WHY AM I BEING HOUNDED BY THE OFFICE OF THE OMBUDSMAN? by Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo

(THIS IS A NOTE FROM THE FACEBOOK PAGE OF MS CRISTINA PANTOJA HIDALGO, I FEEL FOR HER PLIGHT, THUS I FELT THE NEED TO SPREAD THIS NOTE AROUND. KEEP THE FAITH MADAM CRIS!)

From February 2005 to May 2010, I was Vice President for Public Affairs of the University of the Philippines System, serving under UP President Emerlinda R. Roman. Under me were the Information Office, the Office of Alumni Relations of the UP System, and the Gurong Pahinungod.

Because UP was preparing for the celebrations of its Centennial in 2008, our work load—heavy at best—became considerably heavier. A slew of other tasks was added to the regular responsibilities of running three newspapers, maintaining the UP System website, producing regular magazine-sized reports, writing and sending out regular media announcements, providing support for the Office of the President during the annual presentation of the UP Budget to Congress and the campaign in Congress for the approval of the new UP Charter, and providing communications support for the offices of the other Vice Presidents.

Among these additional responsibilities were President Roman’s alumni caravan, which took us around the country to involve UP alumni in the celebration and in the fund-raising campaign; and several special projects—a coffee table book, another book called Kwentong Peyups, a short documentary film, a UP history book project, supplements for the print media, and several Centennial contests (for the Centennial logo, the Centennial literary award, the Centennial song, the Centennial short film, etc.). My Assistant VPs and I worked long hours, including weekends, and out-of-town trips.

Throughout this period, I continued to teach graduate courses--sometimes one, sometimes two, each semester.

On one such weekend in June 2006, Lydia Arcellana (AVP and Director of the Office of Alumni Relations) and I had a lunch meeting with a group of UP alumni at the Dulcinea, a restaurant on Tomas Morato.

On September 14, 2006, UP received a Subpoena from the “Task Force O-Plan Red Plate” of the Office of the Ombudsman, directing it to submit my driver’s Trip Tickets “and all other appurtenant and relative documents authorizing the use of government vehicle with plate no. SET-536 (the car assigned to my office) for the period June 13-28, 2006.” It contained the ominous threat that failure to do so within 3 days of receipt would “merit the filing of criminal charges” as well as administrative charges. The document, signed by Atty. MARK E. JALANDONI, Assistant Ombudsman, “issued by authority of the Honorable Ma. Merceditas, Tanodbayan,” did not state what these “charges” were.

Atty. Marvic Leonen, then UP Vice President for Legal Affairs, assured me there was nothing to worry about. The car might just have been seen outside the UP campus. He would submit the required trip tickets and a letter with a detailed explanation of the nature of my job. This was in September 2006.

Since we did not hear from the Ombudsman again, we assumed the documents were satisfactory. We were wrong.

In May of this year, I officially retired as full-time UP Professor and VP for Public Affairs. On July 12, 2010 (four years after the initial communication), UP received an “Order” from MEDWIN S DIZON, Acting Director, PIAB-A.

Atty. Marvic Leonen had left his post to become Dean of the UP College of Law. So it was Atty. Theodore Te who replaced him as VP for Legal Affairs who helped me plough through the legal jargon to determine what the problem was.

The Ombudsman was claiming that on June 25, 2006, a Sunday, the car assigned to me had been seen in front of Tonton Thai Massage on Tomas Morato Street at 3:30 PM.

The strange thing is that the accompanying photos (the evidence, I assume) showed the car to be parked in front of—not the massage establishment named—but the restaurant Dulcinea with the sign above its entrance prominently shown. And the affidavits of the people who allegedly saw the car and took the photographs—a certain Peter John R. Arellano and a certain Rholie C. Besoña, “Associate Graft Investigation Officers”—did not claim that they had gone inside Tonton Massage to see whether I was indeed there, or that they tried to find the driver and examine his trip ticket. They even got the time wrong. As indicated in the trip ticket earlier submitted, we had left Dulcinea at 1:30 PM.

On the basis of this, my driver and I were being investigated for graft, and for “dishonesty, grave misconduct, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.” Mr. Jacinto claimed that we had “caused undue injury to the government, consisting in (sic) the unnecessary consumption of fuel and undue wear and tear of the vehicle.” He added that this was “flagrant wastage of government funds,” and “showed utter disregard on (sic) the policy that public officers and employees should uphold public interest over and above personal interest.”

Does not working on weekends to raise funds for UP qualify as “upholding public interest over and above personal interest”? Apparently not. For the Ombudsman it might even be a crime.

After we had filed our counter-affidavits, we received yet another “Order” dated August 9, signed by the same Mr. Dizon, concerning the “administrative case” against us. We have complied with more affidavits containing basically the same facts.

I am an elderly academic, with an impeccable record of more than 20 years of public service, and numerous awards, for both my teaching and my writing. The latest is the title Professor Emeritus, surely one of the highest honors UP can confer on one of its own. I cannot understand why the Ombudsman seems determined to believe that I (and my Assistant Vice President and my driver) are lying about our whereabouts on that fateful Sunday, particularly since their own evidence shows my car to be parked in front of the restaurant where we said we were, and their own investigators did not bother to enter the restaurant to confirm this.

I feel most aggrieved. Given the countless cases of blatant graft and corruption, involving billions of pesos, which seem to be resolutely ignored, why am I being singled out for this harassment by the Office of the Ombudsman?

