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Liars all

January 22, 2014January 22, 2014 Ellen Leave a comment

He is not the epitome of intelligence and good public service but his story about the breakfast meeting is revealing of Malacañang’s methods under Aquino.

Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla, Jr., one of the three senators charged with plunder before the Ombudsman in connection with alleged anomalous use of Priority Development Assistance Fund, related Monday an incident that took place in December 2012, a few days before the conclusion of the impeachment of ousted Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Revilla said Roxas, who was then secretary of Transportation and Communication, invited him to a morning meeting at his residence in Cubao. From there, they went to Malacañang’s Bahay Pangarap, Aquino’s residence, with Roxas driving the SUV and he was seated at the back seat.

Revilla said Roxas had the license plate of the SUV removed.

At Bahay Pangarap, they were joined first by and Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad and later by President Aquino. They were served breakfast and he remembered everything on the table: pan de sal, kesong puti, egg, ham, dried beef, friend rice and fruits. The main fare was Corona.

There was no hiding his obsession against Corona.

Revilla said the President appealed to him: “Parang awa mo na, pare, balato mo sakin ito. Kelangan ko siyang ma-impeach.”

Abad, he said, chimed in: “Let’s help each other, Senator.”

He said he replied: “Mr. President, I will do what is right. I believe that we should fight for what is right, and I will do what is right for the country.”

Revilla was one of the 20 senators who voted “Guilty” to the charge of betrayal of public trust against Corona.
Aquino and Roxas both confirmed the meeting with Revilla but they had different versions of what took place in that meeting.

Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said the President denied having uttered the words, “balato mo sa akin ito…”

Coloma said, “The President met with Senator Revilla “to verify persistent reports that senators were being pressured by interest groups to influence the outcome of the [Corona] impeachment trial, and he asked the senator to decide the case on the basis of its merits.”

Boy Pick-up

Roxas also issued a statement: “Senator Bong and I used to be in the Senate together. So, when he said he had some issues to discuss with the President, which included the cityhood of Bacoor and his being head of the Lakas Party, I found a way to set up their meeting.

“At the time, the President was not in Malacañan and was at Bahay Pangarap. So as not to disrupt the detail of the PSG and so Senator Bong won’t be inconvenienced, I personally drove him to Bahay Pangarap.

“He lied when he said that I removed my license plate before we went to Bahay Pangarap. I really don’t use an official plate. It’s not attached to my vehicle. I use a regular plate issued by the LTO. The people who have known me for a long time know that I have never used the 8 plate when I was congressman, the 7 plate when I was Senator, or the 6 plate as Cabinet Secretary. I have never attached such plates to my car.”

They are all lying.

Some of the details of each statement are true, some are false. Halftruths are lies.

Aquino was never shy about his desire to remove Corona as part of his reform agenda. Corona’s ouster was a major achievement for him.

Everybody knows they moved heaven and earth to get rid of Corona and the public applauded him for that. To say that Aquino did not meddle in the impeachment of Corona is a big lie.

For Roxas to say that the meeting was not related to the Corona impeachment is a lie.

Revilla is also lying when he said that his vote was about “doing what is right for the country.” He got his reward for his Corona vote for at least P50 million in the form of the Disbursement Acceleration Program. How did he spend that huge sum of money plus his other PDAF?

Don’t BS us about “doing right for the country.” You are lining your pockets with our money. That’s not right for the country.

You are all liars.

Aquino for Binay for president in 2016?

January 5, 2014January 5, 2014 Ellen Leave a comment

There’s a compelling reason for President Aquino to make sure that that he would be able to influence the people’s choice of his successor otherwise he would suffer the same fate that befell the two presidents before him.

His predecessor, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, is in jail – hospital arrest, actually- facing plunder and electoral sabotage charges.
Arroyo’s predecessor, Joseph Estrada, spent six years in detention- much of it under house arrest – for plunder. Convicted, he was later pardoned. He nearly made a comeback as president in 2010, placing second to Aquino. He is now mayor of the city of Manila.

Surely, Aquino knows that in his position, it’s not a matter of good intentions as his “Tuwid na Daan” slogan trumpets. As president, he makes decisions, sometimes resorting to legal brinkmanship. Example is the Disbursement Acceleration Program, the legality of which is being questioned in the Supreme Court.

During his incumbency, a president is immune from suits and can only be removed by impeachment which is initiated by the House of Representatives. Aquino can sleep well that no impeachment against him would succeed because the speaker of the House, Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte, and Jr is a loyal ally.

The ties that bind Aquino and Belmonte are solid. Belmonte’s city administrator when he was Quezon City mayor is Aquino’s executive secretary – Paquito Ochoa, Jr.

Aquino’s concern, and for that matter all presidents’, is their vulnerability from suits once they are out of Malacañang.
Aquino’s mother, Corazon Aquino, was amply protected because her successor, Fidel Ramos, was her anointed.

Ramos did not have Cory’s advantage because the candidate he endorsed , Lakas-NUCD’s Jose de Venecia, lost to Estrada.
Ramos was investigated by the Estrada administration of involvement in the P7.3-billion Centennial Expo project in Angeles City, Pampanga . ( Ombudsman Aniano Desierto, his appointee, later on dropped him from the list of those being investigated.)
Estrada’s did not have the chance to influence the choice of his successor as he was ousted barely halfway through his six-year term.

