Did Mike Arroyo fund postelection
‘special operations’ in Lanao?

One by one, allegations of cheating by the GMA camp are being brought to the open. And, in yet another possible scandal, the name of the First Gentleman surfaces once again. Both husband and wife seem to be reaching a point where their respective Teflon isn’t working; the benefit of the doubt is not being given to them anymore; and it seems that every accusation thrown at them is believable…somehow, many now are of the belief that “when there is smoke, there is fire.”

It is getting harder and harder to even give an iota of support to a leader who has DECEIVED, CHEATED and LIED. Maybe it’s time we tell GMA, “I am sorry. It’s time to go.”

jimenez will soon be back also.

and now that the shoe is on the other foot.

jimenez to arroyo: i want 2M with interest.
arroyo: yes bosing.

MIke Arroyo a gentleman? Watda!

Mike Arroyo is not the smartest guy in the world
as people who have known him all his life will
attest.

He is only Gloria’s legman and foil in the same manner
that Imelda was for Marcos.

Yet another cheating scandal? What’s up with this tingi-tingi approach to uncovering the truth? I guess it’s so much the nature of Pinoys to do LITTLE and achieve LITTLE.

This is an observation made by no less than Nick Joaquin himself in his brilliant essay “A Heritage of Smallness”.

Excerpt:
=============
The Filipino who travels abroad gets to thinking that his is the hardest working country in the world. By six or seven in the morning we are already up on our way to work, shops and markets are open; the wheels of industry are already agrind. Abroad, especially in the West, if you go out at seven in the morning you’re in a dead-town. Everybody’s still in bed; everything’s still closed up. Activity doesn’t begin till nine or ten– and ceases promptly at five p.m. By six, the business sections are dead towns again. The entire cities go to sleep on weekends. They have a shorter working day, a shorter working week. Yet they pile up more mileage than we who work all day and all week.

Is the disparity to our disparagement?

We work more but make less. Why? Because we act on such a pygmy scale. Abroad they would think you mad if you went in a store and tried to buy just one stick of cigarette. They don’t operate on the scale. The difference is greater than between having and not having; the difference is in the way of thinking. They are accustomed to thinking dynamically. We have the habit, whatever our individual resources, of thinking poor, of thinking petty.

Is that the explanation for our continuing failure to rise–that we buy small and sell small, that we think small and do small?

Are we not confusing timidity for humility and making a virtue of what may be the worst of our vices? Is not our timorous clinging to smallness the bondage we must break if we are ever to inherit the earth and be free, independent, progressive? The small must ever be prey to the big. Aldous Huxley said that some people are born victims, or “murderers.” He came to the Philippines and thought us the “least original” of people. Is there not a relation between his two terms? Originality requires daring: the daring to destroy the obsolete, to annihilate the petty. It’s cold comfort to think we haven’t developed that kind of “murderer mentality.”

But till we do we had best stop talking about “our heritage of greatness” for the national heritage is– let’s face it– a heritage of smallness.
=============

Read the full article here:
http://www.getrealphilippines.com/agr-disagr/17-4-smallness.html

Happy reading!! 😀

Benigno- I think you’re full of shit, except it is is your mouth intead of your ass.

Check out this bit of news:

Dell to put up Call Centre in the Philippines
http://smh.com.au/articles/2005/10/20/1129401349628.html

Obviously there are those who are soldiering on with business as usual (the way prosperous communities like the Tsinoys do regardless of how “oppressive” the politics are). Compare that to some hollow-heads here who are using politics as an excuse to undermine their productivity and sit around whining about how things cannot “progress” until everyone’s noses are clean.

To those who continue to advocate street hooliganism to further their political ends, maawa naman kayo sa mga 700 potential employees of this centre (even if it will probably absorb the best and brightest of our top schools and apply them to labour-added-value work).

Pinoy nga naman talaga. May tinapay na nga, nagiging bato pa.

ha ha! 😀

this is a free country.

(huwag na lang nating pansinin mga comments ni benign0; let him or HER quote his or HER URLs here but JUST DON’T click any of his or HER links. The sad thing, though is, since nobody reads his or HER stories, s/he pastes the article in the comments box. Oh, well…).

ennuf,

your right instead of wasting our time with you know who… lets help one another..

We Filipinos are capable of doing anything, we just have to work together and believe in ourselves. If we were able to oust a tyrant before, we can also do it with GMA !

