By Adolfo Quizon Paglinawan

 

Part 2 of a Series: Is it worth saving an incompetent and corrupt President?

The devil is in the details.

With all due respects, Amenah Pangandaman is not a line person but staff.

While a staff is not necessarily an order taker, Pangandaman’s record does not speak well of being proactive. Instead, at the Cabinet level she occupies, she appears to be stickler to following standardized rules and processes, rather than commonsensical adaptation to good governance and reform. 

She started her career as a researcher at the Senate of the Philippines and climbed up the ranks until becoming chief of staff to former Senate president Edgardo Angara in 2007.

When Ben Diokno became President Rodrigo Duterte’s budget secretary, he took Pangandaman first as his chief of staff with a rank of undersecretary, acting concurrently as the functional Group Head of the Office of the Secretary (whatever that means) while directly managing the Department Liaison Office and Budget Technical Bureau.

Diokno under siege

While Congress was still scrutinizing the proposed budget for 2019, the House appropriations committee discovered that Secretary Diokno had already earlier authorized DPWH regional and district offices to bid projects totaling P75 billion in infrastructure projects with insertions into the national expenditure plan made in the wee hours of July 12, 2018.

Corollary to this, the committee red-flagged P325 million for flood control projects for Sorsogon because so much money was going to Casiguran, when neighboring towns like Matnog were at much greater risk of flooding. 

As a consequence, Diokno was accused of using his influence for insertions in favor of Casiguran whose mayor Edwin Hamor was running for reelection in 2019, and whose wife, Sorsogon Vice Governor Esther Hamor, was the mother-in-law of Diokno’s daughter. Mayor Hamor’s children confirmed establishing Aremar Construction Company, where Diokno’s son-in-law was an incorporator.

Diokno denied any involvement after the expose, saying: “In the matters of that state I have no relatives, I have no friends…I’m very objective, unbiased. I don’t talk business with anybody except the line departments.”

If “Saint” Diokno says he has no sin, then who?

Scapegoat or Enforcer?

Diokno refused to appear before the committee, as the hearings dragged onto 2019.

In course of the resumption of the hearings, a witness from the Department of Public Works and Highways testified under oath, that Pangandaman requested them to “reformat” the 2019 budget for the DPWH and insert a list of projects first amounting to P51 billion but finally totaling P75 billion.

On February 10, 2019, Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr., the appropriations committee chair, said instead of summoning Diokno anew, the investigating panels would again subpoena top DBM and DPWH officials “to pin down the real masterminds behind the P75-billion insertion in the preparation of the 2019 NEP.”

He said they would zero in on Pangandaman, Diokno’s chief of staff, and Engr. Glenn Degal, a DPWH programmer, conspirators who inserted infra projects without the knowledge of DPWH Secretary Mark Villar.”

Andaya said it was clear that Pangandaman was the “puppet master of all this charade.”

Any analyst can establish from this acid test, that since Pangandaman did not yellow-flagged the anomalies, her judiciousness has been honed by her experience not to serve the people but seek the approval of her superiors.

Obviously, she did not possess the quality of making wise, sound, and well-considered ethical choices, often involving balancing conflicting values, considering the consequences for all involved, and acting with integrity.

Law’s supremacy and consequences

What Andaya called pork, Diokno termed “budget adjustment”.

The Supreme Court had banned the pork barrel system on November 19, 2013. The landmark decision in the case of Belgica v. Ochoa, declared the Priority Development Assistance Fund unconstitutional, finding that it allowed legislators to intervene in the implementation of the budget. The ruling reinforced the principle that public funds belong to the nation and should be used for the benefit of the public, not for the patronage of a few.

Moving on, both chambers of Congress proceeded to realign the P75 million appropriations to other priorities, a humungous problem that could reach the President, as an “early procurement circular issued by the DBM” had authorized the originally listed projects to be bid out as early as 2018.

Duh? So, what remained to be done was the awarding of the contract to the supposedly winning contractors, once the President signs the proposed budget – that is, if the original projects were still retained in the NEP.

But since both chambers of Congress had already realigned the whole amount, chances were some if not most of them may no longer be in the final outlay.

As a result, Andaya said, “some contractors who had advanced commissions to lawmakers and other officials, were demanding refunds.”

One unnamed official returned P200 million to a group of Mindanao-based contractors “for fear of his life,” he added, so much that Diokno, lawmakers and incumbent and former national and local officials who proposed the projects would then have to appease the grumbling contractors.”

Duterte reforms, Marcos recycles

Because of this controversy that even government media like the Philippine News Service, Radyo Pilipinas and PTV4 reported, President Rodrigo Duterte immediately moved Diokno and Pangandaman to Bangko Sentral, on March 5, 2019, or only three weeks after the Congressional hearing, as governor and technical advisor respectively, pending investigation by the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission.

Because of Diokno’s patronage and clout, however, Pangandaman moved like a rocket to become managing director of the Office of the Governor and Executive Offices, and to assistant governor in 2021.

Like a tapeworm recurring because a polluted environment, however, Ben Diokno was appointed Secretary of Finance by Marcos Jr, and he brokered for his protégé Pangandaman to be the Secretary of the Department of Budget Management. No wonder therefore Marcos Jr, within hours after taking his oath as president, abolished the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission.

After a year, a news website, said there were indications that Diokno was not fully in the loop of the Marcos inner circle. So, he started feigning a move toward retirement as it was becoming awkward for him to linger with the sense of being replacement any time.

