Ombudsman orders six-month suspension of ARTA officials

The Office of the Ombudsman ordered a six-month suspension of officials of the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA), in line with graft complaints filed by officials of Dito Telecommunity Corp.

An order addressed by Ombudsman Samuel Martires to Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdia on June 2, 2022 called for the suspension of five ARTA officials led by Director General Jeremiah Belgica.

Among the officials ordered to be suspended were Deputy Director-General Eduardo Bringas, Division Chief Sheryl Pura-Sumagui, and Directors Jedrek Ng and Melamy Salvadora-Asperin.

“[I]n order to secure the documents and to prevent possible harassment of witnesses and considering further that their continued stay in office may prejudice the case filed against them, they are hereby placed under preventive suspension,” the order read.

GMA News Online reached out to ARTA for comment on the matter. A representative said the agency would release a statement once they received the official order from the Office of the President.

The suspension comes after Dito Telecom Chief Administrative Officer Atty. Adel Tamano filed graft charges against ARTA officials.

The ARTA earlier this year ordered the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to assign the necessary frequencies to Now Telecom, citing that this should have been automatically approved based on law on the Ease of Doing Business.

This was then questioned by Dito and the NTC, arguing that the assignment of frequencies should not have been deemed as automatically approved.

Under its mandate, ARTA seeks to monitor and ensure the compliance of the national policy on anti-red tape and the ease of doing business in the country.

Dito officially launched commercial services in March 2021 in pilot areas in the Visayas and Mindanao. It expanded to the National Capital Region last May.

The Dito consortium is made up of Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy's Udenna Corporation, Udenna's subsidiary Chelsea Logistics Holdings Inc., and Chinese state-owned China Telecommunications Corporation.

Shares in Dito CME Holdings Corp., the holdings company for Uy's communications media and entertainment businesses, closed last week at P4.55 apiece, unchanged from Thursday. — DVM, GMA News