Abaya told to answer for vehicle plate mess

Drug-related vendetta is seen as motive in three separate slayings of policemen recently. “Onsehan sa pera (double-cross over money),” investigators theorize. In gangland-style executions, cardboard signs were left at the scene proclaiming, “Drug Protector.” The victims might have reneged on dirty deals. The masked gunmen were narco-traffickers posing as anti-drug vigilantes. They couldn’t come to court with unclean hands, so simply resorted to the underworld’s ultimate punishment. Still, they must be made to pay for murder.

*      *      *

Former transport secretary Joseph Abaya is at last being made to answer for the vehicle license plate shortage. And the party that’s suing him is the very unqualified shop he had signed up in the P3.8-billion controversy.

The Ombudsman ordered Abaya this month to explain why license plates duly paid for by vehicle registrants were never issued to them. The anomaly has been dragging on since 2014. Hampered are half-a-million cars, trucks, and motorcycles – brand-new yet plate-less, or old ones with expired plates. Land transport licensing is in shambles; authorities have no way by which to identify motor vehicles; criminals are having a field day with getaways. Abaya improperly had contracted the plate fabrication. The outputs were of inferior quality. The plates are stuck at the ports. State auditors have had to cancel the contract. And the Supreme Court has tried to untangle the legal blocks. But Abaya bungled so big that it would take many more months to clean up his mess.

Also being held liable are six factotums: undersecretaries Jose Perpetuo Lotilla, Rene Limcaoco, Julianito Bucayan, and Catherine Jennifer Gonzales; and assistant secretaries Alfonso Tan Jr. and Ildefonso Patdu.

The complainant is the joint venture of Filipino Power Plates Inc. and Dutch J. Knierem B.V. Goes (PPI-JKG). It accuses Abaya et al of graft, red tape, and incompetence in the plate contracting. As a result, PPI-JKG lost hundreds of millions of pesos. Too, the half-million vehicle owners have been shortchanged, and car assemblers’ sales diminished.

It was irregular from the start, with Abaya’s subs changing the bidding rules as they went along in 2013. Complaints were ignored that PPI was debarred from government contracting for forgery. JKG allegedly was undercapitalized. Only after Abaya awarded PPI-JKG the P3.8-billion deal was it found out that Congress had allotted only P530 million for it. There was no requisite funding for the five-year project. By then Abaya already had advanced P478 million to PPI-JKG.

The first few plate deliveries reportedly were substandard, with the metal crumpling in floodwaters. The Senate stepped in to investigate. A graft case ensued against both Abaya and PPI-JKG, but the Ombudsman dismissed it on a technicality. Still the Commission on Audit stopped any more payments. As PPI-JKG hesitated to pay the P20-million Customs duty, its bulk delivery of 600,000 plates, worth P200 million, was confiscated at the Manila pier. Only under the Duterte administration was the release worked out.

PPI-JKG now blames Abaya et al for its woes. It accuses them of breaking the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and the Code of Conduct for Public Officials. Land transport industry leaders eagerly are watching the case. They wonder if the reasons would unravel why Abaya gave PPI-JKG the contract at all.

*      *      *

Worth considering are the views on drug prevention and rehab of one of the youngest congressmen, Christopher de Venecia of Pangasinan. Drugs victimize mostly youths. They also have different approaches to the menace that has been left to fester for two decades.

In a recent speech in Congress, de Venecia proposed a multi-sector response to drugs, to wit:

(1) Every barangay chairman is to activate an Anti-Drug Abuse Council. Joining, aside from the village councilmen, are the school principal, Sangguniang Kabataan head, chief tanod, and reps from civic and faith groups. The Council will study the cause and extent of the locale’s drug problem, and ways to confront it. These would include drug information for parents, and productive youth activities.

(2) The Dept. of Education must include drug awareness in all grades, and the Commission on Higher Education in all levels. Drug education must be age-appropriate to be effective. The National Youth Commission would be most helpful in the syllabus designs.

(3) In establishing new and expanding existing rehab clinics in all provinces, the Dept. of Health must pay special attention to addicted minors. Segregation from adult in-patients is necessary.

(4) Government can mobilize the lifestyle and entertainment sections of the mainstream media to combat the drug culture. Cinema, television, theater, and social media too are effective tools to wean youths away from drug temptation.

(5) All rehabs must end not just with kicking the drug habit, but social reintegration. Cured of drug dependence, youths need help to return to school or find gainful employment through skills training. Policies must be laid down to prevent discrimination.

*      *      *

Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ, (882-AM).

Gotcha archives on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jarius-Bondoc/1376602159218459, or The STAR website http://www.philstar.com/author/Jarius%20Bondoc/GOTCHA