Oreta demands NGO to submit project list in bond bidding

Sen. Teresa Aquino-Oreta demanded yesterday that a controversial non-government organization submit before the Senate a detailed list of "poverty reduction" projects it had presented to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to win the bidding for the P10-billion Poverty Eradication and Alleviation Certificates or PEACE bonds.

Meanwhile, Sen. Blas Ople told reporters yesterday former prime minister Cesar Virata, chairman of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), will appear before the Senate finance committee to testify that the PEACE bond transaction was aboveboard.

In next week’s hearing, Oreta said the Caucus of Development for Non-Government Organization Networks (CODE-NGO) must produce the list so the Senate finance committee can determine if the Bangko Sentral had acted properly in allowing the NGO’s PEACE bond proposal.

"We want to know about this so we can determine if CODE-NGO deserves the (Bangko Sentral’s) approval or whether other non-government organizations are equally, if not more qualified, in passing the criteria set by the Bangko Sentral," she said.

Oreta said she and other finance committee members would like to know if CODE-NGO got the Bangko Sentral’s approval because of its track record or its connections.

"The (Bangko Sentral) needed to examine CODE-NGO’s track record in carrying out poverty reduction projects because the group applied for three eligibilities –small business compliance, secondary reserve, and agri-agra products –in securing approval of the PEACE bonds in the form of zero-coupon instruments," she said.

Oreta said they also want to know which of the NGOs comprising the CODE-NGO umbrella would receive the "financial bonanza" from the trust fund which CODE-NGO had set up from the P1.4 billion it had earned from the bonds.

"But before we go to that, we would first like to know what poverty reduction projects have CODE-NGO either sponsored or initiated for it to merit a favorable response from the Bangko Sentral," she said.

Oreta said officials of CODE-NGO failed to present in the first hearing any "poverty reduction" project that had directly benefited the poor, except for leadership training seminars and advocacy work it had sponsored.

The Senate finance committee would find out whether CODE-NGO "indiscriminately or equitably" distributed the P1.4 billion, she added.

However, Danilo Songco, national coordinator of CODE-NGO, said the Bangko Sentral had "carefully scrutinized" their credibility and track record before implementing the "poverty reduction" projects because proceeds from the sale of PEACE bonds would be used to finance "pro-poor" initiatives.

CODE-NGO, through the P1.4 billion trust fund, would sponsor micro-financing programs and agricultural reform projects which other NGOs will carry out, he added.

Earlier, Oreta questioned how CODE-NGO earned P1.4 billion from the sale of P10.16 billion worth of PEACE bonds by the Bureau of Treasury last October.

"What was even worse was that CODE-NGO fried government in its own lard when it invested a huge portion of its P1.4 billion profits in government bonds and dollar-denominated instruments, which has so far earned for the group another P36 million in realized and unrealized income, or about P12 million monthly," she said.