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Wednesday, March 10, 2004
Sweepstakes, PhilHealth face vote-buying raps
MANILA -- Another controversy is hounding the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PSCO) and the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (Philhealth) after a group of lawyers charged them with violating the Fair Election Act.
In an eight-page complaint filed before the Commission on Elections (Comelec), lawyer Ramon Rana, of Pro-Constitution, accused PCSO chief Ma. Livia de Leon and Philhealth president, Dr. Francisco Duque III, of allegedly using some P5 to 25 million in taxpayers' funds to finance the election campaign of President Arroyo.
De Leon and Duque were charged with vote-buying, intervention of a public officer, misuse of public funds and use of prohibited election propaganda.
Rana explained that the Project GMA (Greater Medicare access) program aims to enroll at least 5 million families or 25 million individuals of voting age to become members of Philhealth without paying the P1,200 yearly membership fee.
In exchange, the members are supposedly asked to vote for President Arroyo. He said the P1,200 membership fee will then be charged against the Philhealth and PCSO funds.
The complainant similarly noted that the identification card being given to the members bears the name and picture of President Arroyo and was distributed at the start of the campaign period.
"The photo of Ms. Arroyo in the ID is an indirect vote-buying and it clearly shows to promote her candidacy," lawyer Wilson Palaran, counsel for Rana, said and added that it is a clear violation of section 261, Article XXII of the Omnibus Election Code.
Propaganda
According to Rana, the Philhealth card can also be considered an election propaganda material, as it carries photographs of Arroyo and is being distributed to voters.
On the accusation of intervention of public officer, Rana revealed that Duque personally gave to the Philhealth regional managers a list of local politicians supporting the candidacy of Arroyo, with whom the managers will coordinate in the distribution of the Philhealth cards.
At least 40,000 member families have enrolled in the PCSO-GMA Program, with a reported total cost of P6 billion.
Meanwhile, lawyer Melanio Cordillo, also a legal counsel of Rana, said they did not include President Arroyo in the charges because there was no sufficient evidence to prove President Arroyo herself ordered the implementation of the program. Marie Neri
(March 10, 2004 issue)
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