Bookkeeper’s admission unmasked Mike Arroyo

GOTCHA By Jarius Bondoc (The Philippine Star) Updated August 24, 2011 12:00 AM Comments (32)

Ex-journalist Alan Davis began the Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project 18 months ago partly as a reaction to political signage. Married to a Filipino, the Brit was irked that everywhere they traveled in the islands they’d see billboards proclaiming this bridge, park or city hall to have been built from the generosity of that governor or mayor. “Pera natin ‘to (It’s our money),” he kept hearing the politically aware remark against the politicos’ empty boasts. So he used it as slogan for the project of the US Agency for International Development.

The PPTRP trained community leaders and journalists in public finance and budget, set up local transparency watchdog groups and blogs, and conducted surveys on local government accountability.

Yesterday the project came to a close with four allies sharing their views. Senator Teofisto Guingona III said that as head of the Blue Ribbon Committee he sees more than ever the need for a Freedom of Information Act. Such law would force state offices to divulge what they are up to, like the Ombudsman’s secret plea-bargaining in 2010 with plunderer Gen. Carlos Garcia. Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo cited the importance of websites of local and national agency purchases and projects. Upon putting up one last year, a firearms dealer immediately noticed that the police was buying M-16 rifles at P140,000 apiece, when another agency had bought the same from him for only P93,000.

ZTE scam whistleblower Jun Lozada recounted the difficulties and dangers that truth-tellers face: lost income, disrupted family life, death threats. If as they say in Africa it takes a village to raise a child, it also needs a community to care for citizens who dare to expose sleaze. Gracia Pulido-Tan, Commission on Audit chairwoman, told of a Citizens Participatory Audit in partnership with civil society. No only COA auditors but also ordinary citizens can report financial shenanigans through e-mail citizensdesk@coa.gov.ph or mobile (0915) 5391957.

* * *

As with Al Capone’s mob, the weakest link was the bookkeeper. Rowena del Rosario, former first gentleman Mike Arroyo’s personal accountant, wanted to exculpate him in the Senate hearing Monday. But in the end she admitted having wired $500,000 to Robinson Helicopter Company in December 2003, in behalf of Mike’s LTA Inc.

That settled it. The $500,000, as two witnesses earlier swore, was down payment for five helicopters from the California factory. There’s no more doubt that Mike secretly bought the aircraft. They arrived in the Philippines in three batches in 2004. Two of them fraudulently were sold to the Philippine National Police as brand new in 2009. No PNP general would have accepted the units and paid more than the price for brand-new had they not been so ordered from on high.

The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee will now decide what charge to recommend against Mike: simple graft or non-bailable plunder. By evading the hearing, he defaulted on his chance to refute incriminating testimonies and evidence. Numerous scams had marred the nine-and-a-half-year reign of President Gloria Arroyo. For the first time Mike would be charged in court for one of them.

Rowena had put up a brave front. She claimed from the start to work not for Mike but congressman-brother Iggy Arroyo. Allegedly it was Iggy who gave her cash every month from 2004 to 2011 to pay the chopper lease from, not maintenance and hangarage by, LionAir Inc. She didn’t flinch when asked what her beloved decade-long boss’ birthday is and she couldn’t say. Unmindful was she of stating on national television that, contrary to accepted accounting principles, she never scrutinized the billings from LionAir nor booked the payments of Iggy. It didn’t matter that the monthly billings mostly were for a few tens of thousands of pesos that at times ballooned to several hundreds of thousands. Iggy’s order was simply to be told of the amount, which he would turn over to her for remittance to LionAir.

But when confronted with a bank document — the $500,000-wire transfer by LTA Inc. to Robinson in December 2003 — the accountant in Rowena had to give. Yes, it was authentic, she said — but quickly added that it was an advance payment for the lease. She stuck to her story, although Robinson only manufactures and never leases helicopters. The senators knew she was lying, and cited and detained her for contempt. Aside from conspiracy with Mike, she would be charged with perjury.

In detention Rowena might be able to reflect on her future. Would she take the rap and be imprisoned for Mike? Or would she break free, stand state witness, tell all she knows, and come home to her growing children? Her relatives and friends would do well to advise her, perhaps even help raise funds to hire an attorney all her own.

The PNP generals and auditors are in the same boat. Their lips are sealed about having been forced to implement the chopper switcheroo. But their own ex-superior, former interior secretary Ronaldo Puno, is washing his hands of the scam. In Monday’s hearing Puno swore that he would have indicted them had he known in 2009 that they were buying second-hand for more than the price of brand-new. Compared to the generals he was probably closer to Mike. But he denied any participation in the scam at his level, although his office had approved the revision of specs tailor-fit for Robinson, the negotiated contract, and swift payments. In effect, he further incriminated the generals and auditors for misleading him about the nature of the aircraft. Their families had better warn them of the dire consequences of Mafia-style omerta.

* * *

Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

My new e-mail: jariusbondoc@gmail.com