‘KKK’ again?: Group challenges Aquino to fire government officials implicated in Pagcor scam

News Release
July 12, 2011

The umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan today welcomed the filing of plunder raps against former officials of the Philippine Games and Amusement Corporation in relation to funds siphoned off by the Genuino-run BIDA Foundation. The group called on the President Benigno Aquino to fire two of his officials implicated in the case.

The former Pagcor officials who are now Aquino officials have positions at the National Telecommunications Commissions (NTC) and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS). Among those included in those charged with plunder before the DOJ was former PAGCOR board member and now NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba. He was appointed during the term of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and retained under Aquino. Cordoba is an alumnus of the Ateneo and allegedly has the endorsement of one of the factions inside the Aquino administration.

Also charged with plunder yesterday is current GSIS board member and former PAGCOR board member Danilo Gozo was also earlier implicated in a case filed before the Office of the Ombudsman involving the misuse of some P34 million in funds intended for the training of national swimmers. Gozo, a PR specialist, was part of the media group of the Liberal Party during the 2010 presidential elections. He was appointed by Aquino to the GSIS board in September 2010.

“Mr. Aquino should remove them from office. Their continuing presence in government, despite graft and plunder raps filed against them, belies the claims of ‘daang matuwid’. It is untenable for a government professing to fight corruption to have in its employ officials facing plunder raps,” said Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr.

“This shouldn’t be another case of KKK, where questionable officials are retained because of their association with the president,” he added.

KKK has been the acronym of Aquino appointees who are considered ‘kabarkada, kaklase, kabarilan’ or friends, classmates and shooting buddies of the president.

Bayan said that Aquino, as the appointing authority, should immediately remove from office those officials facing charges for past scams. “The lingering perception is that many Aquino appointees who get into trouble for past and present misdeeds are treated with kid gloves, especially if they fall within the KKK category,” Reyes said.

Comelec should disqualify BIDA

The group also asked the Comelec to immediately cancel the accreditation of the Batang Iwas Droga Partylist because it was not qualified for the partylist system, being an entity funded by government. In the 2010 elections, Bayan and the poll watchdog Kontra Daya exposed BIDA as having been heavily funded by PAGCOR and sought its disqualification along with its nominees. The COMELEC, through a majority decision of 4-3, sided with BIDA.

“The filing of charges is a vindication for us and an indictment of the idiotic ruling made by the past Comelec accrediting BIDA. The plunder raps show glaring proof that BIDA was funded by government through PAGCOR, a fact that automatically disqualifies BIDA from being a partylist group,” Reyes added. ###