Angara to truth body: Be fair, probe Dinky over PEACE bonds

The Truth Commission should also investigate Social Welfare Secretary Corazon "Dinky" Soliman for her alleged involvement in a non-government consortium that benefited from a government bond flotation in 2001, Senator Edgardo Angara said Thursday. The Truth Commission is tasked to look into various alleged corruption scandals during the Arroyo administration. Angara however said that, to be fair to former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the truth body should also look into spurious transactions involving members of the so-called Hyatt 10. The Hyatt 10 were Arroyo's cabinet members who abruptly asked for her resignation amid the "Hello Garci" controversy, which revealed alleged poll-rigging during the 2004 presidential elections. "If a case is filed against any of the Hyatt 10 members, the Truth Commission should also look into them and not dismiss them immediately just because they are allies of the present administration. It should not act as if the Truth Commission was custom-made to go after a specific person or individual,’’ Angara said in an interview on Thursday. The senator specifically cited Soliman's alleged involvement in the Caucus of NGO networks (Code NGO), which supposedly earned a P1.4-billion commission from the P10-billion Poverty Eradication and Alleviation Certificate (PEACe) bonds issued by the government in 2001. Soliman was the former head of the NGO group. - JV, GMANews.TV