Synchronicity: Leila free-at-last & BBM’s Maharlika fund

On the same day that the Muntinglupa RTC granted Leila de Lima’s petition for bail — almost 7 years overdue — Bongbong Marcos moved the controversial Maharlika fund forward with the appointment of “finance whiz” Rafael D. Consing Jr. to the post of President & CEO.

Carl Jung’s concept of synchronicity, going beyond science (cause-and-effect), “takes the coincidence of events in space and time as meaning something more than mere chance” and which is the very principle underlying the use of the I Ching and astrology (among other occult arts) in making sense of “the essential situation prevailing” for any one person or group at any moment in time. https://stuartsantiago.com/falling-chandelier-and-other-omens/

Whether deliberate, as in orchestrated, or purely by chance, the co-incidence — Leila being set free on the same new-moon-in-Scorpio day that PBBM named Consing PCEO of Maharlika — is quite intriguing. Para silang kambal events, na magkatulad ang potentials, strengths, and weaknesses, at maaaring magkatulad rin ang kahihinatnan.

In occult thought, the new moon is associated with new beginnings, and the sign Scorpio with rebirth and regeneration. Nov 13 was quite a great day for Leila — free at last! — which indicates that, at the very least, it was a good day, too, for Consing-Maharlika. But like fellow occultist Ed Cabagnot points out in Facebook, that new moon was attended by other planetary configurations (as above, so below):

[The] De Lima surprise was written in the stars. New Moon in Scorpio conjunct Mars while opposing Uranus in Taurus, with Neptune in Pisces making a soft trine to the three Scorpio planets and a soft sextile to Uranus. Much more to this albeit good news than meets the eye. https://www.facebook.com/ 

For sure it’s a rocky road ahead for both Leila and Maharlika.

Leila has major decisions to make. Take Aguirre to court for jailing her without charges? Get involved in the ICC investigation of Dutz? Run for the Senate in 2025? Will she be safe? Her enemies are still out there, among them, it is said, the former prez whom she placed under hospital arrest in PNoy’s time.

Maharlika, for its part, has to level up the communications and PR. It was kind of smart, the quiet way Consing’s appointment was announced: no fanfare, no photos, no facing the media to reassure nation that Maharlika is a great idea, no Q & A re the revised IRR atbp. Only that Palace announcement via  palace reporters na mabilis natabunan ng balitang Leila. But that very same afternoon YoursTruly @datumx11 tweeted:

May CRIMINAL CASE pala itong newly appointed president ng MAHARLIKA Investment Corp.
G.R. No. 148193 January 16, 2003 People of the Philippines, petitioner
Vs.
RAFAEL JOSE CONSING, JR., respondent
https://twitter.com/datumx11/status/ . 616K Views . 2:12 PM Nov 13, 2023

The next day Consing issued a terse 8-word statement: “All cases filed against me have been dismissed.” But without any supporting documents.  And there’s nothing to be found online beyond the July 15 2013 ruling penned by Bersamin, J. that “he [Consing] cannot be adjudged free from criminal liability.” Read  G.R. No. 162075 here: https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocs/1/56111

BBM has important decisions to make. If SC records show that all criminal cases against Consing have not been dismissed, will the prez appoint someone else who has never been charged with estafa, and hopefully one who measures up to the qualifications of Maharlika PCEO?

BUSINESS WORLD.  The revised implementing rules were released at the weekend, removing requirements for the holder of the post now assumed by Mr. Consing to have an advanced degree in finance, economics, business administration or a related field from a reputable university.

Enrico P. Villanueva, a senior lecturer of money and banking at the University of the Philippines Los Baños, said it “would have been better from a corporate governance perspective if the board of directors had been selected and approved first.”

“From their ranks, a director or two can be recommended as CEO,” he said in a Facebook Messenger chat. “This way, the CEO is beholden to the board, as should be the case in corporations, and not to the President who directly appointed him.”
https://bworldonline.com/

If BBM insists on Consing anyway, then it’s not looking good for Maharlika. Rather like a non-starter. Why should would we entrust our precious “surplus” funds with a-Consing-beholden-to-BBM? Yes, BBM can ignore us but it would could be to Maharlika’s peril, or so we are being warned.

On Leila’s part, it may be too soon to make moves against Dutz’s DOJ, as her lawyer friends suggest, if only just because may isang kaso pa siya na pending.

LEILA. Wala pa sa mindset ko, whether it’s 2025 or any other subsequent elections because I have yet to really determine and I need a lot of thinking about whether i”ll be going back to public service. https://twitter.com/ Neil Arwin Mercado @NAMercadoINQ Nov 17 2023

It would make sense, dropping out of public service, a worse-than-thankless job for her, so far. But if she’s still got the fight in her, maybe she could steer clear of human rights and Dutz — let that be decided between BBM and ICC — and go back to her pre-CHR advocacy of voter education: defending the sanctity of the ballot.

RANDY DAVID. In a 2016 interview with TIME magazine, De Lima said: “My father’s advice was to avoid joining politics if I could. He said that my personality wasn’t suited for it—that I might just get hurt, because I don’t know how to play games.” Her father, Vicente de Lima, had been executive director and later a commissioner of the Commission on Elections.

De Lima understood the modernist intentions of the country’s election laws, but realizing how hard it was to enforce these in the context of its premodern political realities, she championed the need for voter education. She made herself available to media interviews, and, before long, she became known for the message she articulated with clarity and urgency—that Filipinos must take their votes seriously and defend the sanctity of the ballot if politics is to be a force for good. In May 2008, then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo appointed De Lima to head the Commission on Human Rights (CHR). “[This] was never part of my career path,” De Lima told TIME, “ … but I took it as a challenge.”

The rest is history. Hopefully a new, or old, challenge beckons and proves irresistible, for the good of nation. Leila is too good to lose. As for Maharlika, here’s hoping BBM’s right and it’s “close to perfect … as possible,” as in, too good to fail. #crossfingers

*

Readings