Consumer rights

Be it public or privately provided service, there’s got to be a better way to provide them and to address consumer concerns and complaints.

At the start of the year, I vowed to take care of all unfinished business early Ð paying off past due loans, securing expired licenses and permits, renewing matters that need to be renewed, among others.

First on my list was renewing my professional license and securing a new community tax certificate. No parking available. Great. There was an elevated sidewalk and we were asked to park there. City hall was jampacked and there were very long lines of people renewing business licenses and paying real property taxes. It was good that the line for people getting their 2013 cedula was shorter and was moving fast. And there was just a bunch of individuals renewing their PTRs.

Great that I didnt have to worry yet about my real property tax payment.

Next stop was the bank. Imagine my disappointment upon learning that I needed to submit ASAP a copy of my first quarter property tax receipt!

Just recently, I received a letter from one of our regular readers which basically was complaining about how equally inefficient private business can be. I remember the shoving and pushing just to get our hands at a piece of Excelente ham last Christmas. One lady customer said she was waiting for the C. Palanca store to open as early as 5 am. When it finally opened, pandemonium ensued. Two and a half hours after the store opened, the old lady still did not have her ham. She left saying she didn’t stand a chance with all these men pushing. And it has been this way every year according to her. The owner ought to have a queueing system next time.

I can go on and on narrating consumer complaints. Does it always have to be caveat emptor or buyer beware? Consumer law in this country sucks. Try enforcing warranties. The situation is worse with hidden warranties which unknown to many is recognized in our Civil Code.

The Consumer Code needs revisiting if we are to empower the consuming public. After all, everybody deserves the best value for their money, including taxpayers’ money.

From the readers

Dear Gentlemen:

I am Attorney Patrick M. Velez, the assistant secretary for acquisition, installations and logistics of the Department of National Defense (DND). I am the principal executive staff assisting the Secretary of National Defense in providing executive guidance, supervision and control of the Defense department’s activities pertaining to acquisition and procurement for forces readiness and modernization. And, in behalf of this department, I would like to express this department’s appreciation to The Philippine STAR for being one of the newspapers that give accurate and concise reports so that the Filipino people and other valued readers are apprised of what is happening around us.

This has reference to the “Hidden Agenda” column of Ms. Mary Ann LI. Reyes in The Philippine STAR edition last Dec. 20, 2012 entitled “Delayed Modernization Program.” This department definitely agrees with Ms. Reyes’ concerns that the Philippines need modern and well-equipped vessels and aircraft to patrol the vast territorial waters of this country and other resources such as the Malampaya natural gas-to-power project. Since the start of the term of the current administration, the thrust has been primarily focused on the enhancement of the AFP’s capability. That being said, I would like to raise some points in order to clarify the “allegation” mentioned in the article and to set the records straight.

This department has in place the Defense Acquisition System (DAS), a component of the Defense System of Management (DSOM), and these tools provide a systematic approach to the decision-making process of this department. All capability requirement assessments are presented to the DND-AFP senior leaders for consultation and collective decision. Thus, the modernization of the AFP’s defense capability is not in ‘jeopardy’ because of any single individual’s “alleged bias” in choosing defense contractors.

It is admitted that there are delays in the implementation of the AFP Modernization Program and we were not able to meet our modest goal of having all project contracts signed by July 31, 2012. However, these delays were caused by procedures and requirements in the Philippine procurement laws (such as RA 9184 and EO Nr 423 s-2005 as amended by EO 645 2-2007) that we have to comply with before finalizing the contract, i.e., getting the approval of the President, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB). Further, since defense equipment are peculiar items, unforeseen obstacles in the procurement process were encountered. Admittedly, all these are part of our learning curve and we have met with officials from the DBM and GPPB to iron out the problems encountered to have a better procurement flow.

In the case of the acquisition of the 21 UH-1 helicopters, the change from “emergency procurement” to public bidding mode of procurement, as recommended by the GPPB, significantly contributed to the delay. The proceedings resulted in a failed bid due to inconsistent eligibility requirements submitted by the possible suppliers. The documents for this project are currently being reviewed prior to re-bidding.

As for the attack helicopters, it was an internal matter within Eurocopter when they withdrew their offer for the Fennec helicopters. This was reported to the President in September. Again, the alleged “collapse”, i.e., the withdrawal of Eurocopter’s offer for the 10 helicopters, was not caused by a certain DND official, but by some unforeseeable events that transpired while we were waiting for the GPPB approval.

This department has several active defense cooperation agreements with allied countries. Said agreements indicate that our partner countries are more than able to support our requirement with the corresponding guarantee for quality. But said agreements do not obligate us to buy from any of them. All our acquisitions undergo a careful review pursuant to DAS and DSOM to ensure compliance to technical and operational requirements which are the major criteria in choosing and sourcing our defense equipment.

This administration advocates transparency and accountability in our procurement program. We are constantly