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By Francis Earl A. Cueto, Reporter
Commission on Higher Education (CHED)
Chairman Romulo Neri on Friday told The Manila Times that he will
work for the immediate payment of the controversial P300-million
call center project of the agency. On Thursday, the builder
complained of not having been paid months after it turned over the
project to the commission. The project was said to have been
completed during the term of Dr. Carlito Puno.
“I will check on the payment
(for the project),” Neri told The Times in a text message.
Earlier, he won a petition on
executive privilege at the Supreme Court.
When asked on what delayed the
payment, Neri pointed to their ironing out kinks under a revised
contract. The new contract supposedly would “protect government
interests better.”
He hinted that the revised
contract may come out soon. “I think there may be just a few more
details left to be worked out.”
Earlier, Edgardo Bansale, vice
president and official representative for E-Global Services, warned
that the building that houses the call center may become a “white
elephant.”
Bansale told The Times in an
earlier interview that they have not been paid for the job despite
having turned over the building to the commission months ago. The
building, he said, has since been unused.
Bansale revealed that they have
remained unpaid for the past seven months. He appealed to Neri
“not to starve” them and the families of their employees.
Bansale also disclosed that last
month, they had to lay off some 100 employees. He explained that
they could only stay in business if they were paid by the commission
for finishing the call-center building.
In seeking payment, Bansale said,
he is not picking a fight with Neri or with other officials of the
government agency. Rather, he added, he fears that the Senate would
come in and investigate the alleged failure of Neri to settle the
bill. Bansale said they are open to any possible probe. But, he
added, the inquiry could give Neri a “headache.”
Bansale pointed out that all he
wants is for E-Global Services to be paid and for the commission to
start running the call center for the benefit of students and the
“booming” call-center industry as well.
Under the project, the students
will be trained to be call-center agents, with actual calls being
done and made, in preparation for their exposure in jobs related to
the business.
Business process outsourcing, or
BPO, reputedly is the biggest industry in the Philippines and the
fastest-rising contributor to the economy.
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