MANILA, Philippines – Police have expressed grave alarm and concern over the recent spate of attacks that either led to the killing or wounding of ranking and mid-level officials in the Arroyo administration.
Significantly, reliable sources at the Philippine National Police (PNP) noted that the victims of the attacks belonged to what have been widely perceived to be the most corrupt and graft-ridden departments and agencies in government.
“The attacks on government officials are, indeed, becoming very alarming,” the PNP sources said on condition of anonymity because they are not allowed to speak on the issue. “And these attacks are being launched particularly against officials working for government agencies perceived to be corrupt and graft-ridden.”
On Wednesday, two still unidentified armed men ambushed a late model sports utility vehicle bearing Ramon Aquino, the undersecretary for operations of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), seriously wounding him, his driver and a bodyguard.
Police said Aquino had just left the DPWH national office at the Port Area district in Manila for a meeting in Malacanang when the suspects fired at his vehicle shortly after 3 p.m. in broad daylight and then fled aboard a waiting motorcycle after the attack.
Aquino, also the chief of staff of DPWH Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane, is said to be recovering in a Manila hospital where he underwent an emergency operation for two bullet wounds he had sustained.
Police said the Aquino ambush occurred less than two weeks after still unidentified men ransacked the office of Ebdane and DPWH Undersecretary Bashir Rasuman on the night of March 2.
Ebdane told investigators he was not discounting the possibility that the burglars were after specific documents since the department has lately been in the limelight due to alleged scandals as well as conducting public biddings for major infrastructure projects to be implemented by the DPWH.
On Tuesday morning, or on the eve of the Aquino ambush, three armed men shot and wounded Camilo Garcia, the assistant director of the Metro Manila regional office of the Land Transportation Office (LTO), while he was being driven to the LTO office.
Police said the attack came just a few meters away from the house of Garcia in a private housing estate in suburban Quezon City, Metro Manila.
Police said one of the motives being investigated is intense rivalry because they received reports that Garcia is being considered for promotion as the director of the Metro Manila LTO regional office.
However, police sources insisted they are not discounting the possibility that anomalies at the DPWH, in the case of Aquino, and at the LTO, in the case of LTO, were behind the attacks on these two officials.
The sources explained that lately, the DPWH was the subject of separate inquiries by the Senate and the House of Representatives regarding a confidential World Bank (WB) report which implicated several department officials and even lawyer Jose Miguel Arroyo, the husband of the President, in the alleged attempt to rig the bidding of road projects to be funded by a $33 million loan from the WB.
Due to the scandal, the WB announced it withheld payment for the projects and also blacklisted seven private contractors – three from the Philippines and four from China – for allegedly participating to rig the bidding.
One of the Filipino contractors blacklisted and imposed a lifetime ban by the WB was Eliseo de Luna who owns a company that bears his name and reportedly the “protégé” of the President’s husband.
On the other hand, several LTO officials have been implicated in scandals, like the illegal registration of late model cars and other expensive vehicles that were stolen by crime syndicates for resale to unsuspecting buyers.
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