Senator Mar Roxas last week said, the Senate will pursue a copy of the World Bank (WB) report into the multilateral agency’s investigation on rigging in its multi-billion peso road project in the Philippines.
"The truth is important. And this report of World Bank is key to resolving this scandal that shamed the nation," he said.
"We senators are united in using all means to get to the bottom of this scandal. Our nation’s reputation in the world is at stake here," he stressed.
Roxas has been designated to preside over the Senate economic affairs committee that will be given the World Bank team’s technical briefing for the Senate.
Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez told the Senate that she did not get the full report and received only a nine-page confidential summary of the World Bank’s investigation into the issue, which is why she did not pursue her own investigation.
"Whether or not the Ombudsman got a full report, they need to answer why her agency did not act to pursue the corrupt persons involved in this case," Roxas stressed.
Roxas: Stop Corruption, Power Misuse, Plunder, Chacha
Senator Mar Roxas last week said President Arroyo must now stop corruption in her administration and give up efforts to stay in power beyond 2010 or face the wrath of a people fed up with graft-tainted controversies and the blatant misuse of power of government officials.
"I warn the present administration about the clear signals of a systems’ failure in almost several fronts of governance. The plunderers are not being put in jail. The hungry are not being served. The victims of social and criminal injustice are not being given their due. The nation is extremely dissatisfied with the national management and leadership because the people see power being exercised not to their interest but to the interest of a chosen few," he said as he recalled the circumstances that led to the first EDSA people power.
Roxas said, President Arroyo is seemingly ignoring corrup-tion scandals swamping her administration, her allies are pursuing constitutional amendments to lift term limits, the activist attitude within Filipinos are being silently stirred into action, a situation which he said could become uncontrollable because of the "incessant and seemingly insurmountable ailment of corruption and the misuse of power."
"The biggest cause of military adventurism is the plunder of the people’s money by those in power combined by brazen attempts to perpetuate themselves beyond the limits of the Constitution," he said, noting that, "today, observers here and abroad have already labeled our nation as a failing democracy. The scandals are rife in the midst of an economic crisis crying out for the full and undistracted attention of government. Hunger mounts and crime is up. Peace is not at hand," he pointed out.
"President Arroyo has no more time to wait. She must cut corruption and renounce perpetuation in power with decisive acts and clear words. As in the months leading to February 1986, she must not court adventurism from those who hold the monopoly of force in our society," he stressed.
The Ilonggo senator said that with government systems are beginning to show signs of failing, similar to the country’s situation months and years before the 1986 uprising, "the next stage is the collapse of institutions. When insti-tutions collapse, the entire Republic follows."
"Nevertheless, I have high hopes that our democracy is secure, mainly because the Filipino people have so much faith in it, because they have proven so many times in the past that they will never sacrifice democracy in the altar of expediency and self-serving gain," Roxas said.
"On this day in 1986, the Filipino people won against dictatorship owing largely to the valiant stand of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The young officers at the helm of the EDSA revolution were daring and selfless. We extol them today not because we believe that martial adventurism is a cure to a ruined democracy, but because we believe that even at the darkest moments when all hope seems lost for freedom, there are valiant Filipinos who are willing to lay down life and honor to preserve it. /MP
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