2 sacked NPO execs want to turn state witness

MANILA, Philippines -  Two officials dismissed from the National Printing Office last year now want to be state witnesses and bare the alleged rigging of public biddings conducted by the NPO for the printing of government forms.

Florencia Reyes and Federico Ramos are two of eight NPO executives, all members of the agency’s bids and awards committee (BAC), who were ordered dismissed by the Office of the Ombudsman in September 2010 after they were found liable for a highly irregular bidding to subcontract printing contracts of other government agencies conducted in September 2009.

Reyes and Ramos, in affidavits filed before the Ombudsman on April 5, admitted that the NPO-BAC held highly irregular biddings where the favored printers of the sitting NPO director are made to become as winning bidders. Their lawyer provided copies of the affidavits to The STAR last week.

They alleged that the rigged biddings occurred during the time of NPO directors Enrique Agana and the late Servando Hizon, and officer-in-charge Evelyn Perlado.

“All BAC proceedings are directly supervised, controlled and guided by the NPO director. The NPO BAC was a mere rubber stamp of the… incumbent NPO director from Sept. 3, 2008 to Sept. 29, 2010,” the two said in their affidavit.

Aside from Reyes and Ramos, the Office of the Ombudsman also ordered the dismissal of Miguel Arcadio, chairman of the NPO’s BAC, and their fellow BAC members Eddie Vista, Sol Tamayo, Elsa Calma, Ma. Paz Ramos, and Ernesto Plarisan.

Teologio issued the order after investigating a complaint filed by Guillermo Sylianteng, Jr., general manager of Ready Forms, Inc. of Marikina City, on the irregular public bidding conducted by the NPO to subcontract the printing contracts of government agencies.