Arreza refutes CoA report on fat pay check

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT – Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) administrator Armand Arreza yesterday refuted the inaccuracy on the report made by the Commission on Audit (CoA) making him the highest earning government official with P26.865 million annual salary.

Arreza who showed his pay check voucher to media in a press conference here said, “my monthly gross salary is actually P 131,880.77 which leaves me a take-home pay of P95,449.35.”

“It was the same salary enjoyed by my predecessors that was set in 2000 and not P26 million as reported by CoA,” he explained.

Arreza added that his compensation has remained the same since he was appointed in September 2005.

Arreza further explained that CoA mistakenly included the P15 million intelligence fund wherein P10 million of it went to Task Force Subic for its anti-smuggling drive inside the Freeport , while the remaining P5 million went to the SBMA’s Law Enforcement Department and the Intelligence and Investigation Division.

“The intelligence fund [was] approved by the President for anti-smuggling campaign, and in 2009, Arroyo gave that to the SBMA,” Arreza said. “This year, we have no intelligence funds because [Arroyo] did not approve any. The same goes with President Aquino.”

Arreza also said that the rest of the amount cited by COA went to other expenses made by the SBMA, which was approved by the SBMA board and was later dispensed through his office.

According to him, special events which were part of the promotions and marketing programs of SBMA such as the Philippine Advertising Congress, the Sangguniang Kabataan congress, along with other tourism events took much of the expenses for sponsorship.

The SBMA also has hosted delegations of agencies from other countries, or extend financial assistance to indigenous communities and non-government organizations.

“All of this is under my office, but it doesn’t go to me but definitely not as my salary,” he said

The SBMA board gave credence to the importance of such promotional projects but ensured that this would not go beyond one percent of the SBMA’s total annual budget of some P2 billion earned by the SBMA in administering the country’s premier Freeport zone.

Meanwhile, in a press statement, SBMA Chairman Feliciano Salonga clarified that the SBMA’s Board of Directors has no plan of challenging President Aquino’s Executive Order No. 2 which terminated all of the “midnight appointees” of his predecessor.

Salonga issued the statement to clarify media reports that the SBMA board will contest the constitutionality of EO 2 before the Supreme Court.

The claim, attributed to SBMA board member Eddie Tamondong, said that the SBMA board plans to challenge Pres. Aquino’s decision, as the order affected more than half of the number of members comprising the board.

However, Salonga said that only a few members of the SBMA board may be planning to contest EO 2.

“This move is not being initiated by the SBMA Board as a whole, but only by some members who are affected by the EO,” Salonga said. “The Board has not passed any resolution to that effect”, he added.

According to the report, the SBMA directors affected by EO 2 included Tamondong, Mario Garcia, Stefani Saño, Jesus Vicente Magsaysay III, Marivic Pineda, Angelita Cruz and Ricardo Coscolluela.

However, Coscolluela has denied that he was among those seeking to challenge the executive order.

Aquino signed EO 2 on August 4, revoking all appointments made by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on or after March 11.

The EO left only three out of fifteen members to the SBMA Board forcing the SBMA to suspend all board meetings until the issue has been finally resolved. Those who were not affected by the said EO are Salonga, Arreza and director Ted Del Rosario.

In the same press conference, Arreza said that the last board meeting was held on July 30.

Subic Freeport is currently operating without an SBMA Board which approves all projects proposals of investors, which in the long run, may adversely affect the daily businesses inside the Freeport .

Arreza said that the entry of new investors and proposal for expansion projects of existing investors, that requires board approval, would be temporarily be put on halt until the issue of the validity and legality of the appointments of the board members have been resolved. Rey Garcia