Code-NGO: Nothing wrong, illegal and immoral about PEACe Bonds

The civil society leaders behind the PEACe Bonds are stoutly denying any claims of graft, greed and favoritism in their successful implementation of their plan to receive a large commission for selling bonds to groups willing to lend money for the use of the Philippine government. Danilo Songco, Code-NGO’s national coordinator at that time—in the first and second years of then President Gloria Arroyo’s nine-year stay in Malacañang—shared the leadership of the group with its executive director, Marissa Camacho-Reyes, who just happened to be the sister of the then Finance secretary, Jose Isidro Camacho.

Songco’s defense of his non-government organization is touchingly credible. One can Google it quite easily by just writing “PEACe bonds: Legal, moral (2) Philippine Daily Inquirer.” The whole tract will come out.

There Songco explains that the plan for Code-NGO to earn a substantial commission from being a sales group for the Philippine treasury, by way of being the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.’s (RCBC) partner or agent, was in answer to a dire need.

Philippine nongovernment organizations helping the government fight poverty were no longer getting generous donations. Something creative had to be devised. The PEACe Bonds idea was it.

Nothing was ever stolen by anyone. All the money went to smaller non-government organizations within the Code-NGO network. Until now the PEF—or the Peace and Equity Foundation—holds the trust fund that Code-NGO raised from its commission from the bond flotation and from a direct endowment from RCBC. The endowment was RCBC’s donation to Code-NGO after it made quite a chunk of money as the underwriter of the PEACe Bonds flotation.

Songco’s defense tries to answer some of the questions posed by the Freedom from Debt Coalition—but not all.

We agree that unfortunately the issue was politicized. This happened because of the campaign of anti-Arroyo forces wishing to stain the nongo-vernment organizations and personalities that—unwisely—helped kick out former President Estrada.

But a measure of how political the issue has remained is the amount of bad feeling contained in columns like the one quoted below:

“Next year, the Peace Bonds sold by the government during the time of Finance Secretary Isidro Camacho will mature. For the original P10-billion bonds issued, the government will have to pay P37 billion because of interest, more than three times the original amount. That will increase the deficit some more. Who will pay for that? Why, it is us.

“Of the original P10-billion bond issue, P2 billion went as commission to Code-NGO, of which Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman was a founder and member.

“And what happened to the P8 billion proceeds of the peace bond issue? Are we any nearer to peace after spending P8 billion in its pursuit? How and to whom was it spent? Nobody but members of Code-NGO know. Secretary Soliman said she is ready to answer questions if there is an investigation. But why wait? Why not speak out now and clear the air? (The Peace Bonds scandal will be discussed more fully in a later column.)”

The answer to what happened to the P8 billion is that it went to the government coffers. When government sells bonds it is to raise money for its use.

The money was not meant to be directly used for the peace process. PEACe is an anagram for Poverty Eradication and Alleviation Certificates. Code-NGO can only answer questions about its commissions and the endowment fund it got. But not about the P8 billion that became RP government money. –Rene Q. Bas EDITOR in chief, Manila Times