The good news is that big Mike is back, at least when the right time comes we can drag his big ass around Mendiola. Then after we can rip his fat face into pieces….that would be a nice ending for him……he..he….

magnanakaw talaga yang pamilyang yan… inuubos na nila pera ng pinas..bwisit na mike yan bumalik pa dito baket maghahakot na naman

I don’t think Bolante is covered by EO 464 as he is no longer with the government. I just wonder how he will answer the questions to be thrown at him in the senate. (I INVOKE MY RIGHT TO SELF INCRIMINATION or RIGHT TO PRIVACY) For sure, he will not use, “National Security”. Unless he wants to end up having a “heart attack”.

We all know that whenever Mike Arroyo is in town, witnesses of scandals involving GMA et al suddenly recant and change their “tune”. Is it simply coincidental or is Mike really GMA’s legman?

Abangan ang susunod na kabanata.

Hey Schumey! Did you see the pics/vids of the Mendiola (almost) rally? The frontliners, mostly young men, were wearing black ribbons in their wrists, PCIJ bloggers kaya sila? I hope so. How I wish everyone we meet in the streets would wear one, we can proudly say have really made great strides through this medium, thanks of course to PCIJ!

Did you notice how we were calling on everyone to boycott Yuchengco’s RCBC, that a few days before the planned boycott, Yuchengco begged off from Gloria’s Constitutional Comission! I wouldn’t want to believe it was just coincidence, as with our call to boycott Astro Del Castillo’s fund house if he didn’t shut up and stop praising Gloria. Well, that silenced him for a few weeks, didn’t it? Today’s TV news though showed him back to his usual blabber.

This just goes to show the power of these pages and of those that speak their minds. More power to us!

Press Release

Title: SC questions Senate inquiries

The Supreme Court had put in question the legal validity of all Senate inquiries “in aid of legislation.”

The high tribunal, in its October 18 en banc resolution, required Senate to submit supplemental memoranda in 10 days to clarify “whether (its rules of procedures and those of its Blue Ribbon Committee) are legally valid and in effect for purposes of investigations.”

“Clarification of this matter is not only in order but also vital,” the Supreme Court said in its resolution.

The court resolution noted that the Senate had failed to submit proof establishing that it had duly adopted or duly published its rules of procedure. The court also noted that the Senate had likewise failed to submit proof that it had duly approved the rules of its Blue Ribbon Committee or had duly published it at anytime.

As this developed, the lawyer of National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales has submitted an evidence to the Supreme Court that will strengthen the assertion that the Senate and its blue ribbon committee “have no duly published rules of procedure” governing their inquiries.

This, in effect, will render all Senate inquiries and the results of such inquiries “irregular, unlawful and invalid.”

Gonzales’ lawyer, Atty. Antonio R. Bautista, submitted to the high tribunal on October 20 a certification of the National Printing Office dated October 18, 2005 that “its Office has no record of estimate, payment and publication of Rules of the Committee on Accountability of Public Officers and Investigations in the Official Gazette.”

Bautista also submitted another certification from the U. P. Law Center attesting that no rules of the concerned Senate committee are filed with the center.

Lawyer Jose Ricafrente of the Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas (PDSP) welcomed the SC resolution as an initial victory in the PDSP’s David-and-Goliath fight against the Senate. PDSP is the political party co-founded by Gonzales in 1971.

The SC Resolution and the certification from the NPO and the UP Law Center prompted the PDSP leaders to remark that “the senators are not only rude and useless, but also liars.” They recalled that during the October 11 SC hearing on the petition of Gonzales for the writ of habeas corpus, Sen. Joker Arroyo answered in the affirmative when asked by the Chief Justice if the Senate had duly published its rules of procedure.

Reference:

Peping M. Lugay
Head, PDSP Public Information Department
09184468461/ 9287884

Welcome development for you and your ilk, indeed!

But that doesn’t change the growing public perception that the Cheap Justices are as good as bootlicking as you are.

tongue in, anew, balita ko (from inq’s business chismis columnist vic agustin) gokongwei supports gloria because his businesses are making money. walang prinsipyo or shall i say pera ang prinsipyo. from now on, i’m boycotting gokongwei establishments and products (robinsons, jack and jill, yes magazine, etc etc.) does anybody have a complete list of what the gokongweis own/control? sayang ang pera ko. napupunta lang pala sa isang pamilya na sumusuporta sa taong mandaraya.

widow ba kamo si AH? baka kaya rin pinauwi si mike a. kasi kumakalat na ang balitang may nililigawan siya sa sanfo. kaya rin naman pinag-iinitan daw si ellen t ngayon ng malacanang.

This place called Lanao

As I have quipped to have described our sense of disregard for something of import like compromising our general sense of oneness as people, continue to be so darn repetitive to bawl time and again arguing over trivial but outright sensitively upright issues, like would we rather stay on as a system dogged by misbehaving leaders because they possess so much, too much power under the present system?

