Salazar denies concealing Ombudsman’s dismissal order vs UPRIIS employee, vows to answer graft raps

Photo shows DA Undersecretary Antonio Fleta (3rd from right), Former NIA Administrator Antonio Nangel (2nd from left) handing over a P1-million check as prize to GBM IA chairman Arturo Villa (3rd from left), vice-chairman Felix Venancio Melegrito (2nd from right), UPRIIS Manager Josephine Salazar (left) and Cabanatuan City Mayor Julius Ceasar Vergara. (DA File Photo).

CABANATUAN CITY, Nueva Ecija-The operations manager of the National Irrigation Administration’s  Upper Pampanga River Integrated Irrigation Systems yesterday denied allegations that she did not serve the dismissal order of the Office of the Ombudsman against an agency employee which was implemented four years ago as she vowed to answer the graft charges filed against her by two anti-graft foundations.

          Salazar said the graft charges are unfounded and without any legal basis, adding  this would nevertheless afford her the opportunity to air her side on the controversy.

”I am innocent of the charges levelled against me and I am confident that once the issues have been properly ventilated, that the Office of the Ombudsman will dismiss them for lack of merit,” she said in a press statement.

          She issued the statement even as the Bantay-Bayan Foundation and the NGO Empowerment Foundation filed a graft case before the Ombudsman for allegedly failing to serve the anti-graft order dismissing Melanio Santos, senior water resources technician of Division 3 office of UPRIIS.

          Last May 6, director Ma. Luisa Salonga-Agamata of the Civil Service Commission’s public assistance information office wrote then-NIA administrator Antonio Nangel regarding an anonymous text complaint launched through its Contact Center ng Bayan against Salazar involving the case of Santos.

          Another anonymous text complaint claimed that another UPRIIS employee, German Maniego was dismissed by the Ombudsman whose order was implemented by Salazar, resulting in Maniego’s ouster.

          Published reports also linked Salazar to the supposed non-serving of the Ombudsman order against Santos.

Salazar lamented that the news reports accusing her of inaction in the case of Santos constitute trial by publicity, are intended to besmirch her name and worse of all, make a mockery of responsible journalism because her side was never sought by the reporter who filed the report.

“This is the height of irresponsible journalism if I ever saw one by some people who did not even give me the benefit of an answer by getting my side. The publication where the news reports came out has exhibited malice towards me and my person and threw balanced reporting out of the window,” she said.

          In her reply to Salonga-Agamata’s letter, Salazar stated that she assumed her post as operations manager of UPRIIS on October 27,2011. “”From the date of my assumption up to this writing, I have not received any communication or instruction from the Office of the Ombudsman regarding the dismissal order of Mr.  Santos,”she said.         

          In the case of Maniego, Salazar said the latter is an employee of the UPRIIS’Division 2 based in Talavera, Nueva Ecija who has never worked under her supervision.

          Ï am not yet designated as UPRIIS operations manager when the dismissal order was served to Mr. Maniego, hence there is no way that I had a hand in serving the order against him,” she said. (Manny Galvez)