Diño vs Escolango: Row over SBMA chairmanship continues

Martin Diño. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Malacañang has clarified that former Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption chair Martin Diño is not the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Administrator.

In a letter dated November 28, Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo Guevarra told Diño that Atty. Randy B. Escolango is the Officer-in-Charge of the Office of the Administrator of SBMA.

Guevarra said Escolango’s designation “has not been revoked by the Office of the President and thus remains in full force and effect.”

Escolango’s designation came after the Office of the President accepted the resignation of former SBMA Chair Roberto Garcia, who served as administrator on a holdover capacity.

Diño was appointed SBMA Chairman on September 23 and he assumed office on October 3.

Diño declared himself the SBMA Administrator in an Office Memorandum on October 10 sent to SBMA offices and locators.

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But on October 19, Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea issued a memorandum designating Escolango as OIC Administrator.

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Guevarra told Diño that it is only President Rodrigo Duterte who can appoint an SBMA administrator.

“More importantly, under Section 13(d) of Republic Act No. 7227, the Administrator of the SBMA shall be appointed by the President and no other,” Guevarra told Diño

Diño was a former presidential aspirant who withdrew his candidacy in the 2016 elections and named Duterte, then mayor of Davao City, as his substitute standard bearer of PDP-Laban. IDL