Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Undersecretary Eliseo Rio Jr. said on Sunday that he has resigned from his post because he “felt no longer needed” and was being “sidelined and kept out of the loop” over how the agency spent P300 million in confidential funds.

“The Joint Statement I issued last Friday, February 7, 2020, together with Secretary Gregorio B. Honasan II already speaks for itself,” said Rio in his Facebook post.

“As I have consistently said, the principal reason why I offered to resign was because I felt I was no longer needed in the Department,” said Rio.

“Considering that I have been sidelined and kept out of the loop for several months on the decision-making processes regarding vital national programs and projects under my functional areas of responsibility as Undersecretary for Operations, I have decided to offer my resignation to the President,” Rio said.

Rio said he “could not in conscience continue to receive salary from taxpayers’ pockets while not doing what I am capable of accomplishing.”

“Simply put, I do not want to shortchange the Filipino people,” he also said.

On the issue of confidential funds, however, Rio clarified that he never said there is an anomaly involving the confidential funds as in fact, “I have no first-hand knowledge on how they were used or spent.”

There is always the presumption of regularity in all government actions, he said.

“In any case, I trust that Secretary Honasan will take full responsibility for all of his actions regarding these confidential funds,” Rio said.

At the moment, Rio said he is still awaiting for the President’s instructions regarding his offer to resign.

“Truly, I serve at the President’s pleasure,” said Rio.

In the meantime, he has been designated last Friday by Honasan as Undersecretary for Operations in charge of National Broadband Backbone and Free Wifi In Public Places.

Pending President Rodrigo Duterte’s action on his resignation letter, he intends to fully make use of this great opportunity for him to continue to champion what they have started in the Department, such as the third telco, and common towers and passive telco infrastructure initiatives and the national broadband program.

In fact, he said, the phenomenal rise in committed investments in the ICT sector (P518.8 billion for first 10 months of 2019, as per BOI figures) which is almost equal to the investments of all other sectors combined for 2019 can be largely attributed to these policies and initiatives. This is DICT’s contribution to the “Build, Build Build” program of the Duterte Administration, with little or no cost to the government. “We do not want this momentum to lose its steam,” he said.

“As a public servant for more than 42 years, I have always believed that to serve one’s country is one’s civic duty and an absolute privilege. In my case, it is a lifetime advocacy. To shirk this responsibility, knowing I could still effect meaningful changes if given the chance, would be a great disservice to the nation,” Rio said.

Rio made the disclosure when sought for confirmation on a Commission on Audit – Audit Observation Memorandum (AOM) dated January 20 which said that the DICT disbursed a total of P300 million in the form of three cash advances of P100 million each on November 8, December 3 and December 17 in 2019.

All the cash advances were intended for confidential expenses and none had notice of cash allocations (NCAs) from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

The NCA is a disbursement authority issued by DBM to central, regional and provincial offices and operating units to cover cash requirements of the agencies prior to the processing and release of cash advances.

“Yes, that (observation) was in the AOM. My position is that the DICT does not need intel or confidential funds because it is not (within) its mandate to conduct intel or surveillance activities. But the position of Secretary Honasan is that this is needed by him,” Rio said.

Rio then argued that as Undersecretary for Operations, he should be at least informed on how these confidential expenses were used as part of DICT operations.

“Since I am not included in the planning process of the use of this confidential funds and it’s limited only to the people Honasan brought with him, I felt left out and useless and as such, might as well to resign because I am not trusted,” Rio added.

The DICT said that they would no longer comment on Rio’s resignation.

Rio served as Acting DICT Chief before Honasan, a former senator, was appointed to the post by President Rodrigo Duterte in November 2018.

Honasan took his oath in July 2019 after his appointment was approved by the Commission on Appointments, members of which included Honasan’s former Senate colleagues.

In its AOM, the COA flagged DICT for using prior issued NCAs to release the confidential expenses due to its huge unused budget from the previous fiscal year.

COA said that while agencies were allowed to use available balances of comprehensively released NCAs, such balances can be used only to cover payment of both the current year’s and prior year’s accounts payable.

“COA sought for NCAs issued in 2018 and 2019, breakdown schedule of the monthly balances in the Monthly Disbursement Program was likewise requested from the Officer-in-Charge Finance Service Director. To date, no such documents were submitted to and received by the Audit Team, denying it of the opportunity to conduct further verification of pertinent documents,” COA said.

“There must be previously incurred but not yet paid expenditures, in the form of delivered/rendered goods and services or completed projects, in order to validly utilize and disburse cash authorized by a prior-issued NCA. In the case of confidential expenses, the Joint Circular [between COA and the agencies] particularly prohibits the utilization of cash advance as reimbursement of the expenses prior to the granting of the cash advance,” COA also said./Stacy Ang