The president appeased him with an offer to head the Maharlika Investment Fund, but Diokno opted to ensure P2 million a month in compensation attending only board meetings at Bangko Sentral. As former governor, he made double, but half is better than sitting on a rocking chair at home. Marcos acceded as “He felt that it was time for him to return to his natural habitat.”

Diokno was replaced by Ralph Recto to head the finance department on January 2024.

Business Mirror commented, “The replacement of the Finance Secretary is like a National Basketball Association (NBA) team firing the head coach, a common strategy in the face of unmet expectations or poor performance.”

Diokno started his revolving door career as budget secretary of President Joseph Estrada in 1998, but became the trigger to massive public protests known as EDSA Dos (Second People Power Revolution), when during Estrada’s impeachment trial, it was divulged that he authorized the P200-million fund release for a supposed tobacco farmers’ benefit, where Estrada allegedly took a P130-million kickback, which ultimately led to the removal of President Estrada from office.

Strike three. Manila Times ace columnist Bobi Tiglao said at that time – “Diokno has become jaded in the eyes, lost the fire in the belly, that he prefers to hold on to his high-paying job rather than disagree with Marcos.”

What is so special anyway about Ben Diokno that he was able to play three presidents -Estrada, Duterte and now Marcos – like a fiddle?

Is it now Pangandaman’s turn?

Read: https://rigobertotiglao.com/2019/01/08/questions-budget-secretary-diokno-must-answer/

Marcos’ new Avengers

I am not comfortable at all that Secretary Pangandaman is now teamed up with Vince Dizon, according to PCO Dave Gomez’ press release, to fully review the budget of the DPWH after the House of Representatives is poised to return it to DBM because of the discovery of double entries, insertions, and allocations for completed or non-existent projects in the proposed ₱6.7 trillion 2026 National Expenditure Program.

This is proof-positive that she is either incompetent, or had again willfully tolerated the malfeasance even in the face of an already devastating scandal confronting the executive and legislative branches of government. In the midst of crisis, she has again done sloppy job.

Dr. Tony Leachon in his column said, (they) must not only cleanse the budget; they must identify who made these insertions, when they were made, and under whose authority.

“This is not a clerical error—it is a pattern. And patterns, when left unexamined, become normalized. We call for a comparative audit of budget proposals across the last five fiscal years. Let the data speak. Let the public see which districts, agencies, or actors repeatedly benefited from opaque provisions, multi-year zeroing, or ghost allocations. Let us end the era of blank items and vague justifications.”

I am also watching Vince Dizon closely.

Many people have applauded high-profile Secretary Dizon for doing a “good job” at the Department of Transportation, and welcomed his transfer to head the Department of Works and Public Highways vice the anemic and uninspiring performance of Manuel Bonoan.

But the public may have already forgotten that Dizon during the previous administration was implicated in his own public works scandal.

Diego Magpantay, president of the anti-corruption watchdog Citizen’s Crime Watch Association Inc. filed on October 26, 2020, criminal and administrative complaints before the Ombudsman against several officials of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) and the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel over alleged irregularities in the building of facilities for the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.

Sued for graft and malversation of public funds were BCDA president Vivencio Dizon, senior vice president for legal Elvira Estanislao, government corporate counsel Elpidio Vega, and MTD Capital Berhad director Isaac David as private respondent.

He also leveled administrative charges for gross misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service against the BCDA and OGCC officials.

Magpantay claimed the transaction caused injury to the government because the respondents skirted the rules of procurement that required public bidding by unlawfully inserting the build-transfer scheme into the Joint Venture Agreement.

He pointed out that under the deal, the sports facilities go to the BCDA only upon the expiry of the joint venture rather than upon full payment by the BCDA of the contract price of P11 billion consisting of P8.51 billion as MTD’s unencumbered cash advances and another P2.49 billion as “reasonable cost and returns.”

“This proves that the agreement, in so far as the facilities is concerned, is a build-transfer scheme unlawfully embedded in the JVA because the ownership will be transferred to BCDA upon payment of P11 billion and not upon expiration of JVA. The Build Transfer Scheme was unlawfully embedded in the JVA to avoid public bidding,” Magpantay’s complaint read.

Be that as it may, in fairness to his predecessor, Manuel Bonoan, has turned over to Dizon a dossier of the 15 flood control projects, which he found to be “nonexistent.” According to him, those projects were under the Bulacan engineering office’s first district’s jurisdiction, with others “scattered” in other regions.

Bonoan has relieved 10 officials of the Bulacan first district engineering office last August 22, including its newly appointed district engineer, Brice Hernandez.

The Commission on Audit has since deployed its teams to immediately inspect all flood control projects in Bulacan as part of an ongoing fraud audit covering more than three years of public works spending in the province.

On August 28, the former secretary issued Department Order No. 166, which formed the DPWH’s Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Committee tasked to investigate graft and corrupt practices allegedly perpetrated by officials and employees of the department.

Last September 2, Dizon abolished the committee saying “it doesn’t seem right” for the department to investigate its own officials and employees who are allegedly involved in corrupt practices as he deferred to the independent commission to perform the task.

Dizon also clarified that that when Bonoan created the committee, Marcos had not yet approved the creation of an independent body to investigate the anomalies surrounding the flood control projects implemented by the agency.

Frankly, I don’t think even an independent body can still save Marcos.

The flood-causing rains have not stopped a bit.

Mother nature seems to hinting at a solution more drastic than appeasement.

To be continued.

Part Three: Missing Emily Boncodin in Face of a Nation’s Plunder

   

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