FVR: Gov't witch-hunts driving away investors

MANILA, Philippines - Former President Fidel Ramos said the investigations into numerous anomalies during the Arroyo administration are driving away investors and giving the country a bad image.

“These (investigations) are not (creating) a pretty picture for us. It is likewise not very attractive to those who want to invest and travel to the Philippines. They end up going somewhere else,” Ramos told reporters on the sidelines of a book launching of the Rotary International District 3780 Quezon City at the Manila Hotel Thursday night.

Ramos was a leading figure in the 1986 people power revolution that toppled the Marcos dictatorship and catapulted President Aquino’s mother, the late Corazon Aquino, to the presidency.

His own administration had to parry accusations of anomalies, particularly in the Centennial Expo project, the Smoky Mountain land reclamation project, and the bidding for the Masinloc power plant.

The former president did not specify which investigations are tarnishing the country’s image. He also declined to comment on an ongoing Senate investigation into the alleged anomalous purchase of helicopters by the Philippine National Police. Former first gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo reportedly owned the five choppers, of which two were passed off as new.

“No comment. That (Senate probe) is tactical, this is statistical,” Ramos said, referring to his Aug. 7 newspaper column (not in The STAR) on Aquino’s State of the Nation Address.

Aside from the alleged anomalous purchase of helicopters, other corruption issues against the Arroyo administration were the reported misuse of funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, the granting of hefty perks to officials of government-owned and control corporations, and the allegation of systematic cheating in the 2004 and 2007 elections, among others. 

The PCSO fund misuse was one of the bases of four plunder charges filed against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Plunder charges have also been filed against some military officials, including former comptroller Jacinto Ligot, for their having mysteriously amassed hundreds of million pesos in bank accounts.

The Senate investigation into anomalies in the military took a tragic turn in February when former Armed Forces chief and defense secretary Angelo Reyes killed himself after attending a Senate hearing on AFP corruption.