Cathy Cabral’s revenge

Until the authorities prove there was foul play, I have no trouble believing that Cathy Cabral took her own life, threw herself down that Kennon Road ravine, in a final and deliberate act of defiance. She must have sensed by then that “due process” would could not work in her favor unless she turned state witness, but she hadn’t been asked, was not being considered, and she may have seen signs indicating that as usual, babae lang ang makukulong — she was likely to spend the rest of her life in jail, her family’s funds and assets frozen.

That her boss under PBBM was allowed to leave but did not return on the 17th as promised, that her boss under PRRD has been silent as a sphinx, must have told her in no uncertain terms that she was on her own. And I imagine that the pressure from senatongs and congtractors, in both Duterte and Marcos admins, to cover up for them, or else, must have been so intense it drove her angry enough to turn her back on it all, habang hindi pa siya nakakasuhan.

She was one bright lady, her CV impressive, the rare woman who made it in the macho world of infrastructure.

HEIDI MENDOZA. We can say, She’s among the best of career professionals. Despite the not so good ending, we cannot deny the long years of service she has rendered.

Nag-meet kami nung consultant pa ako sa World Bank at ADB. It’s a pleasure to work with her, magaling, committed at mabilis magtrabaho. Recipient din sya ng maraming awards, including the PRC Outstanding Professional with a solid academic and technical expertise !

What went wrong? https://www.facebook.com/

She was appointed DPWH Undersecretary, Planning and PPP (Public-Private Partnership) in 2014, and Senator Ping‘s data show that the budget started bloating with flood control projects (failed and ghost) in 2016. She must have known what her bosses were up to, and that she was helping facilitate corruption with her algorithmic formulas. I wonder if she wavered at first, or did she ever waver but decided to stay anyway? Bahala na? And when shit hit the fan and floods hit high and wide, did she have a sense of foreboding and start reflecting on her options, and her mortality?

Di naman nakakagulat ang conspiracy theories — nasundan sila, itinulak siya, para patahimikin forever about kickbacks in billions of bucks — given what and who she knows. Pero nakakaloka ang questions like: but she’s afraid of heights, so what was she doing by that cliffside, unless she had been ordered to be there by some macho with evil designs?

My take is, instinctive naman ang fear of heights, and while Cabral’s may have been  pronounced enough for her to admit, it did not necessarily mean that it could would not be one of her options if she were thinking on how to commit suicide, esp if she wanted to leave certain clues behind. Sabi nga ni DILG Sec Jonvic Remulla, that Kennon Road site was familiar terrain to Cabral, she had been there before. Where she jumped was across the road from mountain slopes where rocknetting projects dating back to 2018-2019 were inspected by PBBM last August and which he declared overpriced and substandard, projects said to be attributed to two Congressmen, one of whom is said to now own the Baguio hotel where Cabral checked in.

Sabi nga sa Facebook, it’s like she left breadcrumbs behind, a la Hansel and Gretel, calling our attention to that failed rocknet project, sinong contractor, sinong proponent, sino-sinong tumanggap ng kickback, check out the Baguio hotel, too, find the connections, for starters. Hopefully, the ICI and the Ombudsman will be guided accordingly, too, as they navigate the murky waters of corruption.

What’s most curious, and telling, is the attitude that Cabral’s death is a death blow to anti-corruption efforts, as if everything had hinged on Cabral’s expected revelations on flood control projects over the last 10 years. You wonder then why they didn’t get to her sooner. Did they actually think that she would sit idly and meekly by, just hoping and praying that her bosses might own up to the command responsibility, after all, she was just following orders, or something like that?

Cathy Cabral was no ordinary woman. She knew that the odds were stacked against her. And rather than spend the rest of her life in prison and penury, I can believe she decided to simply end it. Sabay leave ng clues, and hopefully documents, ledgers, USBs, too — a kind of revenge on all these guys na nakinabang sa kanya but when push came to shove didn’t hesitate to throw her under the bus. Almost like a macho conspiracy. Sa dulo, siya pala ang pasasagasaan. F*ck-you-all nga naman. Manigas kayo.

