Sen. Sergio Osmeña 3rd is convinced that former president and now Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of Pampanga province is directly linked to the anomalous P111-billion presidential bridge project currently being investigated by the Senate blue ribbon committee.

Osmeña claimed that Mrs. Arroyo and some members of her Cabinet could have pocketed P10 billion to P15 billion in kickbacks.

“They could have made a kickback of P10 billion to P15 billion easy. The figure will be more accurate in the future,” he told reporters.

The senator said that he will invite the former president to testify in the hearing even if she is detained at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center for plunder.

“I would like to invite her but there are problems involved. She’s in the hospital, she’s a congresswoman, there are a number of excuses. I will extend an invitation to her,” he said.

Osmeña is spearheading the investigation of 14 bridge contracts that were misrepresented as having been funded through Official Development Assistance concessional financing from the United Kingdom and France.

The lawmaker pointed out that the former president was directly involved in the transactions because she was the chairman and presiding officer of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) board.

“These [projects] have to be approved by the NEDA board. And she was present in every board meeting. She is one president who was always present in all NEDA board meetings,” Osmeña said.

He said that the Arroyo administration entered into 14 anomalous contracts worth P111 billion for the construction of bridges. He claimed that the projects did not undergo public bidding and were carried out under the Office of the President.

Osmeña said that some members of Arroyo’s cabinet, including the secretaries of the Departments of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Justice and Finance, as well as the NEDA head, were involved in the anomalous bridge projects.

In a previous hearing, Osmeña said that the red ribbon panel may recommend the filing of graft complaints against former officials of the Department of Finance, Department of Transportation and Communication, DPWH, NEDA and the Department of Agrarian Reform.

After the hearing on Monday, Osmeña said that the committee has established that there are two sections in the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act that were violated—the prohibition on giving undue advantage and the provision that officials shall not enter in a grossly disadvantageous contract.

 “They have put the government into grave disadvantage by entering into contracts like these,” he added.

The senator said that he needs to conduct more hearings in order to get more information.

The committee is planning to invite former Public Works secretaries Hermogenes Ebdane and Simeon Datumanong, whose department spearheaded implementation of the bridge projects carried during the Arroyo administration.