MR. FRED M.DE LA ROSA
The Editor
Manila Times
371 A. Bonifacio Drive
Port Area, Manila

Dear Mr. de la Rosa,

We protest the very unbalanced article “COA hits book unit’s excessive spending” written by your reporter Jonathan Hicap and which appeared on your paper yesterday, June 28. Mr. Hicap called up the Office of NBDB Chairman Dennis Gonzalez near the close of office hours on June 27, and his story appeared the very next day even though he had not yet gotten the side of NBDB.

Is there anything urgent in the story that Mr. Hicap could not wait to get our side? His story is based on a highly selective use of a COA audit report for 2005 dated April 10, 2006. The COA report is not really new and the NBDB Secretariat has formally and adequately responded to it already. Furthermore, if Mr. Hicap did his homework, he would have known that the NBDB Chairman presides over Board meetings usually once a month, and does not do day-to-day management of the agency. The daily manager is the Executive Officer, the head of the Secretariat, who is the person Mr. Hicap should have tried to reach.

Mr. Hicap makes selective use of the COA report. For example, he writes: “the book board incurred unliquidated cash advances worth P325,930.45.” What he does not mention are the following sentences from the report: “Cash advances granted during the year were all liquidated. Material cash advances pertain to those granted to a former member of the Governing Board of P150,499.00, which is the subject of a pending case at the Sandiganbayan and the P105,280.00 granted also to a former Governor who has not submitted his foreign travel report to date.” The bulk of the unliquidated advances are from former Board members in the late 1990s and not under the current NBDB officials.

For another example, Mr. Hicap wrote that the meal costs for board meetings reached as high as P603.26 per participant. What he does not know and could have easily found out is the fact that the budget for the monthly board meeting, which usually ends at 9 pm, is only P5,000.00, and those who partake of the meal are not only the 8 Board members and the Board Secretary but also 12 members of the Secretariat staff including some drivers. The P5,000.00 is for a meal of 20 persons, and in no way is it P603 per person. The COA has been made aware of this.

There are many other items in Mr. Hicap’s report which could have been placed in proper context if he were diligent enough and less hasty. We are appalled at his lack of competence and professionalism.

Very truly yours,

DIR. WILFRED M. CASTILLO
Officer-in-Charge
NBDB Secretariat

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Schumey, CVJ, Manuel Buencamino, Carl, Jhay,

I’m posting because I’m simply ecstatic.

Knowing that you guys are sort of football enthusiasts, I believe that the Philippines should start taking football as a national sport seriously.

(Btw, Franck Riberry who scored the first goal for France is of slight build and only 5’6 tall so I am confident Filipinos can produce players like him!)

Zinedine Zidane,34 yrs old, described by the UK’s The Times as the most eminent player of his time after he scored France’s 3rd goal in last night’s World Cup elimination series with Spain should be tapped to train future Philippine players and trainors.

I hope you saw the match because both teams played beautifully, aggressively and at high speed for most of the two halves of the match.

Zidane proved his football genius once again with a wonderful foot play in typical Zidane fashion by outmaneouvering two, nay top Spanish football cracks…

France v Spain match was one hell of a match.

(Must admit though that am plenty worried for the forthcoming French quarter final match with Brazil but am hoping that Zidane will dazzle us once again with his genius.)

Tinuro po ng titser namin itong blog ninyo para ma expose kami sa opinion ng marurunong na tao. Hindi po namin maintindihan ang sulat ninyo. Masyado po ang lalim at bigat ng ingles. Maari po bang plain inglish para maintindihan namin ang sinasabi ninyo?

Sorry po sa hiling namin kung para sa inyo-inyo lamang ang mga usapin na tinatalakay ninyo. Sana may version kayo na maiintindihan namin.

Salamat po.

Witty and effective. Didn’t GMA use Pope John Paul before? Such a liar. Why on earth would Pope Benedict make 2006 as the Year for Social Concern if he does not want the church to dip its hands in social reforms, wouldn’t that be absurd?

Your headline President replaces Nuncio, made me think “Nuno (sa Punso) replaces Nuncio.”