Category: senate

“Forthwith” … a people’s impeachment court?

I’ve made no bones about it, I didn’t mind waiting until after the May elections for the impeachment trial to proceed as long as siguradong the 19th HoR’s Articles of Impeachment continues to hold in the 20th Congress. Because the timing is terrible, what with the very heated campaign season with two powerful dynasties facing off, no holds barred, AND a very divided Senate.

What are the chances that it could be all over even before elections, whether acquit or convict, and what would either outcome mean for the elections? On the other hand, kung hindi agad matapos at itutuloy sa June, July, how would that affect the reelectionists’ chances in May? Madadagdagan pa ang variables nang katakot-takot, better to wait till after elections, was my attitude.

But given the endless “forthwith” discourse, and given the release of Senate Prez’s proposed impeachment calendar, I’m suddenly counting months, March, April, May, June, July, a wait of five months, masyadong matagal nga naman. Hindi na masasabing “forthwith”, not even “as soon as possible”, more like “when convenient” for the senators? And the incumbent senators’ oathtaking in June makes no sense kung wala rin namang uumpisahan hanggang July 30 [korek me if I’m wrong].

And now, this, from the pfundit who’s always worth checking out in case he’s saying something new and not just repeating himself the way he does across platforms:

Ronald Llamas. Nabalitaan ko lang na may mga grupo ng mga religious na balak mag-launch ng people’s impeachment movement. … Kung babagal-bagal ang senado, kung ayaw ng senado na mag-convene, kami ang magco-convene, a people’s impeachment, at itong mga articles of impeachment, mga complaints, paguusapan pa namin, kami na mismo, at baka magpapirma kami ng several million signatures. Dahil sabi ng senate president walang clamor … gagawa ng clamor ang mga religious … balita ko next week.  https://www.youtube.com/

Several million signatures! Alin-aling religious orgs kaya ito? Kasali kaya ang simbahang Katoliko? If yes, kayang-kaya ngang mag-create ng clamor. That would be quite a show. The Senate Prez and the Senators would then have to get their act together, now na. A higher duty calls.

PAHABOL

Christian Monsod:  [The senators] cannot give the excuse that there’s an election campaign. They will be on televisiion while this trial is ongoing and maybe the people can see for themselves what the values and alighnments and politics are of these senators, which is a good lesson for the voters. …

I’d like to see the names of those who say they refuse to meet because they’re on recess. Because … if they happen to be elected, then we will file cases against them … for violating the constitution, and they might not be able to sit. https://www.youtube.com/

A time to impeach

It’s crunch time for 19th Congress Reps who are reaping the consequence of the widely-watched QuadComm hearings on alleged culpabilities and betrayals of public trust by the Dutertes.  After agitating civil society so for the last three months, there is simply no justifying the claim that it’s too late to impeach the VP just because of the 2025 midterm elections coming.

Mas importante kasi ang kampanya? Then they should have put off the Quad project till after elections–bakit nagmadali? And now that the die is about to be cast, tila panic mode sila, lalo na yung mga umaasa pa rin sa boto ng mga ka-DDS, especially yung mga taga-Visayas at -Mindanao.

This is true, too, for the senators. Impeachment by the Lower House means the Upper House has no choice but to proceed with the trial, which means re-electionists will not be able to campaign as usual. Still, a trial means the Reps-Prosecutors and the Senators-Judges will be on TV every hearing day, which means free publicity. Ayun nga lang, if the defense wraps up and the court votes to acquit or convict before May 2025, magkakaalaman na kung DDS o BBM ang bawat senador, AT magkakaalaman na kung sinong papanigan ng mga botante come election day. Ito ang iniiwasan sana ng ating mga mambabatas, at ng palasyo na rin, it would seem, given how BBM has flipflopped.

Ang gusto nila, status quo, no change. Ang gusto natin, impeachment trial, at matinong pagbabago. Let the VP defend herself, ilabas lahat ng itinatago, let the chips fall where they may.

