AS an offshoot of the exposé made by Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada in connection with the canceled ZTE-national broadband network (NBN) project, civil-society groups on Monday called for the creation of a civil-society-led debt-audit commission to look into government projects and ensure public accountability in connection with all transactions involving public funds.

Led by the debt watchdog Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) and People Alliance Against Illegitimate Debt (PAID), leaders of various civil-society groups held in Quezon City a rally on Monday to denounce the alleged “greed” of government officials implicated in the aborted $329-million ZTE-NBN project.

The FDC and the PAID were supported by the Assembly of Faith-based organization against “immoral debt,” which said that Lozada’s testimony is an outstanding tale of greed and corruption. 

However, the group said the people should not focus on the staggering amount of $130 million that was to be the “commission” of one man, nor the “brazen power and influence” of the President’s husband, Juan Miguel Arroyo, nor the “complicity of many other officials,” but the revelation which indicates a “deeply embedded flaws” in the system of government, which has led to the accumulation of illegitimate debt.

Aside from the ZTE-NBN deal, the group said those which need to be investigated by the Debt Audit Commission are the $503-million North Luzon Railways Project, the $885.4-million South Luzon Railways Project and the $504-million cyber-education project.

All of the projects, according to the FDC and the PAID, are onerous, overpriced, and will add burden to the already heavily indebted Filipino people.

During the Senate hearing on February 8, 2008, Lozada, a close friend of former National Economic and Development Authority Director Romulo Neri, who was implicated by Jose de Venecia Jr.’s son as among those involved in the aborted bribery scandal, revealed that he had been involved in at least three anomalous projects of the government, all funded by the Export-Import Bank of China.

The group said summing up the controversial projects, the government will have a total of four projects funded by a loan of $2.2 billion, or P91.1 billion, that must be considered illegitimate.

Such illegitimate debt, according to the FDC and the PAID, should not burden the people, as they call on the government to stop paying such illegitimate debts.  They said government projects are not primarily determined by the people’s need and national priorities, but are corrupted by profit-making agenda of government officials, foreign lenders and private multinational and even big local corporations.

“A government that places highest priority on debt service and fully dependent on heavy borrowings is even more vulnerable to wrong priorities, fixated with chasing after ‘foreign-assisted’ projects and driven by external funding,” the statement issued to the media partly said.

The group also laments the fact that executive powers to approve contract and implement projects and loans are nontransparent and unregulated. 

“We all know that the ZTE-NBN deal is neither the first nor the last. These powers, beginning with the Office of the President, must be curtailed, redefined and subject to rigorous checks,” the group stated in its joint statement.

Lidy Nacpil, PAID convener, said a petition calling for the creation of a “Citizen Independent Debt Audit Commission” is now being circulated to gather as many signatures. 

TAGUM CITY—President Arroyo said the country’s economy is in a “path of permanent growth and stability” and believed that people “are now feeling the blessings of development.”

AS an offshoot of the exposé made by Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada in connection with the canceled ZTE-national broadband network (NBN) project, civil-society groups on Monday called for the creation of a civil-society-led debt-audit commission to look into government projects and ensure public accountability in connection with all transactions involving public funds.

EFFORTS to conserve biodiversity continue to get a big boost with the selection of and proclamation of more protected areas in 2007.

TAGUM CITY—President Arroyo said she would direct the military to form an “investment defense force” to provide a wider security shield to businesses located in the countryside.

DAVAO CITY—The Davao region received P9.18 billion in investments last year, the biggest of which were poured into generation of hydroelectric power and into processing of iron and steel.

ATTRIBUTING the lower-than-previous net income to its debt load, TeaM Energy Corp., the new owner of Mirant Philippines’ assets, said it posted a net income of $25 million last year, down from $200 million during the previous year.