Sample Complaint Affidavit 1x54c

Republic of the Philippines OFFICE OF THE OMBUDSMAN Quezon City REP. TEDDY CASIÑO and REP. NERI JAVIER COLMENARES ,Bayan Muna Partylist Representatives Complainants, - versus REP. GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO and ROSARIO URIARTE, Respondents. x-----------------------------------------------------x

Case No. _________________

COMPLAINT – AFFIDAVIT AGAINSTGLORIA ARROYO AND ROSARIO URIARTEFOR GRAFT, MALVERSATION AND PLUNDER _______________________________________ PREFATORY Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. Galatians 6:7 This is not just about stealing people's money. This is about stealing from the poor. Recent information from the Philippine Charities Sweepstakes Office(PCSO), exposed in both houses of Congress, have revealed a level of corruption and abuse that puts to shame even the most heartless of thieves. For what has been stolen in the PCSO, under the istration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her illegally appointed PCSO general manager Rosario Uriarte, is money for the poor. Money that should have been used to cure those who could not afford to get sick, feed those who could not buy food, build homes for the homeless, and give help to the helpless. Charity, they say, begins at home. But for the PCSO, charity begins in Malacañang Palace. We come now to accuse former President Arroyo and former PCSO general manager Uriarte of graft, malversation and plunder involving at least P325 million in PCSO funds that should have went to the poor but instead were illegally used for other purposes. Part of these funds may have been used for political largesse, part to retain the loyalty of public officers to the President. Some were most likely used for partisan electoral purposes, and some were amassed as ill-gotten wealth. These disbursements came from illegally diverted and malversed intelligence funds. We run to the Ombudsman to complain, expecting it to use all its powers and resources to unearth the evil whose surface we have barely scratched. There are, no doubt, many more pieces of evidence that are beyond the access of ordinary citizens or even legislators like herein complainants. We trust that this complaint will be appreciated not only for the substance that it already contains, but the potential avenues that it opens for investigation and prosecution of those who would steal from the poor. The time for reckoning is now. Let those who sowed corruption now reap the consequences of their actions We, REP. TEDDY CASIÑO, Bayan Muna Partylist representative in Congress, of legal age, a concerned Filipino citizen and taxpayer, with office address at Room 508Northwing, House of Representatives, Batasan, Quezon City, and REP. NERI JAVIERCOLMENARES, Bayan Muna Partylist representative in Congress, of legal age, a concerned Filipino citizen and taxpayer, with office address at Room 210 Northwing, House of Representatives, Batasan, Quezon City, after having been sworn in accordance with law, hereby depose and state that: 1. We are hereby accusing REP. GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO(hereafter referred to as President ARROYO) and MS. ROSARIO URIARTE (hereafter referred to as “MS. URIARTE”) for violating: (i) Article 217 [4] of the Revised Penal Code (“RPC”), (ii) Article 220 of the Revised Penal Code, (iii) Section 3 [e] of Republic Act No. 3019, otherwise known as the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, as amended by RA 1060, and (iv) Republic Act 7080 or the Plunder Law. 1.1. REP. GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO, of legal age, Filipino and with office address at Room MB2, House of Representatives, Batasan, Quezon City, where subpoena and other processes may be served upon her. She is the former President of the Republic of the Philippines during the period of 2001 to June 30, 2010 and a public official with Salary Grade 33. Currently, she is a Member of Congress representing a district in Pampanga. 1.2. MS.ROSARIO URIARTE of legal age, Filipino and with office address at No. 27-A Scout Lozano St. Barangay Paligsahan, Quezon City, where subpoena and other processes may be served upon her. She is the former General Manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (“PCSO” for brevity) during the period January 17, 2003, to July 30, 2010, and even became concurrent chair of the agency from April 19, 2004, to August 29, 2004, at that time a public official with salary grade above Salary Grade 27 2. i As a preliminary, it must be pointed out that under Section 1 of the PCSOCharter, the PCSO Board of Directors is composed of only 5 to be appointed by the President to wit: "It shall have, a Board of Directors, hereinafter designated the Board, composed of five who shall be appointed, and whose compensation and term of office shall be fixed, by the President. 3. In relation to this, Section 2 of the same Charter provides that the GeneralManager of the PCSO is a mere appointee of the Board, thus: “Sec. 2. The general manager shall be appointed by the Board of Directors and he can be removed or suspended only for cause as provided by law.”

