EMPLOYEES of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) are urging the agency’s top management to disclose the documents, including all correspondences, project-evaluation reports and board resolutions related to the controversial national broadband network (NBN) project.

The Organization of Neda Employees (ONE) executive committee issued a statement saying it was “high time” the agency confronts the issues surrounding the NBN because the silence of the agency on the matter is marring the employees and the Neda’s reputation.

“For months now, with blind allegiance, we have been complying with the gag order and meekly bearing the pain of persecution and harassment from legislators, the media and the general public. Despite knowing that information is key to the public’s understanding of this institution’s functions and processes, top management has chosen to keep silent and inactive,” the ONE executive committee statement read.

“There is need for action beyond efforts to explain the intricacies of our work and the NBN project. The competence of our technical staff has been repeatedly questioned and our integrity battered by the unjust insinuations of corruption,” the statement added.

Besides the disclosure of NBN documents, the ONE executive committee also called on Neda officials to provide additional support mechanisms to protect the integrity of Neda personnel, such as in the case of Florante G. Igtiben, chief of the Asia Pacific Division of its Public Investment Staff (PIS).

Igtiben’s name was dragged into the NBN-Zhong Xing Telecommunications Equipment Co. Ltd. controversy when a handwritten note on the upper right hand corner of a document presented in the Senate hearing on the matter was mistaken to have been meant for the First Gentleman, or “FG,” rather than “FGI” or Florante Igtiben.

The Neda clarified that what Sen. Ana Consuelo “Jamby” Madrigal alleged as a note saying “copy to FG” was in fact a note saying “copy for FGI/PIS”—which meant “copy for Florante  Igtiben/Public Investment Staff.”

Further, the ONE executive committee said the Neda, as an agency, should “prioritize the pursuit of legislation” which will mandate the creation of an independent economic and planning agency.

“Given the crisis gripping Neda, we appeal for top management to rise above personal differences and work in harmony to tide us over,” the ONE executive committee said.

NEDA workers want NBN papers bared

EMPLOYEES of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) are urging the agency’s top management to disclose the documents, including all correspondences, project-evaluation reports and board resolutions related to the controversial national broadband network (NBN) project.

THE principal suspect in the killing of eight people and the wounding of six others in Laguna on Monday was killed following a shootout with policemen who came to arrest him.

JUSTICE Secretary Raul Gonzalez on Tuesday said it is up to the Congress to enact another death penalty law in reaction to the upsurge of violent crimes in the country.

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The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) said eight were killed in Ilocos, one in Central Luzon, three in Eastern Visayas and one in the Cordillera Administrative Region.

SUBIC BAY FREE PORT—Officials of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) had warned employees at the Hanjin shipyard here that malaria, a disease transmitted by mosquito bite, is prevalent at the Redondo Peninsula, the site of the shipbuilding project that now employs some 17,000 workers.

BUS operators on Tuesday denounced what they called government policies and orders that are “illegal, irregular and inimical to public interest.”

THE House Committee on Legislative Franchises has started deliberations on the bill granting a 25-year franchise to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) to manage, operate, maintain and improve the country’s national power grid.