SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma has refuted allegations of graft and misconduct filed before the Office of the Ombudsman, saying there is no conflict of interest on her part in representing the agency in a joint venture with a business locator here.
Eisma was accused on Monday by lawyer Raymund Palad of dishonesty, gross misconduct, violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, as well as conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the government, for allegedly failing to divest her interest in TECO (Philippines) 3C & Appliances Inc., an enterprise registered in the Subic Bay Freeport.
But Eisma clarified that she is simply representing SBMA’s interest in the company as a nominal shareholder of 25 qualifying shares and as a nominee director.
“The people behind this complaint would like to obfuscate the fact that TECO is owned by the Subic Bay Development and Management Corp. (SBDMC), which is a joint venture between the SBMA and the UDC Group of Taiwan,” Eisma said.
“SBMA has a 49% stake in SBDMC, which was formed in 1994 to develop and manage the Taiwanese Industrial Park in Subic, while UDC has 51%. SBDMC owns TECO and, therefore, SBMA is a co-owner of TECO—which is why I was nominated by the SBDMC Board to represent its shareholdings in TECO,” she added.
Eisma stressed that her shareholding and directorship in TECO is by virtue of her official capacity to represent SBDMC’s and SBMA’s interests in the said company.
She said that this was not the first time that an SBMA official also held shares and sat as a director in TECO in order to represent SBDMC’s direct and SBMA’s indirect interest.
She also said there was no conflict of interest on her part to issue a Certificate of Registration and Tax Exemption (CRTE) for TECO “since this is a ministerial function and TECO has completed all requirements for the issuance of a CRTE.”
“I don’t own those shares in my personal capacity; rather, I represent those shares as an official of the SBMA which has an interest to protect in TECO,” she said.
“Atty. Palad complains that I did not divest of my investment in TECO to avoid conflict of interest in the performance of my official functions. But how can I divest myself of something that I do not own? How can I even avoid being in TECO when this was brought about precisely by my official function as SBMA head?” Eisma lamented.
The SBMA official bewailed that some parties appear to be making up issues about the SBMA in order to gain public exposure presumably for political gain, or to protect their business interests in Subic.
“I know that we in the current SBMA Board of Directors are stepping on some big toes because of our program to collect overdue accounts and to takeover facilities that investors have failed to develop and maintain, but we are not here to make popular decisions, just the right ones,” Eisma said.
“Now these people who are apparently concocting charges from thin air, why do they want me suspended or maybe even removed? Whose interest are they protecting?” she asked.
Refusing to name names, she said that a former top SBMA official who now holds a top government post has been discrediting her in public forum for no apparent reason.
“I hope that he would stop being bitter about his SBMA past because, after all, we are workers in the government together. If we really cared about President Duterte and what he stands for, then let us do our jobs like what the President asked us to do,” Eisma added. (Dante M. Salvana)