THAT’S what former Senate president Jovito Salonga fears.
Here’s an excerpt from the Philippine Daily Inquirer story:
MANILA, Philippines–President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s decision to call out the military to help police disband private armies, man 24-hour checkpoints and stop political killings has prompted ex-Senate President Jovito Salonga to warn that the May 14 elections could turn out to be as “violent and fraudulent” as the Marcos-era polls.
In an open letter sent Tuesday to the President through Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Salonga called on Ms Arroyo to ensure the peace and the credibility of the midterm elections so as not to worsen current problems, including the continuing killings.
Salonga said Ms Arroyo’s order for more checkpoints nationwide was “what [the dictator Ferdinand] Marcos also ordered in the 1969 elections, described by Newsweek (Nov. 24, 1969) and Time (Feb. 16, 1970) as the dirtiest, most violent and most corrupt in modern Filipino history.”
June 17th, 2007 at 12:18 am
Sweet justice
############################Yeah, Sweet justice indeed. That if these corrupt judges of Gloria Arroyo, Going to do their job they suppose too. And set Erap, Free! After all there is no solid evidence against him for being corrupted. In fact as the record show, He is not guilty of any wrong doing. Gloria Arroyo, Et al. Is the guilty one. Throw their ass in jail where they belong! Its overdue!!!
Salinas
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EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
06/17/2007
The acquittal of deposed President Joseph Estrada, which seems imminent, raises more questions on the justice that should be accorded a popularly elected President whose term was unceremoniously cut short by an obvious military-backed unconstitutional takeover by his treacherous Vice President Gloria Arroyo.
That she, her military, her high court justices and her civil society knew that which they did was unconstitutional and in defiance of the rule of law, was evident, as Gloria offered at least three times, for Estrada to leave the country voluntarily in exchange for his resignation letter, to make her coup d’etat legal and constitutional, and her illegal act legitimized.
As Estrada rejected the offer, Gloria and her officials threatened him with a case of plunder anchored on the supposed misappropriation of proceeds from a levy on tobacco, profiting from alleged stock manipulation and the use of money coming from the illegal numbers game jueteng.
The judiciary, then headed by Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., today the unconfirmed Philippine Ambassador to the United Nations, took a pivotal role in the ruse by sanctioning an illegal and a deliberate unconstitutional swearing in of Mrs. Arroyo in a bid to legitimize the clearly illegitimate. He, too, went against the Rule of Law, and worse, was even part of Gloria’s clicque of coup plotters.
The declaration of a coup by Armed Forces generals headed by the equally treacherous Chief of Staff Angelo Reyes and installing Mrs. Arroyo would have removed the complication of resorting to pretensions on mandate where there is none.
For the past six years, that was what the Filipino nation has been a witness to, an administration desperately trying to prove its legitimacy in what is now becoming a crystal-clear case of a naked power-grab.
Now the questions: What would be the proper reparation for Mr. Estrada even if not all the points against him are thrown out by the court and even if the case presented by the prosecution against him is patently weak to convict him on even one of the charges?
Take as a given the pressure from Gloria that would be made to bear on the Sandiganbayan. It would be too obvious a bias for the court to convict him on all counts.
If worse comes to worst, the Sandiganbayan would be affording a face-saving compromise ruling for Gloria that would convict Estrada of an offense he already had paid for in his six years of detention, if the justices close their eyes to their duty of doing right by the law, Lady Justice and Estrada, who is clearly innocent of such vile charges lodged against him simply because he refused to be pressured into resigning from the presidency and grant her the legitimacy she so desperately seeks to this day.
Estrada was never impeached and was removed based on the Davide court’s declaration that he was emotionally incapacitated and therefore, had resigned “constructively� which is a clear invention of the high court to defend the indefensible.
To justify Mrs. Arroyo’s takeover, her lawyers should have convincingly proved Estrada’s guilt in court, which they did not.
