‘Gutierrez sat
on WB report’
Roxas: Inaction was deliberate

BY JP LOPEZ

SEN. Manuel "Mar" Roxas II yesterday said Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez sat for 15 months on the World Bank report finding collusion in the bidding for road projects it is funding.

He said this was the impression he got when World Bank officials told senators during a briefing on Tuesday that they transmitted the report to the Ombudsman precisely for action.

Roxas also said the Ombudsman’s inaction on the referral report appeared to be part of a Palace cover-up to protect the contractors, public works officials and "public figures" who were identified in the report as participants in the "collusive scheme" to rig the biddings.

The public works officials were led by former Secretary Florante Soriquez. The report named two "public figures," presidential spouse Jose Miguel Arroyo and the late Sen. Robert Barbers.

Mr. Arroyo branded as "hogwash" allegations that he was a member of an alleged cartel that cornered government road projects, including funded by the World Bank.

Speaking through his counsel, Ruy Rondain, Mr. Arroyo said his detractors were spreading lies to prop up their presidential and political ambitions.

"This is garbage. I have never been part of any cartel. That newspaper daily alludes to the still unseen World Bank report to justify its conclusion. This is also garbage. From what I have read, the World Bank continues to deny that there is any direct evidence linking me to this scandal," Arroyo said in a statement read by Rondain in a press conference at the Arroyo-owned LTA building in Makati City.

"This is worse than hearsay. Feelings are never evidence; they are never admissible. Obviously, there is no direct evidence of that involvement because there is no such involvement," Arroyo said.

On the Senate plan to conduct another hearing on the bidding anomaly, Arroyo said it constitutes forum-shopping.

Rondain said his client is feeling "stressed" about the issue.

"He’s very stressed about it. His doctors have already warned him about getting stressed. This issue just won’t die," he said.

Roxas, who presided over the WB officials’ Tuesday briefing of senators as vice chairman of the economic affairs committee, said it was obvious that the Ombudsman failed to act on the report.

"Clearly, the Ombudsman had been remiss in its job. It proved that the inaction was deliberate, that they sat on it, that they were passive in acting on it. She didn’t exercise her authority to perform her mandate and go after those alleged culprits," he said.

"The President is supposed to be addressing this, giving orders to her officials but she didn’t. Why? It’s because I think, they don’t want the truth to come out because a number of people will be exposed in this scandal," he said.

Senators also learned that Gutierrez was provided additional leads for evidence-gathering immediately after she received the referral report.

This contradicts her claim before the Feb. 12 hearing of the economic affairs committee that that she received the additional documents two days before her appearance.

Gutierrez was informed as early as May 2006 by WB officials of the investigation into fraud and corruption in the first phase of the national roads improvement and management project (NRIMP-1).

Roxas quoted WB country director Bert Hofman as saying that while they repeatedly reminded the government about the confidentiality of the information they released, "it doesn’t mean that it cannot be used."

"That’s a different thing," Hofman was quoted as saying.

WB director Suzanne Rich Folsom of the department of institutional integrity (INT), told Gutierrez in her Nov. 13, 2007 letter that the "Filipino government may wish, at its discretion, to use this Report as a basis for undertaking its own investigation into the allegations in order to determine whether any laws of the Philippines have been violated."

"It’s the discretion of Philippine authorities to pursue or not pursue anything that we refer to them," Roxas quoted Hofman as saying.

Roxas said: "Ito ang sinasabi nila (WB), ‘ito ang nagawa namin: narating naman ang pag-hatol, narating namin ang preponderence of truth; kayo sa Pilipinas, pananagutan na ng inyong mga opisyal ’yan kung ano ang gagawin sa inyong pera,’" Roxas said.

"Sabi nitong World Bank nandiyan ang documentary evidence on collusion. Sinabi nito na hindi kami umasa lamang sa testigo, iyong verbal na pagku-kuwento. Iyong basehan ng aming kaso ay nasa dokumento dahil sa pag-prepare nitong mga bid documents, sa pagtingin nila sa mga bid amount at iba pang mga dokumento ay malinaw na may pagkukuntsaba. Kayo, bahala kayo kung ano ’yung gagawin ninyo," he said.

Sen. Richard Gordon, chair of the Blue Ribbon, reiterated his call for Gutierrez to resign from her post out of delicadeza "in order to salvage the anti-graft body from further embarrassment and regain its public trust and confidence."

"It seems that instead of apprehending the caravans of thieves, the Ombudsman has turned a blind eye and has allowed them to go on their merry way," he said.

Gordon said the Ombudsman’s failure to perform its constitutionally-mandated duty of bringing corruption cases before the Sandiganbayan has advanced the "coarsening of our political culture."

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Malacañang is not meddling in the investigation of the Ombudsman in the alleged collusion of bidders for road projects.

Ermita, in his weekly press conference, said Gutierrez took her time in investigating the case because of the need for a thorough investigation, for witnesses and for checking information.

He said he could not comment on the briefing of the World Bank in the Senate because he has not gotten any feedback. He said the officials of the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office were not allowed to attend the briefing.

He said he gathered that the WB officials limited themselves to information that were earlier furnished to government officials.

Archbishop Oscar Cruz said naming Mr. Arroyo a participant in the collusion to rig bids is one thing; bringing him to justice is another.

"The difficulty is not that of exposing him but proving his guilt before the proper forum. This is the catch: The country, by and large, has a dysfunctional justice system," Cruz said.