With the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) remaining on a non-bidding mode for its clearance system, doubts intensify that the processing and releasing operations of this critical document for Filipino job-seekers here and abroad will be restored to normalcy any time soon.
Espie Dela Paz-Cruz of the Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption (Cibac) said that the numbers of complaints from job applicants and overseas Filipino workers continue to soar as the NBI merely addressed the issue of long queues in its offices by implementing a quota system, wherein, instead of falling in line for long hours, applicants would be given a number and those who would not be entertained are merely asked to return the following day.
Although this has solved the long queues, it has not increased the volume of clearances processed per day. Since July 1, 2011, only 6,000 to 9,000 clearances are being released per day nationwide compared to the demand of 20,000+ per day.
According to Dela Paz-Cruz, up to now, the NBI has not called for a public bidding to improve its services on its clearance system.
She noted that the NBI appears to be engaged in one blunder after another. The agency has tapped the services of Strategic and Comprehensive Consultants Inc. (SCCI), a financial consulting firm, and Real Time Management Services, Inc. (RTMSI), a service provider for smoke-emission testing centers at the Land Transportation Office (LTO), in July this year without the benefit of a public bidding and without a contract, she revealed.
The joint venture, according to media reports, apparently was wanting of financial and technical capabilities which resulted in the kilometric queues of NBI clearance applicants all over the country. A check with the SEC records revealed that the SCCI had inadequate capitalization and suffered consistent financial losses in its audited annual financial reports. SCCI’s partner for operations, RTMSI, was also financially and technically incapable and not qualified to undertake a complex and large-scale project such as the NBI Biometrics Clearance System Project.
Like SCCI, RTMSI had no prior experience in handling a project requiring systems integration in a nationwide-scale.
The NBI is now awash with rumors that another police general is being eyed to replace NBI Director Magtanggol Gatdula, leading to further demoralization in the ranks. It is believed that appointing an NBI organic personnel is the best way to go.
It is clear that the only solution to the NBI mess is to bid out the clearance contract, to enable the government to tap companies which are not only in sound and stable financial standing, but are also technically experienced to handle NBI’s information and database that are by its very nature highly confidential.
Let justice be served
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima was right after all.
She has been accused of violating last Nov. 15 a temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the Supreme Court suspending the implementation by the executive department of the watch-list order issued against former President Arroyo and her husband Mike.
But the SC in an en banc session last Nov. 18 to address an urgent motion by the Arroyos to cite De Lima in indirect contempt for ordering the Bureau of Immigration and airport authorities to bar them from leaving for Singapore, said that the TRO was not yet effective last Nov. 15.
The High Tribunal said the lawyer of the Arroyos, Ferdinand Topacio, has not yet complied with the second of three requirements to make the TRO operational, and that Topacio be given by the Arroyos a special power of authority authorizing him to receive on their behalf court summons and other documents pertaining to the plunder and electoral sabotage cases against them while they are out of the country.
The first requirement to produce a P2 million cash bond was complied with while the third was to be complied with once the Arroyos were out of the country – their being in constant contact with Philippine embassy or consular officials in their destination countries.
Observers say that SC spokesperson Midas Marquez has a lot of explaining to do when he claimed that the TRO was immediately executory despite the non-compliance of the Arroyos on the second requirement, and that the SC had ordered De Lima to answer within 10 days why she should not be held in contempt for not following what is now very clear to be a still in-operational TRO.
SC Associate Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno has already admonished Marquez when she said “the Court Administrator cum Acting Chief of the Public Information Office is hereby advised to be careful not to go beyond his role in such offices and that he has no authority to interpret any of our judicial issuances, including the present resolution, a function he never had from the beginning.”
Also according to Sereno, the SC voted six times last Nov. 18 and not just once as what Marquez claimed.
According to Just. first vote was 8-5 upholding the Nov. 15 resolution granting the TRO. The second voting was on whether the TRO issued by the Clerk of Court should be recalled for failure of the Arroyos to comply with the second condition. The voting here was 7-6, affirming the Arroyos’ non-compliance.
This second voting is the most important one because it made very clear that the TRO was not yet in effect last Nov. 15 and during the Nov. 18 SC en banc session because of the Arroyos’ non-compliance with the second requirement.
As it is, De Lima should still be commended for her conviction in seeing to it that justice is served and that the Arroyos be held accountable for the crimes they are accused.
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