Palace implements ARTA chief suspension

MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the President (OP) has implemented the suspension order against Anti-Red Tape Authority director general Jeremiah Belgica and four other ARTA officials, who are facing investigation over the allegedly anomalous grant of frequencies to a private telecommunications company.

“Pursuant to the order dated May 24 issued by the Office of the Ombudsman, you are hereby placed under preventive suspension for a period of six months,” a memorandum signed on June 7 by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea read.

Aside from Belgica, also suspended were ARTA deputy director general Eduardo Bringas, directors Jedrek Ng and Melamy Salvadora-Asperin and division chief Sheryl Pura-Sumagui.

The ombudsman earlier directed Medialdea’s office to immediately implement the six-month preventive suspension of the ARTA officials in connection with a graft complaint filed against them by DITO Telecommunications Corp.

Ombudsman Samuel Martires said the suspension of the ARTA officials was necessary to prevent any acts that may prejudice the case, especially as the evidence on record shows that their “guilt is strong.”

The ombudsman noted that the suspension order is “immediately executory” notwithstanding the legal remedies such as motions for reconsideration, which may be filed by the respondents.

In a Viber message to The STAR, Belgica refused to give a further statement on the complaint, but said that he and the other ARTA officials would abide by the suspension order.

“We have filed our MR (motion for reconsideration) and counter-affidavit. We also released a press statement that we would respect the suspension order,” Belgica said.

The suspension order stemmed from the graft case filed against the ARTA officials by DITO, represented by its chief administrative officer Adel Tamano.

The complaint was in connection with ARTA’s March 1, 2021 resolution ordering the assignment of contingent frequencies in favor of Now Telecom Company Inc. (NOWTel) even if the same frequencies were supposedly assigned by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to DITO for being the country’s third telco player.

The ombudsman said records showed that while NOWTel purchased bidding documents, it did not participate in the selection process.

The ombudsman noted that NOWTel filed a complaint with the ARTA against NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordova on May 18, 2020, seeking the automatic approval of its requests for frequency assignments that had been assigned to DITO as the new major player.

On March 1 last year, the ARTA issued a resolution and order of automatic approval, directing the assignment of contingent frequencies in favor of NOWTel.

In a press statement issued on June 6, Belgica maintained that he and the other ARTA officials are “not corrupt and were just performing our job.”

Belgica explained that NOWTel is a domestic public telecommutions company earlier granted a legislative franchise by Congress.

He pointed out that the NTC did not assign frequencies to NOWTel despite a letter of application and repeated requests by the company, prompting the telco to file a complaint with ARTA on May 30, 2020.

“We would like to clarify that the approval or denial of application for frequencies depends on the NTC. But if the application was not acted upon despite the submission of complete documents, that’s where the ARTA comes in. We had no intention to usurp the power of the NTC to assign frequencies to NOWTel,” Belgica said.