Solons to file plunder case vs Arroyo over PCSO fund mess

Lawmakers from Bayan Muna party-list will file on Tuesday a plunder case against former President and incumbent Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for allegedly authorizing anomalous disbursements in the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) during her term. Bayan Muna party-list Representatives Teodoro Casiño and Neri Colmenares will file the plunder case before the Office of the Ombudsman at 11 a.m. Tuesday. The congressmen will also file plunder charges against former PCSO general manager Rosario Uriarte, who admitted to personally requesting P325 million in intelligence funds for the agency from 2008 to 2010, an election year. During a Senate blue ribbon committee inquiry last week, Uriarte said Mrs. Arroyo personally allowed the release of the funds, which she claimed to have been used for the agency’s nationwide small town lottery project and as blood money for Filipinos who are on death row in Saudi Arabia. Since being linked to the PCSO controversy, Mrs. Arroyo has yet to issue any comment on the matter. Even before the Senate probe, Colmenares bared in a privilege speech at the House of Representatives last May the alleged diversion of P150 million from the PCSO’s budget for intelligence funds. Under Republic Act 7080, a public official can be charged with plunder if he or she “accumulates or acquires ill-gotten wealth through a combination or series of overt or criminal acts" amounting to at least P75 million. — RSJ, GMA News