With the recent ruling by the Ombudsman to clear Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her husband Mike Arroyo of involvement in the controversial $329-million NBN-ZTE deal, it has become even more important that incoming President Noynoy Aquino make good on his promise to create a special commission to investigate allegations of corruption during the Arroyo administration.
Nobody was surprised that the Office of the Ombudsman, which is headed by Mike Arroyo’s classmate in law school, Merceditas Gutierrez, cleared the First Couple – Gloria because of the presidential immunity from suit, and Mike for lack of evidence – but it’s timing was, at the very least, suspect.
The investigation has been going on for more than two years now without any headway when from out of the blue, just a little more than a month before Arroyo leaves Malacanang, the Ombudsman suddenly comes up with a ruling that charged former Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos and former Economic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri while giving the Arroyos a clean bill.
The NBN-ZTE deal, whose cost tripled allegedly because of bribe demands from Abalos and high ranking officials, was eventually scrapped by Arroyo after the scandal threatened to explode into massive protests, just like the way the “Hello Garci” controversy nearly unseated her in 2005.
The NBN-ZTE deal was only one of many unresolved corruption scandals that cost the taxpayers billions of pesos during the nine years of the Arroyo administration.
The special commission against corruption will have its hands full reviewing questionable contracts and investigating corruption allegations. I have enumerated them many times before, but I will list some of them again:
The P1.3-billion election computerization deal with Mega Pacific to supply the Commission on Elections (Comelec) with 1,991 automated counting machines which the Supreme Court voided because the deal was tainted “with graft and legal infirmities;” the alleged P532.9-million overpricing of the P1.1-billion, 5.1-kilometer President Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard in the Manila Bay reclamation area, which the Ombudsman deemed as overpriced by 250 percent and the bridge by 67 percent;
The P200-million Jose Pidal case, wherein Sen. Panfilo Lacson accused Mike Arroyo of amassing more than P200 million from campaign contributions of her wife and putting the money in secret bank accounts, including that of “Jose Pidal”; the $503-million Northrail project, which former Senate President Franklin Drilon described as one of the “colossal corrupt deals” of the Arroyo administration; the $329-million National Broadband Network, wherein Abalos and Mike Arroyo have been identified as among those lobbying for the Chinese firm ZTE and where it was alleged that almost $200 million of the deal were for bribes and kickbacks; the $466-million Cyber Education Project that was criticized as extravagant and unnecessary; the P728-million fertilizer fund scam; the still to be probed P3.1-billion irrigation project just before the 2004 elections whose funds the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas claims were diverted to the campaign; the P455-million ice making machine scam also under the Department of Agriculture; the P5-billion swine scam; and the P120-million Ginintuang Masagani Ani (GMA) project scam.
In all these cases, the culprits remain free, the whistleblowers have either been silenced or are now six feet under, only the case against Abalos and Neri in the NBN-ZTE deal has been filed by the Ombudsman, and the Executive Department has blocked investigations by fraudulently invoking executive privilege.
The only case that landed in court – the $2-million bribery case against former Justice Secretary Hernani Perez – was obviously mishandled by the Ombudsman and was dismissed two years ago.
All these corruption scandals hogged the headlines for days, only to die down when another scandal, either in government or in show business, displaced them on the headlines. In the Philippines, corruption scandals are never resolved; they just fade away.
In January 2005, just after Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia’s wife and son were arrested at the San Francisco Airport with $100,000 in cash, US Ambassador Francis Ricciardonne, commenting on the case, said he hoped the Philippines “has reached a tipping point where a culture of acceptance of corruption as inevitable, is changing.” The ambassador said he hoped the government does not miss this “historic moment of opportunity” for the Philippines “to get things right and come out all the stronger.” He said he was hopeful the government would not be content with just conducting investigations.
“Are you going to let this die after a week of headlines and hearing? Or are the justice department, the Ombudsman, the AFP, all the institutions of Executive Branch, the Congress, the media – are you all going to press on this until you get to the bottom of it and you carry out and go as far as it goes, to expose the networks and bring the people to justice?” Ricciardonne asked.
Charges against Garcia, his wife and two sons, who were accused of spending P303 million of AFP funds, were finally charged early this year by the Ombudsman after five years, but they remain free.
Ricciardonne expressed the frustration of many Filipinos with regards to corruption in the Philippines. Politicians expose corruption scandals obviously to grab the headlines, but allow them to die down when they have maximized the exposure they desired. Neither these politicians nor the administration has shown the political will to go after the culprits.
As a result, the country is burdened with so many unresolved corruption allegations that hamper its ability to move forward. And because the culprits remain scot-free and their illegal activities eventually forgotten, many more are emboldened to commit similar crimes. What is worse, the people develop an apathy towards corruption and begin to accept is as a part of life.
Aquino, who won on a promise of a graft-free government, must show the political will to fight corruption. It is incumbent upon him to make good his promise to investigate all questionable deals entered into by the previous administrations and bring to justice those involved in these unlawful transactions.
Failure to show his sincerity and his determination to eradicate corruption in all sectors of government will erode the tremendous support that the people gave him in the recently concluded presidential elections.