| by Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews | |
| Friday, 25 December 2009 15:43 |
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/25 December) – Acting ARMM Governor Ansaruddin Alonto Adiong this week named his new Cabinet members, most of them fellow Maranaos, one of them supposedly barred from employment in any government office due to corrupt practices.
In his inaugural speech on December 14, Adiong acknowledged the “enormous” challenges facing the five-province, two-city Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) but “armed with the best of intentions and aided by a component team of the best minds and well-meaning public servants, we intend to embark on a journey towards peace, justice, unity and development.”
He said he would “professionalize our regional government to ensure that our bureaucracy is administered by qualified and competent public servants.”Four of his appointees are reportedly his relatives: Haroun Alrashid Lucman, Jr of Marawi City, the provincial director of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) as Local Governments Secretary; Akira Alonto as the OIC Director for Intelligence and Security Services; Abu Hamza Alonto as Executive Director of the Regional Sports Commission and Rahman Alonto as executive director of the Bangsamoro Youth Office.
No other information was available on Lucman, Abu Hamza and Rahman but Akira Alonto was Lanao del Sur security chief in 2002.
Engr. Titingalangit Sumagayan, district engineer of the 1st district in Lanao del Sur was named ARMM Public Works secretary.
Lawyer Lomala Balindong of Malabang in Lanao del Sur was named Agriculture secretary while Camid Gandambra of Marawi City was named Agrarian Reform secretary. Gandambara was ARMM Transportation and Communication secretary in 2006.
Named Health Secretary was Dr. Alejandrito Descallar of Marawi City while Makil Pundaodaya of Ditsaan Ramain, Laano del Sur was named Education Secretary.
Pundaodaya was regional chief of the Department of Education in Region 12 in the 1990s.
Under Administrative Order 80 on July 31, 1999 (http://www.chanrobles.com/administrativeorders/administrativeorderno80%201999.html), Pundaodaya was disqualified “from re-employment in the government service,” and his financial benefits forfeited after he and Diamar Kadon were found guilty of Gross Neglect of Duty for having “signed and approved disbursement vouchers for undelivered graders' desks and their failure to ascertain the delivery of said materials/equipment” from 1992 to 1993.
The Commission on Audit team found 1,823 desks valued at P936,610 were not delivered to Iligan City Schools Division; 2,051 desks worth P1,025,500 were unaccounted for in Marawi City Schools Division; and 6,613 desks amounting to P3,306,500 supposedly allocated to Sultan Kudarat Schools Division went missing.
"Aside from the team's findings of shortage in the deliveries of graders' desks, it was also found that the quality of the graders' desks is poor - the lumber used was not seasoned, not properly cleaned or plained thereby resulting in the rough appearance of the chairs. And some of the desks were already broken or destroyed,” the report of the Presidential Commission Against Graft and Corruption (PCAGC) said.
The AO noted that while Kadon was dismissed from his post (he was Education regional director as of 1999), the case of Pundaodaya, who had retired from government service on August 29, 1995, was dismissed “for being moot without prejudice to the imposition of the accessory penalties of prohibition from re-employment in the government service and forfeiture of all his financial benefits.”
The newspaper, Malaya, in its December 3, 2009 issue (http://www.malaya.com.ph/12032009/metro3.html) reported that the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division has convicted 12 former officials of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (now DepEd) of multiple counts of graft in connection with alleged anomalous purchase of school desks from 1992 to 1993.
“Sentenced to a total of 18 to 30 years in jail for three counts of graft were former DECS Region XII directors Diamar Kadon and Makil U. Pundaodaya,” the report read. Ten others were found guilty of several counts of graft.
In its verdict promulgated last Nov. 25, the court said prosecutors sufficiently established the liability of the defendants for anomalies attending six purchase contracts for school desks.
Adiong also named lawyer Asnaira Maradang Batua of Ditrsain Ramain, Lanao del Sur as the new Trade and Industry Secretary while Usman Tantao Sarangani of Madalum, Lanao del Sur was named Environment secretary.
The new Solicitor-General is Atty. Baratucal L. Caludang; David Ali is the Official Development Assistance Executive Director; former Wao (Lanao del Sur) mayor Elvino Balicao, Sr., is Deputy Governor for Christian Affairs; while Manila Bulletin correspondent Ali Macabalang has been named Executive Director of the ARMM’s Bureau of Public Information.
Macabalang, also of Lanao del Sur but who has spent a longer time in Maguindanao, is not new to the office. Under the first Maranao ARMM Governor, Liningding Pangandaman (1993-1996), Macabalang was chief of the information office, then named Media Affairs Division.
Most of Adiong’s appointees are not known. Only a handful yielded results in google.com.
The only non-Maranaos among the new appointees are lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo of Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, the new Executive Secretary; lawyer Ishak Mastura, chair of the Regional Board of Investments; Myrah M. Alih of Jolo, Sulu, Labor and Employment secretary; and Alnie Burahim of Basilan, a 2006 bar passer is secretary of Transportation and Communication.
Mastura had earlier served as ARMM Trade Secretary and later Assistant Executive Secretary to ARMM Governor Datu Zaldy Ampatuan who is presently facing charges of rebellion.
Adiong was named Acting Governor of the ARMM by Local Governments Secretary Ronaldo Puno and will likely stay in his post up to the end of the term of officials of the ARMM on September 30, 2011 because the crimes “charged against the regional governor are of the nature that bail is not recommended (and) is not possible.”
Puno told reporters after the installation of Adiong on December 14 here that this is the likely scenario because ARMM Governor Ampatuan has become “legally incapacitated to rule.” Aside from criminal charges, Puno said, Ampatuan is also going to face administrative charges which would also call for his suspension.
Ampatuan was elected governor in 2005 and was reelected in 2008 for another term that ends September 30, 2011. (Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews)
| by Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews | |
| Friday, 25 December 2009 15:43 | |
| http://www.mindanews.com |
