Suspended National Irrigation Administration (NIA) acting Administrator Benny Antiporda on Wednesday denied the complaints filed by the agency’s employees against him.
In an interview during DZRH’s Balansyado, Antiporda claimed that these complaints were part of a “smear campaign” to discredit discredit him.
“Ito ay smear campaign lang in a sense na makapag-reklamo lang para lang magkaroon ng leverage doon sa graft [charges] na haharapin nila in the future,” he said.
According to Antiporda, he earlier filed charges against two of the complaining workers.
“Nauna ko na [silla] kinasuhan tungkol sa Anti-corruption drive. ‘Yung isa diyan si [Lloyd] Cudal, ipinagpapaliwanag natin [doon] sa higit Php 206 million, natalo [na kaso ng NIA dahil] sa technical. It’s either sinadya o talagang mayroong pagkakamali sa ginawa nilang procedure,” he added.
Antiporda was preventively suspended for six months without pay by the Office of the Ombudsman (OMB).
In a six-page order dated Nov. 15, OMB said Antiporda is facing multiple complaints of grave misconduct, conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service, harassment, ignorance of the law, and oppression.
Several workers complained that Antiporda allegedly did some "retaliatory tactics" against them such as transferring them without a valid basis, placing some officials under floating status, and threatening some with nonrenewal of their appointments.
For his part, he said he already promoted tons of employees.
“Dahil sangkatutak ang acting officers natin. Can you imagine kung bakit acting lang, eh ang daming position para ma-promote sila? Lahat ‘yan ay pina-promote natin,” he added.
Antiporda also said that he did some measures to regularize employees.
As per the alleged “bootlicking” as the basis of employees’ promotion in NIA, he claimed that it did not happen.
The suspended NIA Administrator also defended himself from the accusation of misleading President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. by “discussing to him that NIA will be irrigating all farmlands with Public Private Partnership (PPP) when irrigation is the mandate of the government and not a business venture which is enticing to the private sector.”
“Hindi bawal [ang pakikipag-partner ng gobyerno sa private sector] dahil GOCC [Government-owned and controlled corporation] kami. Talagang meron kaming business venture component. Kung wala, dapat hindi na kami pumapayag na bayaran kami ng hydro-electric power plant namin, etong mga projects namin sa aquaculture,” he claimed.
Antiporda further denied that he was harassing, berating, and humiliating several employees.
The suspended NIA chief said he would abide by the OMB’s decision.
"Hindi problema iyon. Ang atin, lilinisin lang natin ang pangalan natin," he added.
