Press Release
February 14, 2009

LOREN URGES WB CONFIDENTIAL WITNESSES TO COME OUT

Senator Loren Legarda yesterday called on the "confidential witnesses" of the World Bank to come out in the open and help the Senate establish the truth about the allegations of corruption in the bidding for WB-funded projects.

The Senator issued the call as she expressed "utter disappointment" over the "blank wall" being faced by the Senate in investigating the allegations of collusion in the bidding for WB-fund projects, particularly the multi-million-dollar National Road and Management Improvement Project (NRMIP).

Loren appealed to the "patriotism and conscience" of the confidential witnesses to come out in the open and testify in the Senate investigation "in order to unravel this web of corruption that is strangling our development projects and hampering our economic progress."

Loren warned that the WB and other foreign aid organizations might "cut down or stop their financial assistance to our country if they believe that our government is unable to address and solve the problems of corruption attending our foreign-assisted programs."

She added, "this could mean more suffering for our people who are mired in poverty and hunger because of unemployment, underemployment and inadequate incomes. Development projects that could alleviate their poverty could be reduced or stopped altogether because of the deepening perception of corruption in implementing these projects."

Loren cited the WB Report, made by the bank's Department of Institutional Integrity (INT), that "the evidence is sufficient for a determination that it is more likely than not that the respondents [contractors], with the active cooperation of numerous officials of the Government of the Philippines, participated in an institutionalized cartel, replete with collusive tendering bid rigging, price fixing and the routine payment of bribes and kickbacks."

The same report stated that "Ultimately, the cartel harmed development itself - NRIMP funds were not disbursed because of fraud and corruption, and the roads were not rehabilitated with the development funds allocated for this purpose."

[See PCIJ report, Philippine Star, Feb. 13)

The Department of Finance and the Office of the Ombudsman were provided with the report but were constrained from disclosing its contents to the public, allegedly because of its "confidentiality." However, the Ombudsman provided the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs which is conducting the hearing with copies of the report.

Loren urged the witnesses to "heed their conscience" and testify openly at the hearings "out of a sense of patriotism, honesty and integrity." She also declared that the Senate "may have to relax some of the technical rules on evidence in order to get at the truth on behalf of the public interest."

"We are duty-bound to afford our people their right to information on public matters as guaranteed by our Constitution," Loren declared.

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