This is only to clarify the issue at hand, for the sole purpose of defending the poor, the helpless and the oppressed who bear the brunt of hardships. My speaking out on the PCSO controversy is neither meant to defend anyone nor side with anyone.

The differences I have had with President Estrada in the past were purely triggered by politics that in my retirement I�d rather lay to rest.

Some people have viciously put color to my peace offering to the President regarding the libel case he had filed against me which was pending in a Manila court for the past six years. Many other libel cases had been filed against me in the past because of my newspaper columns. Many other columnists have suffered the same at one time or another.

Since President Estrada and I had settled the issue, I had settled the issue, I have not spoken to him. I simply humbled myself and apologized even if only out of respect to the office he now represents. Did I do wrong in humbling myself? I don�t think so because humility is a virtue and nothing to be ashamed of. And I need not repay him for that for it worked both ways.

What did some people expect me to do? Speak out and defend Christine Tan like some opinionated columnists who found it convenient to do so?

I have been one of the most avid critics of President Estrada before. But people should know me by now. No matter who the person may be, if he or she does something wrong, I�ll speak out and say so. In the same manner, I would also speak out if somebody does something right.

It so happened that Christine Tan had lied in the poison letter she spread around. As she herself claimed on television: "I was new in the PCSO and did not know what to do. Pumirma na lang ako nang pumirma." Does her ignorance free her from any culpability" As the lawyers say: "Ignorance of the law excuses no one."

But I doubt if she was telling the truth for I found nothing wrong in the requests submitted to the PCSO by Malaca�ang for charities nationwide. After all, the PCSO is under the Office of the President. Even during our time, Malaca�ang had the right to intervene for those in need of help. It is totally up to the PCSO Board of Directors to approve or disapprove.

During my term, many requests from the local governments were submitted to us by Malaca�ang. We, in the PCSO, with the help of the Fund Allocation Department, evaluated and scrutinized the requests. If found valid, we passed said requests. If not, I saw to it that I informed President Ramos that this or that request was doubtful. And President Ramos had the decency to listen. Was I afraid that he would remove me from office? No. Not at all. It was my duty, as PCSO Chairman and General Manager, to explain to him whether a request was meritorious or not.

Why couldn�t Cecilia Mu�oz Palma do the same as PCSO Chairman and General Manager. She couldn�t because her requests for her own project, the Philippine Tuberculosis Society (PTS) based in the Quezon Institute had to be protected. She saw to it that she got first what she wanted from president Estrada which amounted to close to P300 million. Until she got the full amount, she refused to leave office.

We know that in no less than in two occasions, President Estrada had wanted to replace Palma because of the many dissatisfied poor people nationwide which she had deprived of PCSO assistance and were complaining to the Office of the President. That might have pushed the First Lady to do her part as the PCSO failed in its duty to help the poor and this was destroying the image of her husband.

But Palma begged the President to wait after her birthday last November 23, 1999, saying that she would leave right after because President Estrada had aleady chosen Ms. Rosario Lopez to take over. Ms. Lopez was consequently appointed PCSO General Manager in August of 1999.

Cecilia Mu�oz Palma�s birthday came and again she asked President Estrada for another extension. This time, "after Christmas na lang."

I was keeping close tract of this development for I was aware of the shenanigans Palma and her board of directors were doing. The PCSO personnel kept me posted, day in and day out, as a Malaca�ang insider did too.

Because of the many controversies of the Estrada administration, President Estrada decided to revamp before the year 1999 ended. All presidential appointees were required to submit their courtesy resignations by December 30, 1999. And even if some did not comply, the President had the right to remove or replace anyone under the Office of the President, the PCSO being one of them.

By the end of January, President Estrada decided to accept the resignations of Palma, Tan, Feria and Sarmiento and replaced them with new members of the PCSO Board of Directors.

I distinctly remember how Ulpiano Sarmiento, together with Christine Tan went on a rampage and did not want to leave under the mistaken notion that their appointments were co-terminus with the President�s term of office. In plain language they thought they were supposed to be in there for six long years. Since when did a presidential appointee�s term become co-terminus with that of the Presidents?

President Estrada�s term is for six years when the people voted him into office. But the PCSO chairmanship and directorship have no mandate from the people.

Before President Ramos� term ended on June 30, 1998, I exerted effort to have President Ramos approve Cecilia Mu�oz Palma�s request of P40 million. I delivered the check to her PTS office. But she wanted another P247 million for hospital equipment of the Quezon Institute whose broker was her own son, Taddy Palma.

