Clamor for a speedy resolution of the Gulf War fund scandal mounted as various sectors feared that the mess would delay compensation for the victims who have been waiting for it for the past 10 years.
Some 100 Gulf War victims, joined by supporters from the militant group Migrante, picketed the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) offices in Pasay City yesterday to demand the immediate release of their claims and the ouster of DFA officials involved in the scandal.
Earlier, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines' (CBCP) Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People and the Overseas Filipino Workers' sector at the House of Representatives also voiced out serious concern over the alleged misuse of the funds.
This developed even as President Estrada ordered a full-dress investigation into the fund mess involving the allegedly irregular deposit and withdrawal of interest earnings of the Gulf War payments.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Benjamin Domingo, who heads the Office of Legal and Migrant Workers' Affairs, was cited as having deposited the interest earnings of the funds under his own name.
Domingo admitted that the Philippines has been delayed in settling the claims of the war victims, and that the United Nations has already directed the DFA to speed up processing of the claims.
Domingo said it was one of the major reasons why he had to withdraw money from the $863,000 (about P34.5 million) interest earnings of the funds deposited at the Philippine National Bank to buy computers to be used by the Philippine Claims and Compensation Committee, as well as to pay the salaries of additional personnel that he hired.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Domingo Siazon Jr. said Domingo made at least three withdrawals totaling $60,000 from the interest earnings, but added there was no evidence of graft yet on Domingo's part.
However, he pointed out that there was apparent procedural lapse as Domingo opened a separate bank account under his own name.
"That is not correct," Siazon stressed.
Domingo denied any responsibility for the delay in the processing of the claims, saying the procedure involved a number of government agencies validating the requests for payments.
"My target is to finish all the payments this year as the UN threatened to stop processing the Philippine claims because of the delays," Domingo said.
But Migrante leaders asserted that Domingo has been telling claimants trooping to the DFA everyday that the UN Compensation Committee has not yet sent back the claims documents, and that availability of funds depended on the oil sales of Iraq.