Govt released pork to fake foundations

Remember brutal Quezon City cops Franklin Moises Mabanag and Gerardo Ratuita? Last June 22 the National Police Commission found the two superintendents guilty of botching the probe of Ted Failon’s wife’s suicide. They were ordered relieved as chief and deputy for criminal investigation, and suspended for six months without pay. To recount, two months earlier they and seven subs had barged into the hospital ICU where Failon’s wife Trina was fighting for her life, bent on paraffin-testing her. Barred by Ted’s sister-in-law, they arrested her allegedly for obstructing justice. They also nabbed Ted’s four house helpers allegedly for destroying crime evidence in cleaning up the Failons’ bloodied bathroom and van. By police standards, they had gravely abused their authority against Ted’s household and broke procedures, and so deserved administrative sanction.

Mabanag and Ratuita are still in their posts, though. On June 29 they petitioned Napolcom chief (and Interior Sec.) Ronaldo Puno for reconsideration. The motion has been pending for more than a month, unusually long. Insiders say it is because the two have been name-dropping their religious superiors in the Iglesia ni Cristo.

Politically influential, INC members are noted for bloc voting based the hierarchy’s preferred election candidates. Puno, having announced his intention to run for Vice President in May 2010, will surely want an INC endorsement. Hemming and hawing over the two officers’ case won’t help him though. He must not think of winning INC support by sucking up to officers who have wronged ordinary citizens. The INC bishops frown on it.

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Before leaving for America, Gloria Arroyo told us she had pared down her entourage to save taxpayer money. Overtaken by news back home, she also enjoined us to mourn Cory Aquino’s death. Then, she and her coterie promptly splurged $20,000 (P1 million) wining and dining at a swanky New York restaurant. The New York Post reported that Arroyo herself “ordered several bottles of very expensive wine, pushing the dinner tab up to $20,000.”

Makati Mayor Jojo Binay is right to call Arroyo insensitive and a hypocrite. On the same day the First Couple was gorging caviar, cod and champagne in wedding anniversary, the Social Weather Station was releasing its latest poll on worsened self-rated poverty. Fifty percent of 19.3 million Filipino families considered themselves impoverished in June, up three points from February. Two of every five families reported going hungry in the past three months. In her State of the Nation last July, Arroyo claimed to bleed for the poor.

Arroyo’s flamboyance is galling. It’s like her broadcasting to go on post-travel self-quarantine “to set an example for all public officials”, but actually partying all night before checking into the hospital for some gynecological and mostly cosmetic procedures. Or, like telling Barack Obama with a straight face that there’s no pattern in the killing of more than 200 militants, journalists and jurists since she came to office in 2001.

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The congressional pork modus operandi is stark. The legislator picks a foundation through which to launder the funds. The NGO pretends to spend the money on worthwhile projects, but in truth returns the bulk to the legislator. By serving as pork conduits, mayors and governors get slices.

Illustrative is the P728-million fertilizer fund scam of 2004, released to admin congressmen by the Department of Agriculture. The Commission on Audit found nine of the 13 foundations through which the fund passed of questionable legitimacy. And yet the DA continued the scam in 2007, another election year. The COA considered seven of the ten NGOs dubious. Three of the fake institutions that got tens of millions of pesos in 2004 were again granted pork in 2007.

Sen. Noynoy Aquino’s office prepared a matrix:

• National Organization for Agricultural Enhancement and Productivity Inc. — received P27 million in 2004 although it didn’t have SEC registration, received P44 million in 2007 although Dynamic Education System Corp. had taken over its office;

• Gabaymasa Development Foundation Inc. — received P32.5 million in 2004 although its office was actually the residence of president Margie Luz, then received another P5 million in 2007 although there was no office in its given address;

• Las Maria Foundation Inc. — received P.5 million in 2004 from an unknown office address, got another P34 million in 2007 although it had no SEC renewal;

(To be continued)

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“Heaven will close its doors on those who close their hearts to others.” Shafts of Light, Fr. Guido Arguelles, SJ

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