Employees who sued top John Hay exec suspended

BAGUIO CITY—The John Hay Management Corp. (JHMC) suspended on Tuesday the employees they suspected of having orchestrated a complaint that JHMC employees filed at the Office of the Ombudsman last week against the firm’s president, Dr. Jamie Eloise Agbayani.

At the start of the working day following a three-day holiday, a JHMC official ordered the 30-day preventive suspension of 15 of 17 employees who signed the complaint against Agbayani for allegedly misusing the government-run firm’s funds, said Nelson Gayo, the employees’ lawyer.

“Placing my clients under suspension is pure harassment. There was no advanced notice. They had no basis. They should respond to the complaint [instead of pursuing] the employees,” Gayo said.

The suspension orders, which were signed by JHMC vice president Mita Dimalanta, said the employees breached company trust for bringing out confidential documents and files.

JHMC oversees the operations of the Camp John Hay Special Economic Zone. It is a subsidiary of the Bases Group of Companies, which is administered by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA).

However, JHMC officials on the same day withdrew the suspension orders, except for the letter to Arthur Odsey, a member of Agbayani’s public relations staff, Gayo said.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Agbayani said 10 of the employees had withdrawn their signatures from the complaint and had blamed Odsey for convincing them to sue her.

The complaint, which was filed on Jan. 20 at the Ombudsman and the Office of the President, focused on the series of purchases and reimbursements allegedly made by Agbayani since she assumed as company president in 2011.

It claimed that Agbayani’s expenditures were luxurious and had exceeded limits set by law because she spent on meals and other items for her friends and relatives.

Agbayani said she could not reply formally to the charges until she received an official copy and summons from the Ombudsman.

“I have nothing to hide. Everything is above board. All records are transparent and regularly audited,” she said in a statement.

Lawyer Maryann Bayang, Gayo’s co-counsel, said they were surprised that their clients were suspended because they had asked JHMC chair Silvestre Afable to place the officials they charged at the Ombudsman under preventive suspension.

On Tuesday, the lawyers delivered to Afable a copy of their clients’ petition to the JHMC board, seeking an administrative investigation, she said.

JHMC, in a statement, said the employees’ complaint may have been intended to discredit Agbayani because “it was staged on the eve of her testimony against Mrs. Cristina Corona.”

Agbayani went to Manila yesterday to attend the impeachment trial at the Senate. Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon