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The entire Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) faces the danger of being abolished and its functions transferred to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on account of criticism that it has failed to fulfill its mandate of providing quality vocational training for the Filipino youth and arm them with the skills to compete in the global job market.

Indeed, how can TESDA do its job when its director general, Augusto “Boboy” Syjuco, siphoned off huge amounts of funds intended for training to the Iloilo regional office of the agency and then used to bankroll his political activities and worse, divert much of the money to private foundations controlled by him and his wife, Rep. Judy Jalbuena Syjuco.

TESDA provincial offices has the competent training personnel, but could not undertake training activities because there’s  no money for logistics and operational expenses. This has caused deep frustration among TESDA educators who know millions of Filipino youth are counting on the agency to prepare them for high-paying jobs here and abroad. Syjuco has stolen their future with his massive corruption.

Now that the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) has rendered a “guilty” verdict against Syjuco and five top officials of TESDA for the highly-irregular P9.2 million printing of the book “Salabat for the Filipino Soul”, concerned individuals from all walks of life have embarked on an online signature campaign addressed to Congress to stave off the plan to scuttle TESDA and instead focus its attention on getting rid of Syjuco.

Here’s the web address of the on-line petition:

http://www.petitiononline.com/sacboboy/petition.html

This is an opportunity for good to triumph over evil. Let’s show massive support for this petition. Send this address to friends and relatives and ask them to sign the petition. Congress will not be able to ignore a million signatures. Even President Arroyo might be compelled to fire Syjuco if we are able to gather a million signatures.

Here’s the full text of the letter to the editor that appeared in the January 24, 2008 edition of the Philippine Daily Inquirer:

“TESDA director general Augusto “Boboy” Syjuco should be ashamed of himself in claiming that he is the best person to head this agency (“Bid to scrap Tesda gains”, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Jan. 16, 2008).

“The records would show that TESDA’s image has been tarnished almost irreparably as a result of many questionable transactions under his watch. Also, he should account for millions of pesos in public funds that he funneled to his private foundations, with no visible benefits to the public (See http://www.coa.gov.ph/audit/AAR/htm and go to TESDA under Department of Labor and Employment for CY 2006).

“During his incumbency, funds for training in vocational skills were diverted to the TESDA Iloilo office and used for political purposes. As a result, thousands of Filipino youth were deprived of the skills training that would have landed them jobs. He has also harassed union leaders who dared expose his illegal transactions.

“The PAGC case involving the P9.2 million anomalous transaction for the printing of the “Salabat for the Filipino Soul” is just the tip of the iceberg. Mr. Syjuco faces may corruption charges before the Ombudsman. I have filed four cases against him, and the only problem is that the Ombudsman seems to have slept on these cases.

“In one case, he engineered a “ghost purchase” of 1,582 mobile phones utilizing P6.2 million from the Department of Transportation and Communications. In another, he was charged for rigging a public bidding in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) district office where he used to be congressman and got the agency to buy road-building heavy equipment and trucks owned by his own foundation at an overprice.

“Mr. Syjuco is a skillful marketing man, and he has been engaging in delightful publicity stunts to impress President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and divert attention from his corrupt activities. If the President is serious about eradicating corruption, then she should drop the axe on Syjuco and show the nation that there are no sacred cows.

“I also call upon the Ombudsman to act expeditiously on these cases which have been awaiting resolution for as long as two years now.

                                                                                     Very truly yours,

 
                                                                                    MANUEL P. MEJORADA

                                                                                    Provincial Administrator

                                                                                    Province of Iloilo

There is a lot of speculation over how Malacanang will deal with the findings of the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) that TESDA director general Augusto Boboy Syjuco committed “grave misconduct” along with members of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) for the highly irregular award of a P9.2-million printing contract to a favored supplier nearly two years ago.

Syjuco, who is also facing numerous corruption cases before the Ombudsman, is a known boot-licking loyalist of President Gloria Macapaga-Arroyo. Their friendship also goes way, way back to their childhood days when they were neighbors in Forbes Park. Syjuco also got the President’s late father, former President Diosdado Macapagal, as godfather during his wedding.

The question arises: Will the President sacrifice principle in favor of friendship? Will she swallow her own words that she won’t spare anybody in her much-vaunted drive against corruption? Her action on the Syjuco case is being described as an “acid test” of her administration’s resolve to eradicate corruption.

This poses a big dilemma for the President. Syjuco has become the most glaring symbol of the massive corruption eating at the flesh of Philippine society. As TESDA director general, he stripped the agency’s provincial offices of their vocational training and operational budgets and funneled the money to the Iloilo provincial office. Some of the money he used to advance his political interests; some he diverted to his private foundations, leaving no trace of the public funds afterwards. TESDA workers describe him as the “worst” director general and the most corrupt.

