OVP bypassed procurement laws in rush to build satellite offices – COA

MANILA — The Office of the Vice President did not fully comply with the country's procurement laws when it purchased new equipment for its satellite offices in 2022, the Commission on Audit has found.

In its 2022 audit report on the OVP, state auditors flagged the OVP’s procurement of P668,197worth of equipment, which was paid through reimbursement of officials' personal cash. The OVP resorted to making purchases through reimbursement due to its decision to immediately open its satellite offices even if it did not yet have enough equipment to operate, COA noted.

“As per inquiry, the immediate establishment of (satellite offices) were made due to Management’s intention to immediately expand services offered by OVP to various provinces. However, controls to ensure that government resources were utilized as intended and prevented from loss should also be considered,” the report stated.

Although state auditors noted that the OVP purchased items with the lowest price in the market, its failure to comply with Republic Act 9184 and its implementing guidelines “defeats the purpose of the Procurement Law, which is to standardize and to improve transparency in the procurement process.”

In response to state auditors' comments, the OVP said that its purchases were done through reimbursement because of the immediate need to have the satellite offices ready with equipment.

“Due to the time constraints imposed by RA No. 9184, the Procurement Unit was unable to process requests at the time of opening of the (satellite offices) on July 1, 2022,” the OVP said in the audit report.

“It was agreed during the discussion meeting with the

Administrative and Financial Services Office Group heads that reimbursement would be the best option to address the immediate need,” they added.

The OVP in 2022 launched satellite offices in several regions to expand the delivery of its services, particularly its medical, hospitalization and burial assistance.

These satellite offices were launched July 1, 2022 — the first day of Vice President Sara Duterte’s term.

The OVP also said in the audit report that it would comply with the provisions of the Procurement Act in its future purchases.

(Philstar.com)

Unlovable start

THIS advertising campaign is off to an unlovable start. The only positive thing about the controversy that erupted over the “rebranded” and enhanced Philippine tourism campaign is that the contract with the advertising firm is being scrapped.

With Doyle, Dane and Bernbach Philippines publicly acknowledging its mistake and apologizing for it, the Department of Tourism announced on Monday, July 3 that it was ending its contract with the advertising agency. The DOT also stressed that no money had been paid to DDB so far for what was supposed to be a P49-million deal.

Thanks to Filipino blogger Sass Rogando Sasot, portions of the “Love the Philippines” tourism campaign video created by DDB and unveiled at the launch on June 27 were verified to have been lifted from stock footage. Worse, the video files featured destinations not in the Philippines but in countries including Indonesia, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland.

DDB has apologized for the “unfortunate oversight” even as it explained that the use of stock footage is standard practice in producing mood videos for advertising. Surely more care is needed when an ad is promoting tourism attractions in a particular country. DDB admitted that the use of foreign stock footage for a campaign urging the world to “love the Philippines” was “highly

Sketches

THE U.S. military facilities being set up in Northern Luzon, according to Philippine officials, are meant to enhance the Philippines’ defense capability, and will not be used for offensive operations against China.

Philippine officials have also stressed that Manila does not intend to meddle in the issues between China and Taiwan, considered a renegade province by Beijing.

The sites, to be developed by the U.S. under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) between the treaty allies, were identified by the Armed Forces of the Philippines “based on the requirements for strategic basing and development of the AFP (and) were not U.S.dictated,” according to our National Security Council.

Defense officials have said the EDCA sites will also facilitate assistance to approximately 150,000 Filipinos working in Taiwan in case tension escalates between the self-ruled island and China.

Some quarters have raised concern that the additional EDCA sites in Cagayan – at the Camilo Osias Naval Base and inappropriate.”

It’s not just the video that has been found to be unoriginal. Netizens have also pointed out that in 2021, “Love Cyprus” was launched to promote tourism in that island country. But it’s still unclear if the “Love the Philippines” slogan will be retained. In this embarrassing issue, DDB is not the only one with egg on its face; even the Philippines has been hit.

The DOT, expressing solidarity with Filipinos in “outrage and disappointment,” said originality in the tourism campaign materials was required under the contract with the DDB. With the company’s “abject failure” to meet this requirement, the DOT says it can terminate the contract.

While the government sifts through the ashes of this deal, it should work on the product that it wants the world to love. It can start at the country’s premier gateway, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, along with the ongoing flight delays and cancellations on local carriers.

