| OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to �Lacson�s Duds� People, both Filipino and Americans, love charges and countercharges. The whole thing is a movie to them which is why celebrities are always appealing. There was Reagan, Estrada, Noli somebody the radio commentator who won himself an RP senate seat. Now in California "The Terminator" wants to be governor. Have you seen Mark Fiore's political satires? In case you haven't, here's the website for his latest. You can see others if you visit the site. Just click on Animation Gallery at the top. I laugh through tears when I see his work. http://www.markfiore.com/animation/twoyear.html In the US the populace seem to be evenly divided which is why we get a president of one strip and and the legislature of the other. But in the RP Lacson is such a scoundrel and a criminal, God bless us all. Wih what Ramon Tulfo charges in the inquirer, can't RP senators be recalled? What does the law say? Look at what is happening in California!! [email protected] September 15, 2003 ������������������������������� The Senate should not have commenced any investigation to begin with when Lacson failed to provide the originals of the documents he was presenting. In a court of law no judge would commence any case without the originals. STUPID indeed the Senate has become. Ross Tipon, [email protected] September 15, 2003 ����������������������������� Tony, Excellent article on Lacson�s Duds. Manoling Morato, [email protected] September 15, 2003 ��������������������������� Dear sir, We ocws believes in your opinion, this is what we are thinking here also. We support the present govt.. Opposition should wait on the coming election. This is not the time for destabilising the present Govt. Ocws are educated also with our own thinking. Please tell the senators dont waste thier time for this nonsense. Their using the senate for their personal grievances and personal or political interest. Our countrymen never never vote them for this. Use the senate to boost our economy and find a better way to upgrade the standard of living of filipinos. Our country dont need a talkative politician, we need a doer. Our politician are good only in talking, they are full of bright ideas during election but no application. Are filipinos are truly bright or simply talkative. I challenge those aspiring politcian who will run this coming election to prove they are not. Hope GOD will not strike them for making our people misserable. They should remember that life is too short, they should not waste for doing nonsence Alexander Carranceja, [email protected] September 15, 2003 ..................................................................... Court proceedings? Another drama of enormous publicity fest? They all just need to shut up. But the ongoing cases should be put on fast pace. A good start for a revolution is "tax revolt." People should stop paying taxes because officials who are fed with their taxes don't deliver. People are getting short-changed. Small people can start building a bonfire with their residence certificates. Gras Reyes, [email protected] September 15, 2003 �������������������������� Thanks, very good piece. I just signed a petition asking Sen. Panfilo Lacson to resign. The petition is going around in civil society. We can't let this guy pull the country down with him! [email protected] September 16, 2003 ��������������������������� (Through the CebuPolitics egroup) A little common sense from our senators could have avoided Lacson's making use of the Senate as a tool to further his ambitions with no regard to the negative effects to the country. The Jose Pidal expose shouldn't even have gone further than the newspaper's inside pages. Senator Pimentel's assessment of the supposed proofs and his comments on why he refused to make the expose himself despite being approached first with the supposedly explosive data, should have raised a red flag among our good leaders. Here was a great lawyer and respected politician who thought that the case couldn't stand but did our esteemed senators listen to him? Shame to all our senators for allowing a no-case to wreck havoc on our economy just to satisfy their lust for tsismis and fulfill their political ambitions. But then, our political leaders as well as newspaper editors are not exactly gifted with the best of senses. So Pilipinas kong minumutya, pasensiya ka na muna. Your senators must make the headlines and the newspapers have to sell! Eli C. Perez, [email protected] September 16, 2003 ............................................................................................ sir w/ all d spam and virus on d email its nice 2 read intelligent articles of urs sent thru email esp. me hu dont read newspapers. Joseph Gannaban, [email protected] September 17, 2003 ��������������������������� |