The insider trading allegations were non-issue since even the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has not found Dante Tan, the owner of Best World Gaming Resources, to have perpetrated a stock manipulation scam. To be precise about it, the SEC had not convicted anybody of insider trading charges.
The allegations on the diversion of the tobacco tax was largely based on the testimonies of Ilocos Sur Gov. Chavit Singson who has a lot of axes to grind against Estrada after the then president initiated efforts to legitimize jueteng, which was Singson’s bread and butter, and also rejected the prevention of an official audit of Chavit’s plunder of the tobacco excise tax.
Proving Estrada used jueteng money would be a joke since it would need the testimonies of operators themselves to the effect that they do regularly contribute to a slush fund for the President, whoever it is, and that such contributions have been jacked up ever since Gloria took power.
A partial conviction would bolster Estrada’s claim that his removal from power was unjustified while a total conviction is unthinkable since that would be a trumped-up decision.
Returning Estrada to power is an impossibility and Gloria would stake her life to thwart that.
Yet what would be fitting to right a constitutional aberration and a running scourge on the nation’s psyche?
Gloria would have lost her reason for being at the instance of Estrada’s acquittal yet truth and public opinion would bear heavy on the justices if they deny Estrada his due.
Legitimizing the illegitimate always has its consequences.
June 17th, 2007 at 12:06 am
CBCP slams Gloria’s pardoning of Jalosjos
A commission of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) yesterday criticized President Gloria Arroyo for commuting the sentence of convicted rapist former Rep. Romeo Jalosjos.
Executive secretary of the CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care (ECPPC) Rodolfo Diamante expressed belief that there are other prisoners who deserve the commutation more than Jalosjos, in which the government has not acted upon.
He said there are prisoners more sick and much older than Ja.. Full Story »»»
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The justice system just went to the dog!
while the innocent getting rotten in jail. The guilty one getting away!!! what is the point on having a court house when we have a corrupt justice system. Its a waste of taxespayer’s money. Lets get rid of them. Now!
June 16th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
Arroyo allies on war path over missing P650-M funds
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There is no ending corruption under the bugos regime of Gloria Arroyo. Its time to get rid of her. Its overdue! DITCH HER OUT. PRONTO!!! Salinas.
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06/17/2007
Administration congressman Luis Vilafuerte (Camarines Sur) yesterday vowed to look deeper into allegations that Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno and presidential adviser on political affairs Gabriel Claudio pocketed some P650 million in campaign funds supposedly intended for local candidates of Malacañang in last month’s mid-term elections.
Villafuerte and Puno are at odds over the leadership of the presidential party, Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi) and have been openly warring with each other over the Speakership issue.
Villafuerte, during a telephone interview, admitted it was the first time he had
heard of the campaign funds meant for them.
“It is true that we, Kampi (Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino) members who ran in the last elections, never received any campaign funds from anyone,� he said.
According to him, he was unaware that Puno and Claudio were supposed to hand over the funds to the local bets but that the money “did not reach us.�
Villafuerte said the allegations are a “serious matter which we cannot simply ignore.�
The national president of Kampi, he said they “would definitely be investigating this matter.�
Kampi, founded by Mrs. Arroyo in 1998 when she was still Vice President, is a member of the ruling coalition Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas) to which Speaker Jose de Venecia belongs.
Villafuerte has long declared his support for another Arroyo ally, Cebu Rep. Pablo Garcia, who is challenging De Venecia for the Speakership in the 14 th Congress.
His promise to probe the supposed funds misuse is seen to pit him against Puno and Claudio, who have thrown their support behind De Venecia’s bid for an unprecendented fifth run at the Speakership.
Puno is the national chairman of Kampi and Claudio, a Lakas stalwart.
The Interior secretary last week said De Venecia is “an overwhelming choice for Speaker.
