On Tuesday, Rommel C. Narciso presented a video of the March 9 proceedings cited by IP representative Councilor Ruvielane S. Margarito where he was clearly addressing the chair, CDC director Francisco Villaroman, in the meeting and not directly at Margarito as implied by her.
“Makikita mo na parang parliamentary proceedings yon ang question ko ina-address ko sa chairman ang tinanong ko lang doon actually, kase titignan daw nila yung book of accounts, for record purposes sino yung auditor niyo kako, para yun ang ilalagay nating mag tsecheck pero wala yung pinagsasabi niya doon na exchanges namin na marunong ka bang accounting? Wala po yon (You will see there that it was like a parliamentary proceeding and I addressed my questions to the chairman actually, because they wanted to look at the book of accounts, for record purposes I asked who their auditor was so that I will note that he will be the one to check but I did not say those things and no such exchanges happened, do you know accounting, there’s none of that),” Narciso explained.
“Hindi po ako ganun. Wala akong time sa mga ganyan (I’m not like that. I have no time for such things),” he added.
Narciso said he never treated IPs as inferiors “and in fact we have a number of corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects with the IPs as primary benefi ciaries.”
“I never told them that they have no capacity to make proper auditing of the monies in the JMA. As the video would show, I merely asked them who their authorized auditor would be,” he explained further.
“It’s also on record that Margarito replied that there are two associations that would make an audit each with their own auditors. Then I further inquired which associations since at that time there was still no Sangguniang Tribung Ayta (STA),” he said.
“I never asked anybody about their personal competency,” he added.
Narciso also clarified that Margarito is not their joint venture partner. ‘Meron pong JMA between CDC, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) and Tribung Ayta. The current guideline of the NCIP under Administrative Order No. 2 is to register an indigenous political structure (IPS) and an indigenous political organization (IPO). Hindi po si Councilor Margarito yon (That is not Councilor Margarito),” he said.
“Our books and records are open to their proper representatives. Unfortunately, until now, they do not have a single authorized representative sanctioned by the NCIP guidelines,” he said.
“Respect is a privilege that is earned, it’s not freely given. But I have given her proper courtesy reciprocal to her attitude to CDC,” he said.
