Ombudsman steps into PTA row

The Office of the Ombudsman has urged designated Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA) general manager Robert Dean Barbers to effect the release of the anniversary bonus and the performance incentive benefits of 10 employees, whom he earlier accused of gross insubordination.

Barbers filed the charges against the 10 employees last May 5 for their refusal to recognize his appointment as PTA general manager and chief executive officer and have instead continued to report at the office of GM Nixon Kua.

In a letter dated last May 20, lawyert Marlyn Torres-Galvez, director of the Ombudsman’s Public Assistance Bureau, asked Barbers to "take into consideration all the surrounding circumstances stated in their (employees’) letter... may we ask that their request be given a second look by your office."

The employees’ bonuses were ordered held in abeyance last May 8 by the PTA’s corporate legal council after Barbers filed the formal charges of gross insubordination against them for their refusal to comply with his Feb. 10 order directing them to report to his office.

This developed as the affected employees, most of whom have been in the PTA for more than 10 years, even before Kua was appointed general manager. They have urged the Court of Appeals to immediately resolve the issue concerning the top leadership of the agency involving Kua and Barbers.

"Damay lang kami. Bakit pati maliliit na mga empleyado pinag-iinitan? Sana matapos na ang mga kaguluhang ito," said engineer Noel Sagun.

The PTA, which is an attached agency of the Department of Tourism, released the anniversary bonus and incentive benefits to its employees last May 9.

The 10 employees, all assigned to the office of Kua, were prompted to ask the Office of the Ombudsman’s intervention after they noted that Barbers had allegedly refused to observe due process such as the conduct of preliminary investigation before filing the case against them.

They claimed that the cases were "hastily filed and were obviously designed to cause the holding in abeyance the grant of benefits due them."

Earlier, the same employees have filed charges of grave abuse of authority against Barbers for imposing the baseless charges against them.

They asked the Manila Regional Trial Court for prohibition mandamus and the issuance of a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against Barbers and three other PTA officials.

In a hearing Wednesday last week, Manila RTC Branch 42 Judge Juan Nabong ordered both parties to desist from making any action in relation to the case pending the next scheduled hearing, last May 23.

In their complaint, the employees pointed out that Barbers’ haste in filing charges "reeks not only of gross ignorance of the law....but he also assumes all the qualities of a rigged tribunal—he is the complainant, prosecutor, judge and executioner."

It can be recalled that a petition for quo warranto was filed by Kua before the Court of Appeals, questioning the legality to Barber’s appointment as PTA general manager. Kua cited a provision in the PTA charter that a PTA general manager has a fixed six-year term.

The quo warranto case has been submitted for resolution last March.

Aside from the case filed by the 10 employees, Barbers was also slapped with a P 1 million damage suit by 27 PTA employees whom he terminated from the service last January.

The complainants are seeking actual, moral and exemplary from Barbers for illegally terminating them without cause in violation of constitutional guarantee to security of tenure.