Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 11) — The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) on Tuesday shed light on projects recently flagged by the Commission on Audit (COA).
Among those COA questioned were untitled parcels of land recorded in its books valued at ₱73.5 billion – an issue that has existed since the agency began in 1974, according to the PPA.
“I think, to be fair, it should also be disclosed that this has been an issue long long before, even before our administration,” PPA general manager Jay Santiago told a media forum.
And it was only during our administration that we’ve actually initiated concrete steps to rectify this already even without the COA flagging na merong issue ng [there is an issue on] untitled lands,” he added.Santiago said the agency has formed a “titling” committee to handle the land issues and is currently coordinating with other government agencies to resolve the problem.
On the 166 unregistered vehicles valued at over ₱219 million, the PPA said these belong to contractors during the implementation of the contract and are only turned over to the agency once projects are finished.
That’s the only time the registration of the vehicles will be registered under PPA. Since PPA owns it already, that’s the only time that you will put yung [the] for official use only,” Santiago explained.
COA also flagged ₱18 million worth of office equipment, furniture, computers, computer software, and “high-end” gadgets.
According to the PPA, the reimbursable items were used for fieldwork. However, Santiago admitted that some of the gadgets were used personally by ports personnel.
