SBMA chair has 16 bodyguards
Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority Chairman Martin Diño. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) chair Martin Diño has hired 16 security guards to protect him, according to documents obtained by the Inquirer.
According to the organizational staffing record the SBMA submitted to the House of Representatives, eight guards were given permanent positions while six others were hired as contractuals.
Diño’s last two guards were hired under “contracts of services” for less than six months and the SBMA, which manages the Subic Bay Freeport, allocated P2.8 million for the salaries of the 16 guards.
The records were among those submitted to the House committee on the bases conversion last month as part of the congressional probe of the leadership row between Diño and SBMA administrator Wilma Eisma.
But Diño said only six uniformed personnel from the SBMA Law Enforcement Department (LED) were assigned to his official residence inside the Subic Bay Freeport.
These guards work in three shifts in a day, with two guards in each shift, he said.
“Did I ask for it? Did I put them here? No. These are the security guards assigned to the SBMA chairman’s quarters even before I came here,” Diño told the Inquirer.
One of the guards detailed to Diño’s house at the former Apec Villas confirmed there had been no change in the number of guards assigned to the chair’s residence.
LED guard Angelito Manuel said he had been assigned to the SBMA chair’s quarters since the time of the late SBMA chair Feliciano Salonga.
Even Eisma said the staffing of the Office of the Chairman does not require justification or board approval.
However, the plantilla report submitted to the House showed the chair’s office had a total of 42 staff members and was allocated a budget of P17.5 million for 2017.
Diño again denied the accuracy of the report because “based on records, the Office of the Chairman has only P3.4-million budget for 2017 and only about P500,000 has been used as of today.”
Two employees in Diño’s staff are surnamed Diño, but the SBMA chair said that his legal officer, lawyer Dennis Diño, has been working at the SBMA even before he was appointed chair.
Diño’s daughter, Abelle, served as chief of staff without a salary from the agency.
Eisma, who is also SBMA chief executive officer, has 13 staffers whose annual salaries amount to P4.9 million.
The committee scheduled a third hearing on Aug. 2 to determine the legality of Executive Order No. 340, through which then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo separated the offices of the SBMA chair from that of administrator.