The self-esteem of Ronald Llamas

So I was trying to ignore the Rowena Guanzon bruhaha sa Rockwell, and then I happened on a former general’s vlog on YouTube with the title, “Atty Guanzon, Sinupalpal nang Todo si Ronald Llamas Kapwa niya Kakampink?” 

Clickbait. Hindi ko na-resist kasi hindi Kakampink kundi DDS na ang datíng sa akin ni Guanzon — di ba kinampihan niya si Kiko Barzaga recently? — sabay, wow, she dared supalpal Llamas the Kakampink? About what? … E di da Rockwell iskandalo pala mismo, that Llamas couldn’t resist remarking on, being the very public heckler he is these days.

So. Apparently Guanzon, unmasked, coughed loudly in a very public place, just once, she says, more than once, others say, and, as she recounts on Twitter, a certain Chiong couple nearby dared call her out.

GUANZON: ” Dont u have money to buy a mask?” Chiong said to me condescendingly. Matapobre. Ikaw, dont u have money to buy a Rolex ? Hindi galing sa nakaw ang Rolex at Gucci ko. https://x.com/rowena

Next day, tila di nakapagpigil ang heckler. https://www.facebook.com/

LLAMAS: Bumaba na naman self-esteem ko. Wala akong Rolex saka Gucci eh.

Kinabukasan, binalingan siya ni attorney sa Twitter at sa DZRH News TV. https://www.youtube.com/

GUANZON: Okey lang yan, pogi ka naman. Naging kayo nga ni ano, di ba? …
https://www.facebook.com/photo/ … Marami ka namang baril, di ba u were arrested for illegal possession?” https://x.com/BalitaNgayon

Ang ayoko dito, they are taking advantage kasi nile-label nila akong DDS kaya binabanatan nila ako kasi. Takot sila na mag-senador ako. Llamas, mas bagay naman akong mag-senator kaysa sa iyo. Maawa ka naman sa Pilipinas kung ikaw ang mag-senador.

Doon ka sa line-up ni Risa Hontiveros, pareho kayong mga komunista diyan. Kasalanan ko ba kung pinanganak ako na hindi ako mahirap, kaya hindi ako nag-komunista? Ang problema sa inyo, gusto niyo komunista. Hindi ako bagay diyan—sosyalista ako.

To be fair to Llamas, he wasn’t arrested naman for illegal possession of firearms back when he was PNoy’s political adviser. And he has always admitted he’s a leftist but not a communist. Just the same, giving Guanzon an opening for this kind of bardagulan doesn’t do his cause any good, not when he’s so high-profile a propagandist for a moderate Akbayan that hopes to propel Risa to the presidency sa 2028. https://www.philstar.com/

Guanzon didn’t even have to name Hontiveros. Many already knew it was she that Guanzon was referring to, and word spread quickly, even if Risa denied it back in 2013. Friends lang, sabi niya. Chismax lang, sabi ni Llamas. Pero ano nga ba yung chismax? Ang nakarating sa akin, that it was true for a while, but it didn’t last, and neither cares to tell why, so better to deny. At least that’s the sense I get. And then again, I could be wrong, baka naman hearsay lahat.

It shouldn’t really matter, not in an ideal world anyway. Except that it does matter in the real world, where in the next breath kumbaga, Guanzon piled on the two, charging them of being komunista, which is the more troubling because the the DDS are lapping it up and regurgitating it as anti-Risa akbayad propaganda.

It was a mistake giving Guanzon that opening. Llamas shouldn’t have joked about his low self-esteem if he cared more about Akbayan and the people he purports to speak for. Hindi naman niya kinailangang sumawsaw sa drama ni Guanzon who was already doing herself in without his help. E ayun, binuhay pa niya uli, nadamay tuloy si Risa.

