Take note at how Gloria Arroyo, speaker of the House of Representatives, maneuvered on the controversial bill lowering the minimum age of criminal liability from age 15 which is in the existing law to originally, nine years old and finally 12.
In an interview after the bill, that has elicited outrage from several sectors of society, passed on second reading, Arroyo said she supported the bill even when the minimum age was nine years old “Because the President wants it.”
To stress her supposed support for Duterte she added, “From the beginning I said that my agenda is the President’s agenda.” House Speaker Gloria Arroyo distributes land titles in Parola, Tondo. Photo from House of Representatives Public Affairs office.
Just retired Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales
By Ellen T. Tordesillas, VERA Files
In the seven years that Conchita Carpio-Morales was Ombudsman – investigating and prosecuting corruption cases against government officials – the ones that gave her the biggest headaches were those involving former president Gloria Arroyo, who was elected speaker of the House of Representatives last Monday.
In an interview by VERA Files days before she retired on July 26, Carpio-Morales described the cases involving Arroyo as “very, very complicated.”
Among those cases are the misuse of the intelligence funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office amounting to more than P300 million; the questionable transfer of P530,382,445 from the OWWA Medicare Fund to the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation; the P728 million Fertilizer Fund that was allegedly used in the 2004 elections; and the P16.4 billion ($329 million) NBN/ZTE deal.
Gloria Arroyo – in a red- orange dress taking control of the situation at the Batasan Session Hall last Monday- was a personification of what German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche said,“That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.”
It is shuddering to imagine what a re-invigorated GMA can and will do.
She stayed in Malacañang for ten years with a dubious mandate. A vice president in 2001, she grabbed power from then President Joseph Estrada by installing herself to the presidency that was not declared vacant. She cheated, using the Commission on Elections and the military, in the 2004 elections.
In the unforgettable words of Susan Roces, the widow of her victim, Fernando Poe, Jr: “… you have stolen the presidency, not once, but twice.”
Grace Poe: lessons from 2004 elections should be used for lasting electoral reforms.It’s good that Grace Poe, daughter of the late Fernando Poe, Jr and Susan Roces, brought up the issue of cheating during the 2004 elections in Cebu in the meeting of Team PNoy in that province last Wednesday.
The people should be reminded of that again and again because no one has been punished for that crime against the Filipino electorate.
Gloria Arroyo is out on bail for the crime of electoral fraud but it’s in connection with the 2007 elections, when she was not a candidate. That case is so weak, it would not be a surprise if Arroyo gets acquitted in that case.
Arroyo cheated big time in 2004 but the crime of electoral fraud was enacted only in 2007. She can be charged with the lesser crime (it’s bailable) graft but even that, it has not been done.
Poe, who is a senatorial candidate, said “This is the reason I didn’t stand on another stage in Cebu City, because it still hurts,” referring most probably to Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia and the rest of the Garcia political clan who were die-hard supporters of Gloria Arroyo.
The Cebuanos took pride in 2004 that they gave Arroyo over one million lead over FPJ which defied logic and normal practice.
AbalosPangalawang kaso ng graft laban kay dating Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos kaugnay sa ma-anomalyang NBN/ZTE ang isinampa sa kanyan ng Ombudsman kasama si Gloria Arroyo.
Una ay yung isinampa ng Akbayan noong 2007. Paglabag din ng Republic Act 3019, ang Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. Hindi isinama ng Ombudsman na si Merceditas Gutierrez noon si Arroyo.
Sa kasong isinampa ng bagong Ombudsman, Conchita Carpio-Morales kaugnay ng anomalya tungkol sa NBN/ZTE bago matapos ang 2011 laban kay Arroyo, kasama din si Abalos.
Sabi ni Ombudsman Spokesman Asryman Rafanan ibang bahagi daw R.A. 3019 ang tinumbok ng bagong kaso laban kay Abalos.
Nakakulong si Abalos ngayon kaugnay sa kasong electoral sabotage noong 2007 na eleksyun na isinampa ng Comelec.
A police officer and his “boys” have come forward saying they stole original election returns (ERs) then kept at the Batasang Pambansa building and replaced these with fake ones to make sure Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would still emerge the winner of the 2004 presidential election in the event of a recount.
