MECO admits to excessive pay, non-remittance of funds

The Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) on Wednesday admitted that its board members have been receiving excessive retirement benefits and that it has not remitted dividends to the national government. MECO chair Amadeo Perez, who assumed his post in August, said that board members serving two consecutive years are entitled to P600,000 for each year of service. "That is to me scandalous... That is in the board resolution that I was able to find out," he said during a Senate hearing on the alleged excessive perks that executives of government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCC) enjoy. Perez, a former congressman and a former mayor of Urdaneta City, said he was scandalized because his retirement pay after 35 years of government service was just P1.2 million. The chair and directors of MECO each receive $300 per diem when traveling to Taiwan, where MECO has an office, and P4,000 a day for travels within the country, Perez added. Its former chair Tomas Alcantara reportedly received P150,000 a month, plus 13th month pay and performance bonus equivalent to one month’s salary. "As far as on paper, my scrutiny, those are all being received by the directors," he said. Non-remittance MECO is the de facto Philippine embassy in Taiwan. It collected about P150 million in visa, passport, and notary fees from Filipinos living in Taiwan, according to Perez. In 2008 and 2009, the office in Taiwan transmitted a total of $3,395,000 to the Manila office, he said, noting that the money was originally appropriated to the scholarship program of children of Filipino workers in Taiwan. Republic Act 7656 requires GOCCs to declare and remit at least 50 percent of annual net earnings – cash and stock or property dividends – to the national government. In the case of MECO, Perez said that it has not turned over any amount of dividend to the national government since its inception in 1975. "The funds being spent by the main office in Manila comes from the income in Taiwan. [But] as far as the records will show, none has been remitted by MECO to the national treasury," he said. Unaudited MECO is not being audited by the Commission on Audit (COA), because it has always maintained that it is a "private corporation" despite being created under the Office of the President, according to him. Sen. Franlkin Drilon, chair of the Senate finance committee, said that under the Philippine Constitution MECO as GOCC must undergo COA audit. COA assistant commissioner Jaime Naranjo clarified that the state auditor attempted several times to audit MECO but was "not given access" to its financial records. Perez, however, said that MECO is now ready to submit the necessary documents so that COA can audit the office. MECO is also willing to remit funds to the national treasury on orders of the President, he added. "To be truthful, I believe in some ways... that these should be treated as public funds, Perez said. "We'll pave the way to correct the wrong." Drilon commended Perez for "recognizing that something was wrong" with MECO's operations. "MECO has been operating as a government of its own," Drilon said. "Somebody must be held responsible for this." MECO was mandated to look after Philippine-Taiwan trade matters; promote Philippine culture in Taiwan, and look after the welfare of Filipinos who live and work in that island state. Meanwhile, Drilon said that the Senate now has enough information collected on GOCCs to craft a new law stopping the perpetration of financial abuse in government corporations. —VS, GMANews.TV