Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo started it all–John Osmeña

CEBU CITY, Philippines—It was the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that introduced the idea of channeling funds to lawmakers’ projects through nongovernment organizations (NGOs), according to former Sen. John Osmeña.

Osmeña, now mayor of Toledo City in western Cebu province, said in an interview on Friday that when he was chair of the Senate finance committee in the 1990s, lawmakers’ projects were implemented by the government agencies concerned.

But the system was changed later, with the government requiring the channeling of funds to projects through NGOs, “some of which were fake,” he said.

“The amount allocated to some senators was used to fund fake NGOs, fake contracts, all sorts of illegalities,” Osmeña said.

It was the “Napoles era,” he said, referring to businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged brains behind the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

Osmeña said he was no longer in the Senate when the Napoles era began.

Asked who ordered the change, Osmeña replied: “Gloria (Macapagal-Arroyo), to facilitate the things she wanted done.”

He added: “It was a form of bribery for legislators so [they would] pass the bill[s] she wanted passed.”

But Arroyo did not invent the system, he said.

“Gloria didn’t invent it. She magnified it [to suit her needs],” he said.

Osmeña said a new leader has the power to change the system.

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