Not only that. As congressman of the 2nd district of Iloilo in 1998-2004, he demanded kickbacks as high as 30 percent of total cost for infrastructure projects from contractors, who were left with no choice but build substandard structures and roads. Then he maneuvered to get his wife, Judy, elected to replace him as he headed for the Arroyo administration. The rape of public works and social development projects continued. In many instances, entire appropriations were siphoned into his foundations and cooperatives in a classic money-laundering scheme.

To its credit, PAGC resisted all forms of pressure to hand down a “guilty” verdict against Syjuco and his cohorts. It took the PAGC great courage to do that.

But will the President back up the commission?

Will she show firmness and conviction in upholding the truth?

Indeed, this is an acid test for her.

If she squanders on this chance to deliver a strong message against corruption, then she will lose her credibility entirely.

The Ombudsman is a constitutional body tasked to investigate and prosecute cases against government officials involving graft and corruption. Its performance, however, has been dismally unsatisfactory. The number of cases resolved by the Ombudsman is far, far below the deluge of complaints filed before this agency. As a result, the backlog of cases are getting bigger and bigger every year. There is also suspicion that the Ombudsman is much too beholden to the President, and allows itself to be used as tool of oppression and harassment against opponents of the administration. The experience of the Tupas administration in Iloilo province is a case in point.

Among the many cases that remain unresolved in the Ombudsman are the corruption charges Iloilo provincial administrator Manuel “Boy” Mejorada has filed against TESDA director general Augusto “Boboy” Syjuco, his former boss when the latter was still congressman of the 2nd district of Iloilo in 1998-2001. These well-documented cases on the anomalies committed by Syjuco and his wife, incumbent 2nd district Rep. Judy Syjuco, were filed in 2006, and have been recommended for filing by graft investigators. However, the Office of Tanodbayan Merceditas Gutierrez is simply sitting on these cases.

But the pressure is building up on the Ombudsman. Here’s a story in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on the challenge made by Mejorada for the Ombudsman to act switfly on the Syjuco corruption cases:

<http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20080116-112807/Iloilo-exec-urges-Ombudsman-to-act-on-case-vs-TESDA-chief>

On page 3 of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (Jan. 11, 2008 edition), there’s a story about Malacanang’s avowal that TESDA director general Augusto “Boboy” Syjuco, who is now charged with committing graft in connection with a P9.2 million book printing transaction in mid-2006, is “no sacred cow” and that his case would be reviewed objectively by the Committee of Peers.

Malacanang, through Secretary Cerge Remonde of the Presidential Management Staff, made this statement following the challenge hurled by two opposition senators, Francis “Chiz” Escudero and Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to show she is serious about fighting corruption by elevating the “GUILTY” findings of the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) against Syjuco to the Sandiganbayan.

This is not the only corruption case pending against Syjuco. In fact, there are three (3) well-documented corruption charges I have filed before the Ombudsman as early as 2006 that are only gathering dust in the Office of Tanodbayan Merceditas Gutierrez after its investigators have found probable cause and forwarded the case folders to her for approval.

The first case involves the much-larger fertilizer scam that the Arroyo administration allegedly used as vehicle t commit widespread vote-buying in the 2004 presidential elections. Syjuco used his cooperative, the Tawo kag Duta Cooperative, as conduit for public funds amounting to P3.25 million and misappropriating the money to his personal bank account. The money was never spent to buy liquid fertilizers and the supposed list of recipients was fraudulently manufactured.

The case has been in the Ombudsman for two years now, and no action has been taken on it.

The next case is the highly-anomalous purchase made by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) of several pieces of road-building equipment that turned out to be previously owned by Syjuco’s own foundation. Though these equipment were badly deteriorated and could be considered as “junk”, Syjuco maneuvered to have these purchased by DPWH 4th Engineering District with funds in the amount of P12 million coming from his pork barrel as “reconditioned”. It was grossly overpriced.

The case has been awaiting the final decision of Tanodbayan Gutierrez after the graft investigators reviewing the complaint found probable cause to prosecute Syjuco and his co-respondents.

Unfortunately, the Office of Tanodbayan Gutierrez doesn’t seem to consider this case important enough to warrant her attention.

The last case is the controversial “ghost purchase” of 1,582 units of Nokia 1100 mobile phones through the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) sometime in December 2005 at the cost of P6.2 million. The mobile phones were intended for distribution to barangay officials in the second district of Iloilo where Syjuco’s wife, Judy, is the congresswoman. The mobile phones were purchased from a business associate of the Syjuco’s following a rigged bidding and supposedly received by Mayor Isabelo Maquino of Sta. Barbara, Iloilo.

However, Maquino stumbled upon the “ghost purchase” when the Commission on Audit wrote him to verify if indeed he had signed the acknowledgment receipt for the mobile phones. Much to his surprise and horror, Maquino found that his signature had been forged. No cell phones ever reached the second district. The whole order of 1,582 mobile phones vanished into thin air!

