Subic exec quits before he could begin

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—The transition in leadership at the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) has met with unexpected turbulence, with its newly appointed administrator pulling out even before he had begun.

Roberto Garcia, who will assume office as SBMA chair on June 3, said the incoming administrator, Rafael Reyes, had “backed out … resigned.”

Asked what might have prompted Reyes’ move, Garcia said: “It would be better if you ask him. But I think he still needs time. It will be announced soon.”

President Benigno Aquino III appointed Garcia and Reyes on April 7 to replace Feliciano Salonga and Armand Arreza, respectively.

Garcia took his oath of office before a Quezon City judge on April 18. He and other SBMA board members said Reyes had yet to be sworn in.

Garcia said Reyes approached him recently and told him of his planned pullout. He declined to give details of their conversation.

The Inquirer contacted Reyes to ask why he was backing out of the post. He sent this response through a text message: “I don’t wish to comment on government matters while I’m still a private citizen.”

Asked how Reyes’ move would impact on SBMA operations, Garcia said: “I presume Administrator Arreza will stay on until a new administrator is appointed. The SBMA will have to get another administrator.”

Garcia, a former president of battery manufacturer Ramcar Inc., said the transition in the chairmanship of the SBMA was going smoothly.

“Chairman Salonga and I will have a formal turnover by June 3. I was hoping we could do both [turnovers] at the same time, [but this happened]. I prefer to have two heads in the SBMA because there are a lot of things that need to be done here and one cannot attend to all of them,” he said.

Reyes’ withdrawal from the SBMA post has polarized the agency’s board members.

A source in the SBMA board, who asked not to be named for lack of authority to speak with reporters on the subject, pointed out that Reyes had yet to accept the position of SBMA administrator.

He got scared

“So how can he resign? He has not taken his oath of office yet. Some people are just trying to dislodge him [from the post],” the source said.

Another source told the Inquirer that Reyes “got scared of the worsening financial problems of the SBMA.”

“He did not expect that the problems would include not only noncorporate matters but political ones, too. It only proves that the one heading the SBMA should not just be a technocrat but should also have some political savvy, one who knows the political terrain,” said the source.

A good man

Arreza did not respond to the Inquirer’s calls and text messages requesting comment.

But in an earlier interview, Arreza welcomed Reyes’ appointment and described his would-be successor as “a good man.”

Reyes was the SBMA’s deputy administrator for corporate planning from 1994 to 1995, during the term of its founding chair, former Sen. Richard Gordon.

When he was appointed by Mr. Aquino to be SBMA administrator, Reyes was executive director for Southeast Asia of PineBridge Investments Asia Ltd., an independent asset management organization owned by a subsidiary of Pacific Century Group Inc.

He obtained his bachelor’s degree in science and a master’s degree in industrial engineering from Stanford University in the United States.