Stung by corruption poll, GMA orders PEA board to quit

Smarting from the results of an international survey of 102 countries that ranked the Philippines as the 11th most corrupt nation, President Arroyo said yesterday the Public Estates Authority board of directors must resign even as she suspended all PEA projects, notably those which require public bidding.

The President said she would install an "interim" board to replace the current seven-member PEA board which figured prominently in the alleged overpricing by as much as P600 million of the President Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard (PDMB).

"If anyone (from the PEA board) wishes to submit his resignation, I shall be pleased to accept his resignation, without prejudice to the prosecution which will be recommended by the Department of Justice or the Senate Blue Ribbon committee," she said.

"I’m ordering the interim board, the top officials and employees of the PEA to cooperate fully with the investigation and conduct a parallel inquiry into the road construction at the reclamation area," Mrs. Arroyo said.

Meanwhile, PEA chairman Ernest Villareal told The STAR that the position of the board members was they "would like to be given a chance to be cleared first" by the Office of the Ombudsman, Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) and the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee or "at least go through the clearing process."

"If we resign now, the public may perceive it as a sign of guilt and we have not done anything wrong," he said in an interview.

He censured the presidential speech writer who drafted Mrs. Arroyo’s speech before the Philippine Nurses Association. "Whoever prepared that did a great disservice," he said.

Director Sulficio Tagud Jr., the whistle-blower on the alleged overpricing of the construction of the PDMB, told The STAR he has "no plans of going back to the PEA." He said, "Suffice it to say, if and when all this is done, I am no longer interested in returning to the PEA because it is a tainted agency."

In a separate interview, Tagud said he was still consulting with his lawyers as to what would be the impact of his resignation on his testimony.

He said the President must also suspend management officials and technical staff who were "still wreaking havoc" in PEA. He said he "suspects the integrity" of PEA documents.

Employees, who requested anonymity, assured Mrs. Arroyo that they would cooperate with any investigation into the PDMB controversy.

In her speech, Mrs. Arroyo said she wanted to possibly revamp the PEA because of its involvement in many scandals and that investigations should "go to the bottom of the controversy, determine the truth and identify the wrongdoers if there were any and clear the innocent."

The President reiterated an order to the PAGC to complete its PDMB investigation within 60 working days. On Sept. 30, she instructed the PAGC to probe the alleged overpricing of the PDMB construction.

Pending the completion of several investigations into the alleged overpricing by the PAGC and the Office of the Ombudsman, she suspended the implementation of all PEA projects, especially those that must go through public bidding.

Mrs. Arroyo commented on the PEA issues as she digressed from the prepared text of her speech before the 80th anniversary annual convention of the Philippine Nurses Association and the 45th Nurses Week annual convention held yesterday at a hotel in Manila.

She told nurses gathered that she commented on the alleged corruption charges against the PEA board because she wanted "to share this national concern" in the fight against graft and corruption in the government to professionals in the private and public sectors.

The President said she wished the country had an "effective" identification system that could recognize professionals with good moral character and "wrongdoers in the government especially those involved in anomalies and be able to prosecute them and to send them to jail."