One of Aquino’s cabinet members is now under a controversy being linked to the OWWA fund issue.
A plunder case has been filed by former solicitor general Francisco Chavez against former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and three other officials including one of the current member of Aquino’s cabinet, Labor secretary Rosalinda Baldoz.
The four were accused for the misuse of funds from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration which reached to more than half a billion back in the year 2003.
Chavez is now in the process of examining every document that will serve as evidence to support the plunder case that he has filed against Arroyo and other officials. According to Chavez, some of the documents that he is holding show that indeed there was transfer of fund coming from OWWA to Philhealth which was approved by the OWWA board.
The said transaction happened during the time were Philippine Overseas Employment Administration is under the leadership of Rosalinda Baldoz.
However, a text message bas been sent by Baldoz to ABS-CBN where in she strongly denied the allegation that she was part of the scam and that she is willing to cooperate in any investigation that will be conducted.
In one of the documents showed by Chavez to the media, it was clearly seen that there was a marginal note coming from Arroyo authorizing the transfer of fund. The said document was a response to the memorandum submitted by Alberto Romulo who was the Executive Secretary during Arroyo’s regime.
In the memorandum, Romulo is requesting for the approval of the amount $193,500 which is said to be used to help overseas workers in Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Egypt, Bahrain and Iran.
As of this time, the case that has been filed by Chavez to Arroyo is the second one since she ended her term as the president of the Philippines.