2 Marine officials, bids members accused of rigging P59M printing deal

Marina office in Manila. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Two top officials of the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina), as well as the members of its bids and awards committee (BAC), are facing a graft complaint before the Ombudsman for the allegedly irregular award of a P59-million contract to the Apo Production Unit printing firm for the supply of seaman’s books to the agency.

Maximo Mejia, the Marina head, and Gloria Banas, the deputy administrator for operations as well as the BAC chair, were named in a graft complaint filed last May 8 by Nelson Ramirez, president of the group United Filipino Seafarers (UFS).

Also included in the complaint as co-respondents were the members of the BAC panel Bashiruddin Adil, Ma. Concepcion Arbolario, Arnie Santiago, Sonia Malaluan, Rowena Hubilla, Nenita Atienza, Fe Caloagan, and Christine San Luis; and Jaime Aldaba, general manager of the Apo Production Unit.

Ramirez claimed, among other things, that on Feb. 7, Marina awarded the contract to Apo despite the company’s alleged “incapability to print and supply 200,000 copies of seafarer’s books” to the agency.

“It has been almost three months since Apo committed to deliver 20 percent of the seaman’s books on Feb. 26. However, until now Apo has yet to make the deliveries,” he said.

The printing company was supposed to deliver “another 30 percent on April 15, another 30 percent on July 15 and the remaining 20 percent on Oct. 15 this year” as stipulated in its contract with Marina.

“Marina has yet to issue seaman’s books due to the fact that there is no supply yet from Apo in violation of the Marina-Apo contract to the damage and prejudice of Filipino seafarers,” Ramirez said.

He also claimed that “the Marina specifications for the procurement of seaman’s books were deliberately changed by the respondents to accommodate and favor Apo as against the other bidder, the National Printing Office, which has been supplying seaman’s books to Marina ever since.”

“Another proof that Apo was given unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference by Marina officials is the fact that no case was ever instituted by the agency for Apo’s failure to comply with the provisions of the contract. This is a clear case of conspiracy more than tolerance,” Ramirez said.

He claimed that Apo also deprived Marina of its “ability to service the needs of seafarers for seaman’s books. Likewise, it deprived the agency of revenue that could have otherwise accrued to the National Treasury out of the fees to be paid by seafarers for processing the seaman’s books.”

Mejia has denied Ramirez’ allegation, stressing that “the bidding process was totally transparent.”

“Two government bidders competed for the contract to deliver 200,000 seaman’s books. The National Printing Office’s bid was P380 per seaman’s book. On the other hand, Apo’s bid was P290 for the same seaman’s book. Apo was awarded the contract,” he explained.

“How could that be disadvantageous to the government?” Mejia said.

He acknowledged that “there’s a delay (in the delivery of the printed seaman’s books). But that has something to do with a problem in the Apo supply chain. A vital component could not be delivered to them by their supplier in France.”

“That caused a delay in the delivery of the seaman’s books,” Mejia said.

The Marina chief assailed Ramirez, whom he called a “paid hack,” and “who has been hounding me since my first day in office (in late May 2013).”

“Everyone knows he’s a paid assassin…He’s not into sustained campaigns like this unless he is being handsomely bankrolled,” added Mejia. However, he did not name any person or group supposedly behind the UFS leader.

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