Former director general Jeremiah B. Belgica and four other officials of the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) have been ordered dismissed from the service by the Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) for grave misconduct in 2021. The OMB’s decision stated that in the event the penalty of dismissal can no longer be enforced due to separation from the service, those ordered dismissed should pay a “a fine equivalent to their salary for one year, payable to the Office of the Ombudsman, and may be deductible from their retirement benefits, accrued leave credits or any receivables from their office.” Also ordered dismissed on recommendation of a panel and approved by Ombudsman Samuel R. Martires were former deputy director general Eduardo V. Bringas, division chief Sheryl N. Pura-Sumagui and directors Jedreck Ng, and Melamy A. Salvadora-Asperin. The order of dismissal carries with it the accessory penalties of cancellation of civil service eligibility, forfeiture of retirement benefits, and perpetual disqualification to hold public office. ARTA was created in 2017 under Republic Act No. 11032 as an amendment to RA 9485, the Anti-Red Rape Act of 2007.  RA 11032 is aimed at monitoring and ensuring “compliance with the national policy on anti-red tape and ease of doing business in the country.” The complaint against Belgica and his co-respondents were filed by DITO Telecommunity, Inc., which accused them of giving preferential treatment to NOW Telecom. The complaint stated that the on March 1, 2021, ARTA issued a resolution and Order of Automatic Approval (OAA) assigning contingent frequencies to NOW Telecom, which came after the government awarded the same frequencies to DITO as the country’s new telco major player. In ordering their dismissal, the OMB cited the respondents’ “clear intent to violate the law” when they issued the assailed ARTA resolution and OAA despite their awareness on the status of NOW Telecom with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). NTC records show that as early as December 2005, NOW Telecom was already found to be non-compliant and was disqualified from the assignment of 3G frequency bands due to unpaid supervision and regulation fees (SRF) and spectrum user fees (SUF) amounting to P2.6 billion. In 2006, NOW Telecom was issued a provisional authority (PA) on the condition on the payment of its outstanding SRF and SUF obligations. In late 2017, NOW Telecom was assigned the 20MHz contiguous bandwidth, 3520 to 3540 MHz, under the 3.5 GHz on the same condition that it should settle its outstanding SUF and SRF. NOW Telecom’s PA was extended for 36 months until September 2020 subject again to the condition regarding the SUF and SRF, but this was never settled by the company, the complaint also stated. Despite being informed of these circumstances, respondents still issued the assailed ARTA resolution and OAA, a move the OMB said was an “obvious favoritism” to NOW Telecom. The OMB said that Belgica and the other ARTA officials later issued an Omnibus Order and Minute Resolution affirming its earlier resolution and OAA despite separate rulings by the Secretary of the Department of Justice and the Office of the President against ARTA’s directives pertaining to the assignment of frequency to NOW Telecom. “Respondents’ clear intent to violate the law and flagrant disregard of established rules were also obvious with the issuance of the Omnibus Order and the Minute Resolution,” the OMB declared. “These circumstances show respondents' capriciousness and arbitrariness in the issuance of the 01 March 2021 ARTA Resolution, OAA, Omnibus Order and Minute Resolution. It was issued whimsically with conscious and deliberate intent to do injustice, hence, constitutive of Grave Misconduct. Their actions violate the norm of public accountability and diminish the people's faith in public service,” the OMB also said.