I had to tell President Ramos not to sign Palma�s request as I found an overprice of no less than P77 million when I had the prices of the equipment canvassed. Imagine a stretcher costing US $38,000 per? Why? That�s the price of a Rolls Royce!

I told Palma about it on their first board meeting on July 6, 1998 together with her director, Tan, Feria and Sarmiento after making me wait outside the PCSO board room for four hours.

Since then, Palma wanted to draw blood from me and consequently filed false charges against me and twenty others, demanding the death penalty for each and everyone of us. But that case fizzled out as nothing irregular was ever seen by the Office of the Ombudsman. In all this, I am holding to the documents to prove what I am saying.

While I was determined to remain silent for the rest of my retirement year, I did not expect to be drawn into this issue were it not for the lies stated by Christine Tan in her letter published by the different newspapers. The media all came to me asking for the exact procedure in releasing PCSO funds. And I told them how.

According to its charter, requests are approved by the PCSO directors before they are submitted to the Office of the President for final approval or disapproval; that Malaca�ang on its own cannot draw money from the PCSO without the prior approval of its board of directors. Any request, for that matter, has to follow this procedure.

After being banned by the Palma administration from entering the PCSO offices for almost two years, I was graciously invited by the current PCSO Chairman Rosario Lopez and the new board members to dialogue with them last March 15, 2000. They wanted to know about the pro-poor programs we have implemented during our term for they wish to revive them. These programs include the free burial and the free hospitalization for the poor as well as the funding of provincial and district and municipal hospitals that have suffered from the devolution.

It was in that meeting that I saw the list of beneficiaries who were given assistance out of the alleged P430 million that Christine Tan had mentioned.

Let me inform the public that I saw nothing wrong. Hospitals mostly benefited, one of which was a hospital in Angeles City, Pampanga. But the important thing to note in the PCSO funding is the fact that such fundings are never released in one blow. Release are done on installments. Before the second release can be obtained, the first must be liquidated, and so on and so forth. The P430 million Christine Tan spoke of may last and be consumed within the next two or three years, depending on the "availability of funds." As things are, while 15 million pesos was approved for that Angeles City Hospital, only 5 million pesos has been released since last year.

In the PCSO , just because an assistance had been approved doesn�t necessarily mean it must get the full amount. No. It does not work that way. We did exactly the same during the Ramos administration.

This, again, is not in defense of the First Lady, Loi Estrada. But all First Ladies have a role to play. In the case of former First Lady Ming Ramos, the PCSO helped in her fund-raising campaigns for the Heart Foundation, the Veterans, etc. in her capacity as Chairperson of the fund campaigns for various projects.

First Lady Ming Ramos is not a medical doctor. But in the case of First Lady Loi Estrada, she happens to be a medical doctor and her mission is different from that of her predecessor.

One thing I must say, I found it deceitful of Christine Tan to make it appear that because of the P430 million that allegedly went to Malaca�ang (which did not), they, from Palma�s board, were unable to help the poor and that only a measly "P65 million" was left in the PCSO coffers. What liar!

Christine Tan, Palma, Feria and Sarmiento must admit once and for all that from the time they sat in office, they never intended to help the poor. Otherwise, why would they cancel all the pro-poor programs I mentioned that we had installed in the PCSO which the new board now wants to revive?

Christine Tan is covering up for their past sins. Upon the suasion of their boss, Chairman Palma, the directors Tan, Feria and Sarmiento played along with Chairman Palma by funding Chairman Palma�s pet project, the PTS in the Quezon Institute, with almost P300 million pesos in the course of only one year.

Thus, the assistance to the poor and the benefits to the employees were affected as the four had allowed the amount of P10 million weekly withdrawal for Palma�s PTS without following the normal procedure of accounting before any additional release could be made.

The weekly withdrawals of P10 million for Palma�s project crippled the PCSO pro-programs. That is the truth and you can ask anyone in the PCSO, including the 25 resident PCSO COA auditors, whether or not I am telling the truth.

Sometime last January, Palma, Feria, Tan and Sarmiento again approved an additional P15 million pesos for the construction of the kitchen of Quezon Institute. Not even the Hyatt Hotel has that! While they had approved it, they were overtaken by the events. Hindi pa nila na-withdraw yung pera they were replaced by the end of January Considering that it was for Palma�s pet project, the full amount would have been released in one blow.

Ito ba ang ikinagagalit nila for having been "unceremoniously dismissed from office?

About four months ago, I already filed a case in the NBI to investigate what�s happening in the PCSO during Palma�s term. Last week, I also filed with the Office of the Ombudsman, not to get back at them (as they want others to believe) but to make them answer the PCSO employees� complaints about Palma and her cohorts.

