senator miriam agrees:  Napoles disqualified as state witness.  and showbiz (b)witch lolit solis, who knows her way in and out of a scam, alleges that her pal napoles contributed to the liberal party’s campaign in last may’s elections via executive sec  jojo ochoa, which ochoa denies of course: Talk show host Lolit Solis relieved by surrender of friend Janet Lim Napoles.

i agree with the public perception that it was the wrongest kind of move for a president to make.  napoles does not fall under the same category as taruc who was a rebel revolutionary fighting for a nationalist notion of nation; napoles is a common criminal, a thief, a plunderer of public funds.  and what does it say about aquino’s relationship with the DOJ and the NBI?  that he doesn’t trust them, he had to take charge personally, and in secret, to make sure nothing happened to napoles upon her surrender?  doesn’t inspire confidence, to say the least.  i’d resign, if i were leila de lima.

BREAKING NEWS: napoles just arrived in makati city jail, wearing a bullet proof vest.  mar roxas and edwin lacierda very much around.  why???  can’t believe they think this is winning them points with the #scrapPork public.

LEGAL OPINION
By Raymond Fortun

Janet Napoles surrendered to the government on Wednesday evening. She says she feared for her life. I’d rather believe that she was enticed by the promise that she could become a state witness instead in order to avoid imprisonment.

Janet Napoles CANNOT become a state witness because SHE IS THE MOST GUILTY. She is most guilty because she had the most to gain from the pork barrel scandal.

To illustrate:

Let’s assume there are 23 congressmen who dealt with Napoles. Assuming that each congressman turned over their entire Php70Million to Napoles’s bogus NGO’s, and the “deal” was that each congressman would get 70% (with Napoles getting 30%), each congressman would get Php49Million (70% of 70M). On the other hand, Napoles would stand to gain a grand total of Php483Million (30% of 70M x 23 congressmen). Do the math — Php49M as against Php483M. Who benefited the most?

In the concept of a grand conspiracy, it is highly unlikely that 23 congressmen from various districts all over the Philippines (including party lists) would get together and instruct Napoles to set up bogus NGO’s so that they can all get 70% of their pork barrel allocation. Rather, it is easier to surmise that NAPOLES separately approached 23 congressmen, told them of her scheme to use bogus NGO’s to extract the congressmen’s pork barrel allocations under a 70-30 sharing arrangement. Under the latter scenario, it is NAPOLES who masterminded the entire scam, with the congressmen being the greedy and willing participants thereto. Suffice it to state that the mastermind CANNOT become a state witness; the mastermind is the MOST GUILTY.

Section 17(d) of Rule 119 of the Revised Rules of Criminal Procedure provides that an accused can be discharged to become a witness for the state when “said accused does not appear to be the most guilty”. Somehow, i cannot but expect the government to find a way for Napoles to be granted immunity from suit EVEN IF THE LAW DOES NOT ALLOW IT. Reports of Napoles having contributed to PNoy’s campaign coffers certainly creates a cloud of suspicion about whether the government is serious in prosecuting all concerned INCLUDING Napoles. We will see within the coming days if the charge list would include ALL who benefited from the pillage and plunder of taxpayers’ money, and not merely a veiled persecution and neutralization of perceived political opponents for the 2016 Presidential elections.

All of us must MAINTAIN OUR VIGILANCE. If the members of the Liberal Party dipped their hands in this mess, they MUST be held accountable, the same as everybody else. There should be no sacred cows in the coming investigation.

thank you, manila hotel, for opening your doors to rallyists who trekked in non-stop, muddy shoes and all, just to use the lobby CRs.  i hadn’t planned on going there unless i got desperate for comfort, but on the way to luneta with cholo, around 8 a.m., i got a call from butch my brother who said he was in the lobby, having breakfast with our pamangkins ainee and don who had come all the way from binan (with a benedictine abbey group); they would wait for us.  perfect, i thought, a last pee before the rally.  and might as well meet up there with katrina (she had left at 6:30) who had been asked to represent the unaffiliated organizers in a meeting with the philippine medical association at 9 a.m., na naging 10 a.m., and hindi na with the pma, but a presscon/forum na whose panel included kit tatad (argh), isagani cruz, letty shahani, ernesto ordonez, among others, all expressing solidarity against the pork barrel.

it was more interesting in the lobby.  gloria diaz at a a far table, linggoy alcuaz and herman tiu laurel moving around, vilma and mel mathay, randy david and family, marra lanot walking by, karina bolaso with a group, lito atienza (argh), marites vitug walking by, renato corona and family.  and got to chika with old friends lenny de jesus who was with russel sobrepena, and mildred juan who was there with her ATOM barkada.  and balikbayan cousin gary salcedo (like butch, home for good) who had spent the night in the hotel with fellow lasallites.  lol.  ang sosyal ba.

as we were leaving for the rally, saw someone at the door who looked like raissa’s alan robles with a few others, and just leaving the driveway was the corona party and photographers galore, so we rushed to leave first, heading for the rizal monument area, just in time to see the the militants marching in, led by satur ocampo, teddy casino, and ACT partylist rep tonchi tinio.  in fairness, pinaghandaan nila, and they scored points because they were one with the rallyists on the abolition of the pork barrel, and because they stayed on topic: no ibagsaks, nothing on pyudalismo koloyalismo, o kapitalismo.  while i was around, anyway.  and no we didn’t hear anyone booing them.  if anything, people who were just sitting around in that area, too far away to hear anything from inside, were entertained, if not nudged awake, by the pointed slogans and the sounds of pigs grunting in a loop that included the voice of noynoy “abolishing” the pork barrel. LOL

at that point katrina needed to get back to her post and i went with her; cholo went off on his own to look around, before going on home (wala pang tulog).  i had planned to stay away from the muddy grounds, but i also wanted to see what it was like inside.  the “command center” turned out to be an open tent, not too large, half occupied by organizers and mirons and whoever was holding the mic — jograd was on but couldn’t see him, except on a labo screen, kasi walang platform — the other half occupied by tables for petition signing, and stationed next to them, momblogger noemi dado, one of the organizers.  looked around for peachy, gang, vince lazatin, names i had been hearing, but they weren’t in the command center.

