Former Defense Chief Reyes commits suicide!

Unlike the people of Egypt, we Filipinos lionize plunderers, even reelect them to public office. ~Leslie Lofranco-Berbano

My day started with a cold brush of air in the neck when I heard former AFP Chief and Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes committed suicide at the tomb of his mother in Loyola Park, Marikina City. I was in the jeep and the passengers had a heated argument on who was guilty or not. Everyone agreed the former secretary was guilty.

And I could not agree more. Reyes' death by suicide confirms speculations that he was one of the guilty party of the wealth amassed by retired generals of the Armed Forces in the Philippines. Retiring generals are alleged to receive millions when they left office. 

Upon investigation by the Senate, several generals suffered severe amnesia they forgot their wives bought around eight houses abroad. Whoah! No wonder the graft ridden AFP still adopt the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy.

Rest in peace Sir Angelo Reyes, but your death does not clean up the mess the AFP is now in. The people of the Republic of the Philippines still deserves full accounting of the money a few generals pocketed.

This is a deep blow to the ongoing investigation, for all members of the Armed Forces and the Filipino people's quest for the truth. In the light of this incident we hope Congress and the Senate can expedite this proceeding to ensure immediate enactment of laws in furtherance of good governance measures for the whole Armed Forces. ~ Brigadier General Jose Mabanta Jr., AFP spokesman 

Inquirer: Angelo Reyes commits suicide

Inquirer: General has houses in US
AntiPinoy: Reyes death does not absolve the institutions and policies that breed corruption
Photo: Malacanang Palace

The real man is a woman: Heidi Mendoza

In the midst of all these, [Ombudsman Merceditas] Gutierrez still insisted their evidence against Garcia is weak. It only shows that those who don’t want to look, will never see.

[Heidi] Mendoza said her appearance in the House investigation was not to convict [AFP ex-comptroller Carlos] Garcia. But she said she felt that she has no right to demand good governance from the government if she did not get out and tell the public what she knows.

She said she wants to assure the public that not all in government are corrupt. (Ellen Tordesillas, We salute Heidi Mendoza)

Risking herself and her family, Heidi Mendoza, a former government auditor and a daughter of a policeman, exposed the irregularities within the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Like a real man, she stood her ground and showed glaring evidences of several questionable transactions by then AFP comptroller Carlos Garcia and the AFP.

Only, the office of Ombudsman Merceditas Guttierez could not see the importance of those evidences.

Let us support Heidi Mendoza in her plight to send erring officials, some of them pocketing millions of pesos, to jail. Let us share her fight “to give honor to the soldiers who risk their lives in defense of the country.”

Enough is enough.

More to read-

Ellen Tordesillas: We salute Heidi Mendoza

Inquirer: Why Heidi Mendoza came out with all guns blazing
ABS-CBN: Miriam loves Heidi Mendoza

ABS-CBN: Who is Heidi Mendoza

Pic grabbed from Inquirer.net

Corruption in the Philippines: Only the small fish can be fried!

I remember when I was still at the local government of Bohol, the HRMDO always prod me to do my SALN (Statement of Assets and Liabilities) form every year. I have a very little salary and no real estate nor business to brag about, so I always tardy my submission. But still they insisted to the extent of sending official memoranda. 

I've worked hard and anybody from that office could affirm that but government forms were a waste of time. That was why I always question that SALN. No one filled them up seriously. Not even the honorable officials.

Which reminds me of the cases that sprung from not accomplishing the form. And they usually threatened employees with salaries or incomes no bigger than a few thousands. 

Remember Mikey Arroyo (in case you did not know, he is the son of the President of the Republic of the Philippines) bragging about incomes he "forgot" to put in his SALN? No Civil Service Commission came after him. Not even the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

Such a sad state indeed. Which brings me to whistle-blowers. Why them too?

The likes of Lozada and de Venecia III who were "pursued by different people" because they opened their mouths and they had a mouthful as their evidence. There was also a female official in the military who claimed funds "donated" by the US of A was misused by the military. And for opening her mouth to whistle and say STOP! she was leveled a graft and corruption case because she was not able to liquidate her 5,000 pesos (or lesser amount, I am not sure) travel expense.

See? It does STINK!

The release of the NBN-ZTE report by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee affirming the bribes and other scandals would surely be just a report. Nothing more. I would be more than happy if it would ever get the attention of the Ombudsman, who, as people have noticed, was not actually working for the benefit of the people.

Meanwhile, the lowly government employees would still fillup their SALN painstakingly for fear of graft and corruption cases.

However, it [Corruption] always means the use of governmental powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Corruption in itself is not a human rights violation, and there is no right to live in a country that is not corrupt or that suffers no corruption. However, corruption does have consequences for human rights:

• It harms the economy and can create or exacerbate poverty.
  