Senior Supt. Rafael Santiago, now assigned at the Philippine National Police Directorate for Operations in Camp Crame, presented to the Inquirer envelopes bearing the seal of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and containing what he said were original ERs from various areas in Mindanao.
Prior to his appointment in Camp Crame, Santiago was relieved as police director of Zambales province.
A Marine officer was jailed 3 and 1/2 years for sharing this DVD about Gloria Arroyo's cheating in the 2004 elections. Natutuwa ako na nabuhay ang “Hello Garci” at ang dayaan ng 2004 na eleksyun. Sana, sa wakas, malalaman natin ang buong katotohanan.
Natatawa rin ako dahil sa paglabas ng mga recycled na mga artikulo at mga impormasyun na nilabas nitong mga nakaraang anim na taon ay akala ng marami ay bago. Katulad na lang ng pinalabas ni Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero na documentary ng dayaan ng 2004 eleksyun noong isang linggo. Sinabi sa news reports first time daw pinalabas.
Sa totoo lang, maraming beses na pinalabas yan mula pa noong 2006. Ang gumawa niyan ay ang grupo nina Marichu Vera Perez-Maceda, matalik na kaibigan ni Susan Roces at kilala sa kanyang palayaw na “Manay Ichu.”
Ang pamilya ni Manay Ichu ang may-ari ng Sampaguita Pictures na noon ay isa sa malaking movie production company.
Maraming bersyun ang ginawa ni Manay Ichu dahil habang ginagawa ang docu film,maraming impormasyun ang dumarating.
Ang isang bersyun nga na ang pamagat ay “Original Sin” ay isa sa mga DVD na naging dahilan ng pagkakulong ni Capt. Artemio Raymundo ng tatlo at kalahating taon.
Photo from ABS-CBN onlineIn July 2006, Artemio Rasalan, a self-confessed election operator and Clinton John Colcol, a Maguindanao municipal government employee, at great risk to their lives, came out with a signed affidavits and video confessions about their role in tampering with the 2004 election results in favor of Gloria Arroyo.
Media carried their revelations.Malacañang, then under the control of Arroyo , and members of Congress dismissed Rasalan and Colcol’s affidavits as “rehash.”
After I came out with the report on the role of the Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police in the switching of election returns at the Batasan Pambansa in 2008, Colcol wrote me requesting that his affidavit be removed from my blog because he was pursuing a religious vocation. I complied.
Photo by Rhoy Cobilla of MalayaIt was so ludicrous that you would think it was a Michael V skit.
Yesterday, at the start of the media presentation of Lintang Bedol at the Commission on Elections in Intramuros, Manila, Chairman Sixto Brillantes told the magician election supervisor of Maguindanao, ” O baka gusto mo mag-hello.”
Bedol, wearing dark glasses and a bullet-proof vest, looked so relaxed despite the charge of contempt that was slapped on him for his four-year disappearance when he was asked to produce some documents related to the 2007 elections.
Bedol, waving to the reporters, said, “Hello, kumusta kayo lahat.”
It was bizarre.
I don’t think he realized his crime when he tampered the results of the 2004 elections subverting the people’s choice of their leaders thereby allowing a fake president to remain in power for six more years.
Tasked to save family's wealth and political machinerySurely, Justice Secretary Lilia de Lima knows the ramifications of her willingness to consider Zaldy Ampatuan, former governor of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao and one of the 196 persons accused in connection with the Maguindanao massacre, as state witness in a possible election fraud case against Gloria Arroyo.
“That is a new case, a totally different case and we can consider them, or whoever, it is Zaldy Ampatuan or Lintang Bedol. It would depend on the extent of their participation, “ De Lima said a day after Zaldy and former Maguindanao election supervisor Lintang Bedol said in separate interviews with ABS-CBN’s Anthony Taberna where they dangled information everybody knew about cheating in the 2004 and 2007 elections. Nothing in the published reports, though, directly implicates Gloria Arroyo.
De Lima also echoed Malacañang’s assurance that Zaldy will not be considered state witness in the Nov. 23, 2009 massacre that killed at least 58 persons, 32 of them journalists. This was despite the offer of Zaldy that he was willing to turn his back on his father, Andal Ampatuan Sr, identified by witnesses as the mastermind of the gruesome murders, and his brother, Andal Jr, identified as the triggerman.
