BCDA says it offered Thinking Pinoy’s RJ Nieto consultancy post, but it was rejected

The Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) on Thursday said it had offered a consultancy post to pro-administration blogger Rey Joseph P. Nieto, but he declined to accept the post.

In a statement, the BCDA said it tapped the services of Nieto to spread awareness on the government's projects, especially its massive infrastructure program where it plans to spend more than P8 trillion until 2020.

"In line with BCDA's communication strategy to promote awareness and generate support for our projects, especially the big-ticket projects under the President's Build Build Build program, BCDA wanted to engage the services of Mr. Rey Joseph Nieto because of his huge following and tremendous reach on social media especially with President Duterte's supporters," it said.

"However, Mr. Nieto informed us that he was no longer interested to be engaged by BCDO, thus no Notice to Proceed was given and Mr. Nieto did not receive any compensation from BCDA," it added.

According to a Notice of Award dated August 17, 2017, the BCDA offered Nieto a P30,000 contract, net of all applicable taxes, for a period of six months.

In a post on the Facebook account of his blog ThinkingPinoy, Nieto said he did not accept the offer, and he has no outstanding contract with the BCDA.

"I am not under a consultancy contract with the Bases Conversion and Development Authority. I may have been offered a consultancy contract with BCDA, but I didn't fully agree to it, so there was no Notice to Proceed (NTP)," he said.

In the same post, Nieto said his only contract is with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) where he has not yet received any payment so far.

"My sole active consultancy contract is with the Department of Foreign Affairs, and for an amount of approximately P12,000 per month, for a total duration of 6 months," he said.

"Note that I have not posted my DFA consultancy contract online because I haven't received a final copy of it yet, and that to date, I have yet to receive any payment from DFA for my consultancy services," he added.

Nieto appeared before the Senate public information committee hearing on fake news on Wednesday and claimed that former Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II hired an “influencer” to trend the #NasaanAngPangulo topic that attacked former President Benigno Aquino III last January 2015.

Roxas denied any involvement.

"Hindi ko kilala at wala akong kinalaman kahit katiting sa iyo, kay Joyce Ramirez o sa sinasabi mong Nasaan ang Pangulo. May ebidensya ka?" Roxas said in a statement.

"Deretso akong tao. Hindi ako pailalim kumilos," he added.

Nieto also sought "blanket immunity" from the Senate public information committee and asked for an executive session before revealing names of people allegedly behind the "Silent No More PH" Facebook page. —KG, GMA News