Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority Chairman Martin Diño. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) chairman Martin Diño still enjoys the support of the ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) party amid a conflict within the operations of the SBMA.
READ: Trouble in Subic: Board vs Diño
Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III in a statement on Friday affirmed the confidence of the Duterte administration-backed party on Diño’s efforts to improve the beleaguered SBMA’s financial position.
The PDP-Laban president said Diño “enjoy(s) the full trust and confidence of the President (Rodrigo Duterte).”
“Subic has not lived up to its potential due to corruption and mismanagement in the past. For this special economic zone to reassert its rightful place as a driver of economic growth, it needs the leadership of someone like Chairman Martin Diño to clean up its ranks and streamline its operations,” Pimentel said.
“Chairman Diño enjoys the support of his party, PDP Laban, in his aggressive campaign against smuggling and corruption,” he said.
“As the government embarks on its Program for Change, we need every revenue-generating agency to maximize its collection for the benefit of the Filipino people,” he added.
“We need leaders who have no qualms with implementing radical solutions to address persistent problems, those who enjoy the full trust and confidence of the President,” Pimentel said.
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It may be recalled that Diño, former chairman of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), gave way to Duterte as the standard-bearer of the party in the last presidential elections.
He was appointed in September as chairman of the SBMA, which is the head of the board of trustees of the former US Naval Base in Zambales. However, he was met with several issues including his conflict with SBMA administrator Wilma Eisma.
In May, Diño issued an administrative order creating a task force that would inspect and monitor the conduct of business and financial operations and collections of the agency.
This did not sit well with Eisma, saying Diño’s creation of task force was unnecessary and overlapping as this would interfere with her duty as SBMA administrator. JPV/rga