Category: senate

benhur in the senate

it’s great that benhur luy is such a credible witness and we’re hearing our suspicions confirmed, finally, about the ins and outs of the pork barrel scam, napoles-style, which could be the template of sorts of PDAF diversions by other legislators.  and this is why i’m quite unhappy that this is happening in the senate.  after all, many of the senators in attendance, even if they’ve not been named as napoles clients, benefactors, accomplices, whatever, but who have been in the legislature like forever (think upper and lower, think dynasty), are themselves under public suspicion of likewise enriching themselves in office via kickbacks, commissions, whatever, from their own PDAFs in the past.  nakakairita na nakukuha pa nilang magpatawa, like innocent babes.

to top it all, absent sina joker arroyo at ping lacson, the only senators who have refused their PDAFs all these years.  why kaya did they snub the proceedings? they don’t want to be part of the farce?

there’s so much else happening on the side, from the most silly (kris aquino taking the MRT and raving about a notoriously NOT user-friendly transport system, hello?) to the most serious (firefights in zamboanga, bangsamoro in crisis yet again), but let’s not be distracted by events such as these that are out of our hands.  unlike the scrapPork movement: this IS in our hands, we have a handle on it na, huwag tayo bibitaw.

whatever the distractions, let’s not drop the ball, let’s not lose momentum, let’s keep up the protests, in large crowds and small, in social media and mainstream, let’s drum it into the president and the supreme court, the senators and the congressmen, the DOJ and the NBI and the ombudswoman, that we are serious, we want all pork abolished, we want all, as in ALL, culpable ones (not just the napoles network) investigated, made to return plundered public monies, and made to pay for the betrayal of public trust.  we can do this!

why teddy

… it is ideology that allows Teddy to have a clear sense of a framework for nation, one that allows him to actually run on a platform. And when I say that, I mean that there is an answer to problems, there are clear solutions to the crises upon crises that this nation faces. When I say ideological, I mean that his is a platform that doesn’t talk about national issues as if these are disparate from each other; instead it reminds us about how everything is connected and how fundamental change has to mean working with these connections, working on the idea of systemic change. 

mini pork barrel fund

…since 1998, there seems to be a mini pork barrel fund that the senators (and apparently members of the House of Representatives as well) have been feeding off, courtesy of some provision inserted in the General Appropriations Act at the time. In effect, the maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) budgets of the legislators have been and are being treated like “confidential and intelligence funds” (CIFs), in the sense that when liquidating these expenses, the legislators do not need to produce receipts or other documentary evidence to justify them. All that is needed is a “certification,” signed by them, that they had spent the money on MOOE items.

write it down, miriam!

Senate Prez JPE and Speaker Sonny may not be free to give year-end “bonuses” to themselves and to their staff, as a matter of law and delicadeza. Such “pamaskos” should be in the sunlight, given with transparency.

… Supposed to have said he was “just making lambing” to the senators, he (enrile) should have used his own money to stroke them.

that’s rene saguisag in Dark knights johnny and sonny, sunflower uncle jovy.  he also asks:

If JPE had given the same sums to Miriam & Co., would they have groused?

it doesn’t matter to me that miriam might be grousing only because she was one of four who had been given peanuts instead of the full monty.  what matters to me is that while grousing she has confirmed what we always suspected, that our senators are not only over-compensated, they are self-serving first, public servants kuno second, if that.

even more awesome, miriam has dared challenge enrile on historically significant matters.  read conrado de quiros’s Go girl:

Comes now Miriam Defensor-Santiago to set the record straight. Or to remind her countrymen of what they already know. Or to put back in shape the history that someone has tried violently to twist.

In her own words: “Namunini ’yan (Juan Ponce Enrile) noong martial law. Right-hand man iyan ni Marcos, martial law administrator iyan ni Marcos. (He immensely benefited during martial law. He was Marcos’ right-hand man, he was Marcos’ martial law administrator.) He should now answer for the crime of plunder. Bakit siya ganyan kayaman? (Why is he so rich?) He should answer for the crime of causing the disappearance of people. Defense minister siya, e di dapat managot siya doon.” (He was the defense minister, so he should answer for it.)

On Enrile’s part in Edsa: “Gusto niyang tanggalin si Marcos dahil buong pag-asa niya na siya na ang papalit. E, gusto pala ng publiko si Cory Aquino. Purmero, nakikipag-kaibigan. Mamaya nagbibigay ng pera pala para sa mga coup d’ etat laban kay Cory kaya pinatanggal siya sa gobyerno.” (He wanted to remove Marcos because he thought he would replace him. As it turned out, the people wanted Cory. At first he feigned friendship with her. Later, it turned out he was financing the coups d’etat against her. That was why he was booted out of office.)

On Enrile’s ambush in Wack Wack: “Tumigil-tigil na nga ’yang matandang ’yan! Noong panahon ni Marcos, inambush s’ya. Nung panahon ni Cory sabi nya peke ’yung ambush n’ya. Ngayong panahon na ito, sa kanyang autobiography kuno, sinabi naman niya na tunay daw ’yung ambush. Anong klaseng tao ’yan?” (That old man should stop it. During martial law, he said he was ambushed. During Cory’s time he said the ambush was fake. Then today in his autobiography he says again his ambush was real. What kind of person is that?)

What can I say? I love it.

i’m sorry she’s taken ill and i hope she recovers because there’s ping lacson to tackle pa.  he who calls miriam a crusading crook, the one senator who dares take up the cudgels for enrile, defending that gift-not-bribe, which makes you wonder about his no-pork-barrel stance.  hindi ba pareho lang yon, sa kaban ng bayan din galing ang funds?  ah but of course he’s defensive because he accepted the gift-not-bribe.

miriam can make it easy on herself by eschewing public interviews and, once she has recovered her health and equanimity, by writing it all down instead, e.g., a press release responding to lacson, for starters.  not that writing won’t raise her blood pressure, but it’s less stressful, and one can say more, even choose one’s words and frame one’s arguments, for best results.

my attitude is, miriam may not be without sin, as lacson insinuates, but i love her just the same for spilling the beans, like, you know, she’s our expert state witness!