They are the following:

1. the "Botica ng Masa" brainchild project of Cecilia Mu�oz Palma who last year was issued a memo by Malaca�ang to stop it for being ineffective but Palma defied Malaca�ang�s order;
2. the renovation of Quezon Institute Complex ( a semi-government institution funded by PCSO to the tune of some P270 million awarded without bidding to a private contractor friend of Taddy Palma instead of allowing the Philippine National Construction Corporation (PNCC), the government�s construction company, to do it as we did in the renovation of a wing of the Quezon Institute as new PCSO offices;
3. the purchase of an elevator for the PCSO office by Palma and company amounting to P4.9 million when the best brand costs only P1.1 million;
4. PCSO Car Plan benefiting some PCSO directors;
5. the charging of P10 and P20 peso fees by Christine Tan from the poor in the depressed areas extended medical assistance by the PCSO medical missions which is highly irregular for not a centavo should be charged the poor. This was brought out by the PCSO-COA resident auditors as well as the nurses in the PCSO clinic who actually joined Christine Tan in those medical missions, allegedly for Tan�s foundation.;
6. and abuses regarding the allowances given to PCSO directors at P3,000 pesos a night for a ten-minute draw on TV, earning for themselves over a hundred thousand pesos a month while the board during my time earned less than 25% of said amount.

I worked my head off to make the PCSO what it is now. It is my desire to see it through for it is the only government charitable institution that the poor can run to in case of emergencies.

I resent the insults hurled against me by Mr. Teddy Benigno of Philippine Star (March 18) calling me names. I resent Manuel Quezon III�s article in TODAY (March 18) for calling me tonto.

While other uninformed columnists have written in defense of Christine Tan, I do not resent them as much for at least I was not personally attacked, although I felt that they�ve been totally misled.

All I ask is for a proper investigation to be conducted in the Senate, Lower House, Ombudsman, NBI or whatever before some more people totally in the dark speak glowingly of Palma and company. I will prove to all their sympathizers that the people they are now defending as "people of probity, integrity and honesty" are exactly the opposite.

Just because Christine Tan is/was a nun does not mean she cannot commit a mistake. Until such time she is beatified and eventually canonized I will continue to doubt her. How many crimes are committed in the name of charity? Have you heard of the phrase "wolves in sheeps clothing"? Beware! Her helping the poor in a squatter�s area in Malate is no passport to goodness for those poor people was used by Christine Tan to generate so much money.

I know Christine Tan. She, together with Jovito Salonga, fought the lotto tooth-and-nail from its inception up to the Supreme Court. I can only thank God that we won for I knew that the sweepstakes was dying and, thus, unable to help the poor. Another fund-raiser for charity which is the lotto had to be put in place as done all over the world, The lotto is accepted in no less than 125 countries worldwide.

If Christine Tan had any decency left in her, she should have declined the PCSO-lotto directorship for obvious reasons. But I guess she saw the billions of pesos in the PCSO that she ultimately fell in love with the lotto.

I am sure Jovito Salonga would not even hear of it, nor consider the offer if it came his way. That much I am sure of.

Unfortunately, sinakyan na ng mga pulitiko ang PCSO issue. Marami nang nagpapa-cute na mga kandidato sa 2001 elections na hindi naman nalalaman ang mga bagay-bagay. I say: Just leave me alone for I am retired from politics. I just want to end it the way I did it in the 1998 elections. I just fought for principles, win or lose.

From hereon, I do not wish to be bothered by anyone, not even the poor who come to me for help everyday, taking a toll on my finances, because their requests for assistance were denied by Palma and her board. I helped them before but not anymore for the more I help, the more I get into trouble.

As a people, we suffer from distorted sense of values. If you do good, you�ll be made to appear bad. And if you do wrong, you�ll be made to appear good and even build you a monument.

As I see it, many of my co-columnists who were already succeeding in destroying President Estrada for reasons of their own, hate me now for "defending" President Estrada on an issue that they could have maximized to the hilt.

Look, if I displeased some columnists like Teddy Benigno, Manuel Quezon III and others who may have their own hidden agendas, for coming out into the open to simply defend the truth, they can continue banging their heads against the wall for I�m no "tuta" of anyone. I speak from my heart and my mind and damn the torpedoes.

Count me out. I�m out there. I write my columns in the Sun Star Manila truthfully and sincerely on what I firmly believe is right. After all, I have to live with my own conscience and not nobody else�s conscience.

