Sen. Raffy Tulfo yesterday hit the Office of the Press Secretary for the pitiful condition of state-run PTV-4 and its employees which he said could be blamed on the appointment of incompetent general managers through the years.
Tulfo also said the corruption of heads formerly appointed to the station has led to present state of the television station, where he said he started his career in broadcasting more than 20 years ago.
PTV-4 is an attached agency of the OPS.
To prove his point, Tulfo presented a video showing the “sorry” state of the PTV-4 compound and its facilities.
“Yung parking lot hindi nag improve, Yung building ginastusan ng milyones pero ginawang bodega. Yung mga silya ng empleyado ay nakatali sa cabinet para di sila maagawan ng iba.
Yung bubong tumutulo kapag umuulan. Ang daming daga at ipis. Ano ginagawa ng mga alipores na in-appoint diyan? (The parking lot has not improved. You spent millions on your building but it was used as a warehouse. The employees’ chairs are tied to the cabinet so they won’t be used by another employee who do not have chairs. The roofs are leaking when it rains. There are lots of rats and cockroaches all over. What did the appointees do there?)” Tulfo said during the briefing on the proposed 2023 budget of the OPS.
Tulfo said Malacañang has been appointing incompetent and corrupt managers, which he said is the reason why the budget for PTV-4’s improvements have not been put in place.
“I think it has something to do with people who run PTV-4. Kaya siguro hindi umaasenso yan wala kasing paki-alam. Kasi alam nila after six years aalis na kami dito, bahala na ang susunod. Walang dedication, walang pagmamahal sa trabaho, ang alam lang ay pera-pera.
I can say that kasi galing ako diyan, alam ko may katiwalian (I think it has something to do with people who run PTV-4. The reason why they are not progressing because the people who run the station do not care. They know that after six years they will not be there anymore. They do not have dedication and commitment, they do not have compassion for their work. The only thing they know is how to pocket the funds. I can say that because I have been an employee of PTV-4. I know there is graft there),” he said.
Tulfo said he was not able to bring this up when he was still working with PTV-4 for fear that he will get fired since he, too, was a contractual employee at the time.
Tulfo urged the OPS to improve the facilities of the station, and to be sensitive to the well-being of its employees, who are mostly on contractual terms.
Undersecretary Cheloy Garafil, who is the OPS officer-in-charge, said her team will visit PTV-4 within the week to see for themselves what needs to be improved in the government-run TV station.
Garafil said they would need the help of the Senate so that the TV station’s needs will be funded well.
“Wala po kasing capital outlay na binibigay sa PTV-4,” Garafil said.
Undersecretary for broadcast services Rowena “Ina” Reformina said the OPS “fully supports any call for accountability regardless of whatever agency or office of government.”
Reformina said there has been no increase in salaries and promotions of employees of PTV-4 since a new table of organization has to be set in place “to serve as a basis for the promotions and movements in their salary grades because there has to be a standard” and qualifications to be fair to other government-owned and controlled corporations.
She said she has submitted a memorandum to the Office of the Secretary as early as July 28 “favorably endorsing the complimentary salary adjustments” of employees.
“What we did was we transmitted a table of organization proposal assisted by the Development Academy of the Philippines. Actually, this has been in the past administration, but the transmittal was made by my office on the first week of September. I was told that it will take two years to evaluate a new table of organization and it’s difficult to wait,” Reformina said.
