MARCOS STILL NO. 1

January 12, 2008  --  Got something to say?
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MANILA “Newsbreak”, an investigative newsweekly, says that based on its own computations, President Ferdinand Marcos still tops in the most corrupt list of Philippine presidents.

It was reacting to the Pulse Asia survey commissioned by former opposition Sen. Serge Osmena which said that President Arroyo is the most corrupt Philippines presidents. Newsbreak blamed this flawed ranking on the Filipinos short memories.”

The newsweekly calculated that based on its calculations, the alleged ill-gotten wealth under the Arroyo administration totals $164.7 million with two more years to go, compared to Marcoss $10 billion.

Although the perception, based on the recent Pulse Asia survey, is that Arroyo is worse than Marcos, the fact is, the Marcos kleptocracy” has not yet been surpassed. The bad news is, theres still two-and-a-half years left of the Arroyo administration.

It listed the following”deals” attributed to Arroyo and family:
1. Mark Jimenez has alleged that Arroyos first Justice Secretary Hernando Perez asked for a $2 million bribe to have the IMPSA project approved; the total bribe for IMPSA was alleged to be $14 million

2. A witness has testified that the 5.1 kilometer Diosdado Macapagal Blvd. is overpriced by P600 million or roughly $14 million

3. In 2003, Senator Edgardo Angara alleged that the Office of the President tried to extort $20 million from Fraport, the German firm which built the new airport terminal

4. In 2003, Senator Panfilo Lacson alleged that First Gentleman Mike Arroyo laundered P321 million or $7.6 million in campaign funds and other contributions in the Jose Pidal account, which Congressman Ignacio Arroyo acknowledged to be his

5. Newsbreak reported in 2003 that First Gentleman Mike Arroyo undertook real estate transactions of at least 5 properties in the US worth $7.1 million from 1992 to 2000

6. In the 2004 elections, P728 million in agriculture funds were allegedly diverted to Arroyos presidential campaign

7. This is assuming a 10% commission of the $500 million North Rail project

8. This is assuming a 10% commission of the $329 million NBN project; losing bidder Joey de Venecia has alleged that he was offered a $10 million bribe; former NEDA chief Romulo Neri has alleged that he was offered a P200 million or $4.7 million bribe

9. This is based on testimonies of jueteng operators and bagmen who testified in 2005 that the Arroyos received between P500,000 to P1 million monthly in illegal gambling from different regions; this estimate is based only on six regions turning over P1 million monthly in the past six years; not all regions have jueteng collections

10. Senator Panfilo Lacson has alleged that the cash handouts to congressmen and governors last October 2007 reached P160 million or $3.8 million.
The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism said the Pulse Asia survey results do find credence for them to be dismissed outright, magnified particularly in the context of recent events, including Arroyos state visit to Spain and the United Kingdom last week, tagging along what the Inquirer editorial the other day called an indecently big presidential entourage of close to 200 people - family members (complete with household helps), Cabinet officials, legislators and other hangers-on.

And before that, there was the junking of the impeachment complaint against Arroyo, albeit deemed weak, the third in as many years. The congressional hatchet job was preceded by the handing out of cash gifts” to congressmen and provincial governors right in Malaca__ang, generating an orgy of denials and finger-pointing only to be followed by dubious admissions as to who the source of the money bags actually was. Even the filing of the impeachment complaint was tainted with attempts to bribe congressmen into endorsing it, allegedly perpetrated by an official of Arroyos political party, the Kabalikat ng Mamamayang Pilipino (Kampi).

What started all this, of course, were the allegations of massive bribery that sealed the now cancelled National Broadband Network deal with the Chinese firm, Zhong Xing Telecommunication Equipment Company Limited (ZTE). Arroyo and her husband, Jose Miguel Mike Arroyo were among those implicated in the controversial project.

So here you have the highest official of the land, ironically swept to the presidency by the raging tide of an anti-corruption movement, only to end in the publics view a far worse government official than those they deposed in 1986 and 2001, PCIJ said.

But come to think of it, the first steps the Arroyo government took were actually along the road to corruption. Only four days after coming to power in 2001, Arroyo gave the go-signal to the most controversial power plant contract in the country by awarding the $470-million hydroelectric power contract to the Argentine firm IMPSA (Industrias Metalurgicas Pescarmona Sociedad Anonima). This was on the strength of a legal opinion by then justice secretary Hernando Perez, rendered in exchange for an alleged $2-million bribe, that removed all legal obstacles to the turnover of the 750-megawatt Caliraya-Botocan-Kalayaan power complex in Laguna to IMPSA.

The IMPSA deal initiated this government on a six-year journey (and counting) of more of the same kind of governance, which has led it from one corruption scandal to another. Some of the more publicized ones include.

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