MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 17, 2012) – Two Filipino lawmakers have filed a resolution to probe the supposed World Bank fund anomaly in the Supreme Court.
Congressmen Teddy Casiño and Neri Colmenares, both members of the party list group Bayan Muna, filed House Resolution 2049 on Tuesday that directs the Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability to conduct an inquiry, on the irregularities involving the Judicial Reform Support Project (JRSP) funded by the World Bank as implemented by the Supreme Court.
The project, which the World Bank partly funded with $21.9 million (or about P931 million), was started in October 2, 2003. The loan should have lasted up to December 31, 2009 but it was extended by 18 months to June 30, 2011 and then for another 12 months to June 30, 2012.
“The odd thing here is that since Corona became the Chief Justice, the WB reported that progress in attaining the project development objective and implementation have been rated ‘Unsatisfactory’ by the World Bank. Also, disbursements as of November 30, 2011 stand at US$16.3 or 76% of the revised loan amount of US$21.4 million,” Casiño said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.
“We definitely have to get to the bottom of this considering that the JRSP funds may be one of the sources of ill gotten wealth not only of Justice Corona, as mentioned in the impeachment complaint, but of other Supreme Court officials as well. What we want here is for the judiciary to truly be cleansed and this is part of that effort,” Casiño asked.
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