PP 7750 gives authority to the secretary of state to identify who should be barred entry for involvement in corruption. Pamusa, formed only this year, has sent copies of the manifesto “for appropriate action” to the offices of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Josh Bolten, Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney and the UN Convention Against Corruption based in Vienna, Austria. The organization has also sent copies to Vice President Noli de Castro, Senate President Manuel Villar, Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Speaker Jose de Venecia, House minority leader Francis Escudero and leaders of various non-government, business and community organizations. The group asked that the House give the new impeachment complaint against Arroyo due course by sending it to the Senate for trial.

Pamusa said PP 7750 could be used against Arroyo and her allies because it prevents “such people from coming into the United States to enjoy the fruits of their corruption and sends a strong message that the United States is committed to supporting international efforts in combating public corruption wherever it occurs.” It said the Bush administration’s “No Safe Haven” policy may indeed be “a gift to the Filipino people at this crucial junction in history when democracy, liberty and freedom for which our forebears made the supreme sacrifice would be upheld over largesse.”

“For the policy is a sword of Damocles’ hanging over the heads of the Speaker and members of the House to ensure that Arroyo’s impeachment doesn’t again become a farce,” it said. “Any irregularity that taints the proceedings and voting in the House offers an opportunity for enterprising observers to dig into a House member’s corruption in the past in order to deny him or her entry to the US and other G8 (Group of Eight) nations.”

The other G8 nations are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United Kingdom. More than 137 other countries that have adopted the policy. The House in plenary is expected to vote today on whether to uphold the decision of the House committee to dismiss the complaint for being insufficient in substance or to send the complaint to the Senate for trial once the minority musters the 78 needed signatories.

One of the charges against Arroyo in the new impeachment complaint is graft and corruption where she and her family have been accused of accumulating ill-gotten wealth, including a multi-million bank account in Germany. The bank account was exposed last Friday by House deputy minority leader Alan Peter Cayetano (Taguig-Pateros). The money supposedly owned by “immediate members” of the Arroyo family and deposited at the Hypo- und Vereinsbank in Munich, Germany under account No. 87570-23030-32100-6271-571, was reported to amount to $500 million.

While it is not a party, the US has adopted the resolution for ratification of an ad hoc committee which was tasked to craft the rules of procedures for United Nations Convention Against Corruption’s (UNCAC’s) Conference of the States Parties. Bush’s “No Safe Haven” policy was highlighted in his speech before the recent meeting of the G8 where he declared war against “kleptocracy” through his administration’s “National Strategy to Internationalize Efforts Against Kleptocracy.” “Our objective is to defeat high level public corruption in all its forms and to deny corrupt officials access to the international financial system as means of defrauding their people and hiding their ill-gotten gains,” the group quoted Bush as saying.

By Wendell Vigilia