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[av_heading heading=’ Paner breaks silence on corruption issue in SRA ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY MAE SINGUAY
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BACOLOD City – Did President Rodrigo Duterte really fire Anna Rosario Paner from the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA)?
Paner, who had served as the sugar agency’s administrator, finally came out with answers to issues circulating her alleged dismissal from the SRA.
In a press conference in this city yesterday, Paner confirmed that she tendered her resignation last month, contrary to what the President said during a convention of public lawyers in Manila on Sept. 18.
Duterte, who said he would not tolerate graft and corruption in the SRA, claimed he terminated Paner for hiring three consultants who received as much as P200,000 monthly.
“Wala akong patawad diyan,” Duterte added.
Paner had been refraining to comment on the issue since her resignation out of respect for the President, who appointed her in the SRA November last year, she said.
If not for the statement of Agriculture secretary Emmanuel Piñol to a newspaper in Manila, Paner would have remained silent.
She said Piñol’s words seemed to affirm the accusations of corruption against her.
Paner quoted the news article saying “the Agriculture Chief also disclosed it was Serafica and lawyer Rolly Beltran who have exposed the anomalous contract, noting that both board members claimed they were not briefed properly on the nature of the deal.”
From the very start, Paner said Piñol had been vocal that he wanted Hermenigildo Serafica to head the SRA.
Serafica was reportedly appointed as the new SRA chief but Malancañang has not yet confirmed the claim.
Paner said she has the reason to believe that Duterte was “misinformed by these so-called whistleblowers, which formed the basis of the President’s misgivings on SRA.”
The former SRA chief explained that when she assumed the position, the Commission on Audit confronted her with its 2015 findings showing the absence of a Disaster Risk Reduction Management Program (DRRMP),which is required by Republic Act 10121, in the sugar agency.
Without the DRRMP, the SRA cannot and was not able to respond to farmers, producers and millers during disasters.
Paner particularly pointed out the time when Typhoon Lawin hit Cagayan. She said the SRA was not able to do anything other than reclassifying sugar to “B.”
The lack of the DRRMP prevented them to allocate the budget for disaster aid, she stressed.
“As an administrator it was very frustrating that I felt helpless,” Paner said.
Paner then made the DRRMP one of her main agenda and demanded to have the DRRMP made by June 2017.
A committee – chaired by Beltran – convened to come up with a medium term plan on disaster risk reduction for 2017 to 2022.
Paner said the SRA board members authorized her to sign a contract to hire a DRRMP consultant in January.
The lead consultant who was hired was an expert in the DRRM field, being a former executive director of the Office of Civil Defense of the Department of National Defense, Paner explained.
The lead consultant would receive P1.2 million for a year, to be paid only after certain deliverables were provided, she continued.
The consultant said making the DRRMP would take at least a year and at most, a year and a half, since it was not only for the SRA but for farmers and the whole sugar industry.
Yet Paner insisted the job be done in six months, she said.
In effect, the P1.2-million consultant fee was spread over six months instead of a year.
On May 10, the DRRMP draft was presented to the SRA board, including Serafica and Beltran, and the managers, and was approved, Paner stressed.
She claimed that she did not gain anything from the contract.
Furthermore, Paner said her administration in the SRA was challenged when prices of domestic sugar dropped due to the import of High Fructose Corn Syrup.
“We found an ally in the President who gave me marching orders to protect the industry, thus the issuance of Sugar Order 3,” she said.
During this, Paner said she was receiving “mixed signals” from Piñol, who wanted to suspend Sugar Order 3.
“But I stood firm on my decision,” she stressed.
Paner said she wanted to clear her name and defend the honor of her family.
“I have no other agenda here except to tell my side of the story and to tell the President that I have served him, this nation and this industry with full transparency and good faith,” she said./PN
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