Today, I want to recall and wonder what happened to the following cast of characters for the show called Philippine politics.
1. Acsa Ramirez – Remember her? The Landbank cashier who blew the whistle on a tax diversion scam? The one who was presented by Gloria Arroyo as a SUSPECT? The one who was cleared by the Ombudsman? Gloria Arroyo did apologize, but the damage has been done. I think Ms. Ramirez represents all the whistleblowers of the current dispensation.
2. Ricardo Manapat – Remember him? He was then head of the National Archives. He hogged the limelight when presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr.’s citizenship was questioned before the Comelec and the Supreme Court. He was used as a witness by the lawyers Fornier (who seems to have a penchant for having “non-Filipino” candidates disqualified) to prove that Poe was an American. Then, three staff members of the Archives showed up, claiming that Manapat had ordered them to forge documents to prove Poe’s American citizenship. The Senate investigated the issue, and recommended the filing of charges against Manapat. Nothing has been heard about him and his case ever since. Almost like Garci.
3. Rashma Hali – Remember her? Her name surfaced during the 2004 elections and the Hello, Garci controversy (in this transcript, her name was mentioned). She was supposed to be the opposition’s witness that cheating occured, but the Arroyo regime instead charged Poe lawyers of kidnapping Hali. Nothing has been heard of the kidnapping case. Nothing has been heard about her, either.
Arbet,
Thanks for publishing the names linked to Gloria’s perfidy.
Not Acsa Ramirez nor Rahsla Hami but the middle one is as bad as the little woman with no morals sitting on a stolen perch.
The awful things that Gloria and her ilk have done and continue to do should be regularly published in the hope that they will serve as reminders to the people of how dastardly this woman is.
Hi Arbet,
There’s a list of things that people can do to help the Burmese people on http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?storyID=9004
OK, ideas really right off the bat…
It occurred to me after reading the list in The First Post that we actually could adopt the same things, tactics to bring down Esperon (well, at least we can try) so I transposed the things to do listed in The First Post on what Filipinos can do to help our incarcerated officers (if only morally):
PROTEST actions: international and local actions (am not suggesting physical rallies) to free our incarcerated officers –suggestions open, eg, wear a pin like “Free our officers” or post a page on our blog with “Mister Esperon, Free our Officers”, etc etc. to show solidarity with our incarcerated officers…
PESTER THE EMBASSY: for those who are expats, pester your Philippine Defence Attache embassy by sending e-mails or faxes calling on Mister Esperon to free incarcerated officers (give names)
TARGET GLORIA: by sending a fax or e-mail or letter to Malacanang, the DFA, DND or to the Ambassador in your region.
SIGN A PETITION: Start a petition campaign on line
SUPPORT A PRESSURE GROUP: The Senate, Congress, and human Rights Group to pressure Mr Esperon to free the incarcerated officers
KNOW YOUR ENEMY: The AFP and the DND must have websites containing reports lies (sic). See if you can hack into them (websites).
Cheers my dear friend!
I had a hard time looking for info re: Manapat, and unfortunately, INQUIRER’s archive sucks.
As for the things we can do, I think we should concentrate on the impeachment, too (though it is a long shot).