Is it fair to assume our democracy as an institution may be fraught with serious problems that indeed, we now must consider providing for resolutions the earliest possible time for us to be able to make the changes uprightly enough? Can we debate over the issues sanely whether to change into a Federal-Parliamentary system of government or stay the course, await people power take precedence remove a president the third time; can there be down to business reasoning why we cannot find time to check our sense of direction where we are headed really firstly before we commit ourselves to chance, people power again and again?

Where are we now, can we know where? I have absolutely no idea, but the tendency have always been to overrate ourselves.

For instance running a medium scale business here at home and cleaning toilet abroad in dollar denominated calculations can be quite a feat; to leave or not to leave, can mostly be the daunting question mostly in the minds of many Pinoys.

In leaving, the business may have to go too because if it’s America or Europe, one must make the transition weeks if not months or longer, and it takes money initially to spend hopping from one odd job after another mostly dealing with toilets, if not washing dishes or mopping floors. By the time things taper fine enough, already used to the gruesome dog day dog night work errands here and there, the visit visa expires and so chances become so unpredictable that if one is not caught, may always be unstable of mind and well being in the best remainder of his or her stay as an illegal alien.

A business gone no matter the scale is a handicap, there is no dollar equivalent to sustain the loss, and it is a minus factor for the country in economic terms no matter the argument.

So commence the cloak and hide sort of subhuman existence, if you’re the pretty TNT and womanly enough to tinker with life in the alley, give it some more time and it will be STD, or just be the toilet cleaner abroad and die contented but unhappy and heartbroken because your wife or husband may have way strayed, long gone to other arms to cushion, other arms to take comforts from. And kids? All drug crazed and broken, wasted generation again.

Our drug industry by the way, is nearing the half a trillion mark, so it is an outright misdemeanor for an incapable system, our law enforcement no match for drug traffickers if not some of them themselves the protectors, our youth no longer safe, sure fire victims, futures for our kids? Really very bleak!

This is the dilemma we have yet to make do comprehending, because out there are more of the million mark underrated working people already broken the moment they start to borrow money or sale off properties to fund their exodus, slowly, essential manpower resources start to crack up depleting us of the very important locomotive reserves.

They are our manpower reserves to keep us abreast of the ever challenging marketplaces of how to just make ourselves stay alive, at least have food on the table, irreversibly lost manpower and their business gone elsewhere, and local jobs deleted for the local job pool to suffer even much worse.

A reverse of fortune after good money spent to be physicians of worth only to wind up studying to be nurses, teachers on the run for work in America, a brain-drain and such a misfortune for the country!

There are certainly more pressing problems, absolutely, our need for an essential attitude check is chronic, ask ourselves of what should really constitute our priority, what is it really that we want?

I take realistic notice of important visiting foreign leaders coming to remind we are actually in trouble, thus we should take absolute notice of our global environment as parcel to the problem of terrorism following the 9/11 fiasco of which we have elected to be part, an even more excruciatingly daunting task indeed because we are within the inner cluster of the terrorists clasp or from within the freedom fighter’s grid, or else let us choose our graveyard.

Cheating in elections as we have been so hamstrung about had been mostly the domain of senators, at least in Lanao. I wouldn’t know one senator who would not know that in Lanao, cheating have been the norm and conduct in each of the elections because of the senatorial line up, they always cross party lines each time during elections whenever they need to cheat in Lanao, it is so laughable, very funny as if they’re so innocent looking and appear so unknowing of!

So, where do we go from here?

But before anything else, what is this place called Lanao, why has there been so much bad things being unduly painted of the place, who are the people of Lanao?

Lanao have been the bastion of defense against the onslaughts of the Iberians wanting to subjugate the place for nearly 300 years, they would fail miserably each time. The resiliency in battle of the Lanao people in the early 20th Century against the might of the Americans following the ceding of the Philippines to the Americans by the Iberians had been well documented to have been among the worst so that they needed reinventing the pistol to be able to down a Lanao (Iranon) warrior. The .45 caliber pistol was specifically designed for the Iranon warrior. This was thought to be their Vietnam War equivalent during those times.

American policy did change from military type resolve that instead of augmenting their already superior military, shiploads of teachers from America were sent instead of soldiers. Treaties of cooperation were enacted and so schools started materializing to mushroom all over the Mindanao & Sulu archipelago, especially Lanao. The thomasites as they were called successfully made their mark from amongst the Mindanao people, that before the outbreak of the 2nd World War, Iranons from Lanao became successful military officers of the US Commonwealth some becoming senators and others appointed in higher offices during the American administration.