• It destroys democratic government, even if it doesn’t take the very specific form of electoral corruption (hence it violates people’s political rights)
  
• Corruption in the judiciary compromises the rule of law and the effective enforcement of human rights law.

Cartoon and quote from filipspagnoli.wordpress.com

Another confirmation that GMA and cohorts are GLUTTONS...

...despite hunger here in her country. Di naman sila mga patay-gutom dito sa Pinas katulad ko at nang marami pang iba. What would Cerge Remonde say this time?

Quoted in full from 

Reliable Source of The Washington Post-

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's visit to the White House on July 30 didn't draw much attention, and her dinner in Washington that night got nary a mention. And that's how it might have stayed -- if not for a controversial meal in New York City.

Arroyo is under fire in her native country for a $20,000 meal at Manhattan's Le Cirque on Aug. 2, which included caviar and several bottles of champagne. The dinner, first reported in the New 

York Post, has Arroyo's critics comparing her to the extravagant Imelda Marcos.

The Reliable Source has learned that three days earlier, Arroyo and an entourage of about 65 people (including security and food tasters) had dinner at Bobby Van's Steakhouse on 15th Street NW hours after she met with President Obama. The group took over one of the restaurant's private rooms and dined on lobster, steak and fine wines; at the conclusion of the meal, an unidentified woman opened a handbag stuffed with cash, counted out bills and paid the $15,000 tab -- which included a generous tip.

The Philippine Embassy did not return calls for comment Tuesday.

What did Arroyo and cohorts ordered at Le Cirque

If Representative Romualdez of Leyte shouldered and footed the bill (accept my grammar, for all I know he sold his body and soul on this) as claimed by Palace-mongers, the good congressman must be that rich. 

I should see him feeding his constituents especially those roaming around Tacloban City begging for food.

5 servings of Osetra caviar and 5 California Osetra caviar - $1,900

25 sets of Chef's seasonal menu - $1,450

25 sets of Chef's tasting menu with wine pairing - $4,500

Appetizers - $714

2 sets of main courses - $1,442

11 bottles of Krug champagne - $5,610

Total cost, including tax and service charge/tip - $19,866

Source: inquirer.net Editorial

Pic from Hay!Men

"Even coffee, biscuits overpriced"

This is still too early to whine. My gosh, at 7 in the morning? Excuse me for being bitter and weak, but when I opened my news feed, this headline caught my attention- "EVEN COFFEE, BISCUITS OVERPRICED."

That was how Lani Abarquez, the vice mayor of Talisay City in Cebu reacted as she was made to sign purchases from equipments down to biscuits, ALL OF THEM OVERPRICED! I don't know the political career of Ms Abarquez, but knowing all these and made them publicly  just now is quite amusing if not sarcastic.

I've been working with the provincial government of Bohol for ten long years, and overpricing everything the government purchases is not alien to me and even to laborers and down to contractual workers of that institution.The Commission on Audit turns its ugly face on the other side when doing so-called audits.

Why whine?

My theory- Ms Abarquez did not get anything from these overpriced items.

But it is still a beautiful morning though.

A News That Completed My Day

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Metro Manila remains center of corruption in RP

By Jocelyn Uy
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:37:00 08/18/2008

MANILA, Philippines—Official corruption remains highest in Metro Manila, as it has for almost 30 years now, among all the regions of the country, according to the Sandiganbayan.

Figures released by the anti-graft court’s Judicial Records Division showed the capital region accounted for 23 percent (6,770 suits) of the 29,231 cases filed in the Sandiganbayan between February 1979 and May 2008.

Central Visayas (Region VII) and Southern Tagalog (Region IV) shared an equally large portion of the case pie with 11.32 percent (3,310 cases) and 10 percent (2,932 cases), respectively, the records showed.

Central Visayas comprises four provinces—Bohol, Cebu, Negros Oriental and Siquijor. Southern Tagalog provinces include the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon), Marinduque, Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro and Romblon.

“The seat of government and the bulk of public funds are here in Metro Manila so it is not [unimaginable] that it would register the highest number of graft cases with the Sandiganbayan,” Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on the phone on Monday.

Villa-Ignacio said most government officials were tempted to dip their hands into the public coffers for personal gain because of easy access.

“We also don’t have enough field investigators to monitor them,” he added.

Only about 200 field investigators have been deployed to keep a tight watch on the country’s 1.5 million public officials, he said.

The Sandiganbayan listed 30 crimes the government officials were charged with. Malversation of public funds was the top offense, accounting for 9,231 cases. This was followed by violation of the Anti-Graft Law with 6,240 cases, falsification of public documents, 5,445 cases, and estafa, 4,394 cases.

