Palace discovers more ‘landmines’ left by Arroyo

PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III on Tuesday said he will uncover more “landmines” left by the previous administration and present a true picture of the government’s financial status during his first State- of-the-Nation Address next week.

As part of that goal, the President said, he had ordered all departments, government-owned and -controlled corporations and financial institutions to submit an inventory of all their assets, bank accounts and potential revenues by July 23.

“Some of these landmines, you can really say, [make]…no sense from a business and economic point of view,” Mr. Aquino said.

“This is really causing headaches for us. The past administration has been very good in hiding potential headaches from us.”

The President said those irregularities were documented and not based on mere suspicion, and were uncovered by Cabinet members after a two-week study of their respective departments.

Earlier, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said the Arroyo administration had already spent 70.4 percent or P1,407,965,654 of the calamity fund during the first six months of the year.

Internal Revenue chief Kim Henares also claimed that the Arroyo administration skewed first-half collection targets to make it appear they were exceeding goals.

The new leadership of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. is also investigating a number of suspicious cash disbursements by the company’s previous officials.

Pagcor spokesman Jay Santiago said former chairman Ephraim Genuino had approved P5 million in monthly allowances to over 200 consultants, as well as a P29-million donation to the Bida Foundation Inc., the party-list group of Genuino’s daughter Sheryl Genuino-See.

On Tuesday, leftist groups gathered to draft a list of demands for the Aquino administration, to be included in his report. The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan and the Pagbabago! People’s Movement for Change said they would press their “Agenda for National Survival” at a rally to coincide with Mr. Aquino’s address.

“The Arroyo regime left the Philippines mired in an economic and political crisis of unparalleled proportions,” Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes Jr. said. “If the policies of the previous government remain, the country will sink deeper into the crisis.”

Pagbabago convener Joe Dizon said the country’s problems went beyond corruption.

“While it is fine that problems of corruption and misrule are being tackled, our country’s ills go further than these,” Dizon said. “There are huge and urgent problems that have persisted regardless of who wielded power in Malacañang. Our people continue to fight for these issues since none of the previous governments have been able to address them decisively.”

The groups demanded the prosecution of former President Gloria Arroyo and other officials in her administration for corrupt and abusive acts, a halt to summary executions, and the protection of human rights.

The groups also demanded relief from the value-added tax, a legislated wage hike, increases in the budget for education and health, a genuine agrarian reform program that will distribute land, and the repeal of laws deregulating the oil and power industries, and the abrogation of the US Visiting Forces Agreement and other “unequal” treaties. –Joyce Pangco Pañares, Manila Standard Today