Yung kay Senator Migs, na divisive daw ang impeachment, at baka magkagulo–divided na nga po, sir. Mabuti nga’t yung mga nagra-rally for and against impeachment are all talking “mapayapang paraan”. Malay natin, baka ito pa ang makapag-unite sa taongbayan. And what about Senator Jinggoy–hindi naman daw gumanda ang buhay nung na-impeach ang tatay niya o nung natanggal ang matandang Marcos. Naku, sir, fake news ‘yan, no ifs or buts.

To think that neither Migs nor Jinggoy is a re-electionist in 2025. Maybe that’s why they dare speak up for the status quo? Nothing to lose?

A final note on the two impeachment complaints. Only the first includes betrayal of public trust for failing to condemn Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea. Which is not unexpected naman, considering that the second was filed by the Left, which has always been anti-U.S., but is it pro-China?  Eh ang Congress kaya?

I guess we’ll know soon enough, when we see the consolidated complaint. Hope springs.

Digong Under Oath

It was unexpected, that Digong showed up and under oath admitted, among other things, to stuff that Sen. Bato denies, joke lang daw LOL. The real joke is that Bato and Sen. Go, the ones named by witnesses re Duterte’s drugwar operations in QuadComm House hearings, were allowed to be part of the investigating panel rather than made to sit with Digong to be investigated, questioned, too, under oath.

Laguna Rep Dan Fernandez noted that Dela Rosa ended up “interrogating resource persons” when “common sense dictates (that you) cannot be part of any investigation that you yourself are involved in.”

“He is one of the accused, but he is also part of the jury?” he added. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1999082/house-members-hit-leeway-given

That the Senate was at once bashed by anti-DDS social media pundits for giving the former prez a platform yet again to rant and curse and be bastos — thank goodness for Sen. Risa #bullyforher — was expected. Unahan kasi na mag-livestream with immediate “analysis” na mostly kneejerk reactions, na usually full-of-oneself if not highly biased for or against whatever whomever.

Senate Prez Chiz was quick to respond: https://legacy.senate.gov.ph/press_release/

While noting that the testimonies made by Duterte during the Senate committee hearing were largely the same as when he was still in power, Escudero said the difference now is that he provided the latest utterings about the war on drugs under oath.

“Ang pinagkaiba kahapon, lahat ng binitiwan niyang salita kahapon ay under oath. Pinanumpahan at sinabi niya na ‘yan ay totoo abot sa kanyang nalalaman na pwedeng magamit kung saka-sakali pabor o laban sa kanya,” Escudero said.

He said the statements of Duterte were recorded and transcripts of the public hearing will be released for the reference of whichever party is interested and for the general public to peruse.

Unlike before when the spokespersons of former President Duterte defended his strong statements about the killing of drug personalities as merely words said in jest, Escudero said Duterte cannot claim the same now because he testified under oath.

I wonder now if this is Digong’s way of getting charges filed against him in court to somehow preempt the ICC. Nothing to lose? But if this be so, QuadComm is the way to go.

Alice & Cassandra

I was hoping to finish a post on that million-$ surprise birthday gift to the prez but was completely distracted by the QUAD hearing that saw Alice aka Guo Hua Ping and Cassandra Ong back in their hot seats in Congress.

While the girls continue to invoke their right against self-incrimination, the fact that they fled the country back in July has been taken, naturally, as sign of guilt in connection with POGOs and related crimes, from falsification of documents to human trafficking to money laundering.  alice-guo-timeline/story/

Nakaka-impress ang documented info that Senators Risa and Win, and now the QUAD Reps, are surfacing in the course of interrogations and interpellations. Great research work. Or have these files/dossiers long been in the gathering by, maybe, civil society stalwarts, or plain political operators — Pinoy, Chinoy, CIA, whatever — just waiting for the right time to share with legislators?  At may matrix na rin daw, a la Dutz back in EJK days, how audacious.

But the most intriguing of all are these two girls, who are such unlikely Pinays, neither ever having gone daw to regular school, and yet we would never have guessed, given the confident way they carry themselves, with good command of English and Tagalog, one even got elected Mayor of Bamban at 36 (maybe 32, depending on what year she was really born); the other at 24 is the Authorized Rep of the Porac POGO Lucky South 99, and also the girlfriend of Alice’s brother Wesley, whose Chinese name Alice doesn’t know daw, I can’t imagine why.

