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| Administrator Caunan addresses the crowd on Chater Road |
Gone but not forgotten.
This about sums up the fate of Arnell Ignacio, the
former administrator of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration who was
sacked from his post last month by no less than President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.,
over an allegedly anomalous Php1.4 billion land deal.
It was ironic that Ignacio was no longer around to
see the top-level delegation from the Philippines fly to Hong Kong last weekend
to formally inaugurate one of his major projects, the HK$8 million-a-year
DMW-OWWA OFW Global Centre, for which he signed the lease last year.
The controversy surrounding his removal must have
been uppermost in many people’s minds at the gathering, but it was not brought
up as the officials, led by House Speaker Martin Romualdez and his wife, Rep.
Yedda, as well as Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Cacdac, did not take questions
after their respective speeches.
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| Basahin ang detalye! |
But on the sidelines, new OWWA administrator and lawyer PY
Caunan did not shirk when asked for an update on the widely-talked about case.
“He will be charged,” Caunan said categorically, but
did not give any time frame.
She also admitted knowing about the campaign to get
Ignacio reinstated by Global Alliance, an OFW group tapped by OWWA Hong Kong to
be its partner in events management, but said she understood how they felt, having
developed a close bond with her predecessor.
“But it they were hurt, I was hurt even more,” said
Caunan, who said Ignacio was her close friend, having worked closely with him
in her former post as undersecretary at the Department of Migrant Workers.
Asked how Ignacio managed to get away with the
irregular purchase of the land that was supposed to be the site of
halfway-houses for OFWs without anyone catching up on it early enough, Caunan
said, “He signed the cheque.”
As OWWA administrator, Ignacio was said to be the
authorized signatory of cheques issued in the name of the agency. However, he should
have done so only after obtaining permission from the OWWA Board of Trustees
headed by Secretary Cacdac.
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| Ignacio signed the lease for the OFW Global Centre in HK, the first of its kind in the world |
It is the government’s case that Ignacio not only bypassed the Board in buying the land, he also engaged in several questionable deals related to the purchase.
One was signing a side contract that allowed the
seller to be refunded the Php36 million that he paid as tax for the transaction,
another was allowing the seller to continue collecting rent from two commercial
establishments on the site, months after the government had acquired ownership.
In several interviews, Cacdac also disclosed that a
building housing 53 condominium units was razed at Ignacio’s bidding, again
without notice to, or consent by, the Board.
In a meeting with the media after his sacking, Ignacio
denied any wrongdoing, and insisted he had reported the purchase of the land to
the Board. He also said he only had the OFWs’ best interest in mind when he
decided to buy the land.
Ignacio was appointed OWWA administrator by
President Marcos in September 2022. He previously served as deputy
administrator during the term of former President Rodrigo R. Duterte but
resigned after just over a year for reasons he did not disclose.
