A wider net

President Benigno Aquino III, returning from a conference of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Bali, said last Saturday that the fight against corruption and electoral sabotage had just begun in earnest. He said that the filing of charges against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was just the start of the prosecution of those who had committed graft and corruption and electoral fraud in the past. And he rallied the people behind his administration’s efforts to make the guilty accountable. While Arroyo is the biggest fish that the Aquino administration is going after, the anti-corruption and anti-fraud effort should not be limited to her. The administration has to cast a huge and wide net, and go also after her accomplices and other minor officials who allegedly committed corrupt and fraudulent acts. There is the case of former Justice Secretary Hernando Perez, who allegedly received a $14-million “commission” to approve the $470-million energy deal with Industrias Metalurgicas Pescarmona Sociedad Anonima (Impsa) in 2001, just four days after Arroyo took over the presidency. Whatever happened to this case? There is the case of then Chairman Benjamin Abalos of the Commission on Elections who was found by the Supreme Court in 2004 to have committed “violations of law and glaring abuse of discretion” in awarding a billion-peso contract to Mega Pacific for the supply of automated counting machines. The Court ordered the government to determine which officials were involved and liable for the anomalous contract, but up to now nothing has been done and all those involved are scot-free. Abalos also figured in the anomalous $329-million ZTE-NBN broadband project which was overpriced by $130 million. Abalos allegedly told then Neda Director-General Romulo Neri, “Sec, may 200 ka dito” (Secretary, you will get [P]200 [million] for this). On the face of it, this was attempted bribery, and yet nothing was done in this case. Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada, Neri’s consultant, said Arroyo and her husband Mike were the masterminds of the NBN-ZTE deal. After the media and politicians raised a great hue and cry over the stinking deal, she cancelled it, but no one was prosecuted for the irregularity. There is the case of the diversion of P728 million in fertilizer funds to bankroll Arroyo’s presidential election campaign. The Senate blue ribbon committee found that Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-Joc” Bolante, an officer of Rotary International and a close friend of First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, was the “architect” of the fund diversion but he did not heed the subpoenas of the Senate investigating committee and instead was allowed by the Arroyo administration to leave for the United States. The Arroyo administration did not cancel his passport but the US government cancelled his visa and detained him in a prison in Wisconsin. Bolante later returned to the Philippines and ran for government office but was defeated. The Senate blue ribbon committee recommended the filing of charges against Bolante and former Agriculture Secretary Luis “Cito” Lorenzo. The 5.1-kilometer Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard was constructed in 2002 at a total cost of P1.1 billion, arguably one of the most expensive roads in the world. It has been alleged that there was an overprice of P600 million. No one was held accountable and investigated for this expensive project which, for the billion pesos that was spent on it, might as well have been paved in gold. Other major plunder cases against Arroyo are the alleged misuse of more than P550 million from the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration from 2003 to 2004 and the misuse of P325 million in intelligence funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office. But the more serious cases are the electoral sabotage charges regarding the 2004 presidential election and the 2007 senatorial election. The other cases involved only the theft of the people’s money. The electoral cases involved the subversion of the people’s will, the right of the people to freely express their choice in elections. President Aquino said the anti-corruption campaign has begun in earnest. Let us see faster action from government officials, and, as he has suggested, some earnest and sustained help from the people. After all, in these cases, it was the people’s money and vote that were stolen.