Palace to probe printing office anomaly

MANILA, Philippines - Some individuals have tried to overprice the printing of ballots for the Aug. 11 Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) elections, Press Secretary Jesus G. Dureza disclosed Wednesday. In a statement, Mr. Dureza said he discovered the anomaly after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo instructed him to introduce reforms at the National Printing Office (NPO), whom he said is known as a "hotbed for corruption." Mr. Dureza said he wants the agreement to be investigated to determine who is responsible for the bloated contract. "I was shocked to know at the start of my review that I was immediately confronted with a brazen attempt by some group to push for a highly excessive, overpriced and anomalous contract in the printing of ARMM ballots," he said. "When I inquired who was the NPO head, I was informed that Sec. [Ignacio R.] Bunye’s designated OIC (officer-in-charge), Marietta de Guzman, was leaving for abroad and she designated Dionisia Valbuena as OIC." Mr. Dureza, who assumed his post on June 16, said he was informed that Ms. Valbuena cannot do anything about the irregularity as she has no authority to change "what had been already previously arranged." "She [Ms. Valbuena] could stop the anomalous transaction if I would officially designate her as OIC and effectively replace OIC De Guzman who was abroad," he said. Mr. Dureza then designated Ms. Valbuena as OIC to stop the transaction. "The syndicate inside the NPO was almost finalizing the cost of printing of the ballot at P27.18 per piece... In the end the final price of the ballot was greatly slashed... to P4.50 or reduced printing cost of P5,777,550," he said. "Were it not our timely and decisive intervention, the anomalous overprice would have been a whopping P29,118,852." - BusinessWorld