Last week, The House of Representatives adopted a Resolution that would make it extremely difficult to get a copy of the members’ Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth.
House Resolution No. 2467, authored by 10 members of the House led by Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo set requirements that makes the use of SALN as an anti-corruption almost impossible.
The motive of the of the authors is obvious: they don’t want the public to know increase in their wealth while in public office.
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.”
Observing the simmering conflict between Finance Secretary Carlos “Sonny” Dominguez III and House Speaker Gloria M. Arroyo, I recall an article in the Sept. 15, 2001 issue of the Philippine Star that featured the narration of Justin R. Phillips, general manager of The Linden Suites located at San Miguel Avenue of the dramatic three days of January 2001 when the self-proclaimed members of the “civil society” succeeded in cutting short the presidency of Joseph Estrada and installed in Malacañang the vice president.
Linden Suites which is owned by Dominguez, served as the war room for the operations to oust Estrada following the breakdown of Estrada impeachment trial in the Senate. The anti-Estrada forces called for “People Power 2” on Edsa.
Here’s the article that confirmed the role of the Dominguez hotel in Arroyo’s power grab: “I just happened to look out my third floor window,” relates Justin R. Phillips, general manager of The Linden Suites which is located at San Miguel Avenue at the Ortigas Center, not far from where all the action was taking place, “and I saw this motorcade coming down San Miguel Ave. That was as much warning as we had and next thing we knew, the vice president and her group were here. Suddenly, we found ourselves catering to at least a hundred in the function rooms which were instantly transformed into a high-level operations center. It just went on all night. Then, at about 7 a.m., she retired to her room. Then, she was back down by about 9 a.m. She couldn’t have had much sleep. By mid-day, she was being sworn in.”
Related article:
https://ph.news.yahoo.com/blogs/the-inbox/magdalo-10-years-oakwood-224739924.html
When Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, Rep. Gary Alejano and some 100 officers and soldiers were preparing to mark the 15th year of the life-changing decision they made when they went out to denounce the corruption in the dubious presidency of Gloria Arroyo, little did they know that she would be installed as Speaker of the House, third in the line of succession to the presidency.
The irony was not lost on the officers and soldiers who spent seven years of their lives in detention for what they did on July 27, 2003.
“Critics of the Magdalo point to the fact that we once broke the military chain of command, and in the process found ourselves in the crosshairs of the State. We faced the consequences of the stand we made fifteen years ago, and we accepted the fate that the Arroyo regime imposed upon us”, said Ashley Acedillo, who was then a 26-year old first lieutenant in the Philippine Air Force.
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.”
So traumatized and demoralized are the foreign service corps – with the damage control operation that they have to perform every time President Duterte curses other governments and international institutions plus the impending appointments of retired generals to ambassadorial posts – that many like the idea of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as the next foreign secretary.
That’s the rumor in the diplomatic circle and all are in agreement that Arroyo, as former president, definitely has a better grasp of foreign relations compared to Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay, Jr.
One story going around in the DFA was the briefing given to Yasay in his first week at the DFA on human rights. After a lengthy briefing, Yasay asked: “Are we for or against human rights.”
Those in the room were flabbergasted, we were told.
It’s only 45 days away when Rodrigo Duterte becomes the 16th president of the Republic of the Philippines.
If Duterte makes good his election promise, Gloria Arroyo, who has won another term as representative of the second district of Pampanga, can look forward to days of freedom very soon. She has been confined at the Veterans Memorial Hospital since 2011.
When he campaigned in Pampanga last Feb. 7, Duterte said, “If I am elected President, I will release her. Why? Because the evidence [against her] is weak. I know that. I am a lawyer.”
Duterte’s assessment of cases against Arroyo as “weak” is supported by the dismissal by the Ombudsman of the P200 million fertilizer scam case and the alleged illegal transfer of funds of Overseas Workers Welfare Administration to Philhealth.
When Bautista-Horn replied, she looked unworried. “We survived three years. Three more years to go,” she said.
That was last year. Now, there are only two years and three weeks left of the Aquino administration.
Arroyo, despite her spinal and other ailments, has good reasons to look to the near future positively. Last week, the Ombudsman cleared her of involvement in the P728 million fertilizer fund scam.
The case was filed by former Solicitor General Frank Chavez, who passed away last year.
The case was about the misuse of funds for fertilizer to be distributed to the farmers. Investigation showed that through fake projects and ghost deliveries, money supposedly for the farmers went to the pockets of politicians and pork barrel operators. The notorious Jenny Napoles participated in that scam.
As of now, his penchant for snide remarks about people he doesn’t like gives the impression of being juvenile.
Reports from Vientiane, Laos , where Aquino is attending the Asia –Europe summit, said during his meeting with the Filipino community, he said people in the previous administration seem to be using a different kind of calculator when it comes to public works projects and rice imports.
“As other people say, maybe they used a different kind of calculator and the addition button is automatic and frequently pushed,” he said elaborating that the Arroyo administration imported 2.5 million metric tons of rice for a 1.3 million shortage , the end result of which is excess rice now rotting in warehouses.