CLARK FREEPORT – “The gang’s all here.”
Referencing Sen. Grace Poe’s stinging remark “the officials who were involved in anomalies in the energy sector who are now at the helm of Clark” during the Senate investigation of the human trafficking incident in this freeport last May, the Association of CDC Concerned Employees (ACCES), has called on the senator and Sen. Risa Hontiveros for “intervention.”
“We write to seek assistance in raising a multitude of problems that have been plaguing the Clark Development Corp. and the Clark Freeport Zone to the awareness of concerned authorities and the general public,” read the letter dated Oct. 11, 2023 signed by ACCES president Edsel Manalili.
Manalili apprised the senators of the complaint of Grave Misconduct and Gross Abuse of Authority against CDC president-CEO Atty. Agnes VST Devanadera, vice president Jose Miguel R. de la Rosa, assistant VP Atty. Bonifacio O. Tareño, and members of the CDC board of directors which ACCES filed with the Ombudsman only last September.
The case, with reference number IC-OL-SEP-23-0602, stemmed from the shifting of CDC to the Government Service Insurance System from the Social Security System without undertaking a memorandum of agreement between parties which is stated on GSIS MC.036s2022.
In January 2023, the CDC implemented the Compensation and Position Classification System (CPCS) which terminated benefits the workers had been enjoying for some 20 years under their collective bargaining agreement “resulting to lesser take-home pay averaging P5,000.”
“Mandatory shifting to GSIS with higher premium is another take down on us rank-and-file employees,” Manalili lamented.
The case is “currently undergoing evaluation,” per reply of the Ombudsman records division to an inquiry of Manalili last Oct. 4.
‘Escape’
“We are concerned that the case that we filed may go the same way as the other cases which Atty. Devanadera escaped,” wrote Manalili, citing that in 2017, “she was cleared of a P6-billion graft case not because she was proven innocent but because the Ombudsman was delayed in its investigation. (Ref. https://www.rappler.com/nation/170123-agnes–devanadera-cleared-graft-case-pncc-radstock/).”
Another case Manalili cited was that in 2016 where Atty. Devanadera and her former chief of staff at the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel Atty. Rolando Faller were also charged for grave misconduct for allegedly irregular appropriation of attorneys’ fees to themselves.
“The Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeals to rule that ‘Faller is administratively liable for simple misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service,’” so Manalili wrote, referencing https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/84797/raps-vs-devanadera-upheld.
‘The gang’
“Today, Atty. Faller serves as a consultant of Atty. Devanadera in CDC,” he noted.
Aside from Faller, Devanadera brought to CDC from the Energy Regulatory Commission Atty Paul Cervantes to the CDC Board; and former commissioner Gloria Victoria C. Yap-Taruc as vice president for legal services, the letter noted.
Manalili said Taruc was suspended by the Ombudsman as ERC commissioner in 2018, referencing https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2018/08/18/1825603/ombudsman-suspends-4–erc-commissioners-anew).
Misdeed
The ACCESS lamented what it called Devanadera’s “irregular deeds” as CDC president-CEO, to wit:
“1. She celebrated her birthday with the now infamous “Lugaw-for-a-Cause” with
tickets priced at P5,000 forced on locators without the reglementary DSWD
permit.
“2. In addressing the human trafficking ring matter in Sun Valey, she fired lower
ranking personnel as escape goats after her VP Security Services resigned
and left post haste.
“3. She approved the several step increase in pay of newly appointed VPs (Dela
Rosa, Menesses, and Taruc) even when insisting that the CPCS shall be
Implemented strictly to justify the reduced take home pay of the rank-and-file.
“4. Recently, her OIC-Manager for Communications Division was ousted by the
Pampanga Press Club for policies that curtail press freedom within CFZ.”
‘Anti-working class’
“Atty. Agnes Devanadera will never be good for the working class,” Manalilli wrote. “The direction that management took in implementing the shift to GSIS was lacking of any solution that cushions the impact on the lower salaried employees of CDC.”
This, even as he said “the previous CDC administration recognized the detrimental effect of the shift and thus was studying ways of slowing down the impact on everyone.”
“Praying for your important intervention.” So closed the ACCES letter to Poe and Hontiveros.
RIGHT OF REPLY. Inquiries with the CDC management for its side of the issue were unreturned even as Punto! sources in the agency informed us that Devanadera is confined in a Metro Manila hospital. The publication is open to the concerned CDC officials for any rejoinder/rebuttal or simple response to the issues raised by ACCES pursuant to their right of reply and in the spirit of fairness. The Editor