The Tribune yesterday reported that the two Cabinet secretaries are in danger of losing their posts for supposedly failing to account for the entire campaign funds amounting to P1 billion, resulting in a disastrous result particularly for President Arroyo’s Team Unity (TU) senatorial candidates.
The Genuine Opposition senatorial bets clobbered their TU rivals 8-2, with the remaining two places in the race to the Senate going to independent candidates.
A Tribune source had revealed that the P650 million was lost during the campaign period and that a check showed the money was neither distributed to the candidates nor used to defray expenses. The source is allied with the Kampi camp.
The information was somehow validated by Kampi deputy secretary general Reginaldo “Regie� Velasco, brother of former Presidential Management Staff chief Rene Velasco, both allies of Puno, who said all Kampi candidates had to rely on their own funds to finance their campaigns.
A congressman affiliated with De Venecia’s Lakas also yesterday claimed that almost all Cebuano-speaking congressmen will vote for Garcia when the 14th Congress opens on July 23.
Antonio Cuenco, also from Cebu, said a considerable number of congressmen from the Visayas and Mindanao, most of whom speak Cebuano, are pushing Garcia as Speaker in order to “correct the imbalance in the distribution of governmental power among the three branches of government.�
Charlie V. Manalo
June 16th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Politics or justice?
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Fr: Salina
Erap, Is not guilty of any wrong doing. Set him free! And throw Gloria Arroyo, In jail where she belong.
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FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
06/16/2007
It was evident, during the oral summation � a first in the Sandiganbayan � by the prosecution in the plunder case against Joseph Estrada, that it did not have much to go with, by way of evidence, even as the chief Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio claimed to have submitted damning evidence to prove Estrada’s guilt.
Yet hearing the prosecution, it was evident that it couldn’t have proved the charges, saying, in the jueteng issue, that established beyond doubt was that the money plundered from which Estrada allegedly benefited, came from jueteng, because, as argued by Villa-Ignacio, there was an admission by Chavit Singson of having collected the jueteng money for Estrada, and the prosecution also stated there was no denying that Bong Pineda and other jueteng lords did meet with then Pagcor chairman Alice Reyes. He also mentioned that Pineda was close to the Estradas. Ergo, the money came from jueteng.
The logic is as usual shot, but following Villa-Ignacio’s illogic, isn’t he also saying, as Singson is undoubtedly a close ally of Gloria, and as the Pinedas are certainly Gloria’s close friends and political allies, and as jueteng does exist even today, this is also proof that Gloria is getting her payoffs from jueteng, since the same conditions exist? Not once did Villa-Ignacio prove that the money came from jueteng proceeds, except to rely on Singson’s testimony, which incidentally, has already been proved by the defense as being clearly perjured testimony.
But Villa-Ignacio insists that Chavit’s word is strong evidence. Just how much the Filipino people take the word of Chavit, or even express any trust in him can be shown by his humiliating loss in the Senate race. Landing at the bottom already says a lot about how lowly Filipinos think of him.He is not trusted by the Filipino people, who certainly know he was lying through his teeth and committed the crime of plunder and then passing this on to Estrada.
Heck, even the Sandiganbayan justices know he lied about a lot of things, especially about his claim pf having delivered some P130 million in tobacco excise tax to Estrada, giving then First Lady Loi Estrada some P25 million, and son Jinggoy, P15 million. The cash, contained in four boxes, whose dimensions were given by Chavit and his bodyguards, who lied along with him, couldn’t fit in those four boxes � and the justices saw this for themselves.
As OJ Simpson’s lawyer pointed out in Simpson’s trial, where the glove obviously didn’t belong to OJ, “If it don’t fit, acquit.�
Not even in the Jose Velarde issue could Villa-Ignacio prove his case, via his oral summation. He claimed in court there is no denying that some P100 million in commission from the GSIS and SSS sale of Belle Resources share went into the Velarde account, and this is proof that Estrada gained from this sale.
