MALACAÑANG will let the courts decide who will assume the post of administrator of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority following the scramble to get that post, an official said Tuesday.
“We’ll leave it to the courts to decide, but if there is no ruling yet, we’ll proceed with the current setup,” Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea said.
On Oct. 10, newly appointed SBMA Chairman Martin Diño issued a memo to all officials and employees telling them he was not only chairman of the agency but also its administrator and chief executive.
But the SBMA’s former chairman and administrator Roberto Garcia said in his valedictory speech that, in view of the still vacant post of administrator, he would be the hold-over administrator until the President had appointed his replacement.
Meanwhile, Medialdea has named SBMA deputy administrator for legal affairs Randy Escolango as the new officer-in-charge of the SBMA Office of the Administrator.
Diño said with his appointment as chairman, he was duty-bound to assume and perform the duties, powers and functions of chairman/administrator and CEO.
An October 11 petition filed by Rolly Meer Aldea, an executive assistant to Zambales Vice Governor Angel Magsaysay before an Olongapo court, petitioned for the revocation of Medialdea’s appointment of Escolango, saying someone was already occupying the position.
“Mr. Diño as chairman is also the administrator of SBMA,” the petition says, “pursuant to Republic Act 7227.”
It says the implementation of Executive Order 340, issued in 2004 by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to split the chairman and administrator posts to two people of the SBMA, “is a violation of the law.”
Diño has refused to recognize Escolango’s appointment as officer-in-charge at the office of the administrator, saying all official transactions, papers, requests and other documents requiring the signature, approval and review of the SBMA administrator should be coursed to him.
But Medialdea contradicted Diño’s position that his official assumption as SBMA chairman meant that he was also the administrator and chief executive officer of the SBMA.