Ombudsman orders dismissal of BFAR chief
The Office of the Ombudsman has ordered the dismissal of Demosthenes R. Escoto, National Director of the Department of Agriculture (DA) - Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), after he was found guilty of grave misconduct involving the alleged irregularities in the procurement of transmitters and transceivers.
The penalty of dismissal also carries with it the cancellation of eligibility, forfeiture of retirement benefits, and perpetual disqualification re-employment in government service. Meanwhile, the administrative charges against former Assistant Secretary Hansel O. Didulo have been dismissed for insufficiency of evidence.
The items subject of Escoto's administrative case were intended for the BFAR'S Integrated Marine Environment Monitoring System Project Phase II (PHILO Project), which was supposed to enhance the government's capability to safeguard and monitor the country's marine resources and to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing activities.
The French government granted a loan to the Philippine government amounting to €28,520,000 on Dec. 18, 2015, payable in 30 years with an interest rate of 0.115 percent per annum in order to finance the PHILO Project. The condition of the loan was that the source of the products to be purchased for the PHILO Project must originate from French suppliers.
Two companies participated in the bidding for the transmitters and transceivers: CLS Collecte Localisation Satellites (CLS) and Srt-france, a subsidiary company of Srt-united Kingdom (SRTUK) incorporated in France. After checking the bids, the former was disqualified and the latter was declared the winner of the contract.
However, when the French Embassy of the Philippines checked, it declared that Srt-france was unqualified under the terms of its loan since Srt-france has no manufacturing or engineering facilities in France. It also has no record of activities in France, and its parent company is incorporated and domiciled in the UK.
The BFAR then sought to increase the project cost from ₱1,675.89 million to ₱2,097.82 million and to close the French loan. It also sought to change the funding source from foreign assistance to local funding, which was later approved by the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) - Investment Coordination Committee (ICC).
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) then alloted ₱2,097,819,000 for the PHILO project as requested, and the final procurement for the transceivers took place on Oct. 30, 2018. Around 5,000 transceivers were purchased for commercial catcher vessels above 30 gross tons and Satellite Services subscription during the entire duration of the project.
Since the contract was no longer limited to French suppliers, the participants to the bidding were Fleet Automation Services Pte. Ltd. JV Comfac Corporation and SRT-UK. Since Fleet Automation was found "wanting" in qualification, SRT-UK was awarded the contract.
Red flags began to rise up when the Commission on Audit (COA) issued a Notice of Suspension on Jan. 24, 2020 claiming that a portion of the money paid to SRT-UK worth ₱722.639 million was not supported with complete documents, and that there was failure to pay the appropriate withholding tax.