SPDA Transfer Opposed

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Apr. 22, 2008) - Some groups within and outside the Southern Philippines Development Authority have expressed opposition to the plan of Administrator Jerry Tomawis to transfer the main office of the agency to Cagayan de Oro City.

In a statement, the groups claimed the proposed transfer will be illegal because under the Presidential Decree 1703, which amended Presidential Decree 690, its principal office should be in Davao City.

The groups said that based on these presidential decrees, which were issued when the late President Ferdinand Marcos was still exercising both legislative and executive powers, could only be repealed through a congressional action.

Also, they added, the transfer could only be undertaken upon the resolution of its board of director. Since there was no resolution, the proposed transfer, if pursued, will be illegal, they said.

They also claimed that the transfer will be cumbersome considering that Cagayan de Oro, a city in Northern Mindanao, is far from the constituents of the agency, the Muslim areas in Central and Western Mindanao and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

On April 15, Tomawis announced that the main office of the agency will be transferred to Cagayan de Oro City as the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) will take over its properties at its main office in Catalunan Pequeño.

The statement said that Tomawis only told the employees about the transfer a day after he made the announcement during the press conference announcing the takeover the DAR of its main office.

It added that the transfer was not even discussed with the members of the board of directors.
"This clearly shows the utter ignorance of Administrator Tomawis on the basic procedures and rules governing the authority. The motive behind this transfer is to dislocate personnel of the authority who have settled in Davao and force them to resign so he can appoint his all relatives, all Maranao employees who will all be subservient to his malevolent schemes," it added.

Dissolved during the earlier part of the Arroyo administration, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo revived the agency in October 2006 with the mandate of addressing the gaps in the implementation of the peace agreement between the government and the Moro National Liberation Front. (Candido Aparece, Jr.)