Hindi bale sana kung kakayanin ni Llamas na ipaliwanag sa madlang pipol, from his many media platforms, kung ano nga ba ang ipinagkaiba niya sa isang komunista, gayon din sa sosyalista-daw na si Guanzon. Masalimuot na usapín, di ba, na iniiwasan siyempre kasi medyo mahirap ipaliwanag nang hindi ma-o-offend ang mga komunista, na hiráp ding ipaliwanag kung ano nga ba ang ipinagkaiba ng Luneta sa EDSA, at kung bakit hindi sila maipagkaisa.

Good of Guanzon to push the discourse to this point, LOL. The ball’s in Llamas’s court. Though of course he could just keep laughing it off as he did today. Whatever works for his self-esteem, na napakataas pala, contrary to the self-deprecation.

Usaping EDSA, kaliwa, kanan, at gitna

All the talk amid this grand corruption scandal about doing an EDSA version 2025 to remove both president and vice president — the militant Left (Makabayan, BAYAN, KBKK orgs) wanting to replace them with a transition council and the Right wanting to replace them with a military-civilian junta — is just so disruptive. Neither is going to happen anyway.

For the Right’s military junta to happen, the retired military officers would need factions of the active military to join if not lead them, a la JPE-RAM and FVR-PC-INP in ’86, except that these wanna-coup military retirees started out pro-DDS and therefore are likely to be pro-China, too, which active AFP and PNP, and most Pinoys, are not, no ifs or buts about it.

For the Left’s transition council to happen naman, the progressive militants would need for the prez and veep to resign first; only then could the sitting senate prez be asked to lead a multi-sectoral mostly-leftist council that would call and prepare for the election of reformist candidates with a program for systemic change. Except that PBBM and VP Sara are not going to resign on the say-so of militant leftists whose public cred is still in recovery A.D. (After Duterte). Hindi bale sana kung kaisa nila ang Liberals and moderate Left (Akabayan, TPMM orgs) na medyo namamayagpag ngayon pero maingat na gumigitna.

What’s the point nga naman of prioritizing BBM’s case when he’s immune from suit anyway while he’s president. At least he’s got the process moving, DPWH Sec Vince Dizon and Ombudsman Boying Remulla inspire confidence, and yes the ICI needs contempt and prosecutorial powers and hearings should be made public, let’s not stop demanding such, and let’s keep informed, the more quickly to grasp and respond to unwarranted twists and turns.

This is an interregnum, a bardo, a transition state of great opportunity, to be savored and valued because painfully finally gained by a populace awakened to the harsh consequences of corruption in failed flood-control programs, our worst suspicions confirmed that the senators and congressmen we keep voting into office are the worst kurakots pala and we want to see them all in jail. Ngayon lang natin narating ang ganitong antas ng kamalayan. Huwag sana nating sayangin.

PAHABOL. If there’s anything about EDSA ’86 that deserves, even warrants, re-playing, it’s uniting behind one candidate vs. Sara in 2028. Basta anti-corruption at reformist ang platform. Ke si Risa o si Gibo, si Tulfo o si Sotto, magkaisa tayo. It’s the only way forward.

Imee’s last-ditch effort for Duterte

After the initial shock of seeing, hearing, Imee Marcos on stage sa INC rally at her dramatic worst yet, publicly lambasting her brother for alleged drug addiction and pleading that he leave public office and seek treatment because she couldn’t bear it if she were to lose him…. I could only marvel at the desperation — ang lalim, at ang haba, ng hugot, harking all the way back to martial law and metrocom times, which only reminded of Archimedes Trajano, doesn’t she realize?!?

Like Philippine Star editor Amy Pamintuan, I have yet to see PBBM acting or looking like he was high or stoned in any of his televised appearances.