If I, by speaking out on the issues of the MTRCB and the PCSO, have frustrated the efforts of some stubborn hacks around, it is only because I came from there. I happen to occupy those two positions before.

Should I keep quiet about pornography when it is a crime to indulge in it according to our existing laws? Should I keep quiet about the PCSO when I know what truly happened in it?

Ask yourselves if I did wrong for simply speaking out. Ask yourselves if it is now wrong to tell the truth. Ask yourselves if you, too, ought to do the same things and stand by what is true, just and fair.

Have the days of decency and delicadeza gone pass� and terribly outmoded?

I am not the type who can be swallowed by a rotten system. I need no one to go on existing in this life for I�ve been blessed from birth. Thank god. If I fight, I do so not for my sake but for those cannot fight back. In this case, for the PCSO personnel who wish to speak but cannot be heard about how the Palma administration neglected them and abuse them and made them to come to me instead for help.

Kung ang dating sa inyo ay dini-defend ko ang administrasyon ni Presidente Estrada, bahala na kayo doon.

If I found nothing wrong in Mayor Jinggoy Estrada�s distributing the remaining ambulances we left behind earmarked for the municipal mayors, it is because we did the same thing during the Ramos administration. We dealt with then President of the League of Municipal Mayors, Mayor Agnes Devanadera.

Unfortunately, Mayor Jinggoy Estrada happens to be the President�s son. But no one can deny that he, too, was elected President of the League of Municipal Mayors. Was my opinion not acceptable to them again?

Before Palma and cohorts push through with their year-old threat to file charges against the PCSO board and myself on the ambulances, let me inform them briefly that the PCSO ambulances acquired during our term was in support of President Ramos� nationwide Ambulance Donation Program.

The PCSO Finance Department handled it and did the canvassing in 1995, purchased the ambulance units directly from the factory in Korea (not from any local agent) to preclude commissions. Thus, we got the ambulances at the cheapest cost among the offers made to the PCSO. This transaction was approved by Malaca�ang.

I did not do the canvassing. It was done by the PCSO Finance Department and the results of the canvassing were presented to the board and Malaca�ang for (this portion not readable from the copy faxed to Pinoywatch, www.pinoywatch.isonfire.com) other records that disappeared when Palma, et al lodged false charges against us in connection with the "Pangarap Kong Jackpot." This teleseries generated billions of pesos to the PCSO which enabled us to embark on President Ramos� Ambulance Donation Program.

Canvassing is a legitimate, valid and acceptable process in government rather than bidding which can easily be rigged.

Taddy Palma, in his letters published in the newspapers denied that he is running for congressman in Quezon City, where he ran before and lost, but was once a councilor. Then, maybe, he is running for the Senate. I know that all ambulance requests had to go through him before they were submitted to his mother.

Ulpiano Sarmiento did the same for his or his brother�s candidacy, against the Albertos in 2001 for some office in their home province in Catanduanes, so much so that from among the over 400 ambulances I had left behind, Mayor Jinggoy Estrada got hold of only a hundred or so.

Where did the more than three hundred go? Palma�s group distributed them without Malaca�ang�s consent. And not to the municipal mayors who were the intended beneficiaries.

In that same letter to the editor, Taddy Palma again made mention of his mother as the first to decide against President Marcos in the Supreme Court when I know very well that Cecilia Mu�oz Palma begged President Marcos to appoint her as first lady Justice of the Supreme Court. Marcos acceded to her request, but Palma did him in. One does not do that, not even to a dog. You must not bite the hands that fed you. Katrayduran �yan. She could have very well passed it on to another division even for the sake of delicadeza instead of making self-serving "history."

Again, Taddy Palma said that I am the "Darling of the Press." How can that be? The newspapers don�t even print my letters to the Editor on time or not at all as in the case of Philippine Star for Congressman Belmonte is a close ally of Taddy Palma.

On the contrary, I frequently have to resort to "sariling sikap" through my thrice-a-week column in Sun Star Manila.

And how about the 23 estafa charges against Taddy Palma now in the NBI? These past two decades, cases have been filed against him, one after another, as evidenced in the record sheet faxed to me by the NBI. Was Mommy dearest always around to help him from being convicted?

I can only thank God that I am not Palma�s predecessor. She did not succeed me but Atty. Joaquin "Bobby" Yuseco who was acting Chairman and General Manager after I left the PCSO on Feb.9, 1999 to run in that May elections. I do not want the "honor" of having been Palma�s predecessor and see her portrait posted beside mine in the PCSO Hall of succession. I am glad, Bobby�s portrait is there to break the sequence.

