Duterte ends row at SBMA

September 26, 2017

President Rodrigo Duterte has ended a turf war at the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority by issuing an executive order consolidating the powers and functions of chairman and administrator of the agency.

EO No. 42, which Duterte signed on September 25, 2017, in effect stripped Martin Dino his post as chairman of the agency.

Wilma Eisma took her oath of office as chairperson and administrator of SBMA at past 11am on Tuesday before Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo Guevarra.

Squabbles occurred at SBMA when Duterte appointed Dino in September as chairman of the agency despite having a separate administrator.

Dino, then chairman of the Volunteer Against Crime and Corruption and member of the ruling Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino(PDP)-Laban, filed a certificate of candidacy for president for the May 2016 elections. He was later substituted by Duterte as the party's standard bearer.

EO 42 repealed EO No. 340 issued in 2004, which reorganized SBMA by separating the position of chairman of the SBMA Board from the position of the administrator, who shall serve as ex-officio vice chairman of the SBMA Board.

EO 340 was issued despite the existence of Republic Act No. 7227, otherwise known as the "Bases Conversion and Development Act of 1992," which provides that the SBMA administrator shall be the ex-officio chairman of the SBMA Board of Directors and who shall serve as the chief executive office of the agency.

Under the latest EO, the powers of the SBMA, as defined under RA No. 7227, shall be exercised by the SBMA Board of Directors and the administrator shall be the ex-officio chairman of the Board.

The administrator, who shall be the CEO of the SBMA, has the powers, functions and duties to execute, administer and implement the policies and measures approved and adopted by the SBMA Board; directly administer and supervise the operations and day-to-day business activities of the agency; to sign all permits, certificates, authorizations, and other official documents issued by the agency, among others.

SBMA is one of the seven investment-promotion agencies where investors opt to locate.

Malacanang did not say if Dino would be appointed to another post. Celerina Monte/DMS