TWO non-government organizations filed on Wednesday a consolidated complaint of graft, indirect bribery, technical malversation and violation of Republic Act 6713, or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees against the Energy Regulatory Commission officials before the Office of the Ombudsman.
In a 26-page affidavit, Jose Aaron Pedrosa, Sanlakas lawyer-secretary general, and Samuel Cesar Gamboa of the Freedom from Debt Coalition also accused ERC officer in charge Alfredo Non; Commissioners Gloria Victoria Taruc, Josefina Patricia Asirit and Geronimo Sta. Ana, and director Debora Anastacia Layugan of grave misconduct, serious dishonest, conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service and gross neglect of duty.
From Subic, SBMA Chairman Martin Diño also filed Wednesday an 11-page complaint against five of his subordinates before the Office of the Ombudsman for graft, grave misconduct, serious dishonesty and grave abuse of authority.
Diño said Ruel John Kabigting, deputy administrator for administration; Marcelino Sangui, senior deputy administrator for operations; Amethya dela Llana, Ecology Department manager and Regulatory Group head; Editha Marzal, Financial Planning and Budget Department manager, and Joel Ea, Internal Audit Service Department manager must be held liable for their “unsympathetic and dispassionate dereliction of their duties to the financial concerns of the SBMA.”
“While the hapless Filipino consumers are working day-in and day-out to make ends meet, struggling everyday with the rising energy and electricity costs, these Respondents, who are all high-ranking officials of the commission tasked to regulate the electric power industry, have been enjoying extravagant travels abroad using funds from the very agencies that the ERC regulate,” the charge sheet read.
The charges against the ERC officials stemmed from the supposed use of P15 million worth of funds of a private company for the overseas trips of the ERC officials.
From February 2009 to August 2015, the respondents receive from the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. P15.04 million “to cover their airline tickets, hotel accommodation, clothing allowance and the like for their travels abroad.”
ERC regulates the PEMC, as non-stock non-profit organization and market operator of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market.
The PEMC allocated two percent of its market transaction fees to ERC for the maintenance of its monitoring facilities.
According to Pedrosa and Gamboa, the concerned ERC officials used the fund for personal purpose.
“These travels are clearly not aligned with the purpose —which is for monitoring facilities—for which the fund was earmarked. Worse, respondents deliberately failed to liquidate the funds that they received from PEMC,” the complaint read.
Non used P3.516 million of PEMC’s fund for his trips to Florida, USA, Australia and New Zealand in 2013 and 2014 for meetings and seminars, while Taruc made use of PEMC’s P4.9 million fund for trips to Florida, Australia, Washington, DC and also in Davao.
As far as Asirit is concerned, at least P741,921 of PEMC fund was used for trips in Australia and New Zealand.
Layugan used P5.881 million PEMC fund for trips to Canada, USA’s Texas and Florida, New Zealand, Germany, Davao and Cagayan de Oro.
“Records will bear out that Respondents failed to account for and liquidate the large sum of money that they received from PEMC and other regulated entities. This omission amounts to gross neglect of duty,” the complaint read.