Category: Politics

Following are two stories by the Inquirer on the cash and other gifts distributed in Malacañang last Thursday when Gloria Arroyo met congressmen before House Speaker Jose de Venecia was forced to inhibit himself in the impeachment complaint against Arroyo

Cuenco admits getting P200,000 ‘Christmas gift’ from Palace

By Jhunnex Napallacan, Jolene Bulambot
Inquirer Visayas Bureau

CEBU CITY, Philippines — A veteran congressman from Cebu City admitted on Friday that envelopes containing “different amounts of cash” were indeed distributed during the breakfast meeting called by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in Malacañang on Thursday.

Pro-Arroyo lawmakers given gifts, pork pledge

By Christian V. Esguerra, Norman Bordadora, Michael Lim Ubac

Battling for political survival for the third time in as many years, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Thursday summoned loyal congressmen to Malacañang and, in a show of strength using “sendoff gifts,” forced Speaker Jose de Venecia to back off from an impeachment move.

Envelopes containing cash amounting to between P200,000 and P500,000 were handed out to congressmen at the meeting, along with promises of pork barrel amounting to millions of pesos, hours before administration lawmakers took action in the House of Representatives to protect Ms Arroyo from being impeached, several lawmakers present at the meeting told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, parent company of INQUIRER.net.

Breaking news!

House Speaker Jose de Venecia, to save his speakership, agreed to inhibit from the impeachment complaint filed by Atty. Roel Pulido against Gloria Arroyo,

Deputy Speaker Raul del Mar of Cebu will endorse the complaint to the Justice Committee. That effectively immunizes Gloria Arroyo from any impeachment complaint for a year. Pulido’s impeachment complaint, which allegedly is the handiwork of Arroyo’s people including Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno, is considered so flimsy, it won’t prosper.

Update:Puno is named impeach brains

Atty. Pulido issued a statement saying Francis Ver is a total stranger to him. Full statement in comments.

From ABS-CBN online:

Lawyer Francis Ver who was tagged by an opposition solon as the “Malacañang operator” who offered him P2 million to endorse the latest impeachment complaint filed against President Arroyo has denied on Tuesday the allegation hurled against him through a privilege speech in the House of Representatives.

Ver, who just a few hours ago was the deputy secretary-general of Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (KAMPI), said he “might” have mentioned an amount of money while talking with Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran hours before an impeachment complaint was filed against President Arroyo.

by Jocelyn Montemayor

Jose Miguel Arroyo, the President’s husband, may have been fit enough to take a 10-hour direct flight from Hong Kong to Europe, and even take in an occasional round of golf.

But his lawyer said yesterday Arroyo’s doctors are likely to disallow him from attending the resumption of the joint Senate investigation on the national broadband project on Oct. 25.

Arroyo’s lawyer, Ruy Rondain, said yesterday, “I doubt if he will go against the advice of his doctors.”

There is something more than meets the eye in the impeachment complaint filed by Atty. Roel Pulido against Gloria Arroyo last Friday. Pulido was formerly the lawyer of Ltsg (now senator)Antonio Trillanes IV . More than a year ago, Trillanes terminated his services. Relations between the two are far from good. A few months ago, Pulido was in the Senate staff of Sen. Gregorio Honasan.

Thanks God, there are still decent souls in the Supreme Court

By Leila Salaverria

Supreme Court justices Tuesday invoked public interest in the reform of the electoral process as they grilled the lawyers of two retired justices who had sought to stop the renewed Senate inquiry into the “Hello Garci” wiretapping scandal.

After seven hours of oral arguments, the high court merely required the contending parties to submit their respective memoranda containing their positions within 15 days.

Update: THE Arroyo government will let the controversy over the cancelled $329 million broadband deal with Chinese firm ZTE Corp. simmer down before pursuing a similar project in a different form before President Arroyo steps down in 2010, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said today (Oct. 3). Click here.

No hearings until November

Arroyo informs China NBN deal with ZTE cancelled

by JP Lopez

THE freeze is on.

The Senate is expected to hold no further hearings on the inquiry into the $329 million national broadband deal until Congress returns for work on Nov. 5 after a one-month break which starts tomorrow.

The freeze was a result of the decision to scrap an all-member caucus last night where a proposed hearing tomorrow was to be taken up.

by Jay Chua

First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo flew in yesterday from Hong Kong to deny that he told Jose “Joey” de Venecia III to “back off” from the national broadband network project.

“Let me just clarify, I never said back off, that is not in my vocabulary,” he said.

The young De Venecia testified in a Senate investigation on the broadband project last week that the presidential spouse pointed a finger at him and said “back off” during a meeting at the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club in Mandaluyong.

By Jarius Bondoc
Philippine Star

I called Romy Neri right after testifying Sept. 18 in that first Senate hearing on the ZTE scam. It was our tenth talk about the issue since Apr. 20, when The STAR ran my first of a series of articles. I pried why he didn’t show up, if he was under any threat of harm, and when he’ll reveal all he knows. From his replies it was clear he was charily weighing the consequences. There’s a time and place for everything, he mused, then asked if what he has narrated to me thus far would “incite another EDSA.”

I said I didn’t know, but that I do wish the Senate inquiry would spark a wave of reforms, starting with clean elections. He shared the dream, but doubted if it would come true soon. Our talk eventually led to sacrificing for the sake of the nation. He said Joey de Venecia was brave to implicate big names, adding that if push comes to shove the young whistleblower fortunately has a rich dad to fall back on. “I’m not affluent,” Romy stated the obvious. Neither am I, I reminded him. Whereupon, he shot back: “Oh, but you’re a journalist, you’re supposed to be dedicated to the truth.”