Kapani-paniwala tuloy ang suspicion ni Tony Lopez ng Philstar that Alice speaks the truth when she says she grew up in a farm. /farm-spies-and-romances

Alice of Bambanland is determined to wear the senators’ patience thin by simply lying, lying, lying. Yes, this is a 34-year-old woman raised in a farm – a spy farm. Her training is good. In the CIA farm, one learns about “explosives, booby traps, escape and evasion techniques, survival training and interrogation.”

Per Quora, spy farms indeed were farms which were commandeered during World War II, along with the farmhouses, and repurposed into training schools for spy officers. So when Alice Guo says “laki ako sa farm,” she just might be telling the senators the truth. In this light, hindi kaya Guo’s lawyers are also “laki sa farm?” They lie better than Guo herself.

So maybe the Chinese version of a spy farm, complete with a piggery whose pigs had to be protected from germs from the outside world, which Alice alleges is the reason she wasn’t allowed to leave the farm and go to regular school like ordinary Pinoy kids. Kahit wala pa namang swine fever dito noon.

Fast-forward to QUAD. When she said she would only name names in an executive session because of death threats, the Reps asked if she would name the Filipino officials who facilitated her July escape, among other amazing stunts. Her reply was very definite: no local officials involved. Which of course raised everyone’s eyebrows. And when allowed by the Reps to make a final statement re an executive session, she said she would be willing if the Reps promised to believe her, referring I think to her earlier insistence that she could only tell of what and who she knew and she truly didn’t know a lot.

Quad comm’s mandate is [to] conduct hearings into the possible connection between Philippine offshore gaming operations (POGOs) and illegal drugs, extrajudicial killings (EJKs) and human rights violations during the bloody war waged by the six-year Rodrigo Roa Duterte presidency. /farm-spies-and-romances

I find myself giving Alice the benefit of the doubt only in the matter of how much she knows about the larger operation. I can believe that she’s a low-level player in the POGO game — her handlers tell her only what she needs to know. But it doesn’t mean she’s an insignificant catch, not when she was rising, slowly but surely, in the political arena.

It was like she came out of nowhere in 2022 — BBM had never heard of her before she was elected Bamban mayor as an independent, besting the NPC candidate in a 7-way fight.  And take note: during the campaign she endorsed BBM and Sara but “Angat Buhay” PINK was her color. What was up with that?

In the run-up to her election in 2022, Guo flew to a campaign event in her helicopter (black with a pink stripe) while crowds were treated to a huge firework display and DJ set. theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/04/inside-mystery-alice-guo-missing-philippines-mayor

By the 3rd quarter of 2023, she had so impressed the DILG — Benhur Abalos, was that you? Ikaw talaga! — that she was awarded a Seal of Good Local Governance, which apparently qualified her to join the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), the most sosyal of political parties founded by Danding Cojuangco. will-alice-guo-run-under-marcos-jr-slate-in-2025-elections-053

She has, of course, since been expelled from the party.

“The NPC will not tolerate any unlawful acts or any appearance of impropriety by its members that will undermine the principle of our party,” NPC President Vicente Sotto III said in a letter to Tarlac Gov. Susan Yap, the NPC provincial chairperson.
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2024/06/24/2365131/alice-guo-expelled-npc-member

Sabi nga ni NPC-affiliated Ping Lacson sa X:
https://x.com/iampinglacson/status/1833087910851260596

The way Guo Hua’ping a.k.a Alice Guo was taking the senators for a ride during the hearing, she could be a trained and smart foreign spy who had already started to climb the ladder of the country’s political structure as an elected municipal mayor.

In the realm of possibilities, she could be a member of Congress who has access to highly classified information with national security implications.

Had PAOCC not exposed her illegal activities, what if, in the long term, she and her handlers, using money and/or influence, manage to get her appointed as DND secretary or National Security Adviser?

Paktaylo na tayo!

Indeed. That was a close call. Question is, how many more Alices and Cassandras are running around our political circles, if not already deeply highly embedded.