SUBIC BAY FREEPORT”•“The Ombudsman complaint will not stop me from what I started doing here in SBMA and [I will] just continue working.”
SBMA chairman and Administrator Amy Eisma said this following the graft complaint against her before the Office of the Ombudsman filed by Manila-based lawyer Raymund Palad.
The complaint claimed the SBMA chairman failed to divest herself of shareholdings in Teco 3 Philippines”•a home appliance maker and locator at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
According to the complaint, Eisma owns 25 shares of Teco 3 and was even appointed as a member of the company’s board of directors while being administrator of SBMA.
Eisma bewailed that some parties appear to be making up issues about the SBMA to gain public exposure, presumably for political gain or to protect their business interests in Subic.
“I know that we in the current SBMA Board of Directors are stepping on some big toes because of our program to collect overdue accounts and to take over facilities that investors have failed to develop and maintain, but we are not here to make popular decisions, just the right ones,” Eisma said.
“Now these people who are apparently concocting charges from thin air, why do they want me suspended or maybe even removed? Whose interest are they protecting?” she asked.
“Who are the people behind this? What is their motivation? They may be using this issue for a political motive,” the SBMA chief asked.
“I tell you this will not be last, I expect more cases to be thrown against me. This is a demolition job,” she said. “If I get afraid to collect overdue accounts because of cases they will file against me, what will happen?”
Eisma noted that she is from Olongapo City, the gateway to Subic Bay.
“I love Olongapo. I was one of the original volunteers here. Do you want me out of SBMA?” she asked during the conference attended mostly by Olongapo-based newsmen.
Eisma said she might have earned the ire of interest groups as she closed several locators at the SBMA for not paying rentals and not securing appropriate permits.
The Subic Bay Development and Management Corporation, Inc., owner of TECO 3, has already written the SBMA Board, copy furnished the office of President Duterte, debunking the charges of conflict of interest filed by Palad against the SBMA chairman.
SBDMC is a joint venture between SBMA and United Development Corporation.
“If we really care about President Duterte and what he stands for, then let us do our jobs like what the President asked us to do,” Eisma said.
