RCBC Finally Fires Out Maia Santos Dequito

The Asia Forum Journal

Recently, RCBC fired Maia Santos Dequito and Angela Torres. Ms. Torres is crying foul and complains “harassment from RCBC top brass.”

The case of RCBC is unprecedented, but there are other scams that have gone way up higher than the world’s tallest skyscraper that went undetected. Investigators still need to uncover for instance what happened to many heritage accounts at the Central Bank of the Philippines – CBP (renamed by Tita Cory to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas thereby giving away the CBP’s license as a Bullion Bank.)


Unscrupulous officials and private individuals have been milking the heritage accounts by conning the holders and signatories of those accounts and enriching themselves by forging the signatures and misrepresenting those real holders and signatories.

The RCBC scandal is really such a miniscule affair, too insignificant were it not for the alarm bells it raised due to minor mistakes made by the perpetrators. But…

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Official Statement on Pork Barrel Issue

The global watchdog founded by Peter Eigen former Regional Director of the World Bank Transparency International through its local TI Philippines Chapter, took up media space by releasing its official statement below:

The escalating public outrage against the so-called pork barrel and similar funds, finds justification in the recent COA reports validating media disclosure of massive misuse of these funds.

The enormity of the reported scam amidst the high incidence of poverty in the country, moved Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle to tears as he urged the culprits to repent and let their “good side” shine through.

COA Chair Grace Pulido-Tan was just as appalled describing the uncovered anomalies as “kahindik-hindik”.

That approximates the public’s perception of it: revolting, shocking, atrocious, appalling, shameless.

The public hurt is exacerbated by the fact that many of the intended beneficiaries of the embezzled funds- the victims of natural calamities- were victimized twice over by human predators who have mastered the weaknesses of the system and vulnerability of certain legislators to an offer of say 20% to 60% of the disposable funds with no accountability. Here several billions of PDAF & VILP funds covered by the audit for the years 2007 to 2009, is just the tip of the iceberg, so they say. If we go back to the time of PDAF began under different names and guises, the figures can be staggering and may well be one of the reasons why for decades the Philippines had been the sick man of Asia.

Indeed, this particular specie of corruption, saps the economy by misdirecting scarce resources of the country to unworthy projects that will serve the corrupt officials’ personal or familial gain rather that the common good. It is far worse where, as disclosed in the COA reports, the projects were non-existent, the implementation bogus and the beneficiaries fictitious. In such instances the billions disbursed for the ghost projects are entirely apportioned among the conspirators. In this murky scenario, the reported kickback of 60% for the lawmaker assumes credibility. Read the full statement here.