The country is blessed with several of the world’s best tourism attractions. Making the country a top destination, however, requires major improvements

Lal-lo Airport – are magnets for attacks on the Philippines in case China makes good on its threat to retake Taiwan by force.

But being a treaty ally of the U.S., wouldn’t the Philippines be a natural target anyway in case armed conflict erupts between the Americans and Chinese?

“Mutual” is the operative word in the Mutual Defense Treaty, meaning both countries are committed to come to each other’s defense in case of attack.

The initial reaction of China to the report about the four additional EDCA sites was to tell the Philippines to “unequivocally oppose” Taiwan independence. Equating the approval of the sites with support for Taiwan independence was a big leap of logic, especially since the Taiwanese themselves, according to officials, are not gung-ho about declaring independence from the mainland. The advice from the Chinese can also be considered interference in Philippine affairs.

* * *

In my interview last week with Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu at his office in Taipei, he said public opinion surveys are conducted regularly by credible pollsters, asking their people about the policy they want to pursue on the issue of China. Wu said the consistent preference, according to the surveys, is to maintain the status quo, rejecting Beijing’s condition that Taipei must accept a “one country, two systems” model of unification.

“To us, we are not run by China. And the status quo is that Taiwan is an autonomous state. Taiwan runs by itself,” Wu told me.

“We have a president, publicly elected. We have a parliament, publicly elected as well, and we have a Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we have a Ministry of National Defense, and we even have an independent currency note, which is the New Taiwan dollar. And therefore, Taiwan is not part of the PROC. This is obvious to everybody.”

If you need a visa to enter a particular place on this planet, it is generally deemed to be a country.

“We understand the subtlety and the problems associated with the Chinese claim of Taiwan. And we don’t want to be a provocateur. We don’t want to offend anyone. We don’t want to cause any conflict in this region,” Wu said. “But… we want to safeguard the current status quo, which is in the best interest of all parties concerned.”

For years, the international community recognized the government led by Chiang Kaishek that relocated to Taiwan in 1949 as the legitimate government of China.

It says a lot about what in many aspects of travel. When foreigners being lured to the Philippines are asked – “what’s not to love?” – they should have a tough time giving an answer. (Philstar.com) drives geopolitics that on Oct. 25, 1971, the United Nations General Assembly withdrew its recognition of the Republic of China, a.k.a. Taiwan, and recognized the People’s Republic of China as the only legitimate representative of China to the UN.

When it comes to civil wars and other internal conflicts, it’s probably too complicated to make ideology drive acceptance by the international community. Instead, whoever emerges as the victor gets official recognition. Even Afghanistan under the Taliban remains a UN member. Democracy? Human rights? Tell that to the people of Hong Kong, the model for China’s onecountry, two systems policy that it wants to impose on Taiwan.

You’d think democracies, with all the preaching about universal human rights, would take a firmer stand based on ideology in this issue. Instead democracies seem happy to engage with authoritarian China (especially if their economies benefit from it) and ignore democratic Taiwan.

Also, size matters, and possession is nine-tenths of the law. Between the 1.2 million Chinese who fled to Taiwan in 1949 and the nearly 542 million who didn’t, plus the sheer land area of the mainland, I guess the UN didn’t think twice about kicking out Taiwan and recognizing the one-China policy. * * *

To this day, Taiwan cannot even get observer status in the UN or, crucially during the SARS outbreak and COVID pandemic, in the World Health Organization. WHO exclusion deprived Taiwan of access to critical information when severe acute respiratory syndrome broke out in China’s Guangdong province in November 2002 and jumped overseas, raging through 2003.

Taiwan suffered the highest death toll from SARS, with 181 lives lost.

But the hard lessons the Taiwanese learned from SARS are widely seen as the reason why Taiwan had one of the best preventive responses when COVID-19 leapt out of the Chinese city of Wuhan and spread sickness, death and economic devastation across the planet.

Being treated almost like an international pariah has also given the Taiwanese a strong sense of national unity and drive to achieve. It is classified by the World Bank as a high-income economy, with its GDP per capita hitting U.S.$33,011 as of 2021 (it was $3,461 for the Philippines).

Last year, Taiwan ranked sixth among 184 economies in The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom, and 15th among 190 as of December