No DICT anomaly, but Rio still quitting

MANILA, Philippines — The conflict between Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Gregorio Honasan II and his top undersecretary, Eliseo Rio Jr., over P300 million in confidential expenses has been settled, according to a joint statement they issued yesterday.

But in an interview with The STAR, Rio said he is still bent on resigning from the DICT.

The joint statement of the DICT’s top two officials said there has been no irregularity in the agency’s disbursement of its P300-million confidential fund.

“Your department has but one goal: to give utmost priority to the Filipino people and our nation. We put aside whatever differences we may have, and we shall work together to achieve this goal,” the officials said in the statement.

“To set the record straight, Undersecretary Rio never mentioned any anomaly in the disbursement of the confidential expense of the DICT. His statements about the need for confidential expenses may have been misinterpreted, and it is emphasized that these were his own personal view and not that of the department,” it said.

The statement was released to clarify what it referred to as “any inconsistencies that may have surfaced” regarding the disbursement of the fund and “to put to rest any question on the integrity of the Department.”

The statement also said: “We assure the Filipino people, and the members of the DICT family, that we have reassessed the situation and have mutually agreed to settle our differences.”?The statement said that it was Rio at the time who proposed the inclusion of the confidential expense (CE) item in the 2019 General Appropriations Act (GAA) and he was also the one who signed the special allotment release order for it.

The confidential expense, they said, was used for lawful monitoring and surveillance of systems and network infrastructure only, and not for monitoring of individuals and persons.

Speaking to The STAR, Rio confirmed he was accepting the department position on the regularity of the spending of the fund since he has no investigatory position.

Rio said that while he had joined Honasan in signing the statement, he will also await the results of investigations into the disbursement of the P300-million fund.

He also said that his resignation stands. “I’m just waiting for the acceptance of my resignation by the President,” Rio said. “I did not withdraw my resignation. It’s up to the President to accept it or not.”

Rio said that in a meeting with Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea in Malacañang last Thursday, he had been told by the Palace executive regarding the lack of any presidential decision on his resignation.

He also bared that Medialdea had urged him not to issue more statements regarding the P300-million CE fund disbursement.

Rio said that Medialdea had stressed that issuing more statements will be bad for the DICT.

“There was a special request that we make (an) effort to... yung, it’s not good for the department that we are discussing these things in public,” Rio told The STAR.

“Wala muna kayong dapat na ihu-hurl na mga ganyan na mga (Neither of you should hurl those kinds of) allegations,” Rio said, recalling the pleas made by Medialdea.

Rio also clarified that he had not resigned due to alleged irregularities in the P300-million fund.

“(My) resignation was basically because of professional reasons. That I cannot work well with the other asecs (assistant secretaries) and usecs (undersecretaries) that were brought into the department (by Honasan),” Rio said.

Rio said that he had already met with Honasan, who has accepted his decision to resign.