Category: congress

The Zuleika episode #QuadComm

It all escalated pretty fast. Wednesday the QuadComm cited VP Sara’s chief of staff Zuleika Lopez in contempt and ordered her detained in the Batasan until the next hearing day, Monday. Thursday night the VP not only visited but made arrangements to camp out at Cong Pulong’s office, in solidarity with beleaguered staff, as promised, if any be treated with, I mean cited in, contempt. Friday was all about Batasan security trying to convince the VP to leave Pulong’s office and just come back for regular visits, and the VP refusing and challenging the security officer to try and make her leave. Friday night, the House Committee on good governance and public accountability met via zoom and decided to order the transfer of Zuleika to the Women’s Correctional Facility, which apparently drove Zuleika into a panic attack severe enough to see her ferried from hospital to hospital, Veteran’s to St. Luke’s to Veteran’s, over the next 12 hours, punctuated by the VP’s running rants about corrupt and inefficient government officials, especially congressmen, the speaker, and the president, with threats of assassination thrown in, that’s being taken very seriously indeed.

Sounds like another ground for impeachment. Makes me wonder. Did Sara unwittingly walk into that trap? Did the QuadComm anticipate that holding Atty Lopez in contempt would bring Sara running, and ranting, to a point of no return? Or was it the QuadComm that walked into a trap, failing to anticipate that the VP would go for broke, level up her attacks on the BBM admin for scheming to impeach her and make charter change happen, grab at the chance to remind the public of the Speaker’s presidential ambition and the First Couple’s complicity and other alleged crimes, perhaps to push them into initiate impeachment proceedings before they have the numbers in the Senate?

LOL, I’m reaching, I know. But it’s that kind of situation where we know that a lot is going on behind the scenes that we’re not privy to and anything is possible. Certainly that order to transfer Zuleika to a correctional was meant to agitate–was it cleared with the Speaker and BBM? Puwede namang sa Veterans na agad, given her chronic back pain made worse by that day-long grilling by the QuadComm. It would have been a show of kindness, not of weakness. Unless the point was to break Zuleika (a la Garma?) nga ba?

Whatever. Tomorrow’s (final?) hearing promises to be a blast, whichever way it goes. Testy times.

Teatro Digong

Obvious naman kung bakit umapir si Digong sa QuadComm hearing. Gusto niya maalaman, firsthand, what they have on him, and, also, to generate fresh social media content that would bolster his Quad-damaged image.

DDS vloggers now have a lot of new stuff to cut up for a series of quick videoclips | soundbites that depict the Digong in all his defiant glory, daring Congress and the DOJ to charge him in court for the EJKs during his admin’s drug war. He seems confident, even as he takes responsibility for the kill-pagnanlaban-policy, that no court would convict him for police criminality, correct me if I’m wrong.

He reminds that he’s a lawyer, a former fiscal and prosecutor, a police academy teacher even, and he knows the law and how it works.  Let’s not forget, too, that the Supreme Court’s chief justice and 12 (of 14) associate justices are Digong appointees. Surely that counts for something. https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/incumbent-justices/

All in all, it was a fascinating 14-hour show of machismo on both sides of the divide, entertaining even, with Digong giving as good as he got, contodo surprise appearance by VP Sara to check on him, kumain na ba, or something like that? — best supporting actress to his best actor.

I actually sat through most of it. I could never sit through his monologues of yore, nakakapagod just trying to get the rhythm of his multi-lingual-speak and only to be shocked dismayed depressed. The question-answer format was quite restful all around, lol, long-winded interpellations and manifestations also gave him, us, long-enough breaks to recharge.  After a while I was finding it hilarious the way he would give different, contradictory, answers to the same question. Asked about the ICC, he went from Sipain-ko-sila to I-would-welcome-them to Ayoko-sa-puti. Na puro kapani-paniwala, coming from him. And all quite spontaneous. Alin doon ang “istorya lang”? It’s like, live audiences turn him on, and as with good stand-up comedians, we can expect the unexpected.

Meanwhile, the Quad apparently is still a long way from achieving its ambitious goal of tying up EJKs with POGOs with Chinese syndicates with the illegal drug trade. Digong’s near-violent reaction to Sonny Trillanes’s charge of ill-gotten wealth — some P2.4 billion in deposits to Digong’s bank accounts from 2007 to 2015 allegedly from drug money — tells us that he’s not about to waive his right to keep secret the bank accounts he jointly holds with Honeylet and Sara.  He has even threatened to sue Trillanes for libel and accuses him of being a BBM minion.

And speaking of BBM, I just heard a couple of macho liberal kinda-konyo pinklawan vloggers freaking out that Martin Romualdez is still the Marcos camp’s preferred bet in 2028 in anticipation of a  Sandro run and win in 2034. These social media pundits think there’s no way Martin can beat Sara BUT they actually believe that Leni Robredo can !?!

What is this romance with Leni? Totoo bang may panalo? Hmm, only if, in a two-way race, with the full support of the Marcos-Romualdez camp. Fat chance that. In a three way race, Leni doesn’t have a chance just because hindi siya kilala ng masa. Wala siyang public presence, except to her naive middleclass loyalists. And she has yet to level up from motherhood statements, much like the macho liberal senatoriables, when they could be talking fundamental change, if only for starters.

To wrap up, it bears noting that I’m seeing replays of the Digong sa QuadComm on two TV channels. Frankly, I’m not sure which camp this helps more. But Congress seems to think it’s a good idea.

