8 NPO BIDDING EXECS DISMISSED / GUAM NEEDS 40,000 WELDERS
MANILA, SEPTEMBER 27, 2010 (STAR) By Rainier Allan Ronda - Eight officials of the National Printing Office (NPO) who make up the agency�s bids and awards committee (BAC) were ordered dismissed by the Office of the Ombudsman over an irregular bidding to subcontract printing deals of other government agencies in September 2008.
Ombudsman graft investigation and prosecution officer Myla Teona Teologio issued last week a dismissal order for Miguel Arcadio, chairman of the NPO�s BAC, and committee members Eddie Vista, Sol Tamayo, Florencia Reyes, Federico Ramos, Elsa Calma, Ma. Paz Ramos, and Ernesto Plarisan who were found guilty of dishonesty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.
Teologio issued the order after investigating the complaint filed by Guillermo Sylianteng Jr., general manager of Ready Forms Inc. in Marikina City, who exposed numerous irregularities in the public biddings conducted by the NPO to subcontract the printing contracts of government agencies.
�After a careful scrutiny of the allegations and the evidence adduced by the complainant, this office finds the complaint imbued with merit,� Teologio said.
Sylianteng�s complaint cited the bidding supposedly conducted by the NPO BAC on Sept. 5, 2008, which he said was highly unlikely since Arcadio and the seven other BAC members were only appointed to the committee on Sept. 2, 2008.
The holding of the bidding by the BAC a mere three days after their appointment as BAC members, raised the fact that they failed to give a 15-day period to publish an invitation to bid and other requirements under the Government Procurement Act.
Sylianteng also filed separate graft and plunder charges before the Ombudsman against the NPO BAC members, as well as former NPO director Enrique Agana based on other irregular biddings, aside from the bidding conducted in September 2008.
Sylianteng filed plunder charges against several NPO executives who allegedly supervised three supposedly anomalous public biddings of an estimated P141 million worth of contracts for the printing of official accountable forms of different national government agencies and local government units (LGUs) in January and February 2008.
Agana and the eight newly dismissed NPO BAC officials were charged with plunder before the Office of the Ombudsman and dishonesty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the civil service.
Also charged were Evelyn Perlado, chief of the agency�s Production, Planning and Control Division; and NPO legal consultant lawyer Phio Viovicente.
In his plunder complaint filed before the Ombudsman on Feb. 13, 2008, Sylianteng accused the NPO executives of presiding over three �sham and fixed biddings� on Jan. 13 and 19, and Feb. 6 to award the multimillion-peso printing contracts to produce the standard and official accountable forms of different national government agencies and LGUs.
In his 15-page complaint, Sylianteng said that in the Jan. 13 and 19 bidding during which Agana was still the NPO acting director, there was no public notice made of the bidding to subcontract printing contracts given them by more than 30 agencies.
As a result of the secret biddings, only the �pre-selected and invited� private printers were able to participate and bag the printing contracts.
Among the agencies that gave the NPO their printing contracts were the Land Bank of the Philippines, Philippine Ports Authority, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, Manila International Airport Authority, and Commission on Filipinos Overseas.
Guam needs 40,000 welders By Rainier Allan Ronda (The Philippine Star) Updated September 27, 2010 12:00 AM Comments (17) View comments
MANILA, Philippines - Filipino skilled workers can partake of 40,000 jobs in Guam when construction work for a large military base starts in the US territory, according to technical-vocational educators in Davao City.
Joel Botoy, director of JIB Welding Academy in Davao City, said the projected huge demand for welders in Guam is causing some job recruitment agencies to knock on the doors of technical-vocational centers for skilled welders.
�Welders will be very in demand not just in Guam but also in other countries where industries are undertaking expansion or new industries are being started,� he said.
Botoy said welders in Guam could earn as much as the equivalent of more than P70,000 since the pay per hour is $8 an hour.
�Construction is booming right now and will continue to boom because every country is always undertaking some construction for whatever industry they are planning to develop,� he said.
Botoy said welding should be aggressively pushed by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) to young Filipinos as a technical-vocational education option in view of the global demand.
�Welders will always be needed,� he said.
Botoy said TESDA should also encourage tech-voc schools to improve their equipment and facilities so that Filipino welders will have a good reputation for their quality skills in other countries.
JIB Welding Academy has become the country�s biggest welding school with 42 workstations equipped with miller welding machines used by industry in developed and developing countries, he added.
Botoy said they have agreements with local industries where their welding graduates get on-the-job training with pay with top companies such as Davao Light and Power, Davao Water District, cement giant Holcim.
�The owners invested so that the equipment that our students will train on is the equipment that they will have to work with abroad,� he said.
Davao City-based educator Joji Ilagan-Bian, who owns JIB Welding Academy as well as other educational institutions in Davao, said that TESDA could help tech-voc institutions by making sure that only deserving schools get tech-voc scholarship funds from the government.
�Because we give quality welding training, our program is quite expensive,� she said. �So the government can help those who want to go into welding skills training with scholarships.�
Skilled Filipino welders can get high pay in many countries such as in the Middle East, Australia, Canada, Singapore, and Guam, Botoy said.
----------------------------------------------------------
� Copyright, 2010 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved
----------------------------------------------------------
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/phnotweet
This is the PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE (PHNO) Mailing List.
To stop receiving our news items, please send a blank e-mail addressed to: phno-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Please visit our homepage at: http://www.newsflash.org/
(c) Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------
