Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez faced the Senate hearing on the World Bank-funded road program controversy and denied her office sat on the World Bank report.

Gutierrez said the WB's "referral report", a 9-page confidential report on the summary of the WB investigation gave the Ombudsman barely any evidence or witnesses' names to pursue the probe.

She said the WB referral report had "full of restrictions" and only had a one-paragraph conclusion.

"Wala kaming ganyang report na mayroong mga witnesses na nagtestify," she alleged during Thursday's hearing.

Gutierrez was referring to the materials used by abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak as reference for a story that mentioned First Gentleman Mike Arroyo and the late Senator Robert Barbers in alleged bid-rigging.

She said they tried to get the names of the supposed witnesses from the WB, but the funding agency refused, insisting that the details and names mentioned in the report should be confidential.

Aside from the lack  of evidence, she said that her office is in a dilemma because of the "confidentiality clause" of the referral report.

"The report is full of restrictions, such as, but not limited to, that it should not be used by the government as a basis for initiating any administrative, criminal or civil proceedings. Moreover it [report] should not be cited or referred to in the course of any investigation. Its cover letter alone is marked 'strictly confidential'," she said.

Despite this, she said she immediately ordered Assistant Ombudsman Mark Jalandoni to conduct a fact-finding investigation.

Gutierrez said she received the referral report on November 2007. The fact-finding investigation is still ongoing, she said.

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, chair of the Senate economic affairs committee, earlier said there was confusion in the various media reports on the "World Bank report". She pointed out there were four reports the bank produced: a referral report, notice of sanctions proceedings, decision of sanctions board, and a redacted report.

The confidential WB investigation report that mentioned the First Gentleman consists of more than 200 pages. It supposedly contains testimonies of some contractors and other people involved in the bidding for a $33 million World Bank-funded road project.

Senate ruling

Santiago earlier ruled that the Senate would have to vote to determine whether the referral report should be kept secret from the public.

This, after Santiago refused to abide by the confidentiality clause of the WB. She said she would ask Gutierrez for a copy of the referral report.

The senator even challenged the WB to sue her, or the Senate, if it feels its rules are being violated.

Earlier in the hearing, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves left it to the Senate to decide whether or not to make public the confidential WB document.

"We are telling the World Bank, your rule on confidentiality has changed in international law. It would be as if an ordinary law passed Congress. Thus, it [confidentiality] is no longer binding in the Philippines," she said.