Dogging Digong

Trump’s wild comeback does not remind so much of the Marcos comeback in 2022 (via the son) as it does WARN of a Duterte comeback in 2028 (via the daughter). What else could the synchronicity of QuadComm hearings and Trump’s victory mean, or portend, if not some corresponding, or similar, outcome for the Duterte dynasty, that is, if they try hard enough (as Trump and the Republicans did). No wonder the DDS camp is overjoyed, may pag-asa talagang makabalik.

But not, it would seem, if the QuadComm can help it. Why else would they be dogging him, as in, hounding him by investigating the extrajudicial killings that the Duterte admin’s drug war wrought, updating nation on the latest facts and figures, and giving voice to the victims and families of victims, not least among them Leila de Lima, if not to remind us of those difficult days when human rights were violently violated left and right and yet martial-law vibes became acceptable daw because, wow, no more drugs, no more crazed addicts preying on women in dark streets, peace and quiet at last, even if of the dark kind.

It’s like the Quad is leaving no stone unturned to uncover as much credible information as possible, hopefully enough to compel the DOJ to file formal criminal charges against the former president and his cohorts. Due process and all that. Meanwhile, Quad chips away at the Duterte brand, rendering it exposed, if not diminished. I suppose the idea is to make it difficult, if not impossible, for DDS candidates to win in 2025’s midterms.

What about VP Sara and her super-confidential confidential funds ? I-i-impeach nga ba ng Konggreso? Makisama kaya ang Senado? I’ve been monitoring the discourse among social media macho pundits and because a couple of reps have said that there’s enough evidence to impeach, there’s a sense na the Lower House will, should, begin proceedings soon or else they’ll run out of time, campaign season na by Feb 11, sayang naman ang momentum, or something like that.

Others think it’s not going to happen yet, let her stew, kumbaga. Tila kasi wala palang Plan B ang Marcos camp nang di nakalusot o pumatok ang chacha-to-parliamentary with House-Speaker-as-Prime-Minister scheme.  The Marcoses of course need to be sure that the next president is one of them, if not by blood then by affinity and/or complicity. But Martin simply isn’t simpatiko enough to “win hearts and minds” even of the gullible kind.

A lot will depend on how the midterms turn out. But no-thanks-to-Trump there’s a palpable sense of dread — especially now that we are being reminded of the Digong years — regarding a Sara Duterte win in 2028, and for now we can only hope that the incumbent and his peeps have the smarts to thwart that.

Garma “sings” — good for her, good of her

Read “Garma’s metanoia” by Philstar‘s Tony Lopez.

While mayor of Davao in 1998, Duterte had taken a liking on the beauteous young police officer, then Lieut. Garma, 23, a 1997 graduate of the Philippine National Police Academy, and who was a city police station commander. She would enjoy a rapid rise, from senior officer of the Davao Police, to regional police chief based in Cebu, Central Visayas, where she was accused of her own EJKs, then to a cushy job inside Malacañang’s Office of the President on police matters, and finally to a lucrative early retirement sinecure as general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

… Garma tried to escape the QuadComm dragnet on Aug. 28, 2024 but was stopped at the airport. (Her US visa was cancelled). Initially, she ignored House summons. During previous appearances (Sept. 12 and Sept. 27, 2024), she was a picture of monstrous defiance and contempt, forcing QuadComm to detain her indefinitely.

Suddenly, after “considerable reflection,” a tearful Garma on Friday decided to finally face the music, and tell the truth before the powerful House Quad Committee….

In her three-page 1,372-word affidavit, Garma claimed to have told “everything I personally know about the war on drugs during the former administration” … despite fears they could “significantly endanger my life, the safety of my family, and others close to me.”

Detained in Congress since September 12, having been cited in contempt for lying, Royina Garma decided to come clean a month later. The truth would set her free.

She implicated President Rodrigo “Roa” Duterte as the mastermind behind his horrific regime’s thousands of extrajudicial killings with huge cash rewards liberally doled out, for three purposes: one, for officers who executed the kills; two, to finance the operations, and three, refund operational expenses, while replicating nationwide, the so-called Davao model of EJKs, Death Squads that seemingly solved the southern city’s illegal drugs problem.

The weeks in detention must have had her flashing back, reflecting on her career in the PNP, what she went through to win respect and acceptance in the macho culture of law enforcement, and tracking when it was that things took a turn, and next thing she knew, she had become complicit in a deadly drug war, never mind due process. She may even have wanted to get out, give it all up, perils and perks and all, but really, how could one do that without incurring the ire of the powers-that-be and becoming a target herself.

Truth be told, there is no setting her free. She will continue to be detained and eventually charged for her part in the drug war. Also it looks like the QuadComm isn’t done  grilling her yet; they are convinced that she has yet to tell-all, since it would seem that she was part nga of Digong’s inner circle.

I was watching when she started weeping as she read that affidavit, and when I realized how explosive her revelations were, I was impressed.  I could understand why she broke down, reading that confession — a point of no return — realizing the consequences not just for herself but for everyone she was naming, colleagues and superiors alike. Nakakaiyak naman talaga iyon. 

“…  at least I will be able to contribute if we really want to make this country a better place to live…for our children,” Garma said in response to a query from Santa Rosa City Rep. Dan Fernandez.  “I think we have to do something para maibalik ‘yung trust sa PNP, magkaroon ng reform sa PNP,” she added.

Brave woman. Now let’s hear it from the men.