By Yvonne T. Chua and Luz Rimban | VERA FILES
(Conclusion)
When Quedancor negotiated with the banks, it was already in the red because of its various failed lending programs.
Second Part: Politicians Dip Hand Into Quedancor Funds
First Part: Quedancor Swine Program Another Fertilizer Scam

By Yvonne T. Chua and Luz Rimban | VERA FILES
(Second of three parts)
The Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corp. (Quedancor) does not only give out loans to the poor. It also “lends” money to “needy” politicians, congressmen included. Insiders say Quedancor is the one government corporation politicians know they can run to when they want cash — for political reasons or otherwise. The “loans” are known within Quedancor as “political accounts.”
First Part: Quedancor Swine Program Another Fertilizer Scam

By Diosa Labiste, Luz Rimban and Yvonne Chua | VERA FILES
(First of three parts)
Documents and interviews show that officials involved in questionable Quedancor transactions were the same ones implicated in the P728-million fertilizer scam: then Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo, who chaired Quedancor, and then Agriculture Undersecretary for finance and administration Jocelyn “Joc-Joc” Bolante who was at the time also a director of the Land Bank of the Philippines from which Quedancor obtained billions of pesos in loans.

ZTE-NBN scandal whistleblower Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada says he has paid the price for telling the Filipino people what they already know “and yet do not want to be told.”

Various anti-Arroyo groups will come together in protest once again, but this time, the focus will be the economy.
Groups aligned with the United Opposition (UNO), the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN), Edsa 3 Coalition, Laban ng Masa, the Be not Afraid Movement and other Opposition forces will converge at Plaza Miranda in Manila at 4:00 pm [...]

The Philippine Army has begun the pre-trial investigation on Major General Jose T. Barbieto on allegations of personnel and resource mismanagement. Following an order from the Ombudsman to suspend the general, he was previously relieved as the commander of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division effective March 6, 2008 to give way to a just and [...]

At the ongoing Philippine Development Forum (PDF), foreign aid donors have rightly taken President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to task for corruption in her administration which, along with other factors such as poverty, could hinder economic development. But Philippine AidWatch, a national network of civil society groups that monitors foreign aid, stresses that policy conditionalities attached to [...]

Debt activists say that one way to prevent corruption in the Philippines is “to plug the funneling of funds from loans and aid which is the source of kickbacks.”

By STEVEN ROOD | The Asia Foundation | The politicization of anti-corruption activities in the Philippines has long been a problem. When charges are used as part of the struggle for political advantage, the public can become cynical, believing that all officials are alike and nothing will change.

I am from New York city and a tourist. I’ve been in the Philippines for more than a month and I have enjoyed visiting wonderful sights in exotic places in northern Mindanao, like Camiguin Island. I wish to thank the friendly and kind people of the Philippines for the warm welcome they gave me throughout [...]

Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Q. Pimentel, Jr.
(PDP-Laban) today said the piles of testimonial and
documentary evidence on the anomalous national
broadband network-ZTE project that have surfaced in
the series of Senate hearings belie Malacañang’s claim
that the Senate has mishandled the inquiry on the
case.
Pimentel advised Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye not to
play deaf and blind to such ample evidence in [...]

NEWS ANALYSIS The “critical mass” that can lead to the resignation of President Arroyo can only rise from the diverse groups and personalities agreeing who or what will replace the widely discredited president.

Ibon said that anomalous infrastructure projects, such as the national broadband network (NBN) funded by Chinese loans and is now under Senate inquiry, is an example of how the country’s foreign aid system is easily subverted by political influence-peddling.

“We are former senior government officials who have served the government in the administrations of Presidents Marcos, Aquino, Ramos, Estrada and Arroyo. Today we see how the institutions of government are being manipulated, weakened, and corrupted.”

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Q. Pimentel,
Jr. (PDP-Laban) today dared President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo to stop preventing Secretary Romulo
Neri from testifying anew at the Senate inquiry into
the national broadband controversy and heed the call
of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines
for transparency to curb graft in government.
Pimentel said Neri’s continued refusal to return to
the Senate to complete [...]

Two former presidents – Corazon Aquino, who led the first People Power in 1986, and Joseph Estrada, who was ousted in the second People Power in 2001 – joined priests, nuns, farmers, activists and students in a march in Makati City.

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) today expressed confidence that the Makati mobilization will send a very strong message to Malacañang and other institutions of the government that the Filipino people seriously and urgently demand for truth, justice, and meaningful changes in the leadership and system of governance amid the latest political crisis that has been rocking the Arroyo regime.

Says it will not derail the people’s growing struggle to make Arroyo accountable for her lies and crimes
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) described today as “absurd” and “misleading” the call of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) for Ms. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to “take the lead in combating corruption”.
The multisectoral alliance said that while it [...]