4. However, Ms. Uriarte assumed the position of Vice-Chairman, and evenserved as its concurrent co-chairman, when she was supposed to be a mere appointee of the Board and therefore able to the said Board. Her assumption of this position together with her itted closeness to then President Arroyo is not only a clear violation of the PCSO charter because she is not even a member of the Board but placed her in a powerful position within the PCSO hierarchy as both a vice-chairman of the Board and its General Manager.4.1 Relevant to this, Ms. Uriarte itted on national television duringthe Senate investigation on 7 July 2011 her personal ties to the President, saying that she is personally “close” to then President Arroyo and has been working for her in various capacities since she (Arroyo) was an undersecretary of the Department of Trade and Industry in the 1990s. Perhaps, this may explain the appointment of Ms. Uriarte as PCSO General Manager, Vice-Chairman, and later, as the lead implementor of its intelligence fund. [Attached as Annex “A” is a copy of the news report on her closeness to then Pres. Arroyo] 5. Such usurpation of powers by both Rep. Arroyo and Ms. Uriarte is not onlyhighly irregular and illegal. It also granted Arroyo and Uriarte substantial power and control inside PCSO. 6. On 30 May 2011, Rep. Colmenares exposed in a privilege speech anumber of irregularities and anomalies inside the PCSO during the previous istration. These include PCSO entering into contracts with the Philippine Gaming and Management Corp.(PGMC) on the rent of overpriced lotto machines and a 50-yearcontract on thermal paper production both of which are highly disadvantageous to the Philippine government. He also discussed in that privilege speech the bloated media fund not only the reported 40% commission from media rs but also there alignment of media fund to intelligence fund, and the approval of then President Arroyo of the said realignment, without a board resolution approving the amendment to the duly approved budget of the PCSO. 7. The PCSO scandal would soon escalate and other anomalies thereinwere exposed by other sectors of society and the media, thereby urging the Senate of the Philippines to conduct its own investigation. ****************** PRESIDENT ARROYO AND URIARTE MAY ALSO BE HELD LIABLEFOR VIOLATION OF ARTICLE 217 (4) OF THE REVISED PENAL CODE 19. Article 217 (4) of the Revised Penal Code provides that: “Art. 217. Malversation of public funds or property.— Presumption of malversation.—Any public officer who, by reason of the duties of his office, is able for public funds or property, shall appropriate the same, or shall take or misappropriate or shall consent, or through abandonment or negligence, shall permit any other person to take such public funds or property, wholly or partially, or shall otherwise be guilty of the misappropriation or malversation of such funds or property, shall suffer: … The failure of a public officer to have duly forthcoming any public funds which he is chargeable, upon demand by any duly authorized officer, shall be prima facie evidence that he has put such missing funds or property to personal use. 19.1 Under paragraph 4 of the same Article, if the amount involved exceeds P22,000.00, the penalty shall be reclusion temporal in its maximum period to reclusion perpetua (as amended by RA 1060.) 20. The questioned funds were malversed and appropriated by both PresidentArroyo and Ms. Uriarte for themselves as provided under Art. 217. They have failed to present any ing of the said funds as Uriarte merely claimed that her “one and only copy” of her report was with President Arroyo. The P150 Million fund, disbursed a few months before the 2010 elections will most likely have been used in the elections. This is malversation and appropriation for gain and benefit of President Arroyo. As to Uriarte, the fact that she cleaned out almost all the intelligence funds for the year in the first 6 months of 2010, and even withdrew P2.5 million and P10 million on June 18,2010 only 12 days before her term ends on June 30 (as shown in the Senate hearing)only shows the intent to malverse said funds for their benefit various requests of Ms. Uriarte for the grant and realignment of funds to this phantom intelligence fund project for years 18. In view of the foregoing, it is very clear that President Arroyo and Uriarte conspired in using the intelligence fund for purposes other than intelligence work. This is so because Uriarte could not have committed the illegal use of such intelligence fund had President Arroyo not approved the realignment of funds despite the latter’s knowledge that the same will not be used for intelligence work. In this regard, GLORIAMACAPAGAL-ARROYO and ROSARIO URIARTE should be charged and should be held liable for violating Article 220 of the RPC.