My heart goes out to former Commission on Audit (COA) Chair Rey Villar who’s now detained for the nonbailable charge of plunder.
The plunder case stemmed from the alleged misuse of an estimated P366 million in intelligence funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) during the time of President Gloria who is also a respondent.
Intelligence funds, as any COA official or employee will tell you, are not subject to audit, therefore, the COA could not question the alleged misuse of the PCSO intelligence fund.
So why was Villar included?
Because he is suspected of being close to the former president, now a Pampanga representative.
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Another guy who has been unjustly implicated in the alleged P366-million PCSO intelligence fund misuse is former PCSO board chair Sergio Valencia.
Valencia’s job at PCSO was ministerial as he just signed whatever was approved by the PCSO board.
The real power at PCSO, then and now, rested in the general manager who requested the board to approve the disbursement of the intelligence fund.
At the time, the general manager was Rosario Uriarte, who had a direct connection to Malacañang.
Rosario was allegedly a puppet of then first gentleman Mike Arroyo who had complete control of the PCSO.
My sources say most of the money in the P366-million intelligence fund reportedly ended up in Mike Arroyo’s pocket.
Since the government can’t pin down the former first gentleman as he was not a government official, it went after Mike’s wife, former President Gloria.
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In the money-making heyday of the Arroyos, Mike allegedly controlled government agencies which were money-making or where money could be had easily: The Bureau of Customs, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Land Transportation Office, Philippine National Police, PCSO and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., Department of Transportation and Communications and Department of Public Works and Highways.
Gloria reportedly controlled the rest of the bureaucracy.
The set-up would make Gloria look “clean and honest” while her husband, who allegedly did the dirty work, absorbed the blame.
The money that Mike allegedly collected from corrupt officials and agencies was “laundered” in the bank accounts of Mike’s brother, Iggy, who died of cancer a few years ago, and Mike’s special friend, Vicky Toh.
If you look closely, most of the allegedly corrupt deals in the Arroyo administration, which have been exposed, had Mike’s fingerprints on them.
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While his wife Gloria is languishing at the Veterans Memorial Hospital, a virtual prison, Mike is out scot-free.
He plays golf, travels to other countries (of course, with the permission of the Sandiganbayan which is hearing his bailable offenses), and spends time with male and lady friends like he has no care in the world.
Sometimes, one wonders if the law of cause and effect, or karma, is really working on the husband of the former president.