From hereon, let the proper courts take over for I see no reason why the two contending forces will continue to argue.

Briefly: Is a nun incapable of committing mistakes? Is Christine Tan still a nun or not? Is she in or out of the Order? She must not use or hide behind the title "sister" to buy credibility. What is the real score about her?

That fact that she accepted a government position proves that she is no longer a religious for it violates the law on the separation between the Church and the State. The Commission on Audit (COA) can run after her and retrieve all the salaries and allowances from government funds she had received.

I have seen people conceptualize "model projects" to attract donors. Is the squatter community where Christine Tan lives used as a "catch basin?"

Her "coming from the rich family," as some say, does not impress me at all. I know her family and I�ve never known them to be "that rich." It is made to appear that the rich won�t steal. That is not a valid argument.

Why did Palma, Christine Tan, Maring Feria and Ulpiano Sarmiento approve a board resolution laying their hands on a private donation given to me by a friend, a religious leader, Suma Ching Hai, amounting to US$30,000?

I deposited the amount in the PCSO account in 1996, during my term, for safekeeping until such time I found the most deserving beneficiary of my choice. Said amount was neither the PCSO�s nor the government�s.

I finally found the rightful beneficiary, in the Our Lady of Peace Mission, Inc. which takes care of the Aetas in Central Luzon who were victims of the Pinatubo eruption. It is headed by Sister Eva Maamo, a St. Paul nun, medical doctor and surgeon. However, Palma, Tan, Feria and Sarmiento refused to give Sister Eva the US$30,000.

I found out later that they divided it among themselves, giving Christine Tan US$10,000 and another US$10,000 to Maring Feria "for their charities," allotting only the remaining US$10,000 to Sister Eva.

I quarrelled with Palma�s board on this matter for months, but they would not budge, despite the intervention of Fr. Reuter and Ambassador Villadolid. Ganyan sila katakaw. Christine Tan started maligning Sister Eva calling her a "fake" and a "hypocrite." She has also expressed her anger against Fr. Reuter for helping Sister Eva. All because Christine Tan had lost to Sister Eva in the Magsaysay Awards. Sister Eva won and given the title of "Mother Teresa of the Philippines."

You be the judge if this is right or wrong. May kasabihan nga sa Tagalog na ang tunay na ugali ng tao ay nalalaman at lumilitaw kapag pera na ang pinag-uusapan. How true it is.

All those who praised Christine Tan, Cecilia Monoz-Palma, et al have evidently never dealt with them regarding money matters. How the hell can they say that they are persons of "Probity, integrity and honesty?" They spoke too soon.

Where did all that money that Christine Tan used to help the squatters in Malate come from? One can�t be a Robin Hood stealing money to give to the poor.

The essence of a religious life is already absent in Christine Tan for she no longer lives in a convent. Thus, she no longer lives the religious community life, and is bereft of the guidance of a Superior.

What really drives Christine Tan, Maring Feria, Cecilia Mu�oz-Palma and Ulpiano Sarmiento mad is that they were removed before they could get hold of the 15 million pesos they have approved for the kitchen of Quezon Institute, a Palma project.

Another thing that drives them mad "for being unceremoniously removed" was the sale of the PCSO property in San Marcelino valued at more than one billion pesos. Imagine the commission they missed from the sale. Iwa-one time sana pala tayong lahat!

They approved the sale as duly noted in the minutes of their meetings � if they did not take the records with them. This is not far-fetched because their Corporate Secretary was the grandson of Palma, one among the many relatives she had brought in with her to the PCSO.

I even informed them not to touch that property. But they were bent on selling it. Why? The PCSO was in need of money. The right way to do it, if ever, was to turn it over to the APT (Asset Privatization Trust), the government arm in charge of selling government properties.

No one can ever convince me that they are respectable people. Never. Only a fool can say that they are.

If you really want to know, then ask me and I�ll tell only the truth. But if you wish to avoid any conflict even at the cost of the truth, preferring to remain in a comfort zone of "not knowing," then ask somebody else.

Let the truth prevail.

Allow me to say that I welcome the Congress or Senate investigation. And if it is not improper for me to say, I am available and would be more than willing to answer all the questions the good congressmen and senators would like me to answer in aid of legislation.

(This portion unreadable from the faxed copy) na ako sa congressional hearings and Senate hearings. Though I was treated by them like dirt before, I�ve forgiven and forgotten.

As it is often said: Life must go on or the show must go on. Take your pick. While I�m fed up with the show, there are those who simply do not want to let go of me.

Signed:

Manuel L. Morato
Former MTRCB Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Former PCSO Chairman & General Manager