Arroyo, who replaced Estrada, acknowledged the support of Ramos and several military generals in the ouster of actor- turned- president- now- mayor. Estrada believed that Ramos did so because of the Centennial Expo Scam.

Arroyo, who was so unpopular by the end of her nine-years in Malacañang, was of no help to the presidential bid of her candidate, Gilbert Teodoro.

It remains to be seen if Aquino’s popularity, undented by his immature leadership especially in times of crisis, would be good enough to make his endorsement valuable by 2016.

It also depends on who he would be endorsing.

Since Aquino is chairman of the Liberal Party, it is expected that he would be supporting the LP candidate for president. Right now, the one being touted as LP bet is Interior Secretary Mar Roxas.

If Roxas runs for president in 2016, Aquino would look ungrateful if he does not endorse him for president considering that Roxas gave up his well-laid out 2010 presidential bid and slid down to be Aquino’s running mate.

But then, will Aquino’s endorsement of Roxas get the latter the presidency? Informed sources said in post-Yolanda surveys, which showed satisfaction rating for Aquino steady despite his bunglings, Roxas’ score dropped substantially.

Aside from Roxas, other LP names being mentioned as possible 2016 standard bearers are Senate President Franklin Drilon and Transportation and Communications Secretary Joseph Emilio “Jun” Abaya. Both are considered lightweights as presidential contenders.

Outside the Liberal Party, there is someone angling for an Aquino endorsement: Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano. That is if he gets past Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos as Nacionalista Party standard bearer.

At the opposite side of the administration party is the United Nationalist Alliance, whose head, Vice President Jejomar Binay, Sr, has not been shy about his 2016 presidential plans.

Binay’s national campaign machinery is formidable, it was able to make his daughter Nancy, a political unknown, win as senator in last year’s election. In many provinces, posters just carried the Binay name without pictures which made people think that they were voting for the vice president for senator.

Would it be possible for Aquino to support Binay for president? Why not? Not openly endorse perhaps but it’s not unthinkable.
After all, there’s a Noy-Bi faction in Malacañang, who includes no less than the immediate members of the President’s family. And Aquino tolerated that in the 2010 elections.

Ugly

December 15, 2013December 15, 2013 Ellen Leave a comment

Roxas vs Romualdez. Thanks to Inquirer for photo.

This Mar Roxas-Alfred Romualdez fight is ugly.

As ugly as the Juan Ponce-Enrile-Miriam Defensor-Santiago battle.

At the hearing of the congressional oversight committee on the Philippine Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 last Monday, a tearful Romualdez related how, he claimed, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas tried to marginalize him in the relief and recovery efforts for the Yolanda-devastated city.

He said Roxas asked him for an ordinance allowing the national government to undertake relief and rescue operations in Tacloban to “legalize everything” or a letter stating that he could no longer function as mayor.

He said he almost gave in because of the enormity of the calamity but his lawyer advised him against it because the letter would be deemed as resignation.

He also said he could not understand why Malacañang would need to legalize their takeover of the operations in a disaster area when he as “the President is the President of the Philippines and he’s also the President of Tacloban City.”

He said he told Roxas, “I don’t see anywhere in the law that says you need an ordinance from me for you to come in and do what you’re doing.”

He said that’s when Roxas told him, “You have to understand. You are a Romualdez and the President is an Aquino. If it’s not legalized, then OK you are in charge and we’ll help you, then that’s it … bahala na kayo sa buhay ’nyo.”

The 18-second video of Roxas telling Romualdez that politically devastating quote was posted in video by Jose Mari Gonzales It went viral that same day.

Roxas, who snubbed the congressional hearing, had to go on a counter-offensive the next day questing on TV programs crying “Foul” saying the video was spliced and taken out of context.

The full video:

From the charges and counter-charges, this is our impression:

Romualdez is not a paragon of competence because if he were why would he be in his beachfront resort with his bodyguards in the wee hours of Nov. 8 when Yolanda was lashing at his city. Why was he not in City Hall directing the operations? The term “storm surge” as too technical for him and Tacloban folks to understand is not an excuse. PAGASA raised an alarming number four signal, the highest alert ever issued in this often typhoon-blasted archipelago. Why didn’t he heed the warning?

Be that as it may, Romualdez is an elected mayor of Tacloban in the same way that Aquino is the elected president of Philippine Republic. Whether he is perceived to be incompetent, the national government has to work with him.

Roxas also is in no position to feel superior over the whining Tacloban mayor.

He and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin going to Tacloban to head the operations of what they knew to be a super typhoon without a satellite phone or alternate means of communication was like a soldier going to the battlefield without bullets or a reporter covering without a ballpen.

His interview with CNN’s Andrew Stevens did not inspire confidence in his leadership of a relief and rescue operation.

If that was not bad enough, his condescending remark about Romualdez suffering from “post-traumatic stress disorder siya kaya hindi ko alam kung saan nanggagaling mga criticisms niya” and advising him to “straighten out your memory banks,” was bad taste. Malicious.

In life’s thrilling unpredictable narrative, we have witnessed incidents of light coming out after darkness, of nations torn by war finding peace or people sustained by hope in the midst of despair.

It is our hope that we would find something redeeming from this emotionally draining political episode.