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PRESIDENTIAL ANTI-GRAFT COMMISSION (PAGC)

PRESS RELEASE

August 14, 2007 

Palace Suspends DSWD Director Based on Pagc’s Investigation 

            The Office of the President (OP) affirmed the recommendation of the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) to suspend Wayne Belizar, Director III and Officer-In-Charge of the Management Information Systems Service of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (MISS-DSWD).  

            ‘We cannot tolerate this kind of irresponsibility. Every public servant must always uphold the public interest and should think of the general welfare and integrity of the organization he represents first and foremost—over and above his personal interests,’ explained PAGC Chair Constancia de Guzman. 

In the Decision dated July 31, 2007, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, by authority of the President, signed the OP decision approving the three (3) month suspension of Director Belizar.  

             PAGC’s investigation revealed that while on a field work in San Fernando, Pampanga, Belizar, together with some DSWD employees identified as Marlito del Rosario, Pepito Carpio and Jason Obrera, used a government vehicle, a Mitsubishi Adventure with Plate No. SHP-754 in going to Dunhill Videoke Bar. 

They then had a drinking spree and were later on involved in a commotion. 

A police Blotter regarding the commotion revealed that Ms. Irene Macapagal, owner of Dunhill, asked for police assistance around 2:00 AM on November 7, 2006 after Belizar and his companions didn’t pay their bill. Their refusal to pay caused a heated argument with the owner whereupon Belizar bragged that he is a director of DSWD, while one of his companions kicked and destroyed properties inside the videoke bar. 

When Belizar realized that responding policemen were on the way, he instructed his Driver, Carpio, to drive the vehicle away from the vicinity to avoid being seen by the police and to avoid further incrimination. 

In his defense, Belizar claimed in his Verified Answer that he only agreed to continue their drinking in the said bar with the hope of eliciting more information from their alleged informant, Del Rosario, whom he believed would be helpful in their four-day fact-finding assignment in the Field Office II of DSWD. 

PAGC in its resolution however stated that, “Respondent, as a seasoned internal auditor and head of the fact-finding committee should have known better that a drinking session is not the proper occasion for the conduct of an investigation, much more if the venue therein is a videoke bar.” 

PAGC further added that, “the information obtained from Mr. Del Rosario will have more probative value if the same was documented and taken in the proper occasion and venue; not while he is intoxicated and in a videoke bar with the members of the Committee who are intoxicated as well.”

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