Monday June 30, 2008

PVAO Anti-fixers Task Force Scores

In line with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's instruction to weed out unscrupulous "fixers" in the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO), Defense Secretary Gilberto C. Teodoro, Jr. has ordered the apprehension of fixers victimizing veterans and their dependents throughout the country.

"These unscrupulous individuals rob our veterans of what is rightfully theirs. This is a crime against humble veterans and their dependents, and must not go unpunished", Secretary Teodoro said.

To implement the instruction of the Defense Secretary, PVAO created the Anti-Fixers Task Force. The Task Force which was formed by PVAO Administrator Ernesto G. Carolina comprised of elements from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), DND Intelligence Security Group (DISG) and the Intelligence Service of the AFP (ISAFP).

In an entrapment operation last March 25, 2008 conducted by joint operatives of the Department of National Defense (DND) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), particularly from ISAFP, AFP Finance Center, and Headquarters Service Command (HSC), Oscar Carlos, a PVAO employee assigned at the Legal Investigation Division was arrested at the Soldier's Mall inside Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City.

Mr. Carlos was apprehended by operatives of the DND and AFP for alledgedly demanding and successfully extorting from 2Lt. Jacinto Andres (Ret) the amounts of Php3,000 and Php47,000 successively. The said amounts were allegedly part of the demanded kickback or commission in the total amount of Php50,000 for the approval of a request for the resumption of pension and payment of arrears of 2Lt. Jacinto Andres, a PVAO pensioner.

Earlier another entrapment operation with the assistance of the NBI led to the apprehension of two PVAO employees. Ms. Nancy S. Quitalig, Assistant Financial Claims Examiner of PVAO was arrested by Special Action Unit (SAU) operatives after she was caught in possession of marked money bills. Ms. Quitalig was reported by a certain Paz Bravo who revealed that the one who had a hand in facilitating the release of a pensioner's arrears was a certain alias "Kuya" who later was identified as Nancy Quitalig. The person who posed as fixer pointed to Ms. Quitalig as her contact in PVAO.

Ms. Quitalig subsequently implicated another PVAO employee and voluntarily revealed to the SAU operatives that half of the money went to her accomplice as her share of the "commission".

Ms. Quitalig has been dismissed from government service and as of May 3, 2008, the administrative case was submitted to the Department of National Defense for confimation of the dismissal in accordance with the pertinent Civil Service Commission (CSC) Memorandum Circular.

The thrust of the Anti-Fixers Task Force is to eliminate all the fixers inside PVAO, meaning fixers who are employees of PVAO. "If there are no contacts inside PVAO, these fixers will not survive" says the PVAO Chief of Operations, Director Nonie Villanueva.

Director Villanueva, who heads the Task Force further announced that the PVAO Management and employees will continue pursuing its objectives to combat corruption through various measures such as massive information and awareness raising campaigns, strengthening anti-corruption initiatives, improvement in systems and processes and continuing assessment of the agency's performance.