FVR ready to cooperate with Truth Commission, but...

MANILA, Philippines - As long as the Truth Commission would have the mandate to dig up the truth behind alleged cases of anomalous transactions committed during past administrations, former President Fidel V. Ramos yesterday said he would cooperate and even support this commission that President Aquino is set to create.

The Truth Commission would be tasked, among other things, to look into reported scandalous transactions entered into by Mr. Aquino’s immediate predecessor, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Mr. Ramos was reacting to media reports of suggestions made by certain quarters that the commission should expand its investigation of alleged anomalies in government to cover other administrations, including his.         

In his inaugural address last June 30 at Luneta where Ramos and former President Joseph Estrada were present, the President announced that retired Supreme Court chief justice Hilario Davide Jr. agreed to head the Truth Commission.

“It depends on the mandate of the Davide Commission. As long as they investigate in order to come to the truth of the matter,” Mr. Ramos told The STAR.

“As far as justice Davide is concerned, based on his integrity and based on my personal view, he has done his job with dedication and factual approach,” the 81-year-old ex-president said.

Ramos cited the retired SC chief justice, who also chaired the defunct Davide Commission that looked into the seven coup attempts against former President Corazon Aquino, the late mother of the incumbent President.

As he had earlier announced, the new Chief Executive wants to empower the Truth Commission to unearth evidence of alleged irregularities in government transactions that did not come out when these were first investigated during the Arroyo administration.

However, in a press conference last week, Manila Archbishop Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales suggested to the new administration to include other past administrations in the probe. Past presidents other than Mrs. Arroyo must answer, too, for the many unresolved cases of corruption during their respective watch, Cardinal Rosales pointed out, without citing any particular ex-president.

Mr. Ramos was confident that he has nothing to worry about in connection with these calls to expand coverage of the Davide Commission.

“My office is not Malacañang. The records are in the archives, they can just access them there,” Ramos said, referring to his RPDEV office in Makati City that he set up as his private office cum presidential library a few months after he stepped down from office on June 30, 1998.

Mr. Ramos recalled having appeared in public hearings during the past Congress that looked into these alleged anomalies during his administration.

“The investigations were in aid of legislation... But no legislation came out of them,” Mr. Ramos pointed out.

He mentioned three high-profile cases during his administration that were being raised anew in media: the Centennial Expo project, the Smoky Mountain land reclamation project, and the bidding of the Masinloc power plant.

In the so-called Centennial Expo scam, Mr. Ramos claimed the Senate committee that conducted the probe “never closed the case” because it did not issue any final report. Instead, he rued, former President Estrada created an administrative fact-finding commission headed by former Senator Rene Saguisag.

“I informed Mr. Saguisag I will not appear in that fact-finding inquiry because it has no jurisdiction over me. Being a civilian already, the jurisdiction lies in the court,” Ramos pointed out.

But six former government officials during his administration who were implicated in the Centennial Expo scam were subsequently “exonerated” by the Ombudsman in October 1998. Former Vice President Salvador Laurel, who chaired the Centennial Expo and was among the principal accused in this case, however, died before he could be exonerated, Mr. Ramos rued.

In the Smoky Mountain case, he said, he appeared in 2000 before the public hearing of the House committee on good government chaired by then Rep. Ed Lara whose panel cleared the project as valid and legal. Subsequently, he said, the Supreme Court ruled 13-0, with 2 abstentions, in favor of the project. The SC also upheld the legality and constitutionality of the project and dismissed the petition filed against it by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

In the questioned Masinloc power project, he said, the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee looked into the privilege speech of then Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. on Ramos’ alleged influence that this power plant be sold to a consortium connected with former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Muhammad.

“I’m not that close with Mahathir to know the financial background of the bidder from Malaysia,” Mr. Ramos swore.

“After all of that (congressional inquiry), that Masinloc project was bidded to somebody that I don’t know,” he said.