Category: politics

no documents, no proof

now that paolo duterte’s name has come up as, allegedly, a player of sorts in the illegal drugs market, the senate hearing on the huge shabu smuggling under faeldon’s watch seems to be going nowhere remarkable, except maybe to demonstrate how impossible it is to get names named and personalities shamed and charged, puro “hearsay” kasi, walang dokumento.  and so when the prez says about the pagkakadawit of his son: show me the evidence, give me an affidavit, and i will resign (cool na cool), eh wala na, tapos na ang boksing.

imagine if comelec chief andy bautista were as cool-na-cool re wife tish’s allegations. instead he looks, seems, gets hot under the collar, the same with his kuya martin.  i suppose because nga of all those documents that tish found and that are now under scrutiny by the authorities.  even if he were innocent, he has a lot of explaining to do, and really he has no one to blame but himself.  given the animosity pala between him and his wife, it’s hard to believe how careless he was with such important documents, atbp.  it tells me that he became too sure of himself (hubris) and of his power over his wife (money).

anyway manolo quezon raises a good point.

…it’s not as if the common-sense solution for anyone desiring to exonerate themselves isn’t clear. With so many officials, elected or not, weighing in, the obvious solution seems curiously absent so far: Bautista signing a waiver to all his bank accounts.

the yellow camp believes, hopes, prays that chief andy will be found innocent, of course.  unless he’s guilty beyond reasonable doubt.  then, next we pray that duterte finds and appoints a rare one who is relatively beyond reproach, both at home and at work, and who will get us out of the pocket of smartmatic.

dirty linen, dirty elections?

natabunan nang bonggang bongga ang customs probe sa lower house kahapon, and not because faeldon the chief didn’t show up, rather because of a corruption bomb exploded by patricia cruz bautista, estranged wife of COMELEC chief andres bautista.

imagine.  tish accuses andy of undeclared unexplained hidden wealth in the hundreds of millions, if not a billion bucks php, and she has all sorts of official documents daw, including bank passbooks, to support her allegations.  read her affidavit here.

andy denies any wrongdoing, of course, he was rich na even before the PCGG and COMELEC gigs, but maybe not that rich?  because he’s disowning some of the bank deposits, some of the assets belongs daw to his parents and sibs, and some, he alleges, could have been faked.  he also says that tish has a long-time lover and the couple has a political agenda, omg.  to discredit the 2016 elections?

nabuhayan bigla ang bongbong camp  atbp. na feeling-cheated pa rin by…ummm….the yellow camp?  smartmatic?  COMELEC?  all of the above?  no wonder andy was always siding with smartmatic no matter what the controversy?  ooops not fair.  innocent until proven guilty.

andy says he’s the victim here, it’s all about money, tish is just greedy.  ang backstory ay, 2013  pa sila naghiwalay pero hindi magkasundo sa settlement of properties because daw tish has been demanding a large amount of money. 

say naman ng abogado ni tish, his client only wants what’s legally her due, that is, half of everything (legally acquired, of course).  but but but, it would seem that chairman andy doesn’t think she deserves that much.  during negotiations, ayon kay atty martin loon, chairman andy said “that his wife deserves zero.” 

ang tindi, di ba.  ang lupit, at ang talim ng hugot.

does she really deserve zero, as in, nothing?  surely not.  is he himself beyond reproach, if not at home, then at work?  we don’t know yet, but because of his very powerful position as COMELEC chief, we need to know whether he deserves our trust or not.

this is not merely a private marital spat but a public face-off between political camps that could have important ramifications.  chief andy should stop talking to the press and prepare his defense, seriously.  badmouthing tish isn’t winning him any pogi points.

of imbeciles and idiots

una kong narinig ang isyung “imbecile” sa SRO (dzmm teleradyo) nang nakausap nina alvin elchico at doris bigornia si mandy anderson sa telepono bilang follow-up (pala) sa congressional hearing earlier in the day (na hindi ko napanood) kung saan kinagalitan ni rep. rudy fariñas si anderson for being disrespectful of house speaker pantaleon alvarez in a facebook post.

the impression i got was that anderson called alvarez an imbecile for insisting that her boss customs commissioner nick faeldon promote a certain sandy sacluti to a permanent position for which anderson considered sacluti unqualified.

as it turns out, anderson called alvarez an imbecile for something else, that is, for threatening to abolish the court of appeals when certain justices ordered the release of the ilocos 6 detained in the batasan re a case vs. ilocos gov. imee marcos.

and now alvarez is saying that faeldon and anderson are only trying to distract from the P5 billion worth of shabu na nakalusot sa customs, while bobi tiglao has been posting about anderson who was with The Firm pala before joining the duterte government.

Curioser and curioser. Faeldon chief of staff Mandy Anderson – a cebuana with her father a Canadian – who called the House Speaker names, was with The Firm (Villaraza and Anganco law firm) right after passing the BAR. Now why would a bar topnotcher (5th 2015) from a powerful and rich law firm working in a posh Bonifacio Global City bldg ( with free meals in its exclusive resto operated by top chef Gene Gonzales of Cafe Ysabel fame) choose to work in a low paying govt job in a dingy office in Port Area in Manila ( with a not so clean canteen). Any ideas?

i’m sure gulung-gulo ang mga ka-DDS.  sino bang kakampihan in a war between duterte peeps?  tapos eto pa si ernesto maceda jr, likening anderson to mislang of PNoy days.

Comm. Faeldon plays the gentleman in standing up for his staff. But the gaffe may have made continued service at the office of the Commissioner untenable. As Sen. President Juan Ponce Enrile reminded all in the earlier case of President PNoy Aquino’s Asst Secretary of Communications (she who had something to say about Vietnamese wine and men): always be on your best behavior as your actions reflect on the institution.

i haven’t quite decided if anderson’s and mislang‘s blunders are comparable.  but i do believe that anderson’s is kind of understandable, if only in the sense that “imbecile” is not too different from “idiot,” a word that president duterte himself has used often enough in public to describe people critical of him, such as the ex-presidents of america and columbia and, even, people he hates, such as drug addicts, and people who put him in a bad light, such as rogue cops.  and the speaker, too, has indulged, calling the CA justices “gago” and “bugok” and “buwang.”

but not understandable really, much less forgivable, given that anderson the bar topnotcher is being praised on social media as a beauty with brains and balls.  what’s so brainy or ballsy about calling alvarez an imbecile because he threatened to abolish the CA.  brainy it would have been had she explained why in her opinion it would be stupid of congress to abolish the CA.   and ballsy it would be if she were now to explain why the shabu shipment got past customs inspection, let the chips fall where they may.  and while she’s at it, she might also want to tell us why in her honest opinion sacluti is not qualified for promotion.

c’mon, girl, better late than never.

Perfect storm in wild, wild Philippines

Tony La Viña

For our sake, we better understand what is happening and act collectively to avert the worst outcome.

First, there was the filing last Friday of the impeachment complaint against President Duterte by Representative Gary Alejano of the Magdalo party list. The timing was perfect, with Congress having just adjourned, surprising the Duterte administration and its supporters.

Read on…