TESDA’s 11 TVIs: Sister firms, tied
to politicians, not SEC-registered

THEY ARE supposed to be top-rate technical vocational institutions (TVIs), which is why they bagged millions of pesos from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

Or actually, from the pork-barrel funds of some legislators that had been loaded up in TESDA’s agency budget.

But the Commission on Audit (COA), in its report on TESDA for 2013, had found them “non-compliant” with TESDA’s training rules, and their project implementation, marked with “discrepancies.” Generally, for a lot more money per seminar, they trained fewer students across shorter training periods, COA said.

The e-Fund releases portal of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) show that at least 19 legislators had allocated between P12.5 million and P90.95 million of their pork shares from 2010 to 2013 to the 11 TVIs named in COA’s report.

Read Part 6 of our series on “Pork a la Gloria, Pork a la PNoy”:

* 11 TVIs at TESDA: Sister firms, linked to pols, not SEC-registered

At least two of the 11 TVIs – Ilaw ng Bayan and I-Connect Solutions Tek Bok Inc. – were even described by state auditors as having not one of the livelihood programs that “could be associated with any of the programs per training regulations or competency-based curricula.”

Two others have evident political connections.

The first,, Ilaw ng Bayan, which has Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte as an incorporator (as well as its president, according to its Facebook page), has two SEC registration records. It first registered in 1993 but that is now listed to have been revoked. It registered again in 2015 for this purpose: “to establish an educational scholarship/dormitory shelter, and/or other assistance for deserving disadvantageous students.”

Also referred to in its documents as the Quezon City Skills and Livelihood Training Center, Ilaw ng Bayan’s course offerings include “bartending, hilot, food and beverages, barista, housekeeping,” according to its Facebook page.

The second I-Connect Solutions Tek Bok Inc. listed the residential address of its board members Mark Rainier T. Luz (board chairman), Danilo Lingad, and Carla Bumagat as its office address, too. But that same address belongs to two more entities: Margin Multi-Ventures and Construction Corporation, a private company, and the Party-list group 1-ABAA (1-Ako Babaeng Astig Aasenso), which ran but lost in the 2010 elections. 1-ABAA became controversial in 2010 when it proposed a law putting a 10-year cap on the validity of a marriage contract.

Margie Tajon was at that time named as the 1-ABAA president. A certain Margie Tajon Luz also appears as the president and board chair of another TESDA TVI, Gabaymasa Foundation. Inc. In December 2014, the Ombudsman filed graft and malversation charges against Luz and Gabaymasa for their involvement in the so-called “fertilizer fund scam.”

Three others, which altogether received nearly half the total pork that the 19 legislators coursed through TESDA in 2013, are sister companies. Asian Spirit Career Foundation, Inc., Asian Touch International Training Institute, Inc., and Phil-Best Entrepreneurs were incorporated by same persons.

In an effort to understand why, despite these COA findings, these TVIs remain in the good graces of some legislators, PCIJ checked out the files of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), mined DBM’s databases on PDAF releases, and visited with some of them at their offices. — PCIJ, August 2015