Again, Villa-Ignacio’s logic is shot. He failed to prove that Erap is Jose Velarde and it was Erap’s lawyers who proved that Velarde is not Erap but Jaime Dichaves. The documentary evidence from the bank, and the testimony of the bank’s branch manager established that the Velarde account belongs to Dichaves. This being the case, how can Villa-Ignacio still claim that Estrada gained from the sale of the shares of Belle Resources? But Villa-Ignacio certainly knew that he could not prove Erap to be Velarde, as he also knew of the existence of the bank documents showing Dichaves to be the owner of the bank account, as these were contained in the “second envelope� which the Gloria allies in the House prosecution held up as the “evidence� of plunder. This was incidentally never presented before the court by the prosecution. It was the defense that produced this as evidence.
It was, of course, claimed by the prosecution that evidence against Estrada was strong, quoting from a Sandiganbayan resolution in a bail bid of Estrada. But what was not admitted by the prosecution was the fact that from the day Estrada was incarcerated by Gloria, it was Gloria who was influencing, if not directly interfering with the court, telling the justices not to grant Estrada temporary freedom, mainly because Gloria always used this as her weapon to get Erap to stop criticizing her and her government.
There is really no way for the court to convict Estrada, his son Jinggoy, and lawyer Ed Serapio, if the justices rule on the basis of pure merit of the case against Estrada.
But everyone and his uncle also know that Estrada’s case is not just a legal one but a highly political one and if the justices of the Sandiganbayan do what justice calls on them to do, they will have to acquit Estrada. But if the same justices fall prey to tempting offers from Malacañang, then he gets convicted.
The question is: Can they sleep soundly if they go against the grain of justice, and convict an innocent man for political reasons?
June 16th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
OFW remittances surge 26% to $4.7B
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Fr: Salina
I was right all alone when I said that the only reason the Philippines economy is booming because of the money remittance that the OFW sending to their love one. Not because of Goria Arroyo, Good governance. Lets face it. Gloria Arroyo, Is the biggest failure. And her supporter’s can’t accept the truth.
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Inquirer
Last updated 04:03am (Mla time) 06/16/2007
MANILA, Philippines — An increasing number of remittance agents catering to expatriate Filipino communities helped to sustain at over $1 billion the monthly amount of dollar remittances for the 12th month in a row in April, the central bank said Friday.
The central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), noted a decrease in Filipinos that left to work abroad in the January-April from the same period last year, which could mean a more muted remittance growth in the coming months.
January-April remittances of overseas Filipino workers (OFW) reached $4.7 billion, up 26.1 percent from the same months last year.
In April, the amount was $1.2 billion.
“Remittance flows were facilitated by easier access of overseas Filipinos to formal remittance channels,� BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said in a statement.
“In particular, the high level of remittances was supported by the increased presence of remittance agents abroad through the establishment of overseas centers as well as tie-ups with other remittance companies and financial institutions abroad,� he added.
He said the increase in the formal remittance channels — as distinguished from “non-formalâ€Â? channels that include relatives and friends of OFWs — was complemented by enhanced services offered by banks.
Preliminary data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) showed that the number of workers deployed in April dropped 7.8 percent year-on-year to 343,397. Land- and sea-based workers numbered 263,324 and 80,073, respectively, down 6.3 percent and 12.3 percent.
“The drop in deployment may be partly attributed to the new hiring policy of Saudi Arabia requiring Saudi-bound workers to secure ‘no objection certificates’ from their previous employers as part of entry requirements,� Tetangco said.
The new requirement was imposed to ensure that workers complied with their previous employment contracts.
“Looking ahead, remittances are expected to remain strong due to the increasing demand for highly skilled and professional Filipinos, particularly in the fields of information technology, healthcare, hotel and restaurant, construction and shipbuilding industries,� Tetangco said.
The bulk of the remittances continued to come from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Italy, Japan and Hong Kong. With INQUIRER.net