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PRESIDENTIAL ANTI-GRAFT COMMISSION (PAGC)

PRESS RELEASE

June 8, 2007

Gov’t anti-graft drive nets 2 appointees 

Upon the recommendation of the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC), Malacañang dismissed a presidential appointee and suspended another in its intensified campaign to rid the government of corruption. 

In two separate decisions, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita signed the dismissal of Cordillera Autonomous Region Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Regional Director Augusto Capio and suspended for three months Presidential Assistant for Infrastructure Proceso Domingo, both in violation of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. 

 PAGC recommended the dismissal from service of Capio, then Executive Director of TESDA’s Skills and Standards and Certification Office (SSCO), for soliciting 20 to 50 thousand pesos from TESDA regional directors and instructed them to remit the amount to Skills Philippine Foundation (SPF), Inc., a private corporation not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The amount came from the Sariling Sikap Funds (SSF) of TESDA that financed the trip of a team bound for the fifth ASEAN Skills Competition in Vietnam. 

            Capio admitted that he solicited money from the regional directors but claimed that no violation was committed because TESDA is regularly providing assistance to private entities of skills foundations as active partners in the conduct of skills competition. 

            He also said that remitting the fund to SPF was an honest mistake and that eventually he coursed the money to another foundation, the Skills Excellence Philippine Foundation, Inc., an alleged legal entity duly registered by SEC. 

Certifications obtained from the SEC revealed that none of the private companies and incorporators mentioned by Capio was registered with the SEC. 

            The Office of the President, however, upheld the findings of PAGC that the respondent acted with evident bad faith, manifest partiality or gross inexcusable negligence by disregarding the requirements and clear mandate of COA Circular No. 95-003 that provides the accounting and auditing guidelines on the release of fund assistance to non-governmental organizations. 

Domingo, a former administrator of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), on the other hand, was suspended for three months for his failure to declare properties in his 2004 Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN). 

PAGC investigation revealed that the former administrator declared only six of at least nine real properties in Cabanatuan, the Transfer Certificate Titles (TCT) of which are in the possession of the PAGC. 

Under the law, specifically, Section 7 of RA 3019, public officials like Domingo has the duty and obligation to submit a true and detailed SALN. 

Domingo argued that there was no intention to conceal the properties and that the main reason for his failure to declare the same was due to confusions brought about by him filing a separate SALN with that of his wife. 

Malacañang, nonetheless, upheld the findings of PAGC against the administrator and said that RA 3019 is a special law such that intent or malice is not necessary to commit a violation thereof. 

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