It was later found out that it was Syjuco who manipulated the whole transaction and it was he who handcarried the papers for signing of the BAC members of DOTC. He accompanied the supplier in getting the check. You can make your conclusions where the money went.

Anyway, I filed the case before the Ombudsman-Visayas in August 2006. However, the Ombudsman-Visayas notified me that the case docket was transferred to the Ombudsman-Luzon. That was sometime in November 2006. When I learned about the transfer, I wrote the Ombudsman-Luzon to inquire about the status of the case. I received no answer despite a provision in the Code of Ethical Standards for Public Officials that queries from the public should be given attention as soon as possible. The Ombudsman is the primary agency mandated to enforce that requirement, and yet doesn’t reply to queries from complainants like me.

The inaction of the Ombudsman on these case despite the lapse of two years is greatly disappointing.

The Ombudsman is a great failure.

Maybe it should even be abolished because it has failed to curb corruption which has grown to gargantuan levels during the Arroyo administration.

This failure is disgraceful.

The Ombudsman should redeem its tattered reputation by acting on the cases against Syjuco with the same dispatch shown by the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission.

I doff my hat to PAGC chairperson Constancia de Guzman for showing her impartiality and courage in filing the case against Syjuco.

Augusto “Boboy” Syjuco, director general of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and two-term congressman of the 2nd district of Iloilo, is literally a man standing on a half-open scaffolding with a thick rope around his neck, just awaiting the final push from the executioner for him to fall from the platform and hanged for his crimes against the people.

That’s because the Office of the President has upheld the charges of grave misconduct against Syjuco’s minions at the TESDA who manipulated the bidding procedures and award a hefty P9.2 million printing contract to a favored supplier sometime in August 2006 and pronounced them “guilty” as charged.

In a 20-page decision, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the administrative charges filed by the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) show there were irregularities in the transaction, and Syjuco, as the director general, could have prevented the anomalous contract from being awarded by simply not signing it. But Syjuco signed the deal, for after all, it was carried out in accordance with his order.

The sad thing is that the executioner’s axe lopped off the heads of Syjuco’s co-respondents in the case — all members of the TESDA Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) — for they were ordered dismissed from the service with total loss of eligibility and blocked from being re-employed in the government. That’s their reward for blindly obeying Syjuco’s orders.

Syjuco got off the hook, momentarily, because he holds Cabinet rank, and the Office of the President chose a more prudent path of endorsing his case to the Committee of Peers composed of fellow Cabinet members, for the disposition of the charges against him.

It should be highlighted that the anomalous transaction took place at the instance of Syjuco. The BAC members only allowed themselves to put their stamp of approval on an obviously illegal transaction that violated the government procurement procedures. If the soldiers were meted the penalty of dismissal, it only shows that their general is all the more guilty, and deserves a harsher penalty.

This should serve as warning to other officials of the TESDA not to allow themselves to be used as tools for Syjuco’s glaring corrupt activities. Millions and millions of pesos intended for the vocational training of Filipino youth have been siphoned off to his private bank accounts through his foundations and cooperatives.

Syjuco is edging closer to the precipice. It won’t take long before Malacanang realizes the magnitude of his corruption and dismiss him from his position as director general.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer ran a front page story in its Jan. 2, 2008 edition about President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordering the release of P500 million for the training of teachers to improve their English language proficiency and arrest the rapid deterioration of the country’s educational system. This provoked me to write a mildly angry letter at the apparent loss of touch on the part of the President about the state of affairs of the nation:

TO THE EDITOR:

“President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo only succeeded in proving that she is terribly out of touch about the state of things in this country when she commented that “something must be wrong about our educational system” (PDI, Jan. 2, 2008).

“That came from a President who has been in office for six years. All the time, she never made that realization. I’m tempted to say that it’s better late than never, but her response to the problem is not a guarantee it will be solved. It’s not enough to allocate funds for the training of teachers in English language proficiency. An overhaul of the entire educational bureaucracy is what the country needs.

“Breaking up the gargantuan bureaucracy of the Department of Education would be a good first step. In case the President is not aware, the department has earned a notoriety as being one of the most corrupt agencies in the national government. To make matters worse, the DepEd is grossly inefficient. We have textbooks that are full of errors. We lack classrooms and teachers.

“It’s also time to consider devolving education to the local governments. We have seen that the quality of education is vastly improved if local communities are closely involved in running the system. Give the LGUs their rightful share of the education pie, and I am confident they would be able to do a better job in solving the chronic problems of classroom and teacher shortages.

“The nation is lagging behind other nations in the field of basic education, and this can only worsen if President Arroyo fails to act decisively on these issues now. Education is the only hope for the poor to rise above poverty. President Arroyo can leave a lasting legacy to the people if she goes beyond just putting aside funds for education.

“MANUEL P. MEJORADA”