I was in the House of Representatives at the time when the very big surplus of the Oil Price Stabilization Fund (OPSF) caught the greedy eyes of our congressmen and senators, particularly Cong. Tony Diaz of Zambales and then-Senator Maceda.
There was, if I can recall correctly, about a ten billion peso (P10B) surplus in the OPSF at that time and the oil companies could not raise the prices of their products due to this big surplus in the OPSF. So, the oil companies approached our greedy congressmen and senators and "suggested" a big fund source for them to get as their pork barrel and this was, you guessed it right, the OPSF.
And so, our greedy congressmen and senators passed a law which transferred the surplus of the OPSF to the general fund (as the OPSF was a trust fund which could not be intermingled with the general fund) and designated it as a fund for the "rehabilitation of Mt. Pinatubo-ravaged areas."
As it turned out, it was our legislators who "ravaged" the fund, together with Saint Cory (who is said to be "not corrupt") and Cong. Andaya, Sr. who was then the corrupt Chairman of the Committee on Plunder este Appropiations!
Tony Diaz presented as part of his liquidation of his fund allocation (from what used to be the OPSF surplus) official receipts from Furusato Japanese Restaurant whose manager was his crony and the amount was staggering, to say the least!Apparently, Diaz had a lot of ghost purchases from Furusato Japanese Restaurant in order to pocket the funds allocated to him (in cahoots, of course, with the manager of the said restaurant).
I do not know where Maceda "invested" his loot; I believe Andaya Sr. bought a mansion in Ayala-Alabang from his share of the loot (the OPSF surplus).
The OPSF comes directly from the consumers and not as a subsidy from the government as Evil Almendras would have us believe. When the price of oil in the world market is low, the price here in the Philippines is not lowered, in order to build a fund (the OPSF) so that when the price in the world market is high, the oil companies can draw from the OPSF (under the strict watchful eyes of the Commission of Audit in Marcos' time). However, during Cory's time (when there was allegedly no corruption), the CoA was instructed by Saint Cory herself to go soft on its audit of the draw-downs of the oil companies from the OPSF. The objective was to deplete the OPSF and "show" that it "does not work" so that it would be abolished. But the OPSF kept on having surpluses so the "bright boys" of Cory came up with the idea of using the OPSF surplus for the "rehabilitation of the Mt. Pinatubo-ravaged areas."
It was ravishing to ravage the OPSF surplus. After the OPSF was wiped out by a "Republic Act," Cory announced that the OPSF was a "failed mechanism" and should be abolished. She then pushed for the deregulation of the oil industry which finally happened under Cory's forced "President" on the people - Fidel Valdez "Deregulation, Globalization and Privatization King" Ramos.
(Anon)