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| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| Lacson�s Duds By Antonio C. Abaya September 10, 2003 The palpable weakening of the peso vis-�-vis the US dollar is not due to economic reasons. The Philippine economy is basically sound. It is the politics that are unsound. The Oakwood mutiny and aborted coup d�etat was not about reforming society or fighting corruption. It was about grabbing state power this early because the kuya or elder brother of the mutineers, their role model and spiritual godfather, and possibly their chief strategist and overall leader � Gringo Honasan, a self-proclaimed presidential contender � does not want to wait for the presidential elections only eight months away because he knows his chances of winning are very low, especially if the incumbent decides to run for a second term. So why gamble on a dicey election when you may have better chances with a naked power grab? Especially if there is a willing financial backer who can supply the money and the rent-a-mob to give the power grab the semblance of another exercise in People Power, as long as he is sprung from jail. Panfilo Lacson�s demolition job on �Jose Pidal� is meant to improve his chances of winning the presidency in May 2004 or, better yet, earlier. By undermining public confidence in the incumbent president through her vulnerable husband, Lacson believes he can either force her to resign this early or wound her so badly that she would not be a winnable candidate in May. In the meantime, his exposes on the Senate floor serve as a convenient smoke screen to sweep under the rug his own, more serious problems with the law over kidnapping, murder, drug-trafficking and money laundering. The nature of our �free press� is such that the scandale-du-jour consumes its total attention, allowing bigger scoundrels to drop out of the radar screen unnoticed. The political meddler Pastor Saycon, a mere saling-pusa in all this, aspires to a bigger role because he too wants the incumbent to be fatally wounded, as early as possible, so that his cousin and equally ambitious political prot�g� will have the field open to run for, at the very least, vice-president in 2004. So an otherwise reasonably sound economy is being sacrificed on the altar of cannibalistic politics to serve the political ambitions of three power-hungry individuals. Proof again, if proof is needed, that the worst enemies of the Filipinos are the Filipinos themselves. Of the three sledge-hammer wielders in this demolition derby, Lacson is at present causing the most damage to the incumbent, even if most of his swings have turned out to be wild ones that have missed their mark. Lacson is playing the perception game. He does not care if most of his allegations against the Arroyo brothers or the Toh siblings have turned out to be, or were from the very start, false or unproven. He has planted in the minds of people � especially those who have neither the time nor the discernment to dig deeper � the perception that horrendous crimes have been committed by the accused, and angry denials and the obvious lack of hard evidence will not erase that perception. Lacson had accused the First Gentleman of allegedly laundering some P270 million in unspent political contributions (from the 1988 elections of vice-presidential candidate Gloria Arroyo). It seems to be of no import to Lacson that political contributions are private funds, not government money, and are not covered by the anti-money laundering law. Dud twice over, but no apology or explanation from Lacson. Lacson also claimed that the PCSO issued a Land Bank check, serial number specified, for P1.35 million and that this check was deposited into the account of one Jose Pidal, whom he claims is none other than the presidential husband. The PCSO has clarified that it had issued two checks of the specified number, one drawn on the Land Bank and the other on the PNB, but that the amounts were only P23,000 and P40,000. Dud again, but no apology or explanation from Lacson. Lacson also said that the three Chinoy business partners of the First Gentlemen maintained deposits (account numbers specified) in several banks (bank names specified) totaling more than P120 million. The three have denied holding such accounts, with a dare to Lacson that if he can produce documentary evidence of such accounts, he can have the money in them. Dud again, but again no apology or explanation from Lacson. Lacson claimed that millions of pesos had been funneled into a �Hong Kong account� of Jose Pidal with the International Commercial Bank of China. According to Daily Inquirer columnist Vic Agustin, said bank has had to buy advertising space to make sure its denial of the Lacson claim gets published by the newspapers. The clincher is that the ICBC does not even have a branch in Hong Kong at all. Dud again, but, as usual, no apology or explanation from Lacson. This is getting