DOLE chief linked to ‘misuse’ of OWWA funds

(Updated 9:14 p.m) Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz was among the members of the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA)’s board who authorized the alleged misuse of the agency’s funds, former Solicitor General Frank Chavez said Wednesday. Chavez said he is planning to include Baldoz in the plunder case he earlier filed against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and three other former officials, since she allegedly signed an order authorizing the transfer of P530 million in OWWA funds to the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth). "I will file an amendment to the case. I am 90 percent sure that she (Baldoz) will be included... Nobody is above the law," he told GMA News Online in a phone interview on Wednesday. GMA News Online tried to reach Baldoz for her comment, but she and her office were not answering the calls. Chavez filed before the Department of Justice on Tuesday a plunder complaint against Arroyo, former Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo, former OWWA administrator Virgilio Angelo and former PhilHealth president Francisco Duque III for allegedly “orchestrating" the misuse and diversion of over P550 million in OWWA funds.
Duque, Angelo: No irregularity Arroyo's camp has yet to comment on the plunder case, but both Duque and Angelo both denied irregularity in the transfer of OWWA funds to PhilHealth. "There's nothing anomalous about it, because number one, there is a law, Republic Act 7875, that mandates the provision of health insurance to all citizens of the republic," Duque said in an interview aired over GMA News' "24 Oras" on Wednesday. The report said Duque presented two checks as proofs that transfer of funds was aboveboard. He said the P530 million was divided into two checks — one issued on March 16, 2005, or a year after the elections, and the second on April 15 of the same year. Angelo, in the same report, said the transfer was in accordance with existing implementing rules and regulations so it was impossible that the money could be diverted elsewhere. "Meron po 'yang implementing rules and regulation na 'yung pag-transfer ng OWWA funds ay isang trust fund na ima-manage din ng PhilHealth as a trust fund for OFWs so hindi po sila magagamit para sa ibang benepisyo pero para din sa mga clients na member-OFWs ng PhilHealth," he said. Among the allegations in the case was the supposed questionable transfer of P530 million in OWWA funds to provide health insurance cards to eight million indigents a year before the 2004 national elections. Chavez said Baldoz, along with five other members of the OWWA board, signed the order in 2003 in her capacity as administrator of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA). He added that he will ask for a copy of the minutes of the OWWA board meeting at that time “to determine how the discussions went." “Some information there may be used to support our case," Chavez said. DOJ panel for plunder case Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said she is planning to create a panel to handle the plunder case against Arroyo and the other officials. Interviewed on Wednesday, De Lima said she will consult Prosecutor General Claro Arellano to determine who will be included in the panel. “It’s a plunder case that involves a former president. It is a big case, so I need to create a panel for that," she said. She added that she will make sure that the case goes through the proper processes to determine if the criminal offenses were indeed committed by Arroyo. The DOJ is now handling two plunder cases against Arroyo. The first one was filed in August last year by Danilo Lihaylihay, a self-styled an anti-corruption advocate who claimed that the former President and three other former Cabinet officials committed plunder over the allegedly anomalous sale of the old Iloilo airport property in 2007. — KBK, GMA News