katrina left me in what seemed a safe spot just behind petition tables; some distance behind us, the lower grounds that immediately faced the grandstand.  i was noting the continuous stream of people coming up to sign the peachy petition, mostly from B and C, pero meron ding A.  on the other end saw nato reyes conferring with katrina, then with momblogger, and on the mic, someone reminding na bawal uminom, bawal magyosi, and leading some intermittent chanting, makibaka, wag magbaboy!  at some point people started surging past the tent and crowding behind us, overlooking the grandstand area, and they were booing someone and shouting EPAL! along with the crowd below.  the girl beside me stood on her chair to look, aha, binoo-boo si corona, join ang girl.  i texted katrina an s.o.s. and not too long after sinundo niya ako, took me to sister mary john mananzan to say hello.  jim paredes had the mic when we left.

heading back to manila hotel where katrina’s friends thea and aries pollisco were having lunch before going to the rally, we saw “rally virgin” noel anonuevo with jovy zarate, and join na rin sila.  at the hotel CR i took off my muddied shoes, pinasok ng putik pati loob, buti na lang i had brought sosyal slippers pampalit just in case and that the cr had tissue paper galore to wipe the mud off my feet with. the shoes — buti na lang an old pair that deserved to be laid to rest — went into the plastic bag that had held the slippers and i dropped it in the trashcan with many thanks na hindi ako nadulas sa putik.

when katrina went back to the rally with thea and aries, i stayed behind, catching up with noel and getting to know jovy, and talking, among other things, about the rally and how disorganizedly organized it was.  at some point cholo phoned, pauwi pa lang because he had run into friends here and there, many first-timer atenistas and spirit-of-67 fans.

at another point noel got a phone call from a friend watching tv and cardinal tagle was at the rally, speaking to the crowd.  fine.  i wondered how many of the crowd could hear him and imagined that many like me were wishing that the grandstand had been made proper use of, as in cory’s victory rally in 1986 that brought a million people, eager to listen, eager to be affirmed, eager to move as one.

okay lang.  this was a baby step.  the next ones should be better organized and the lines more clearly drawn.  if you’re only for reforming the pork barrel system, for whatever reason, then please go hold your own rallies.  but if you’re for scrapping all pork barrel and you want to see heads rolling, then be assured that it’s not over.  what next?  there’s a call for #occupyEDSA but i don’t know enough about it yet.  will keep you posted.

some people still think it’s an all-white rally.  in fact peachy rallonza has listened to reason, mabuhay siya: let it be a colorful and inclusive event, where every sector, every group, every individual, of all ideological leanings, and their colors and banners, as long as they’re for scrapping the pork barrel, are welcome.  yes, including the left, why ever not.

epic failure of communications.  very weird how the core group that’s been helping peachy deal with issues like this have not been communicating disseminating such decisions via social media.  almost as though they welcome the inadequately informed news reports, the incessant arguing over small stuff.  almost like trojan horses?   they also refused to be named, which makes you wonder why.  because affiliated too with the yellow admin?  because they’re not really for abolition of pork barrel, reform lang, but the movement has grown so huge they can’t bear to not be part of it, integrity, and rally, be damned?

and, talaga naman, the anti-left campaign, you wonder where it’s coming from.  black ops, obviously, when in fact the militant orgs have been invited to and attending meetings with peachy’s group and engaging in positive discussions with other orgs and unaffiliated individuals about the rally.

the latest “news” via facebook is that paaalisin daw ng citizens ang left?  ganoon?  here’s an exchange between katrina and peque gallaga:

katrina : i personally think that this is feeding on the public’s perception against the Left, and whoever’s doing it is actually taking a stand against the rally itself. it is still smoke and mirrors, and we know who’s really good at THAT.

peque: … they’re trying to frighten the conservative sector of society who are planning to go to Luneta by making it look that the militants are planning to go into violence mode. But apparently, these same militants are talking with all the organizers of the rally and are agreeing on ground rules so that we can have a united stand against all these abuses. It’s Marcos psy-war tricks all over again. It’s ironic that it’s being played now by the Aquino administration. But we’re not surprised, are we?

… there comes a time where you have to put differences aside and work together for the greater good. If we don’t, then all those corrupt politicos deserve everything they steal from us because we’re simply narrow-minded, parochial, selfish, petty and can’t come together as a nation.

on other fb threads, i’ve said this again and again:  being so anti-left on this, when they are as much against the pork barrel as we are, is playing right into the government’s divide-and-rule tactics.

i truly wonder why we aren’t more concerned about the promised police presence, and what about the guardians, a military fraternity said to be associated with senators honasan and trillanes, who got a permit for the place ahead of the group, i hear.  true or false?  what’s going on?  we’re so wary and disapproving of unarmed leftists. we should be more worried and unhappy about armed rightists.

breaking news: Luneta anti-‘pork’ protesters advised by the police: Don’t bring backpacks, valuables, children!  no bags?  saan namin ilalagay ang baong tubig at pagkain, kapote at payong atbp.?   searches?  playing the terrorism card?  takutan blues?  suddenly injecting an element of danger?  but that didn’t stop us from going to EDSA and stopping tanks in ’86.  it won’t stop us now.

MAKIBAKA! HUWAG MATAKOT!

SCRAP ALL PORK BARREL IN ALL ITS INCARNATIONS!