AFTER grilling Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade and his men for possible conflicts of interest, the House is pushing for a bill that would ban all Cabinet officials from forming or joining companies in industries related to the agency under which they served for three years after they leave government.
“This will prevent such officials from continuing to exert undue influence on both government and industry after they have already left government service,” said Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo, who filed House Bill 3758.
Castelo said conflicts of interest became a raging issue in recent House hearings on a proposal to grant President Rodrigo Duterte emergency powers to address the traffic crisis.
In those hearings, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Minority Leader Danilo Suarez noted that several newly appointed officials in the Department of Transportation had conflicts of interest, having been in the transport sector before their appointment in government.
Among those who have been questioned during the hearings were Tugade, whose family is engaged in the transport and logistics business; Undersecretary for Railway Noel Kintanar; Undersecretary for Air Operations Bobby Lim, and Undersecretary for Maritime Affairs Felipe Judan.
“Kintanar was assistant vice president of Ayala Corporation and was instrumental in Ayala’s acquisition of rail projects under the previous administration,” he said.
On the other hand, Lim is the former country manager of the International Air Transport Association while Judan is in the shipping and logistics business.
Judan, along with Arben Santos, Undersecretary for maritime affairs of the Maritime Industry or Marina, worked together and were shareholders in Southwest Maritime Group.
Santos was also a partner of now Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi in the roll-on roll-off or Ro-Ro business until Cusi was appointed to the Cabinet and relinquished ownership of Starlite Ferries to Santos.
Santos was a close associate of businessman Ramon Ang, who now owns the Manila North Harbour Port Inc. where the inter-island vessels dock, including Santos’ Starlite Ferries’ fleet.
During the hearing of the House committee on appropriations, Alvarez warned Tugade that just like in the previous administrations, some officials were giving priority to the interests of their former “principals.”
He cited as example former Energy secretary and Executive Secretary Jose Rene Almendras, who worked for the Ayalas and served under former President Benigno Aquino III and also under Aquino, former Public Works secretary Rogelio Singson, who worked for businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan.
“Let us not fool ourselves. In every administration, private corporations put their people in departments covering their business. Whose interests are you serving?” Alvarez said.
The Ayalas, Pangilinan and Ang have ongoing multibillion stakes in big-ticket infrastructure projects.
Castelo said while former Customs commissioner Alberto Lina is facing charges of conflict of interest before the Ombudsman, he could not be covered by the three-year ban once the bill was approved by Congress as the proposed measure would not be retroactive.
Lina is now facing charges of plunder, graft and corruption, criminal conflict of interest, dishonesty, grave abuse of power and criminal neglect lodged with the Ombudsman and Manila courts, according to House Deputy Minority Leader Harry Roque, former lawyer for Annabelle Margaroli, authorized representative of Omniprime Marketing Inc., a competitor of Lina’s E-Konek Pilipina, Inc.
On April 29, 2015 or days after assuming his post, Lina announced that he would divest himself of businesses that dealt directly with the Bureau of Customs and would sell his family’s stake in all logistics companies under the Lina Group of Companies.
But a week after he made his promise, Roque said Lina started running after his companies’ competitors.
“It took Lina only two weeks [after he assumed office] to cancel a P650-million contract that had undergone two rigorous public biddings to make his company E-Konek, the service provider of the Bureau of Customs, to continue reaping the benefits,” Roque said.