PALACE URGED TO SETTLE CONTINUING PEZA LEADERSHIP MESS

by Info @Brand Zone | January 10, 2023

MEMBERS of the Federation of Media Associations were urging anew the Office of the President to settle a long-standing dispute on the Philippine Economic Zone Authority’s (PEZA) leadership mess allegedly brought about by different interpretations of the two memoranda issued regarding the leadership of agencies under the executive departments.

These media associations include the Publishers Association of the Philippines, Inc. (PAPI), the Boracay Global Press Corps, KBP Laguna Chapter and Federation of Provincial Press Corps, Inc.

Memorandum 1 and Memo 3 involve the Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations (GOCCs) and government instrumentalities. The Director General of the PEZA is a Presidential appointee hence, only the President can appoint and assign an OIC, PEZA rules indicated. Memo 3 however, provided the exemption of GOCCs, govt. instrumentalities mandating a hold-over capacity to ensure unhampered and continuous services.

The leadership mess stemmed from the incident when then Deputy Director General Tereso Panga appointed himself as PEZA OIC without the sanction of then incumbent Director General Charito Plaza nor of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Alfredo Pascual.

Memo 3 provided that DTI attached agencies like the head of PEZA, could stay on, on a hold-over capacity. The self-appointed OIC Panga reportedly sought the assistance of his fraternity brother, Sec. Pascual, to issue a midnight DTI Department Order recognizing him as the OIC. He also ordered the separation from the service of the sitting DG Plaza.

To further aggravate the matter, Panga ordered the padlocking of the DG's office, the pull-out of the ODG staff and employees, including the office computers, telephone lines so communications at the ODG will stop. On that same day, Aug 3, 2022, Panga further ordered the PEZA police and the security guards to watch and prevent the entry of DG Plaza and the DG's invited media to enter the PEZA office.

Tensions and commotions occurred when DG Plaza insisted going to her office for the press conference she called but decided to transfer the venue instead at Conrad Hotel. Various media groups hence, have been recommending for the fast resolution of the PEZA leadership row which wasn't however, addressed by then Executive Secretary Victor Rodriguez.

The mess continued when Panga got another authority from Sec Pascual for him to fully exercise the powers and authority of the PEZA DG. The former was given the authority to reorganize the employees and so he started to terminate, demote, transfer to far away economic zones staff and employees identified as supporters of DG Plaza and hired new ones, promoted and occupied economic zones (EZs) preferred by his staff and supporters.

These actions of Panga as authorized by Pascual, are contrary to Civil Service laws and even OPs Memos 1,3,10 which put on a hold-over capacity staffs even contractual employees as the country is not yet off from the threats of the pandemic, inflation and world recession.

The oppressed employees have no other recourse when their appeal was not considered but go to the Civil Service Commission (CSC). They consequently withdrew their appeal at the CSC and transferred this to the Ombudsman Visayas to address all issues on administrative and alleged criminal abuse of authority.

Further, Panga is utilizing the PEZA Employees Association to support him in connivance with present and past presidents, who are his direct staff allegedly without the approval of the general membership, made public statements of support and conducted a survey, further pressuring and harassing the employees to stand by him.

Reports said that industry associations are now being dragged to give endorsements for his retention. Those employees identified with Plaza said that Panga must stop his media propaganda and instead answer the protest of the former DG now lodged with new Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin and the Office of the Ombudsman.

Meanwhile, industries allegedly endorsing Panga vehemently denied their supposed gesture as they agreed that their organizations must play neutral in the PEZA leadership rift “as this is the power of the President only.”

They claimed that former DG Plaza had “excellent balancing acts during the pandemic assisting the investors, locators, industry workers with health, medical and tax assistance and reprieves.”

It was said that former DG Plaza’s leadership acts that protect the health, jobs, livelihood, 100% operations of the economic zones that keep the economy afloat.