Corruption in NIA ‘well organized,’ says suspended acting chief

A syndicate is believed to be behind the move to preventively suspend former newsman Benny Diaz Antiporda as National Irrigation Administration chief.

Antiporda on Thursday raised the possibility as he lamented that the Office of the Ombudsman has issued a six-month suspension against him without his being notified of the complaint purportedly filed by disgruntled NIA employees.

Antiporda said the suspension was bereft of information shedding light on the accusations against him. The order was also without attachments, he added, something "intended to humiliate" President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as the one who appointed him to the NIA post.

"We all know of the rampant corruption at NIA. While there may only be a few involved, they are very well-organized," Antiporda, who formally took over NIA last 29 July, said.

Ombudsman Samuel Martires last 15 November ordered the suspension of Antiporda for alleged grave misconduct, harassment, oppression, ignorance of the law, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.

Also named as respondents but not suspended by the Ombudsman were Senior Deputy Administrator Atty. Eryl Royce Nagtalon; Acting Operations Department Manager Leslie Dizon; IEC Acting Manager Jerome Osias; Public Affairs Acting Manager Clarizze Toribio and General Services Acting Manager Elaine Villanueva.

Named complainants were the officers and members of the NIA Employees Association or NIAEASP, including Lloyd Allain Cudal and Michelle Gonzales Raymundo.

On Wednesday, NIAEASP president Eduardo Yu issued a categorical statement disowning the complaint against Antiporda as one that came from the organization he heads.

"The NIAEASP National Council, during its meeting on 5 September 2022, passed NC Resolution 13-2022, expressing its solid support to Administrator Antiporda's leadership. That resolution still stands and remains unchanged," Yu stressed.

The NIA last 15 September filed a complaint against Cudal and his subordinate at the legal service, Atty. Mary Annabelle Cruz-Domingo, for graft and corruption, gross and inexcusable negligence, inefficiency and incompetence, among others.

Antiporda urged the Ombudsman to investigate Cudal after the NIA lost a legal case "due to a technicality" that resulted in the agency being ordered to pay more than P205 million to a contractor who failed to finish an irrigation project in Central Luzon.

Antiporda also filed a complaint against Raymundo before the Ombudsman last 18 October for betrayal of public interest, graft and corruption, habitual drunkenness, discourtesy, grave misconduct and maltreatment, among others.

Antiporda added that during the first NIA board meeting that he attended, Raymundo tried to make him sign an irrigation contract worth more than P200 million but he refused.

Afterward, Raymundo started a "campaign" for him not to be confirmed as NIA administrator by the NIA board but this failed, Antiporda said.

Antiporda added he was also being prodded to approve another NIA project worth more than P800 million to "automate" the country's existing dams but he again refused, saying he found "no logic" with the proposal that would not benefit the country's farmers.

He added he found the Ombudsman's suspension order "unusual" as he had yet to receive a copy of the complaint. "And the OMB is yet to act on the complaints that I filed," Antiporda said.

He said the "good thing" that came out of his preventive suspension is that the public now realized that the Ombudsman can swiftly act on a complaint if it wanted to.

He then appealed to the Ombudsman to not allow the office to be used by sinister forces out to derail the Marcos administration's campaign against corruption.

Antiporda stressed he's not clinging to his post and that he is leaving the matter to President Marcos Jr., to decide on whether he should stay or not in his administration.