AMY: … I learned to spot people high on drugs, or who were addicted. The habit takes a visible toll on the body. So far, I haven’t seen either BBM or his wife in a public engagement with bloodshot eyes or looking, talking or behaving like they’re high on drugs. https://www.philstar.com/

On the other hand, I certainly have memories of the former President Rodrigo Duterte stumbling, talking weird, looking half-asleep, barely paying attention, like he was high or stoned on something or other, remember? even if DDS propagandists seem to have forgotten, deliberately, as if the current mess only started with BBM and it’s all his fault, the floods, the corruption, the economic crisis. As though Duterte never happened.

And yet I have no doubt that Imee’s meltdown is Duterte-related. Matagal na siyang kinukulit ng mga DDS to confirm the “vangag” allegations, thinking that it would be enough to inflame a critical mass that could compel BBM to step down, especially since the “kidnap” and rendition of Duterte to The Hague. Marami ring nagalit sa kanya because she wouldn’t do it, and I actually thought she never would because, you know, family — blood is thicker than water and all that.

But now that she has given in, spoken out, what flashed through my mind was a VP Sara speech back in June, noong bitbit niya si Imee kung saan-saan, Qatar, The Hague, and finally Malaysia, addressing OFWs and referring to Imee as her “hostage”.

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte has challenged Sen. Imee Marcos to bring Rodrigo Duterte back to the Philippines, noting that it was the senator’s brother, President Marcos, who had ordered the former president arrested and turned over to the Interpol and the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“I always invite Senator Marcos wherever I go. I brought her along because I told her, it would not be me who will bring former president Duterte back to the Philippines because it was your brother who sent him to The Hague. You should bring him [home] to the Philippines,” the Vice President said in her speech during the 127th Independence Day celebration in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The Vice President said Imee will remain as her “hostage” until her father is released. https://www.philstar.com/headlines/

It’s been eight months since Digong was arrested and detained in the Hague, and there doesn’t seem to be much hope left of a homecoming. Kaufman has been doing what he can to delay the confirmation of charges, from interim-release request to lack-of-jurisdiction challenge, and lately the mental-unfitness claim which, even if proven true, won’t mean Digong would be released just like that. He would remain in custody, undergo treatment, and every 120 days he’d be tested again, and again, just in case his mental unfitness is temporary, or something like that. https://www.abs-cbn.com/

Back in August, Kaufman was also wanting to speak with PBBM about negotiating the return of Duterte to the Philippines. The thinking seems to be that PBBM, if he cared to, could prevail on the ICC to let him take custody of Digong, and let Philippine courts hear and decide the cases against him and his accomplices. But because PBBM won’t play along, their only recourse is to  remove him somehow and install Sara in the Palace, from which vantage point she could try her damndest to harass the ICC into releasing Digong, maybe with the help of tyrants Trump and Netanyahu.

In fairness, Imee for her part did hold those Senate hearings on the irregularities attending Duterte’s arrest, and then there was that Senate resolution relayed to the ICC requesting house arrest for the former president due to health and age concerns. But all ineffectual, as in, walang epek. She must have been under pressure to do something more, try harder.

Then came the flood-control corruption scandal. Parang heaven-sent siguro, the chance to charge BBM himself for corruption, and Zaldy proved to be the willing balimbing but his paputok videos proved to be duds, raising more questions than answers. Imee had no choice but to step up, give it her best shot, while the INC JIL KOJC UPI DDS peeps were still out in the streets, maybe get them sad angry agitated enough… except that INC cut short the protest rally after her speech and sent the people home instead.

Bottom line, Imee did it not out of love for country or family, rather, out of utang-na-loob kay Digong for the Libingan ng mga Bayani favor, which happened almost exactly nine years ago, she managed to remind in that very disjointed overwrought speech. So, yes, yun pa rin ang puno’t dulo, the hero’s burial, which makes me wonder if it was worth it. What if they had settled for an Ilocos burial instead. Then Sara would not be holding Imee hostage.