Profiting from GMA’s anti-poverty program

On paper, the idea was good. Malacañang needed to relocate fast the sidewalk vendors being driven away by Metro Manila authorities. All over the big city are idle lots where the vendors can resume their living without blocking the streets. President Gloria Macapagal had just issued Executive Order 228 in July, forming a Presidential Emergency Employment Office precisely to identify and use such lands to create jobs. And so the Office of the Presidential Assistant on Poverty Alleviation (OPAPA) went to work on a 1,920-sqm lot of the Social Security System at the corner of EDSA and East Avenue, which could accommodate 300 stalls right in the heart of Quezon City.

Implementation was tricky, especially for an office like the OPAPA that doesn’t have money except for staff salaries and office maintenance. The SSS lot was being used as a garbage dump, and needed to be cleared, cemented, and fitted with water and electric lines. Sponsors had to be invited to put up market stalls, nightly entertainment, and streamers to entice buyers into a six-month GMArket Baratillo Fair. Vendors had to be convinced to occupy the stalls instead of picketing the demolition offices. Other government agencies had to be invited, too, to set up field offices at the site and provide basic services.

As with most good ideas in government, the mess eventually arose. The OPAPA got the private MSME3K Enterprises to develop the land. But there was no public bidding. At the same time, the OPAPA signed with the SSS a six-month lease from October 2003 to March 2004, at P144,000 a month. But the agency signatory was not its head, Sec. Victor A. Domingo, but a mere staff officer, Alan Giles Sarmiento. The OPAPA then got a cellphone company to bankroll the construction of 400 stalls at P5,000 each but to be used free of charge, plus 2,000 promotional banners and P200,000 for entertainment. But in finally inviting some 300 displaced vendors to the site, the office charged them P2,500 per month, on top of P2,500 non-refundable reservation – all payable to MSME3K Enterprises.

And then, all hell broke loose. The OPAPA neglected to secure the necessary permits to hang up the banners. The cellphone firm backed out because the banners were the only way it could promote its product as justification for the hefty sponsorship. The market stalls were left undone, so the OPAPA set up tents instead. Four vendors were to share each tent, but their rent was raised to P3,000 per month. The buyers didn’t come, since practically no one heard about the GMArket. The vendors started to grumble. Domingo, who just returned from heart surgery, was surprised. Reviewing the papers of the project, he declared that his signature had been forged.

How did it happen? Domingo, who is not only head of the OPAPA and the Presidential Emergency Employment Office but also presidential assistant on the Visayas, requested Manuel Imperial, deputy presidential adviser for Bicol, to find out. That was more than a month ago. Asked by The STAR why he didn’t report the supposed crime to the NBI, which had set up a booth at the fair, Domingo said he was still waiting for Imperial to finish investigating. Asked if he had reported the transgression to the Malacañang legal office or the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission, Domingo said no, but that he had suspended Sarmiento on suspicion of forgery. The OPAPA is apparently trying to keep the mess under wraps. But The STAR conducted its own probe.

By Domingo’s account, he had nothing to do with the appointment of MSME3K to develop the site. He said it was Sarmiento who took in the firm. In a document dated June 30, however, he authorized MSME3K manager Apollo Gamallo to receive and collect cash payments from stall occupants for and in behalf of the OPAPA.

Sarmiento admitted in an interview that MSME3K’s owners are his friends. He said they have a track record in swift construction, and willingly undertook the "noble project." He claimed that public biddings could be dispensed with during emergency projects, like those drawing near the election ban on public works. He admitted, however, that there was no exemption from the Commission on Elections or a permit from higher authorities, like the National Economic and Development Authority, to drop the bidding.

Domingo said he indeed had discussed the concept and mechanics of the project with Sarmiento and other co-terminus staff members, before he went on leave for angioplasty. Now he claims that his signature was forged on at least three documents: the June 30 authorization to MSME3K, a certification that Sarmiento is the official signatory of the lease contract with the SSS, and the sponsorship agreement with the cellphone company. He said there could be more forgeries.

Sarmiento refused to comment on the accusation, saying only that it is still being investigated by Imperial. He justified the rental payments to MSME3K as the firm’s only way of recovering expenses for the civil works. But he could not give an accounting of the actual costs, as well as of the money collected so far. The SSS lease contract identified Sarmiento as Domingo’s executive secretary, but members of the OPAPA staff said no such position exists.

OPAPA employees provided an estimate of the Baratillo’s projected revenues, which could explain the lack of transparency: P750,000 in non-refundable deposits from 300 tent occupants, and P5,400,000 in rent for six months (at P3,000 per occupant per month) – for a total of P6,150,000.

They also estimated the costs to run up to: P864,000 for six months’ lease payment to the SSS, P30,000 for water (at P5,000 per month), P90,000 for electricity (at P15,000 per month), P300,000 for the clearing and laying of utilities, P600,000 for 100 tents, P45,000 for watchdogs (huh?), P96,000 for security guards – for a total of P2,019,000.

MSME3K apparently stands to net P3,381,000 from the anti-poverty program. As they say, there’s money in garbage.

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