CLARK FREEPORT -- A crime watch group has taken to the Ombudsman the graft case it filed against an executive of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA).
The Citizens Crime Watch (CCW) filed its complaint for usurpation of authority and graft against BCDA executive vice president Aileen Anunciacion Roa Zosa at the Office of the Ombudsman on October 3, 2019.
The complaint was earlier filed before the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC), but CCW president Diego Magpantay said they have withdrawn the complaint from the agency through a notice dated October 1, 2019.
CCW legal counsel Raymund Palad said "the silence and inaction on the part of PACC from the day I filed my complaint on September 10, 2019 made me decide to withdraw the complaint."
"The CCW decided to directly file the complaint at the Office of the Ombudsman being the ultimate body that will decide whether or not cases shall be filed in court," Palad said.
CCW has asserted that Zosa was "without any legal appointment" from February 2016 up to present because the Governance Commission for Government-owned and controlled corporations (GCG) has abolished the Office of the EVP in the BCDA restructuring plan through Memorandum Order 2015-07.
An earlier statement from the BCDA denied allegations that Zosa has no legal appointment.
According to the BCDA, the allegations are baseless because the position of [Zosa] is approved by the Governance Commission for Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations (GCG).
CCW alleged that Zosa "continues to receive salaries, benefits and emoluments to the damage and prejudice of the government, the BCDA in particular."
At Salary Grade 30, CCW said Zosa gets roughly P5 million a year, which meant that the government has lost P15 million through the BCDA executive's false representation.
Zosa, according to CCW, has not been issued an appointment paper after the 2016 restructuring plan. Her last appointment was on February 1, 2010.
A statement from the BCDA said that Zosa's "position was never abolished as the BCDA restructuring plan was never fully implemented."
In a memorandum dated June 25, 2019, Civil Service Commission Director IV Judith Dongallo-Chicano referred CCW's request for investigation to CSC Field Office Director II Imelda Banzon.
"It's been four months now but we have not been informed about the result of CSC investigation. Two agencies seemed to have acted slowly on CCW's vigilant fight against corruption. This does not speak well of the Duterte Administration's thrust for honesty in government," Magpantay said.