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The request was made in the midst of outrage sweeping across the country against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo because of her role in an allegedly corrupt US$329 million National Broadband Network deal with the ZTE Corp., a firm owned by a giant Chinese corporation.
Bantay Pondo, a rural-led anti-corruption coalition composed of farmers, fisherfolk, peasant women and agricultural workers' organizations signed a petition demanding that the European Union refrain from extending fresh aid to Arroyo, and instead wait for the next elected president.
The group asserted that the US$90 million in aid to the Philippines, which would come from taxes paid by European working people, might be used for corrupt purposes by the incumbent administration, given the Arroyo presidency's record of corruption over the last seven years.
Of the pledged aid, 36 million euros is to be used to deliver basic social services like healthcare, the European Union said. Some 12 million euros will be used to support efforts to bring peace in Mindanao, while 13 million euros will be allotted for trade development.
But Bantay Pondo spokesperson Fernando Hicap predicted that 80 percent of the European funds would go into the pockets of the Arroyo administration and allied politicians and only 20 percent would be used on real projects to show the government spent the funds for the intended beneficiaries.
Bantay Pondo and other critics of the Arroyo administration have asserted that the National Broadband Network scandal involving the president, her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo and other top officials of the government should serve as a stern warning to the European Union that it should not entrust the funds to the present government.
The European Union has poured about 1 billion euros in aid to the Philippines since 1976. Some of these funds have not been audited properly, however.
A report published by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism states that foreign projects in the Philippines funded by official development assistance have encountered a myriad of problems. The report says that 38 foreign-funded projects under the Arroyo administration were checkered with problems including non-compliance with the procurement law, inadequately documented cash advances, lack of inventory, overstatement of accounts and delays.
The projects were all implemented by 20 government agencies and state-owned corporations under the Arroyo presidency. According to the report, the government Commission on Audit found some 1.56 billion pesos (US$38.3 million) from 15 ODA-funded projects inadequately accounted for.
The controversial US$503 million North Railway project funded by the Chinese government was also marred with irregularities such as unexplained cash advances, irregular, unnecessary and uneconomical use of funds, non-compliance with accounting and auditing rules and regulations, delayed completion of projects and a low rate of accomplishment.
Last year the National Economic Development Authority, the government's economic planning agency, revealed that the costs of 21 foreign-assisted projects had soared. The cost of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway project ballooned to 26.33 billion pesos from an original price of
15 billion pesos, for example. This suggests extra spending on kickbacks and commissions to business associates and political allies.
The EU should also take note of the undisclosed Philippines-China Spratly Islands exploration deal, which was approved by the Philippine government in favor of a Chinese oil corporation in exchange for US$4 billion worth of graft-ridden projects to be funded by the Chinese government.
The US$4 billion package from China included the stalled broadband deal, the Cyber Education project, and the North Rail and South Rail projects which are said to be overpriced by hundreds of millions of US dollars.
Given this litany of corruption in the Arroyo administration, the EU is politically, legally and morally obliged to stop granting aid to the present government. The first decisive step for the EU is to recall the 61 million euros in aid to the Arroyo presidency, to ensure that the next president will not be an Arroyo copycat.
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(Gerry Albert Corpuz is a correspondent of Bulatlat.com, an alternative Philippine online news site. He is also head of the information department of Pamalakaya, a national federation of small fisherfolk organizations in the Philippines. His website is www.gerryalbertcorpuz.motime.com, and he can be contacted at themanager98@yahoo.com. ©Copyright Gerry Albert Corpuz.)
