Code-Ngo Beneficiaries
Code-NGO's PEF transparently accounts for all its funds
By Angelo Samonte, Special Reports Contributor
AFTER the Times special report on July 18 last year, in which were listed all the NGOs with poverty alleviation projects that received loans and grants from CODE-NGO's Peace and Equity Foundation (PEF), the questions about Social Welfare Secretary Corazon "Dinky" Soliman seemed to have died down.
CODE-NGO is the acronym for Caucus of Development NGO Networks.
The Poverty Eradication and Alleviation Certificates or PEACe Bonds raised P10.17 billion for the government. They earned P140 million in commissions and a grant of P1.4 billion for this bond offering's inventor, CODE-NGO, of which Sec. Soliman was once a chairman.
It was immediately criticized when it was invented and became known to the public 10 years ago. The Freedom from Debt Coalition examined the whole thing and questioned how CODE-NGO with RCBC as its buyer could have won the bidding to handle the bonds without being favored by the then Finance Department bosses.
FDC also found many things wrong with the process.
But in the end the money was raised for the government.
The controversy about it keeps surfacing because many people who have been commenting on the issue despite Senate and House hearings cannot seem to understand that CODE-NGO did not get the proceeds from the sale of the bonds.
Last November the House had hearings which Secretary Soliman did not honor with her attendance.
She did not attend because she had nothing to contribute to answer the questions the congressmen were asking: How did the government use the P10.75 billion realized from the PEACe bonds?
It was even bruited about that the former President Arroyo, now Rep. Arroyo from Pampanga, was getting ready to grill Soliman who was her DSWD secretary that became one of the "Hyatt 10" who deserted and turned against her.
But it is true that Sec. Soliman could not possibly give any information about what happened to the PEACe bonds' P10.17 billion that entered the government's treasury 10 years ago. She was no longer an officer of CODE-NGO at the time of the PEACE BONDS project.
And CODE-NGO and its PEF had given all the data and amounts involved and the names of its beneficiaries.
What CODE-NGO is involved in is the P140 million in commissions it earned by being the principal in the bond sale, undertaken by RCBC, and the P1.4 billion grant it received for it success in selling the bonds—which are maturing this year and must be paid with interest by October.
The repayment to bond holders will be the P35 billion face value of the bonds.
CODE-NGO and its Peace and Equity Foundation have apparently done a good job of using its money to help marginalized people through hundreds of NGOs all over the country.
This reporter looked into two particular NGOs that received loans and grants from PEF. Their stories are told here.
These reports are offered now in response to those who are asking how the NGO recipients are using the loans and grants from CODE-NGO – PEF.
Earlier this year, CODE-NGO held a press conference to clarify the confusion once more.
"We are here, conducting this dialogue because we want to keep the public informed," Sixto Donato Macasaet, CODE-NGO executive director, told reporters. "We want to be transparent and honest regarding the conduct of the PEACe Bonds transaction and how the trading gain from the private capital market, is being managed and used for poverty alleviation"
CODE-NGO got an 11- percent net trading gain or P1.4 billion from its agent, RCBC, which bought the PEACe Bonds through a public auction from the government in 2001. After buying the bonds RCBC then sold them to private investors, in which CODE-NGO got P1.4 billion through a special arrangement.
The Arroyo administration, on the other hand, received the full net present value of the 10 year bonds at that time, which was P10.17 billion.
The 1.4 billion trading gain, which are in fact private funds, has since been entrusted as an endowment fund of the Peace and Equity Foundation (PEF), which manages and preserves the fund for poverty alleviation projects.
Former PEF treasurer Senen C. Bacani clarifies that neither PEF nor CODE-NGO has information on how the money generated from the auction of the PEACe bonds was spent as the P10.17 billion went to the government and not to the CODE-NGO network.
"Critics are barking up the wrong tree. CODE-NGO and PEF can explain how the 1.4 billion, a private fund, is being utilized for projects to assist poverty-stricken Filipinos, especially those in the rural areas. But if you want to know how the P10.17 billion government money was spent, it would be best to ask the people who ran the government at that time."
The Times interviewed NGO-beneficiaries that received the money from PEF starting 2001. Many NGOs approached PEF and received either loan or grant or both. Most these are microfinance, water utilities, advocacy enhancements, capability building and other kinds of projects for poor folks.
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