FINAL REPORT - Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

Times, and ABS-CBN. Tiongco said the Coronels' allegations that he was
harassing the PCIJ by applying for a search warrant defamed him.
To our mind and, we believe, to the mind of the ordinary reasonable Filipino,
the foregoing is a clear picture of efforts to deceive and mislead, to confuse and divert
focus from, to suppress and to cover-up, the truth.
The scenario of possible and probable electoral fraud, in particular, provokes
question after question in the consciousness of the citizenry and yet, as many an
analyst, journalist and commentator has observed, the responses of the
administration have not only failed to persuade, but have in fact confirmed its
desperate desideratum, i.e., suppression of the truth by substitution of untruths, and
in the face of its non-acceptance by the public, outright repression of the freedoms of
inquiry and protest at the expense of the Philippine Constitution.
III. The Electioneering
A. The Use of OWWA funds for PhilHealth
cards to favor President Arroyo’s
campaign during the 2004 Elections
Appearing before the CCTA on November 16, 2006, Margaritha Santiago,
Secretary General of MIGRANTE International, testified that President Arroyo
unlawfully used the proceeds of OWWA funds in several ways, the worst being its use
for electioneering purposes through PhilHealth cards issued to promote her image
during the 2004 elections, and presented her affidavit dated November 16, 2005 and a
power point slide presentation in support thereof.
She stated in her said affidavit as follows:
“MIGRANTE International … (is) a progressive alliance of Filipino migrant
organizations in 22 countries …
xxx xxx xxx
There were 933,588 Filipino workers deployed in 2004. Government
raked in a total of P16,734,564,900 from the fees charged from all these
migrant workers. A migrant worker applicant pays an average of P
17,925 in government fees in applying for work abroad. This does not
include the astronomical charges of recruitment and manning agencies.
We migrant workers also pay OWWA membership fee of US$25 per
contract and P900 in OWWA-Medicare contributions before we leave the
country. This denotes that in 2004, the OWWA raked in US$23,339,700
(P1,237,004,100) in membership fees, and P840,229,200 in Medicare
contributions from the 933,588 workers deployed.
This shows that OWWA annually gets fresh direct revenue from migrant
140