it’s been one of those times when so much is going on on the family front, there’s always something else more important to think about or attend to than blogging, even on independence day, when i had always managed to post something everytime june 12 came around, to celebrate it kahit paano.  or maybe it’s just that planet mercury is in retrograde motion, as above so below, i’m just not thinking straight, rather, paatras, compelled to go back over old ground, rethinking things, mostly unresolved issues.

i do know that the president celebrated independence day in robredo country where i suppose the widow leni keeps the yellow flame alive, except that he was hounded and heckled by leftists anyway, “Patalsikin ang Pork Barrel King! Walang pagbabago sa Pilipinas!” and the noisiest one was arrested and charged for disorderly conduct.

napaka-mercury retrograde kind of event, basta bawal ang dissent.  i can almost hear the president justifying the arrest along the line of:  “medyo bastos, di po ba?  in the middle of my speech!  sana nakinig muna sila, baka naman nasagot ko pala ang ipinaparatang nila sa akin…” in that self-righteous tone.   but but but what if the noisy minority had simply been ushered out, so the president could finish his speech in peace?   bakit kailangan pang arestuhin at kasuhan?  bakit masyadong violent ang reaction?  nakaka-tense na ba?  so so so uncool. 

before that, i found the time, out of idle curiosity, to listen to the privilege speeches of bong revilla and jinggoy estrada.  swan songs baga?  not really.  i switched off when revilla was introducing his music video, but that lengthy thank you list — lahat magaling, walang masamang tinapay — and the special thanks to the millions of supporters that voted him into office, tells me he will run again, even from jail, a la ninoy no less, and oh okay trillanes.  estrada, in contrast, was quite dignified and seemed quite confident that he would be proven innocent.  tells me we’re in for some serious legal calisthenics.

wag tayo maniwala na handang-handa na silang makulong, as in, i’m all packed and ready to go, bring it on, so we can defend our innocent selves and clear our names.  in fact, since the three cases were raffled off sa sandiganbayan last friday, delaying tactics have come into play, and i bet st jude, patron saint of hopeless cases, if not the virgin, mother, lady of this and that are being stormed with novenas left and right, let not arrest warrants be issued.  ma-delay lang ng mga abogado nila ng isang taon, they could all just run again in 2016, yes, even enrile maybe, kahit for congressman lang uli, and if they win, then for sure they will claim vindication, exoneration, by their constituencies, and what a mess that will be for our institutions.

so, is there absolutely no chance that the three senators will be arrested soon?  at first i thought absolutely no chance.  but on second thought, significant things do happen during mercury retro (na parang moving-on naman ang mode) though it usually means that things won’t go smoothly, for either government or the accused.

so, yes, there’s actually a chance that the three senators could be arrested sooner than later, and that’s mostly because, come to think of it, it won’t be the first time for either enrile or estrada to be arrested, which means it is more likely to happen again than not.  si bong revilla, who knows, baka naaresto na rin siya in some pelikula, haha.

but of course it would all hinge on the president’s preferred strategy.   who knows, he might be up to putting the pressure on the sandiganbayan justices to take the word of the ombudsman na lang on probable cause, the sooner for the arrests and trials to proceed, the better to distract us from butch abad and those allegedly missing DBM records.  because , really, cavite rep elpidio barzaga jr’s defense of abad just really raises more questions.

Barzaga said Abad was not even the budget secretary from 2007 to 2009, the coverage of the CoA’s special audit report. … Barzaga said Abad was not even the budget secretary from 2007 to 2009, the coverage of the CoA’s special audit report. the DBM has already said before that it cannot locate the documents pertaining to PDAF transactions during the previous administration.

He stressed it was possible that the documents have been intentionally destroyed to avoid leaving any evidence of irregularities in the disbursements of congressional allocations.
The veteran solon stressed that Abad should not bear the brunt of the law because he was not personally involved in any anomalous transaction.

“In some cases, the public is aware that once there has been a change of power in the government, for anomalous transactions, documents are being destroyed to evade criminal prosecution,” Barzaga said.

straight from the horse’s mouth, ika nga.  and while mercury’s retro yet.  hmm, everyone’s suspect, of course, admin and opposition, who were in congress and who used their PDAFs 2007 to 2009.

by the way, heard through the grapevine that mar roxas is absolutely clean vis a vis PDAF, which means what?  never used his PDAF?  used his PDAF but never accepted kickbacks?   interesting if true.