MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Panfilo Lacson today alleged that former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office general manager Rosario Uriarte facilitated fund donations to a non-government organization (NGO) identified with former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
In a statement released by Lacson while the Senate hearing on the PCSO fund mess was ongoing, the senator said that "Gawin Natin-Lakas Pinoy," an NGO who pushed Arroyo to run in the 2004 presidential election, received P2 million in donations from the PCSO in 2003.
Lacson said that in 2003, then PCSO general manager Uriarte requested for the release of P2 million, to be charged to the PCSO charity fund, to the NGO. He said that the memo was approved and signed "OK" by then President Arroyo.
The supposed donation happened two years after then Vice President Arroyo assumed power after the ouster of former President Joseph Estrada. Arroyo had initially said that she does not intend to run in the 2004 presidential election, but later announced her presidential bid.
Lacson said that the fund was supposed to be used by the NGO in a feeding project that was slated on July 2003. He said the memo was received by the Office of the President and approved by Arroyo in August 2003.
The senator hinted that the P2 million fund could have been used by the NGO in its "Run, Gloria, Run" campaign to convince Arroyo to run for president.
"The 'Gawin Natin Lakas Pinoy' foundation, less than a year old at the time, was behind several 'Run, Gloria Run!' posters plastered in many parts of the country," Lacson said.
The senator, meanwhile, said that the NGO could have been "very influential with the state gambling agency" because of its incorporator -- Raul Nestor Ancheta.
He said Ancheta was the chief of staff of Uriarte.
Aside from the donations given to the NGO, Lacson cited another possible anomalous use of personnel of the PCSO.
He said that in October 2003, the PCSO deployed a medical team including a physician, two nurses, a driver and paramedics were deployed to a pro-Arroyo motorcade of the Samahan ng Mamamayan Sa Hunta at Destabilisasyon.
The motorcade started from the People Power Monument in Quezon City and ended at the Don Chino Roces bridge (formerly Mendiola) in Manila.
Lacson said that the request of PCSO personnel was coursed through Uriarte by the NGO's lawyer, Romarleo Ayson.
Uriarte, who was present in today's resumption of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee's hearing on the PCSO fund mess, was not subjected to questioning by the senators.
The former PCSO general manager revealed in the previous hearing that she managed millions of PCSO intelligence funds, which were all released through former President Arroyo's authorization.
Uriarte said that one of the released intelligence fund, which she personally requested to be approved by the former president, amounted to P150 million in 2010. She said it was mainly used for the PCSO's intelligence project against illegal gambling in the country and the nationwide rollout of the small-town lottery, which has been alleged as a front for the illegal numbers racket, jueteng.
She also admitted that part of the intelligence fund was diverted as financial assistance or "blood money" for overseas Filipino workers jailed in Saudi Arabia. - By Angelo L. Gutierrez (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)