December 17, 2003
Hon. Karina C. David
Chairperson
Civil Service Commission
Dear Chairperson David,
We write this letter in connection with a statement
attributed to you calling for vigilance of the people in reporting related
abuses by government officials and employees. “Sana people will keep their
eyes open for any abuse and will tell us kung meron man.” This report appeared in the CSC web site
datelined December 3, 2003 and picked up by the leading local newspapers.
We wish to bring to your attention the fund raising
campaign held by the Philippine Ports Authority ostensibly for their Gender and
Development Programs (GAD). While these
programs are laudable, it appears that they are only used to provide justification
for solicitations that are overbearing because of the nature of the target
donors and the lead-time between the solicitation and the event itself.
Suspiciously, the activity used as a vehicle to
solicit funds for the GAD Projects was a golf game called the “PPA GM’s Cup”
held a day before actual birthday of the PPA GM. During the awarding of prizes for the golf game winners, checks
were given to representatives of the beneficiary organization. We do not know what portion of the total
solicitations went to the beneficiaries, but we feel that even if the amount
were substantial, this would not justify the holding of the event and the
solicitations made from business organizations that had some dealings with the
government agency.
Playing Golf During Office Hours
Practically, all PPA officials who are golfing
aficionados, attended the daylong affair, with some of them coming from the
various PPA regional offices scattered all over the country. One could readily see that there was
something wrong with the affair since people who were supposed to be working
were in two golf courses playing their favorite game. Never mind that they were doing it all in the name of charity,
for we doubt that these officials would spend (PhP5,000 per ticket) of their own
money coming to Manila just to play golf.
It was more like their presence was to show support for their Chief
whose birthday was being celebrated the following day.
These officials that came from the provinces were
given a good excuse, they are supposed to have their planning conference in Antipolo
on December 9. No matter what the
official explanations might be, the fact remains that a good number of PPA
officials were playing golf during office hours and remained for the rest of
the day to attend the award ceremonies and cocktails that followed.
It is significant to note that the PPA GM’s Cup was
played in two adjacent golf courses.
Each course has 18 holes and in a shotgun startup, all holes have
players that start playing when the signal is given. Each golf flight can accommodate 4 players; therefore 144 players
could play the 36 holes in two courses easily.
Actually, the maximum number of players that could be allowed to play
would be 288 before the courses can really be crowded. But with eight hours of playtime, that
should not be a problem for a game that takes four to five hours to finish.
Excuse for Raising Funds
A nebulous project of the PPA called Gender and
Development Projects (GAD) was used to justify the golf tournament as a means
of raising funds. Beneficiaries of
these projects are the squatters that abound in the government piers operated
by the PPA. This seems to be a major
headache of PPA Management, but the means of funding these projects have never
been formally discussed with the appropriate Committees organized for the
purpose. The PPA Port Welfare
Committee, that includes representatives from various private organizations and
government agencies such as the DSWD, have never been aware that funding of
such concerns would be undertaken by running golf tournaments with donors
mostly coming from PPA contractors and suppliers.
Solicitations from contractors and suppliers were
specified to be payable in checks to a named foundation. Ostensibly, all donors were aware that the
occasion was the celebration of the PPA GM’s birthday and that they were
obliged to give that donation within the time frame allowed. Solicitations were sent less than a month of
the scheduled affair.
The solicitation letters even suggested an amount!
One hundred thousand pesos for the large corporations and twenty-five thousand
pesos for the smaller contractors and suppliers. These were officially endorsed by PPA Management. Additionally, tickets to the event were
being priced at five thousand pesos each.
Project Accounting
We are unable to give an idea or an estimate of the
funds raised by the event as well as the expenses involved in running the
tournament. All we know is that the
affair must have included the payment of green fees for the players, their
breakfast, lunch and cocktails in the evening and other miscellaneous
organizational expenses.
The following day, which was a Friday and the GM’s
actual birthday celebration, lunch was served to all PPA employees in the
agency’s gym. Some employees were
quoted as having observed that this was the first time a PPA GM served lunch to
the employees during his birthday. We
also do not know how many employees there are or were in Manila for the GM’s
birthday.
If the donations were all made through checks, there
must be some kind of record as to how much was received and spent for the
affair. People investigating this can
probably get an idea of the number of participants, hence the cost of running
the tournament by getting the registration cards of the players from the golf
course operator.
We are presenting these observations to you in
response to your call for watchful vigilance to excesses of government
officials. This particular public
official has been rumored to be very close to the President and her
husband. We do not know that for a
fact, but considering the brazen behavior displayed by this official in the
discharge of his duties, we are inclined to believe that such behavior is a
result of a reliance that indeed, there is a wide leeway for him to act in the
name of the President.
Solicitations for Christmas Giveaways
Notwithstanding your warning against prohibited
solicitation for gifts to be used during Christmas celebrations in government
offices, PPA is going full swing with their solicitations for their Christmas
party. The best way to find out what
items are being solicited would be to conduct a surprise visit to the PPA
offices a day before their Christmas party.
Evidence Available
Aside from the evidence that we have so far gathered, we might be able to convince some donors to provide us with copies of the solicitation letters, if not the contributions that were made. It would take some time to gather all this, but we would be glad to help out and convince the affected contractors and suppliers to cooperate in order to put a stop to this subtle extortion racket of the PPA. These bits of evidence may be downloaded from this web site.
Having brought this matter to your attention, we hope that the Commission will go out of its way to prosecute these erring government officials for wanton and willful violation of our Civil Service Laws.
Thank you for your attention.
Very truly yours,
CONSUMER COMPLAINTS CENTER, INC.