monotonous. Lacson and his demolition crew deserve to be called The Gang that Couldn�t Shoot Straight except at Their Own Feet. It should be obvious by now to everyone, except to Lito Banayo, that Lacson has deliberately abused his parliamentary immunity from suit to promote his presidential ambitions by shooting from the hip. And if anything useful or beneficial is going to come out of this Senate investigation, it should be legislation that either cancels that parliamentary immunity or, if it is retained, gives the accused equal time on the senate floor to reply to his/her senator/accuser, with equal immunity from suit. Just as no senator should be above the law, so also no senator should enjoy any privilege not enjoyed by us common folk. Who do these bozos think they are, anyway? ***** There is no denying, however, that the Jose Pidal expose has hurt the Arroyo Presidency. My sense is that most people believe Jose Pidal is Jose Miguel Arroyo, not Ignacio Arroyo, even if, so far, the allegations of Lacson have not made Jose Pidal, whoever he may be, criminally liable for anything, the subject deposits being private funds, not government money. The only one, so far, to have accused Jose Pidal of actually pocketing government money is Pastor Saycon, who claimed that �an amount had been deposited� into one of the Jose Pidal accounts, from which he made the quantum leap that the P500 million alleged overprice in the contract price of the President Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard all went to Josel Pidal, whom Saycon also seems to believe is none other than Jose Miguel Arroyo. The problem, however, is that Saycon has not made public what he claims are documentary proof of this malfeasance, saying instead that he had given it to Cardinal Vidal in Cebu and Cardinal Sin in Manila. That was almost a month ago. Saycon must have handed over that �proof� in the confessional box because neither cardinal has said anything about it at all. It is the word of Saycon against the no-word of the cardinals. Whom do we believe, boys and girls? On the worst-case scenario that someone will, sooner or later, trip on a lie or step on a banana peel, or someone will come up with some damning evidence against her husband that will be beyond reproach, President Arroyo has to strategize her counter-move if she is to save her presidency and her place in history. Congressman Magtanggol Gunigundo Jr. has suggested that she file for legal separation and division of conjugal property, without necessarily leading to the dissolution of their marriage. This, however, suggests that this potential problem is primarily financial, that it would be about protecting her share of the conjugal property. My opinion is that this is primarily a moral problem and would be about retaining the moral high ground while everything about her is being swept away by an undertow of mostly baseless allegations. My unsolicited advice, stated in an earlier piece, is that President Arroyo order the cancellation of the passports of all the principal accused and accusers, including Jose Miguel Arroyo, Ignacio Arroyo, Panfilo Lacson, Pastor Saycon, Gregorio Honasan, Loi Ejercito, Jude Estrada, Laarni Enriquez, Ramon Cardenas and the Oakwood mutineers, with the added stipulation that all agree to bring all their accusations to court, where they will be heard in 45-day continuous trials until all those accusations are resolved, after which everyone will agree to shut up. We are really sick and tired of all this. ***** The bulk of this article appears in the September 21, 2003 issue of the Philippines Free Press magazine. |
| (Through the CebuPolitics egroup) Will there be no censure from the senate on this issue ? Or is there such a thing as ethical behavior in the senate halls ? To answer my own question , I guess not if senators are allowed to jiggle in the senate without being held in contempt. These folks need to police their own ranks. Or be classified as horse and pony shows. Ray Eced, [email protected] September 27, 2003 ������������������������� (Through CebuPolitics egroup) Once upon a time, long, long ago, just like in a fairy tale, there was decency in the senate halls. Our own Serging Osmena even tasted a dose of this decency when he attacked then President Garcia in a priviliged speech. Yes, our senate used to be decent when the likes of Diokno, Recto, Salonga, etc. were still among its members. Now we have the likes of Lacson, Honasan, Oreta, and other somewhat decent ones but somehow tainted with the guilt of protecting their own no matter what the cost may be. What has happened to our country? What has driven our people to elect scalawags like these to a position of national leadership? Then, we take a look at the Congress... ay sus, dili na lang! Eli C. Perez, [email protected] September 27, 2003 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |