Despite the long weekend, the political scene remains to be hot and controversial. To be honest, all these controversies seem to begin with the NBN-ZTE deal. It must be a huge can of worms that the Fortress had barraged us with mini-controversies so that we can forget about it. Too bad I can’t.

After the almost-scary episode with the wimp called Romy Neri, there’s the impeach-me complaint, and the rainmaker meeting at the Fortress (with around Php 200,000 allegedly distributed to congressmen to expedite the disposal of the impeach-me complaint, which they did the same day), the weekend saw Pampanga Governor Fr. Ed Panlilio confessing that he received Php 500,000 from someone in the Fortress.

On all counts, some people confirmed and denied the monies (two governors confirmed that they were also given monies, while the in-Heaven-right-now ULAP denies such monies; this scene is the same with the congressmen). Is the yes/no part of psychological warfare, to confuse everyone? Or is it just a symptom of the Fortress’ organized chaos?

One of the Cinderella finishers in this year’s elections, Panlilio is a controversial figure, a priest who managed to defeat a strong political machine to gain the seat at the City of San Fernando. He won by a slim margin, without a ticket, without political machine. Now, he managed to turn quarrying into a profitable business, from around Php 1 million a year during the time of the Lapids to Php 1 million a month.

But now, he admitted that he got Php 500,000, handed over by someone (revealed to be Bulacan Governor Jonjon Mendoza, who also admitted that he, too got some monies) to his chief of staff.

Ellen Tordesillas asked her blog readers: What would you do if you were in Fr. Ed’s shoes?

There is a group of press people assigned at the Fortress. If I were Panlilio, I would have asked my chief of staff to seek these reporters, and there and then show them the money. I would not take the money, but would not give it back, either. There’s one sensible comment at Mam Ellen’s blog that I would have done if I were Panlilio and were told to do so: stamp each bill with REJECTED so that every bill can’t be used.

Panlilio must realize that Cardinal Sin was wrong. Sin’s justification of receiving donations from crooks is technically money-laundering. Even if the money is used for the public good, the fact remains that the money came from illegal means. Besides, he can never erase the impression that he was bribed; his reputation remains clean, but for how long? As they say, all it takes is one mistake to ruin your reputation. I will not blame anyone if they think that Panlilio has been eaten by the system. While I won’t think that way (yet), I think he was a victim of his own naivete and wrong values.

—

And now that the Fortress is pushing for Charter change (again), on what context should we put the Php 500,000 money? The Fortress is not making it hard for us to connect the dots. I will not be surprised if people’s initiative and Sigaw ng Bayan lookalike emerge out of nowhere. It is 2006 all over again.

Choose the phrase/statement that logically follows the given events:
1. Impeach-me filed. Fortress summons 200 congressmen. Congressmen given Php 200,000. Congressmen saw complaint transmitted to House Justice committee on the same day.
a. Gloria Arroyo becomes impeachment-proof for one year.
b. House transmits impeachment complaint to Senate.
c. House elects new Speaker.

2. Fortress summons local leaders. Governors given Php 500,000. Fortress announces new Charter change bid.
a. Gloria Arroyo is impeached.
b. People’s initiative launches.
c. Neri bares all.

In any rigged game, millions of money is always involved. But unlike in any rigged game, in this game, the riggers are not ashamed to admit that they have earned money from such rigging. That’s how low our congressmen have gone. That’s how low WE have gone. Our dignity has a price.

One congressman from Cebu admits getting Php 200,000 in cash in a meeting between 190 congressmen and the Fortress Thursday morning; in the evening, the ball called impeachment complaint was passed from one hand to the other, faster than you can say “Foul!”. The congressman called it an “advance Christmas gift”. I now wonder where did the Fortress get the money.

Unfortunately for these now-200K-rich congressmen, they cannot blame and prevent us poor people from thinking that they were paid to act on the impeachment complaint. The dots are so easy to connect; they could have made it harder for us to make conclusions. But no, they were so overtaken by the cash and pork barrel promises.

A Filipino word comes to mind. It starts with the letter G, and ends with the letter L, total of seven letters. For those who don’t get it yet: G*r*p*l.

And there’s no one to be blamed but us. We keep on voting for them, even if they continuously screw us up. We let them rape us. We let them rape our kid’s future. We are willing victims. We are the fools.

Are you still willing to be raped?

—

When Sir MLQ3 quoted the first in this series of blog posts about this year’s impeachment game, some people left comments at HIS blog, which I find funny. Anyway, two comments need to be addressed.

The first one, in essence, said that at least, the game allowed us to glean the chaff from the grain. While this assertion remains debatable (ehem, Cayetano and Escudero), that is not the point. The fact that the process has been turned into a money-making game is troubling. The Constitution is raped and mutilated in the process.

Also, the gleaning process defeats the purpose of impeachment – to remove an erring official from office. At the rate the gleaning process is going, the official that should be impeached would have been gone from office, and evidence of wrongdoing already cleaned up.

The second one argues that the impeachment is a political process, and such, is always a numbers game. The argument has its merit, but I always argue that it is the case because we allow it to be. I think I have already argued that the current process is flawed and needs changing. The current process ultimately defeats the purpose of the process.

The impeachment process follows certain rules, and it is based on the Constitution, giving it some semblance of legality. That the framers of the document believed that the congressmen will weigh in on the evidence presented before making a vote shows that the impeachment is also a legal process. At that point, the belief is pure naivete at hindsight.

Before the 2007 elections, I had argued that the true battle that will win the war was the House, but some people followed Sun Tzu and chose their own battle – the Senate. The Black and White Movement took the harder battle by issuing the Black List and the White List. While the Senate is a battle won (and some will argue that it is not a complete victory), guess who gets the last laugh? We shirked on hard work, and we lost.

The question now is this – will we ever learn?

This is a rejoinder to the post about the MRT. In that post, I had discussed the possibility of a stampede during the morning rush hour at the North Ave. MRT station. Based on the comments, two possible solutions were raised: getting more trains, and instituting a queue system. The problem with the second solution is that it will not work. If you take the MRT daily, you will agree that there is a queue. The problem is that the system cannot handle the volume of people during rush hour. The first solution is unpalatable because the MRT is on a build-lease-transfer (BLT) scheme. And getting new trains means loans, and loans pushed the government and the MRT Consortium to revise the original build-operate-transfer (BOT) agreement to BLT.

For now, let me discuss what I think can be done temporarily to make the system more efficient, until we all agree that taking out loans to get more trains is a good solution.

I think that for the MRT to efficiently service the morning rush hour volume, trains should arrive and leave a terminal every minute, 2 minutes maximum. This is possible, but there are a lot of factors that affect the turnaround time. For this discussion, turnaround time refers to the time it takes for a train to switch from north bound to southbound at the North Ave. terminal (and Taft Ave. terminal). To better visualize, here are some pictures.

In this picture (courtesy of Wikimapia), the top view of the North Ave. MRT station is shown. The tracks at the left is the south bound lane, and the right one, the north bound lane. Turnaround time refers to the time it takes for the train at the north bound lane to transfer to the south bound lane and enter the station. The turnaround is represented by an line crossing from north bound to south bound. I believe the turnaround should be max of one minute. The worst that I had experienced was 15 minutes; that time, the train broke down.

There is actually a design flaw in this case. Because of the said flaw, only one train can ‘turn around’ at a time, so a bottleneck is possible. This happens when three trains are at a station – on the northbound platform, on the switch (the track where the northbound train transfers to the south bound), and on the southbound platform. So what if the train on the switch breaks down? Woe to the passengers who are waiting on the south bound platform. The design should have allowed for two trains to switch. Referring again to the picture, the train moves straight north and switch to south bound lane. It would have been more efficient if the designers had allowed for the train to move straight north, then move straight south to switch. Draw an imaginary line from the north bound lane going to the south bound lane. This should be able to address the problem of trains breaking down, but that’s wishful thinking now. This design was implemented at LRT 1, so I am puzzled why this was not done for the MRT3. One plausible explanation is that the Consortium was anticipating the extension up to Monumento; however, BLT killed the idea, so the LRT 1 is instead going to be extended from Monumento to SM North EDSA.

What contributes to the turnaround problem is expounded below. See this image first.

This picture shows the North Ave. station platform. I took this shot while standing on the south bound platform. At the right is the north bound platform, and at the background (where the train is) is the switch. When a train arrives from the south, it should not take more than 2 minutes for all the passengers to unload. However, that is not the case. A lot of things contribute to the delay.

The MRT management allows the elderly, the disabled, and pregnant women to take the train at the north bound platform during rush hours. However, knowing Pinoys, some unscrupulous people take advantage of the situation, so it is normal to see able-bodied, obviously-young, definitely-not-pregnant people waiting at the north bound platform. So when a train unloads passengers, these people get in. A lone guard will have to check all three coaches and order people to get out. (Of course, it is futile). That would take around a minute or two of useless checking.

Then, there’s the matter of the train operator for the south bound leg. When a train arrives, the next train operator should be at the empty cockpit at the end immediately after the passengers have unloaded. Look at the second picture again. At the end of the north bound platform is the dispatcher’s area, the bullpen for train operators. From there, it is a minute of slow walk to the other end, where the train operator has to get inside the train. Sometimes, a train operator is slow in walking. Sometimes, a train operator is lazy, so instead of walking, he’d just wait in the dispatcher’s area, and the train would approach the switch, and stop exactly so that the lazy operator can get in at the south bound cockpit.

Another problem is that each train has three coaches. Each station can actually accomodate 4-coach trains, so I wonder why the Consortium settled for 3-coach trains. Must be an oversight or what. Anyway, I can’t fault them; the LRTA took 20 years to introduce 4-coach trains at LRT 1. LRT 2 was designed with the mistakes of LRT 1 and MRT 3 in mind. The coaches are longer, wider. The waiting time is another story, but it is no big deal.

This year’s impeachment game is finished even before it really began.

About several minutes ago, Speaker Jose de Venecia has inhibited himself from today’s plenary session. Instead, Congressman Raul del Mar started the jump ball. He then passed the ball called The Pulido-San Luis-KAMPI impeachment complaint to the Committee on Rules, which in turn will pass it to the Committee on Justice. And you don’t have to read the complaint nor watch the game to know the ending.

The end of the game remains the same with how the 2005 and 2006 impeachment games ended.

The session is ongoing at the moment, but the outcome is already known. This is like a rigged basketball game, only more garapal than ever.

In a previous post, I have stated that in the current set up, impeachment has become a game. This month, we have another example of how a constitutional process is turned into a trivial game.

Out of the blue and out of nowhere, Atty. Roberto Pulido (former lawyer of Magdalo soldiers) filed a 3-page impeachment complaint against Gloria Arroyo. The said complaint was immediately endorsed by Edgar San Luis, a congressman from Laguna. Based on a Supreme Court decision, such endorsement meant that the impeachment process is deemed initiated, and thus, no other complaint can be entertained. What happened last Friday was almost similar to what Oliver Lozano and Rodante Marcoleta did in 2005.

Immediately after filing, rumors that the complaint was a ploy concocted at the Fortress by the Pasig. Even the pro-Arroyo Senator Miriam Santiago thinks this complaint is filed to preempt the opposition from filing a more substantive complaint. Pulido is now hard-pressed on defending himself, though unfortunately he sounds like Lozano.

The problem with Pulido is that he filed a weak complaint, the same problem that the Lozano 2005 complaint had, which led to the junking. Do not wonder when the House does the same to Pulido’s complaint. Why didn’t he coordinate with any opposition congressman?

Anyway, many have already questioned the credibility of this year’s complaint, so the coaches devised another strategy – have it endorsed by an opposition congressman. But that’s a tall order, but is there anything that money can’t buy today? Hence, allegations of bribery are no longer surprising. What gives more credence to the allegations?

1. The alleged briber, Francis Ver (related to Fabian Ver of martial law fame), is deputy secretary-general of KAMPI, Arroyo’s party.
2. KAMPI President and Interior Secretary Ronnie Puno denied that bribery happened, and duly sacked Ver anyway.
3. If Ver is acting on his own, where will he get the money if his bribery attempt succeeded?
4. Unlike Romy Neri, several congressmen attested that they, too, were offered bribes (use some salt – all of them were opposition members, so this might be a conspiracy).

Should we expect the same thing next year till 2010?

Better late than never.

Palace staff pocketed P455,000 from PCSO?

MANILA, Philippines — She received a check for P460,000 as donation but received only P5,000. Where did the rest of the money go?

