AS if you needed any more proof that the Department of Tourism under Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat has been undergoing massive “Yellowfication,” I have been informed that a former key operative of the famous propaganda team of former President Noynoy Aquino has been recycled into the tourism agency. Former journalist Rey Marfil, who held the position of communications undersecretary in the Aquino years, has been appointed to the same position in Puyat’s DoT.
As tourism undersecretary, Marfil will also handle spokesman duties for Puyat. Perhaps Puyat decided that she needed the media-handling talents of Marfil because the spectacle of her crying as she defends her actions in media interviews is getting to be old hat.
Of Marfil, the Politiko website reported in January 2015 that no less than Aquino himself was all praises for the undersecretary. The “efficient and dependable” Marfil “is our chief coordinator with media,” said Aquino, who also vowed to support Marfil if the latter decides to enter politics.
Marfil was appointed assistant secretary for media relations by Aquino, who was so pleased with his work that he promoted him to undersecretary in the Presidential Communications Operations Office in 2015. Marfil was the top media “operator” of the so-called three-headed hydra, as the trio of Cabinet-level secretaries all in charge of the propaganda operations of the Aquino administration was called; the team was made up of Edwin Lacierda, Herminio “Sonny” Coloma and — before he was dismissed — Ramon “Ricky” Carandang.
Other Aquino-era officials brought in by Puyat to the department since her appointment, apart from
Undersecretary Benito “Bong” Bengzon (who reportedly runs day-to-day operations at DoT) include:
Undersecretary for Special Concerns Art Boncato Jr. (a former assistant secretary of Aquino’s tourism honcho Ramon Jimenez Jr., replacing Jose Gabriel “Pompee” la Viña), Assistant Secretary Rica Bueno, Assistant Secretary Verna Buensuceso, Assistant Secretary Roberto Alabado and Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority Chief Operating Officer Guiller Asido.
Regarding Bengzon, Puyat’s go-to guy at the department, his ties go a little deeper than the usual Yellow/Aquino appointee who has found a way back into government service. Bengzon’s father and namesake, Benito Bengzon Sr., is known to be a close friend and associate of Puyat’s father, former senator Alberto Romulo since the latter’s days in the defunct Batasang Pambansa.
Romulo, who was Cory Aquino’s budget secretary, had earlier worked for the appointment of the elder Bengzon as undersecretary of agriculture, the same position that Puyat held under Noynoy Aquino. Upon the appointment of Puyat as tourism secretary, Bong Bengzon’s was almost like a foregone conclusion, given the ties between the two families.
(If Bengzon’s family name sounds familiar, it’s because his father is a cousin of yet another prominent Yellow, Dr. Alran Bengzon. Dr. Bengzon, a staunch supporter of Cory, was rewarded with the position of health secretary during the first Aquino administration.)
There is legally no impediment to Bengzon’s appointment by Puyat, of course, if it were just a case of two Yellow families helping each other find jobs in government. But, as I’ve already reported, the new undersecretary is a co-accused in the case the National Bureau of Investigation case filed before the Office of the Ombudsman implicating Jimenez, Bengzon and two executives of advertising company Dentsu Philippines Inc. in connection with alleged anomalies in the implementation of the P1.2-billion “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” campaign.
Finally, what’s a Yellow operation without the support of web-only media organization Rappler? The outfit of Maria Ressa went to town with the allegations, contained in mere notices from the Commission on Audit, against Tourism Secretary Wanda Tulfo Teo and Tourism Promotions Board head Cesar Montano — which I already discussed in yesterday’s column.
Perhaps this was because, according to documents secured by broadcaster Erwin Tulfo, of a P100,000-a-day contract entered into between Rappler and Jimenez’s DoT in late 2014, in which the controversial news organization committed to submit four “intelligence reports” for three cities for a total of almost P10 million.
Compare the “red flags” found by CoA (and reported extensively by Rappler) against Teo and Montano with the charges lodged by the NBI before the Ombudsman against Jimenez and company and you get the idea. The first is made up of mere “notices” that have gotten the audit agency’s attention, which officials of the concerned government entity can simply explain away and “cure” with remedial measures. But the NBI complaint against Jimenez and the others is an actual corruption case based on “badges of fraud” found after an honest-to-goodness investigation.
Rappler has insisted that the deal, signed by Jimenez himself and Carla Yap-Sy Su, Rappler’s sales and marketing director, was a legitimate advertising contract that was valid and legal. Tulfo asked why CoA and its chairman, Aquino appointee Michael Aguinaldo, did not raise a peep about the Rappler-DoT deal, even as it aggressively pursued the charges against his sister Teo regarding the placement of P60 million in advertising spots in the program “Kilos Pronto” aired over government station PTV4.
In defending the deal, Rappler declared that “commercial transactions between government agencies are not unique.” However, it failed to explain exactly why a media company was contracted to come up with intelligence reports under a consultancy agreement that paid Rappler more than P3 million a month for three months, or a total of P9.575 million.
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