What Went Before: Plunder raps vs Arroyo

Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

Three of the plunder cases filed against former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo have stemmed from the alleged abuse of funds at the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).

On Dec. 6, 2011, the PCSO filed a complaint for plunder against Arroyo and her appointees to the PCSO board and two Commission on Audit (COA) officials for allegedly funneling money from the agency’s confidential fund over a three-year period.

The PCSO also named as respondents former PCSO General Manager Rosario Uriarte; former board members Sergio Valencia, Manuel Morato, Raymundo Roquero, Jose Taruc V and Ma. Fatima Valdes; former COA Chair Reynaldo Villar and Region 5 head Nilda Plaras and PCSO assistant general manager for finance Benigno Aguas.

On July 26, 2011, Jaime Regalario of the group that calls itself Kilusang Makabayang Ekonomiya, retired Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim and Risa Hontiveros of the party-list group Akbayan filed a plunder case against Arroyo in the Office of the Ombudsman over the alleged misuse of at least P325 million in PCSO intelligence funds.

Former Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Villar, Uriarte, Valencia, Taruc, Roquero, Valdes and Morato were also named in the complaint for plunder, malversation of public funds and violation of the antigraft law.

The other plunder case that arose from the PCSO scandal was filed by Bayan Muna Representatives Teodoro Casiño and Neri Colmenares in the Office of the Ombudsman on July 12, 2011. Uriarte was also named in the complaint.

In a meeting with Inquirer editors and reporters in June last year, PCSO chairperson Margarita Juico said Arroyo and her allies “ran it [PCSO] to the ground,” leaving the agency with P4 billion in debts or close to a year’s worth of dole to the poor and the sick.

The agency afterward bared more anomalies, saying Arroyo’s friends in media then got hefty kickbacks from advertising placements of the PCSO on their radio programs, television shows or newspapers. Ana Roa, Inquirer Research

Source: Inquirer Archives