After making the headline regarding the alleged anomalous “Buhay Carinderia” project, Tourism Promotions Board Chief Cesar Montano passed the blame to former Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo.
In an interview with radio station DZBB, Montano tagged Teo as the one who pushed for the 80Php million pesos payment to Erlinda Legaspi, owner of the Marketing agency Marylindbert International.
Montano claimed Teo personally knows Legazpi, and she was the one who referred funding for the Buhay Carinderia project.
“The TPB extended our reservation. We informed Secretary Teo that the disbursement was too fast and we didn’t need to pay them immediately,” Montano said.
Montano added that Teo introduced Legaspi to him as “friend” and he could not question payments initiated by Teo because “she’s the chairman and the boss”.
Buhay Carinderia was originally known as “Carinderia Fiesta,” a project started by Legaspi in 2011. It was only in March 2018 that it was sponsored by the Tourism Promotions Board.
Montano also shared that TPB approved the project without public bidding as Legaspi wanted “financial sponsorship.”
“The financial sponsorship has long been in practice… this is aboveboard so no one among us benefited from it, including me,” said Montano.
Currently, Buhay Carinderia project was suspended by newly appointed Tourism Secretary Berna Romulo-Puyat pending review by the Commission on Audit.