Malacañang wanted to know as well, and on Friday it ordered an investigation into a complaint of a woman who claimed that the liaison officer in the Office of the Presidential Adviser for Religious Affairs had given her P5,000 to help her ailing daughter out of a check that amounted to P460,000.

Normita Bernadez said a P460,000-check had been issued in her name but she received only P5,000.

Bernadez said Gladys Bayuga, a liaison officer of the Palace’s religious affairs office, had asked her to cash the check.

She said that from the start, Bayuga had told her that through the presidential office she would get P5,000 in medical assistance for her adopted daughter, 19-year-old Marisol Igme, who was suffering from a tumor in her nose.

When Bernadez cashed the check at a branch of government-owned Land Bank of the Philippines on Solano Street near Malacañang, she was surprised to find out that it amounted to P460,000 and it was made out to her name.

“Hindi ako naghahabol na maging akin ‘yong pera” [“I did not try to get the money”], Bernadez said after a meeting with Undersecretary Fatima Valdez, presidential adviser for religious affairs.

She said she just wanted to find out what happened to the rest of the P455,000.

In a statement, Valdez said she had ordered an investigation and summoned Bayuga “to appear before this office to answer the complaint.”

“This is to give both parties a chance to tell their side of the story,” she said. “After the investigation, we will submit our findings to the Office of the Executive Secretary.”

Bernadez had aired her complaint in a television news program.

On Friday, she went to the Palace to see Valdez and to tell her story. She was accompanied by her adopted daughter Marisol, who wore a cap and sat quietly while her surrogate mother spoke to reporters.

The 48-year-old Bernadez, who is from the Pansol area of Quezon City, explained that she had adopted Marisol, her husband’s niece who was orphaned when she was 2 years old.

‘Good and helpful’

Bernadez, who has four other children, said she had been going around seeking financial help after Marisol was diagnosed with cancer in April.

She said she heard about Bayuga from the mother of another cancer patient. She that that sometime in May or June she was finally able to contact Bayuga, whom she described as a good and helpful person.

She said Bayuga informed her that she would be getting P5,000 in medical assistance.

“I was happy because that money would help in the radiation treatment for Marisol,” Bernadez told reporters.

She said that when she was asked to accompany Bayuga to cash the check, she signed the voucher and was surprised to discover that the check was made out to her name and that it was for P460,000.

She said Bayuga told her that the rest of the money would be given to other patients in need.

Bernadez recalled that another woman was with them and that she was made to cash a check for P200,000.

Eventually, she said, Bayuga gave her P5,000 in cash, as promised.

Bernadez said she continued to look for financial help for Marisol, who needs three cycles of chemotheraphy. One cycle of treatment costs P50,000.

She added that Bayuga sent her a text message Thursday when her complaint was aired on TV.

She said the text message stated, “Bakit ginawa mo sa akin ito?” [“Why did you do this to me?”]

Bernadez said she simply wanted to know what happened to the rest of the money.

As far as I know, Bayuga is now missing. Note the ironies of this case. Corruption in the Office of Religious Affairs, Fortress by the Pasig?

It seems that Gloria Arroyo’s term is cursed. Every year since 2005, she faced impeachment attempts, though all of them were squashed with much fanfare. She has proven time and again that impeachment is just a numbers game, despite the strength of evidence presented by complainants. (Yes, the impeachment process is just one of the institutional casualties that this regime will leave by 2010 – assuming that she will step down by then, ha.)

The degradation of trust on the impeachment process began, ironically, in 2001, when the Estrada impeachment trial was held hostage by the prosecutors (who walked out of the proceedings and then Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr doing nothing to call them back). After the euphoria of EDSA 2/power grab (whatever you call it), the Filipino people have realized that taking shortcuts won’t work. And scheming politicians also learned a lesson, ironically from the so-called Craven 11: impeachment is just a numbers game. And these scheming politicians learned this lesson by heart, and now impeachment is just that – a game.

