By Luz Rimban,VERA Files Two prominent members of a powerful political family in Abra are facing plunder charges for allegedly embezzling more than P130 million…
Making life worth living.
Month: September 2011
Letter of Court Administrator Midas Marquez to Malaya re Wikileaks report on SC justices and Mariano Nocom.
This was in his Sept. 2006 cable which was one of those recently released by Wikileaks website.
I didn’t get a response to my text messages to Edu. I was told he is out of the country. Maybe he does not want to be disturbed.
The reason why I was calling Edu was because a friend in the Supreme Court told me that true, Nocom has protectors in the High Court, but as far as he knows it is not former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban.
Dapat talagang panagutin si Gonzales sa kayang ginawa. Dapat maparusahan ang mga taong kapag nakakotse ay akala mo hari sila.
Sana hindi matulad itong kaso sa nangyari sa security guard na si Ricardo Bonayog na takot ipagpatuloy ang pagsampa ng kaso sa abusadong kongresista ng Lanao del Sur na si Rep. Mohammed Hussein Pangandaman.
Kung sabagay, iba ang sitwasyun ni Bonayog dahil opisyal ng pamahalaan ang kanyang nakabangga at hindi sigurado kung susuportahan siya ng kanyang kumpanya.
Sinira niya ang military nang ginamit niya ito para mandaya para sa kanya noong 2004 na eleksyun. Sinira niya ang institusyon ng hustisya sa pamamagitan ng paglagay ng mga taong kulang sa integridad basta lang susunod sa gusto niya.
Sinira niya ang Comelec sa paggamit niya para mandaya sa kanya.
Ang mandato ng Comelec ay ang siguraduhin na magkaroon ng maayos, malinis, at kapani-paniwala na eleksyun na magpapalabas ng kagustuhan ng taumbayan. Ang eleksyun ay isang mahalagang elemento ng demokrasya. Ang eleksyun ang nagbibigay buhay sa sinabi ni Abraham Lincoln, dating president ng Estados Unidos, na ang demokrasya ay “pamahalaan ng taumbayan, na pinapamahalaan ng taumbayan, para sa taumbayan.”
I did the following article for VERA Files. It’s also in the Manila Times, TV5’s Interaksyon, and Yahoo.
The displaced director of the Commission on Elections’ Law Department has accused Chairman Sixto S. Brillantes Jr. of unethical behavior for allegedly requesting him to help absolve two Comelec officials ordered suspended by the Office of the Ombudsman for approving the P690 million contract to purchase ballot secrecy folders for the 2010 elections.
Lawyer Ferdinand Rafanan, who served as head of the Comelec Law Department for three years until he was relieved on Aug. 15, said Brillantes had asked him pointblank to talk to the Ombudsman’s spokesman on how to clear Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) members Maria Lea Alarkon and Allen Abaya of charges of “simple neglect of duty, simple misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.”
The irony is, it was Rafanan who had investigated the transaction and concluded an overprice.
I love Wikileaks.
It unmasks the two-faced. It reveals the double-life of many of the officials that we respect.
Take this one from Paul Jones, who served deputy chief of mission of the US Embassy in Manila. His cable in Sept. 2006 indicated that former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban was the protector of Filipino-Chinese businessman Mariano Nocom, whose malls were said to have been selling pirated goods.
Piracy undermines legitimate business and deprives the government of revenues.
The cable was about the demotion of Judge Antonio Eugenio who was handling intellectual property rights (IPR) cases.
Update:Out of fear, security guard won’t pursue charges vs solon
The blotter report from the Quezon City Police District Detachment 9 in Anonas, Quezon City has this entry:
“Aug 31 935pm: This time and date SG Ricardo Bonayog y Gate 33 years old SG of Eagle Watch posted at Ayala Technohub UP Campus Diliman Quezon City appeared personally before this stn and requested to be placed on records to wit. That at 430pm Aug 31 2011 while he was performing his duty one Porsche Carrera colored silver was with plate number 8 appeared with the company of one Innova Red PCI 150 allegedly on said TDPO the occupant of the Porsche Carrera approached him and with reasons of his own got irked then boxed him several times causing him to fell on the ground in the presence of some witness.”
The latest I’ve read was then ambassador Kristie Kenney’s assessment of Hermogenes Ebdane, Jr. as the defense secretary written in March 2007. It was one insult after another.
It said, “Tongue-tied and reticent, Defense Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane stands in stark contrast to his articulate and sophisticated predecessor, Avelino “Nonong” Cruz. “
It continued: “Ebdane was far from the best choice President Arroyo could have made to succeed former Secretary Cruz. He is clearly no intellect, but a through-and-through loyalist, a quality that the president, who only a year ago faced down a coup attempt, treasures. “
The Omnibus Election Code of the Philippines (Batas Pambansa 881) prohibits accepting contribution from foreigners.
The US Embassy report, written by then Deputy Chief of Mission Raymond Burghardt, quoted extensively a conversation with Joel de los Santos, who served as consultant to the Ramos administration.
“It was a well-kept secret, according to De Los Santos, that Ramos had received five million pesos (about dols 200,000) From the libyans to finance his presidential campaign in 1992,” the US Embassy cable said.