ROTTING RICE AND MORE AT THE NFA AND INFRAS FOR SALE

It has already hugged the headlines that indeed, there are rotting rice in the NFA Warehouses, orders and deliveries stocked from way back two years ago. That is happening and proven for a fact, and this is the story why it all happened. This is an open secret to rice traders and those who do business with the National Food Authority.

THE “ROAD-TO –MY FARM” SYNDROME:

The first situation why the price of rice and why there are rotting rice in the warehouse is the failure primarily of the government to supply adequate farm to market roads for the farmers to take their produce at markets where it could be sold at a lower rate therefore lower prices when bought by the end consumer. The farm to market roads are being politicized and made an exchange deal for those loyal to the people in power and at times it all becomes a “road to my farm” for the politicians and a farm-to-market road.

Next is, before, I am praying it will not happen this time but the probability is still high, projects like this end up to the favoured ones. The DPWH for instance, there are “sellers” of these projects and the “sellers” also have marketing arms at the Department of Budget when the time for release is already in place.

The time for release is triggered by this situation. If you are the mayor, I am the seller, I will offer to you a project like the road project and I will ask you a request letter addressed to the president. I will do all the walking and talking at the imperial Manila where the central offices are located. Then there is the deal, I also have my contractor for the project which ideally must not be less than 10 Million pesos. Sounds good and pro-poor but wait. The mayor must pledge that for the amount to be released, he must first deposit 30 to 40 percent of the contract price of the project to the “seller”. With this, the mayor can be assured of the immediate release of the funds, ten million for example. But the problem there is, there has already been an expense of 30 to 40 percent? By the way that percentage was already divided by the “seller”, the DBM counterpart and his DPWH associate. All clean and well, manna from heaven.

What happens now, as usually it is the contractor who pays for the percentage, the contractor will now execute the project, expectedly substandard and cannot be utilized by the end user, the taxpayer. If it becomes a “road to my farm” for the politicians not a farm to market road, more so, it cannot be used by the traders and farmers in the far flung barangays.

THE VICIOUS CYCLE: KILLING FARMERS IN THE PROCESS

Next is the scrupulous buyers of the goods taking advantage of the absence of an all weather farm to market road who goes to these areas and offer to buy the harvested crops at a much lower price compared to the competitive price in the markets should there be an existing farm to market road. But the farmer cannot do otherwise except to sell his produce to the buyer who knocks at his doorstep taking with him a truck, haulers and large weighing scales buying the newly harvested rice and other crops at a very low price.

Because it is so low, the price, the farmer only makes a little of his investment and ends up broke for the next planting season as all he earned for that harvest was for his daily subsistence, education for his children and other family expenses. So, the buyer trader offers again to the farmer a loan for the seeds and fertilizers for the farmer to start planting when the next planting season sets in. And when he harvests the same, the same trader buyer buys the produce less the loan earlier taken for the seeds and fertilizers. It is really a vicious cycle which the government could not appreciate as it does not see the reality happening in the countryside.

THE NFA: THEY SELL THE RICE SELECTIVELY

So, we now arrive at the NFA and the trader buyer now sells his marketed goods to the NFA should he be not a rice producer himself. If he is a rice producer himself which is the case, at most, he does not sell his marketed goods to the NFA but mills it at his own rice mill, packs it and sells it at a higher price raking him huge profits to the detriment of the consumers.

But if he sells it to the NFA, his income potential is low as it is the NFA who controls the price after a quality controller checks it.

But most rice traders also buy NFA rice. They cheat, that’s why. In order for them to earn more, they mix the good quality rice with NFA so it could be more good rice to sell but mixed with NFA rice and we will never know as the mixed NFA rice will just be covered by the good variety. Mix so they could pack more.

They also sell the rice at cost because of some corrupt people in the NFA which I was told happens nationwide.

This is the scene.

Buyers at the NFA are varied. Most of the bulk is rice traders. They sell the rice; mix it with the good variety so they earn more. Others are NFA accredited resellers that also are in truth rice traders but can get more supplies from the NFA because they are rolling stores accredited.

They go to the NFA, buy rice with a catch. The people in charge selects those whom they release the rice for sale, only to those that add on to the published rate as we know the NFA rice is relatively cheaper. So, the people add on to say 20.00 pesos per sack to the published rate, but that does not appear in the receipt. The person in charge has the leeway of choosing whom to sell it; it is their prerogative as long as the buyer has the papers. So, that is 20.00 per sack times thousands of sacks from a single warehouse office alone. Next is, the NFA person will not release the goods sold of the trader does not agree to the trucks where the bought goods are to be hauled from the NFA to the place of business of the buyer and these trucks haulers are either owned or rented by the NFA person and they also charge around 5 to 10 pesos per sack. Easy money, isn’t it?

If the buyers do not give in to the caprices of the NFA personnel in charge, the rice is left rotten in stock. That is the reason why a lot of the goods are not sold, should there be any other reasons, we do not know.

Now, Noynoy, what should be done? This is also the reason why there are times there is a shortage of rice, as it is hoarded. If these problems are not addressed, for sure the problem will rise and rice will cease to be the staple food.

Talk to me and we will discuss the possibilities of stopping this cancer! (Hahaha, I am overly presumptuous that Aquino will indeed talk to me but who knows?)

More next time, gasoline stations and their price manipulations perhaps?