Small contracts betray big problems at ERC

ERC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jose Vicente Salazar and journalist Charie Villa, the sister of late ERC Director Francisco Villa Jr., are seated only a couple of chairs apart as she pinned him down for the executive’s suicide. VINCE F. NONATO/INQUIRER

The contracts were “not as enormous,” as Energy Regulatory Commission chairman Jose Vicente Salazar would put it. But for veteran journalist Rosario Sofia “Charie” Villa, it’s still a “big deal” for a government employee.

The small-value procurement of various projects for boardroom renovation, advertising consultancy, pest control, and even Windows software licensing emerged as the recurring theme of the House’s Monday inquiry into the November 9 suicide of ERC Director Francisco Villa Jr.

During the continuation of the committee on good government and public accountability’s probe, Villa teared up as she formally pinned down Salazar for her brother’s death.

READ: Jun Villa’s sister tears up in House probe on ERC corruption

“The day before he took his life, he told me: ‘Chairman Salazar is pushing me to sign illegal documents,'” Villa recounted “I said to Jun: ‘quit that job.'”

“It’s funny because the values were small. But, for a public servant, that’s a big deal,” she said, before issuing a broad appeal for lawmakers to review the procurement laws.

“Why did he feel there was no recourse anymore? When it comes to procurement law, please rectify it, because there are public servants caught in the middle of it.”

The late Villa, who chaired the chairman of the bids and awards committee, left three suicide notes detailing his fear of liability over the “rigged selection system.”

His sister said the late director mentioned the names of Salazar and his chief-of-staff and first-degree cousin Steven Riva as the ones who pressured him into accepting the alleged procurement irregularities.

Lacking knowledge?

Throughout the hearing, Salazar, despite being the mandated head of the procuring entity, insisted that he had no knowledge of the procurement processes behind the ERC’s contracts.

“Even in large government agencies, the head of the agency… don’t involve themselves in the procurement process, especially if the amounts involved are not as enormous as other people are thinking right now,” he said.

Among the small-value projects scrutinized during the hearing was the renovation of the ERC boardroom by Primeart Bidders, Inc.

Lawmakers found the deal questionable, after former BAC secretariat head Cherry Lyn Gonzales testified that renovation work was already done in the first quarter of 2016 ahead of the procurement process. Primeart only entered a bid offer of P384,849.75 in October.

After Villa’s suicide, the bidding process was cancelled and no payment has been made.

Because the boardroom was right next to the chairman’s office, Committee chairman Rep. Johnny Pimentel (Surigao del Sur 2nd District) told Salazar: “It is impossible that you don’t know what’s happening to your Commission… You are lying.”

Salazar reasoned out that even if he knew the boardroom was being renovated, he was not privy to the procurement details.

Procurement matters, he said, are “precisely not known to the Office of the Chairman until the resolution is issued by the Bids and Awards Committee and transmitted.”

‘Convenient excuse’

Salazar said it was the ERC Office of the General Counsel and Secretariat that requested the construction, but its officer-in-charge Grace Lu-Santos said she had nothing to do with it and only signed on behalf of the Alfredo Vergara Jr., who was director at the time.

Meanwhile, Riva said he cleared the project first with Director Villa while admitting it was a mistake to do the project without documentation

“[Villa] said we can go ahead. So I was the one who talked to Primeart if the ceilings and the walls can be fixed and painted first,” Riva said.

1-CARE Party-list Rep. Carlos Roman Uybarreta, however, pointed out that a dead man could no longer defend himself.

“I pity Director Villa. He’s being mentioned left and right and he’s not here to defend himself,” he said. “I think you’re using the colleague as a very convenient excuse for the lapses that has been happening and being committed left and right.”

READ: Midnight deals at ERC reported

Yet another resource person, ERC Commissioner Josefina Patricia Asirit, said Riva’s involvement suggested that the chairman’s office “knew about the transaction.”

Bagong Henerasyon Party-list Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy also begged to differ from Salazar’s claims. She said it is his job as chairman and chief executive officer to supervise the agency’s administrative matters.

‘No suicide for small problems’

1-SAGIP Rep. Rodante Marcoleta, meanwhile, said “a person would not commit suicide if there was no big crisis,” adding that Villa must have been more afraid of the “symbolism” of the anomalous small-value procurement processes.

Pimentel said it is the wrongdoing that matters, not the value of the contracts tainted with allegations of irregularity.

“Even if it’s just one peso, you violated the law. It’s not the amount—it’s the process and manner of procurement you violated,” he said.