You know, two explosions happened this month. First was the bombshell where it was raining cash at the Fortress. The second one was more unfortunate, where 11 died and hundred injured. The common thing about the two is the way things are changing.
Let’s take the first bomb. It was reported that congressmen and governors received cash placed in paper bags (amounting to 200 to 500 thousand pesos per). While some of them confirmed getting cash (Governors Panlilio and Mendoza among them), most of them are denying that they got cash. Yeah, it only proves that some of them are lying. Ok, so yesterday the League of Provinces of the Philippines took out full-page ads in major newspapers (maybe at a cost of around a million pesos) denying that such cash-giving happened at the Fortress. Fine. Then, we have Palawan Governor Joel Reyes clarifying that the money that Panlilio and Mendoza got came from LPP. Wee.
A group of governors, the League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP), admitted giving P500,000 each to two governors in Malacañang two weeks ago, claiming the money was intended for the “capacity building” of the first-term local executives.
No wonder some governors are complaining of not getting any.
Anyway, I have posted the LPP advert here. Read that, then go back here to answer the following questions:
1. Why did it take these stooges almost 2 weeks to explain what happened? Reyes’ explanation is pure bovine ordure, to use Billy Esposo’s term for propaganda. Even Panlilio is surprised by the admission.
2. Where did the LPP get the money? Grabe, ang yayaman pala ng mga gobernador, no? BTW, how much do they earn a month from salaries?
3. Who is lying and who is not?
The second explosion, unfortunately, is more convoluted, since it involved science, and police and experts are at odds on the case. Well, the police at are bad light, since their theories changed before you can say “sh*t”. First, they floated the idea of a gas leak as cause of the explosion, only to be changed when the physical state of Glorietta 2 became clear, only to be changed in the end to be a deflagration caused by diesel and methane.
However, experts think that a deflagration is highly unlikely, since the conditions for such, involving diesel and methane, is impossible in the case of Glorietta 2. But put some salt into that, since these experts are not given access to evidence and to the site itself. They are basing their opinion on pictures and videos. Besides, first-hand testimonies attest to the smell of gunpowder immediately after the blast. And one thing about methane is that it stinks, so that should have been noted by witnesses.
Police claims that they have not found traces of a bomb (C4, RDX, fuse, timer, the works), discrediting the bomb theory. There is no crater also, only a hole caused by the explosion. The skeptic in me says: that’s what the police tells us. What if they actually cleaned up the place of evidence of a bomb? Remember that foreign investigators helped but they cannot say anything about it. What if the evidence was cleaned up before the foreigners got in? We cannot tell, of course. So we have no choice but to take the police’s words, right?
But what if more experts get into the case and say otherwise?
I cannot blame Placeholder if he resorts to sarcasm. The science, the reality, and the theory are confusing. Maybe that’s the goal.
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I cannot blame Ayala, too, if they reject the deflagration theory. Good thing our lawyers are not yet that astute, otherwise Ayala will have to prepare for a Php 300-million class suit from the victims of the explosion. Oopppss.