COA report may disprove DOT chief’s claim

MANILA, Philippines — While Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo has been claiming that she did not have control over her department’s placement of P60 million worth of advertisements in her brother’s show, the Commission on Audit (COA) report may prove otherwise.

An opposition member of the House of Representatives, Rep. Tom Villarin of Akbayan party-list, called on Teo to show delicadeza and resign amid the controversy.

Based on the COA’s annual audit report on the People’s Television Network Inc. (PTNI) posted on its website Friday, a memorandum of agreement (MOA) was entered into between the PTNI and the Department of Tourism for the DOT’s placement of advertisements specifically in the program Kilos Pronto of Teo’s brother Ben Tulfo.

Kilos Pronto is run by Ben’s Bitag Media Unlimited Inc. (BMUI), a blocktimer in PTNI’s television channel PTV-4. The program is co-hosted by Teo’s brother Ben and  another brother, Erwin Tulfo, and broadcaster Alex Santos.

Under the MOA, the PTNI will air on Kilos Pronto a six-minute DOT segment and a three-minute DOT spot as advertisements.

Teo said Sunday she did not know PTNI would place the ads on BMUI’s Kilos Pronto.

She said the issue was part of a demolition job against her.

In a press conference on Monday, Teo modified her statement and said that she only learned that the ad placements were awarded to BMUI after the MOA between DOT and PTNI was already signed.

“There was no conflict of interest. Contract was between PTV-4 and DOT. It was made with the President’s directive in mind, which was to support the government station,” Teo said.

“After the contract, they (PTV-4) told us (they will place ads on) Kilos Pronto because of the high ratings, I was told. No conflict of interest because the contract was between PTV-4 and DOT,” Teo said.

Teo made the statement after the COA, in its audit report, questioned the payments made to BMUI due to lack of supporting documents.

The COA said three checks totaling P60,009,560 were processed and released by PTNI to BMUI on May 11, Nov. 8 and Dec. 15, 2017, representing payments for the DOT’s ad placements.

The COA said the payments were released even without the necessary documents such as a MOA/contract between the PTNI and BMUI, certificate of performance, duly approved budget utilization request and billing statement detailing the deliverables based on an interview with the accounting personnel of the DOT.

“Since there was no MOA wherein the terms and conditions of the agreement are supposed to be spelled out, there was also no basis for the computations on how the said three payments were arrived at,” it added.

State auditors pointed out that while there was a MOA between PTNI and the DOT, it does not contain a provision on specific airtime rates per segment or per spot “and such other terms and conditions of the commercial advertisement specifically as regards the manner of payment.”

The audit body said with the absence of a formal MOA or contract with the BMUI, as well as the lack of certificate of performance that determines the actual airing time or frequency of the airing of the DOT segment and spot, “the accuracy, legality and validity of the payments made to blocktimer BMUI in the amount of P60,009,560 could not be ascertained.”

The audit body also noted there was no provision in the DOT-PTNI MOA that allows the PTNI to serve as the collecting agency for Kilos Pronto, and yet PTNI still collected the payments from the DOT and released the same to BMUI.

The COA said the audit team made a verbal request with PTNI’s Finance and Airtime Management/Programming Division for a copy of its MOA with BMUI but the audit team was informed that it is still “under review by the legal unit.”

In a statement issued on Sunday, PTNI said it had already submitted all the supporting documents during an exit conference with the audit team.

The COA has yet to confirm PTNI’s claim.

Step down

Villarin, for his part, said Teo should resign “if she continues to insist that there is no impropriety” committed.

“What is clear is that a P60-million budget was released to her brother’s media production unit and that the Commission on Audit should now issue a notice of disallowance. It is highly improbable that Teo is not aware about this because she should be on top of this,” he said.

Villarin, a lawyer by profession, underscored the fact that the COA findings highlighted the “lack of documents” and “proper costing breakdowns” that obviously “show impropriety.”

“She should take responsibility and not make excuses. Resigning from her post is an option. As President Duterte had said, just a whiff of corruption and you are out,” Villarin said. 

Villarin stressed the DOT’s deal with Tulfo’s BMUI was “highly improper” and a clear case of conflict of interest on the part of Teo.

While it was a contract between two government agencies, “the end user was Bitag Productions that her brother owned.” 

Villarin revealed that DOT’s advertising contract for 2017 with ABS-CBN and GMA-7 was P11.5 million each, P20 million with CNN Philippines, P51 million each for CNN International, BBC and Discovery Channel and a whopping P60 million for BMUI.