The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) scored the pro-Gloria congressmen for desperately trying to kill the impeachment case against Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. According to Danilo “Ka Daning” Ramos, secretary general of KMP, “actually the game plan of the administration congressmen is primarily to junk the amended Lozano complaint because this one contains more then enough evidence to have Gloria hanged. Take our plunder case against her for example, this involves the P728 million-fertilizer scam, which did not reach us farmers but was instead used in Gloria’ s 2004 electoral campaign,”

“We also found out that ghost foundations were used to funnel the money from the Department of Agriculture, and these being private, would be out of reach of the Commission on Audit and the Ombusdman’s office. Further investigation by the PCIJ also showed that one of these foundations the Magsasaka Foundation, is not even registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, while the Aaron Foundation and the Gabaymasa Development Foundation are not for agricultural purposes in the first place. More importantly though is that when we cross checked with our local chapters if they know of such foundations, they said that this was the first time that they heard of them,” added the peasant leader.

Meanwhile Ka Willy Marbella, internal deputy secretary general of KMP said “collectively these 3 ghost foundations alone got P34.8 million from the funds, while in Mindanao and some parts of Visayas the Ikaw at Ako Foundation got P13 million, the Philippine Social Development Foundation got P31 million, Matatag na Republika Cooperative got P3.2 million and People’s Organization for the Progress and Development, Inc. got P5.2 million. If we are to add all the allocations for these ghost foundations then it would amount to P87.2 million, but sad to say this is just the tip of the iceberg, of how Gloria has made a milking cow of the plight of peasants,”

“These are just a small percentage of the evidence we have against Gloria that is why her allies are doing all they can to kill the impeachment. They do not want this to be known, and they are leaving us no choice but to present it to the court of public opinion and to be judged by the ultimate judge of Philippine history, the Filipino masses,” ended Marbella. # # #
 

KMP - 31 August 2005