Other cases at the Sandiganbayan involved perjury, bribery, murder, homicide, robbery, theft, kidnapping, slander, among others.

Of the 9,231 malversation cases handled by the court, 1,302 of them involved public officials in Metro Manila, followed by officials in Regions IV and VII with 906 and 853 cases, respectively.

But the records also showed that more government officials in Metro Manila were accused of violation of the anti-graft law, accounting for 1,777 cases of the 6,240 filed across the country.

About 1,200 graft cases were attributed to Region VII, while 626 suits involved public officials in Northern Mindanao (Region X). The region has five provinces, namely, Bukidnon, Camiguin, Lanao del Norte, Misamis Occidental and Misamis Oriental.

From www.inquirer.net

Passport Woes: Another Source of Corruption in the Philippines

The Philippine government insisted that passports should now be machine-readable and promised that Filipinos will be having a fast and easy use of it.

And now this happens.

Passport system causing visa applicants, travel agents headaches

The new but allegedly deficient "machine readable" passports (MRPs) being issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) are reportedly causing more difficulties for the thousands of Filipinos seeking visa to the United States.

Travel industry sources told The STAR that the absence of certain security and anti-fraudulent passport features in the MRPs has caused the US embassy to add a documentary requirement in the already exacting visa application process that has to be undergone by Filipinos wanting to travel to the US.

The source said the US embassy is now looking for the filled up application form submitted by Filipino citizens when they secured their passports.

"They look for a certified true copy of your passport application form," the source said.

The additional requirement means that the one seeking US visa will have to go back to the DFA just to get the certified true copy of the passport.

A P100 charge is reportedly being collected to get the certified copy, the source said.

US visa applicants who have no money to pay for travel agents do not have a choice but to get the form themselves, according to the source.

The source said that the US embassy had added the requirement to have an access to a visa applicant's thumbprints and specimen signatures that are all present in the Philippine passport application form.

These information, the source said, are absent in the new MRPs.

It will be recalled that the machine readable passports being issued by the DFA since last year have been alleged to carry poor security features that make them vulnerable to "complete reproduction" by unscrupulous groups engaging in human trafficking and therefore non-compliant with security standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

Aside from the poor security of the MRPs, there is also reportedly a lack of computer interconnectivity between the DFA and the Bureau of Immigration at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport that could make possible a real-time authentication of the machine-readable passports.

- Rainier Allan Ronda/Philstar

Pic from msnbc.msn.com

Mabuhay ka Trillanes!

When the people's voices are not given a chance, it is worth and worthy of praise that an incarcerated senator does the talking- through a coup d'etat, a siege, a takeover, however you call it. I'm sure the government is now shivering from cowardice.

While I condone a violent takeover of any government, I believe some harsh things have to be done to prove a point. When a nation is so corrupt that even the poorest of the poor is practicing corruption, and corruption has become a way of life, we have to do something to shake the foundations of corruption.

As my friend have written: I have always been an anti-GMA and I don't need to further elaborate why. By not allowing me to express it, is tantamount to infringement of my right to express myself as citizen of the Philippines.

Mabuhay ka Trillanes!

A Historical Review from bulatlat.com by Arturo P. Garcia:

More than a hundred years ago, the Magdalo faction in Cavite carried out the first coup d’etat in Philippine history when they arrested Andres Bonifacio and his brother and, following a mock-trial, had them executed on Mt.Buntis, Maragondon, Cavite May 10, 1897. One of the executioners went by the name of a Macapagal.

Before the Magdalo coup, the Tejeros Convention was held and in that meeting, Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo who went by the nom de guerre Magdalo (after his town’s patron saint-St Magdalene) was elected president of the new assembly. Bonifacio’s followers were called the Magdiwang (Filipino word for celebrate) headed by Gen. Mariano Alvarez lost the elections.

The event is also commemorated today as the birth of the Philippine Army and the Magdalo insignia and flag is prominently displayed in its logo and that of the AFP itself. Thus, the rebellious soldiers Magdalo Group can really identify with this group.

Aguinaldo rationalized that he has to get rid of Bonifacio, who founded the Katipunan, because he is an obstacle to the revolution. He was wrong. After the executions, the revolution against Spain teetered on defeat. Aguinaldo accepted the truce in Biak-na-Bato and opted for an exile in Hongkong following his surrender in December 1897.

It was no coincidence that a hundred years later, the AFP Magdalo group of rebellious young officers, went into a compromise without firing a shot – as they had warned they would a la Rambo - and went back to the barracks. In all, the mutiny took only 20 hours.

Photos: www.ellentordesillas.com / www.bulatlat.com

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