.

“I respect the fact that you cannot sue a president for libel, you cannot sue a president for anything. But that puts a lot of responsibility on his hands,” Syjuco said.

“A chosen adversary like me has no chance. Especially, as I said, there is nobody more blind than he who does not want to see, nobody more deaf that he who does not want to hear, and nobody more dumb that he who does not want to know,” he added.

Syjuco said Aquino should have checked out the details before making accusations.

“I don’t want to call the President irresponsible, let me just say that it would have been better if he checked it himself rather than rely on hearsay. It’s his responsibility to really verify it several times over,” he said.

Syjuco slammed the idea that just because he worked for the former administration or the fact that he is a local political opponent in Iloilo, he should also be persecuted.

“I am for the President, I am for his success, because to go otherwise today is to go counter to the interest of the Filipino. I wish him well. I will not do anything that will prejudice him or his administration because that would be a disservice to the Filipino people. He is the chosen president and I bow to that again and again. And I humble myself before that,” he said.