SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority board of directors shot down an order of SBMA chair Martin Diño creating a task force to monitor the agency’s operations.

In a June 1 memorandum signed by 11 of the 13 directors, the board rejected Diño’s Administrative Order No. 01-2017 creating the task force to address SBMA’s financial problems and imminent collapse.

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“We regret we cannot support your action of issuing an administrative order well beyond the scope of your duties as chairman of the board,” the directors told Diño.

The directors said Diño did not secure the approval of the board when he issued the May 2 order creating an “oversight” task force that would monitor the operations of various SBMA departments.

“Lest it be forgotten, may we remind you that the board, of which you are the chairman, is a collective and collegial body which makes decisions based on the vote of the majority,” they said.

The directors said Diño should have solicited the “collective decision” of the board before issuing any order that affects the agency’s operations.

“Similarly, the creation of a task force and the designation of specific persons therein cannot be disseminated and implemented without the approval of the majority of the SBMA board,” they said.

Those who signed the memorandum were board directors Benny Antiporda, Ma. Cecilia Bitare, Edwin Enrile, Julius Escalona, Jorge Estanislao, Brian Patrick Gordon, Jan Joshua Khonghun, Tomas Lahom III, Julita Manahan, Cynthia Paulino, and Rogelio Roque.

Directors Marvin Ted Macapagal and Stefani Saño did not sign the memorandum.

Diño said the task force was meant “to ensure that the agency’s business operations are diligently implemented and financial resources [are] kept intact.”

He claimed the task force would improve SBMA’s “earning capacity” but the directors said the order violates Executive Order No. 340 and Republic Act No. 7227, or the Bases Conversion and Development Act of 1992.

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EO 340, signed by then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, separated the functions of the administrator and chair of the agency.

“This purported task force interferes and encroaches upon this power, function and duty of the administrator and CEO (chief executive officer), and is thus counterproductive, superfluous and unnecessary,” SBMA administrator Wilma Eisma said earlier.

Diño’s administrative order was the subject of a June 6 ad hoc committee hearing of members of the House of Representatives who took part in a road inspection trip in Northern and Central Luzon.

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Majority Floor Leader Rodolfo Fariñas launched an inquiry into the SBMA’s leadership squabble between Diño and Eisma.

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