The impeachment game begins with an impeachment complaint (about a page or two, using newspaper clippings as evidence) being filed at the House, preferably by some quack lawyer, and endorsed (preferably immediately) by a congressman (preferably from the majority) who would issue platitudes for endorsing such complaint (like, “I just want to get the truth” etc). Then, the House Justice committee counts sheep deliberate on the form (if it came from a reliable operator, ie. quack) and substance (read: who will give more money). Depending on the grease deliberations, a committee report recommending the acceptance or rejection of the complaint is sent to the plenary. After a new round of camera/photo opp and more yakety-yak, (depending on the numbers) the report is either accepted or rejected.

Now, another impeachment complaint is filed and endorsed immediately. The cast of characters is changed: we now have a lawyer who formerly represented some Magdalo soldiers (mostly connected with the Army, if I am not mistaken) as complainant, and another congressman as endorser. The lawyer, by the way, also filed an ethics complaint against the current Speaker of the House. The congressman is a relative newbie. And this early, the administration is confident that this too shall pass. It also felt aggrieved by allegations that the new complaint was just an ‘impeach-me’ antic.

Anyway, as much as I want Arroyo impeached, the chances for such is much closer to nil than in 2005. With the impeachment reduced to a game, and with Arroyo having the numbers at the Lower House, pardon me if I am very much skeptical of the process. Now, if Arroyo pushes the wrong buttons, I might reconsider. Like, pulling the rug off the Speaker’s feet. Or, a strong clamor from all parts of the society (in your dreams).

Yes, the process is broken, and it needs to be fixed.

(Next: suggestions on fixing the problem. Hopefully.)

I think all of you should forget Desperate Housewives and Jon Stewart and instead concentrate on this.

Enrile sends college student shaking in fear

By AUREA CALICA

The Philippine Star

The demeanor of Sen. Juan Ponce-Enrile during a hearing at the Senate on Friday sent one student who went to watch the proceedings trembling in fear.

Mark Jemel Galez, 19, a broadcast journalism student of La Salle-Dasmariñas, Cavite, drew the ire of Enrile for taking photos of the senator using his handy video camera.

Enrile got peeved and asked the student: “Who are you? Why are you taking my picture? Come here.”

Galez went a bit closer to Enrile to explain but his voice was too soft to be heard by the crowd. Enrile later reportedly told him “to get out of this room.”

Enrile said people should not be taking photographs without permission. The student went to his seat but immediately went out when signaled to do so.

The senator went on with his tirades, saying, “My face is ugly enough I don’t want it to be seen in pictures.”

After the hearing, Enrile approached the fellow students of Galez and told them that “if something happens to me, you will all be responsible.”

Some reporters who went to talk to Galez said the student seemed so nervous that he was shaking.

He was also obviously embarrassed because many people witnessed the incident, which ironically, occurred during the hearing of the budget of the Commission on Human Rights.

During a recent hearing on the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement, businessman and special envoy Donald Dee also received a tongue-lashing from Enrile for supposedly being pushy and “threatening” in his defense of the accord.

Enrile told Dee to “get the hell out of here” if he would continue to compel senators to approve the JPEPA.

Aside from Enrile, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago is also known for her strictness in holding hearings.

She said she would cite for contempt anybody caught with his cellular phone on during hearings.

The senator once lost her cool because people kept on going in and out of a room where she was holding a hearing on the budget of one department.

Santiago said she did not like getting distracted by people and Senate staff “acting like senators” and disrespecting ongoing proceedings.

(Jhay Rocas, the student’s a school mate of yours.)

Mr. Enrile must be forgetting something. While he is a senator, he is supposed to serve the people, not make them cower in fear just because he was peeved. As they say in Filipino, tumandang walang pinagkatandaan; or tumatandang paurong.

He doesn’t want to be seen in pictures? Heh. He should have not run and instead hide his “ugly” (his own word) face.

I call on Mr. Enrile to apologize to the student, who was doing nothing wrong. Your action is uncalled for and unbecoming of a senator of the Republic. Your action smacks of arrogance that is misplaced. You are first and foremost a public servant, senator second. How dare you, Mr. Enrile!

I call on every Filipino to condemn Enrile’s actions. I call on every Filipino to take Enrile to task. I call on every Filipino to demand an apology from Enrile for his arrogant actions against his fellow Filipino, a tax payer who pays Enrile’s salary and pork barrel.

PS: If you have time, please blog about this, about your sentiment about Enrile’s action. Spread the word.

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.

FREE BURMA!