An opposition senator challenged President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to allow an investigation of her husband Jose Miguel who has been linked into several scams, the latest of which is the alleged corruption surrounding the Word Bank (WB)-funded road construction projects. Sen. Mar Roxas said Arroyo's husband, nicknamed Mike, has become an embarrassment to her government that she should be investigated so that his name could be cleared if he were not involve in the latest corruption charges. Roxas urged Arroyo to create an independent body to investigate her husband if she was serious in her efforts to stamp out corruption in government. He said the WB report is dam-ning enough to warrant an investigation of her husband, and that Arroyo's silence on the matter may even put a strain on the country's relations with the US, in the light of US President Barack Obama's anti-corruption declaration in his inaugural speech. But Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, head of Senate Committee on Economic Affairs and an ally of Arroyo, branded the WB report linking Mike Arroyo to the scam as hearsay. She said, she will only reopen investigation of the said issue if she received a complete report of the WB. On Wednesday, Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson furnished media a copy of a WB report which said that Arroyo received five percent commission from the road projects. Also named in the report was the late senator Robert Barbers, father of Surigao Gov. Ace Barbers, who was said to have worked in cahoots with the contruction firms blacklisted by the WB. Lacson said he might be forced to tackle the issue in his privilege speech if Santiago continued to ignore it. He said he was still gathering more information and that he expects more officials to be linked to the scandal. He blamed the Office of the Ombudsman for sitting on the case although it has received the WB report as early as October 2007. “Mr. (Eduardo) De Luna (the owner of the blacklisted E.C. de Luna Construction) takes an active role in arranging collusive bid schemes on behalf of contractors and politicians. Senator Robert Barbers (now deceased) was very active in using his influence to further the collusive bid schemes,” the WB report said. Aside from Arroyo and Barbers, the 124-page WB report also named former Surigao Rep. Prospero Pichay and a former Negros congressman Paras as De Luna's accomplices. It was not clear in the report, however, if the Paras mentioned were Rep. Jacinto Paras or Rep. Jerome Paras. Former DPWH Secretary Florante Soriquez, who was said be close to President Arroyo and her husband, allegedly took bribes from favored contrators with the help of DPWH Project Director Lope Adriano. “Members of the DPWH who have taken bribes included former Secretary Florante Soriquez (who is close to Mr. Arroyo and Mr. De Luna) and Project Director Lope Adriano,” according to the report. “There are at least eight witnesses interviewed by the World Bank. They testified about the bid rigging and bribery of some officials,” Lacson said. “If you read the report carefully, there were details and even descriptions of their meetings at the Diamond Hotel. That's where they meet, that's where they fix the bidding and there were collusive practices and they were mentioned – the big contractor and his relationship with the First Gentleman,” he said.