Elections then were simple and clean, nothing fancy and expensive, among luminaries to have received schooling in Lanao was former VP Tito Guingona, a very good friend of the Lanao people, and so I was told.

But that’s not all, during the failed secret invasion of Sabah, Malaysia, by the Philippine government, Lanao and Maguindanao solons spearheaded the investigations in the late 60’s in an impeachment bravado in congress that also was led in the opposition senate by no less Ninoy Aquino and Gerry Roxas, this time wanting to unseat then President Ferdinand Marcos who I would surmise to be the Osama Bin Laden of his time having been the first to recruit Muslims man his invasion forces to create chaos and terror, sabotage communications, destroy bridges and other important infrastructure, in Sabah, Malaysia, then a UK protectorate enclave.

The secret military enterprise by our government then failed which culminated in the massacre of the Muslims it recruited from Sulu. This explains why we have rebellion in Mindanao, especially Sulu.

The failure of the dispensation of justice for the massacred recruits especially the quashing of the impeachment proceedings against Marcos ushered in the multifaceted counteractions by no less Malaysia.
No less a Malaysian Prime Minister made the secret visit asking for assistance in several meetings with Lanao and Maguindanao leaders take heed of the sinister, uncalled provocations of our government. As they were Filipino Muslims senselessly peeved by the killings, they agreed to lead the countervailing military counteractions by agreeing to send several Muslim youth from Mindanao and Sulu undergo military training; among them was the now incarcerated Prof Nur Misuari.

After which, several hundred others trained including Indonesian volunteers in so many other places in Malaysia and the Middle East during the late 60’s 70’s and early 80’s. The war still rages on although not as intense as during the Marcos years of running the war with the Muslims during his Martial law era in much of the early 70’s and 80’s.

After the assassination of Ninoy Aquino in August, 1983, a close Muslim confidant of Ninoy Aquino from Lanao helped, along opposition leaders, organize the Ninoy Aquino Movement of which he was made its first vice president, in San Francisco, Calif. USA in February, 1984. In other words, the Lanao people have also some contributions aside from cheating in elections, something this country never acknowledged, too bad really.

Lanao isn’t at all that bad, if we search our souls we actually started terrorism way ahead of Osama Bin Laden, isn’t that great?

Its not Lanao that is bad, but the prostituted institutions we have. (COMELEC, CONGRESS, MILITARY, SUPREME COURT and the different branches of the executive)

The Lower House doesn’t have credibility either. Most of the bills they passed are changing street names and naming new ones. And those definitely does not involve benefiting the nation. All they do is cozy up to GMA to have their share of the pie.

The reason why the congress and the executive are hell-bent in abolishing the senate is to silence GMA’s critics so the administration can go its merry ways. With no one to expose their illegal activities.

As they say, if you run out of sound argument in a clash of logic a clever way to win a point is to hit your opponent with insults. Nope, I cannot be drawn to a battle of the witless. I leave the witless among themselves.

benigno,

you argue like a writer of fiction. Why becasue you site some facts but the insuation could be wrong or the allusion is scornfully incongrous.

you must understandt that GMA with her enormous resources and power in her hand is trying everything to cover up her involvment in cheating in the election last year. understandably, pieces of evindence may come out in peicemeal. It doesnt matter though how the evedence are coming out but what it can prove.

I can not help but admire and be amused by the discussions going on here, re Philippine law, the executive, legislative, Noli de Castro having low grades in his university days, etc… It is apparent that you guys are so well informed and very eloquent. Evidence of high level of education which most Filipinos happened to have. Given that, why do we end up electing leaders that are completely inept of the role they are vying for?

Succesful countries elect leaders from a pool of highly qualified and politically, academically groomed population which are properly educated. Groomed of the role that they will eventually occupy. Great Britain for example, enjoys a system of governance that is highly effective. Their Judicial System is one of the best in the world.. They have the so-called Separation of Powers that is distributed amongst the Executive, Legislative and the Judiciary. The Separated Powers provides checks and balances that minimises abuse of power.

Philippine leaders have too much control and power vested in them when they take their seat. Philippines system of government, which is highly concentrated on one sector, encourages corruption as it is make it so easy for anybody in power to abuse that power.

It seems that our politicians first aim is to have more zeros in their bank accounts and the bank account of people close to them. So instead of a government that should do checks and balances to maintain the balance of power, we have politicians that are more interested in Cheques and Balances. We have politicians who seem to be aiming to be in the same league as Emperor Bocassa, minus the culinary delights of eating the opposition.

The way we elect the leader makes it even worse. A seat obtained by revolution will not ensure that the individual is fit or qualified to govern. We cannot blame the people of course for reacting that way, but vulnerable public, badly disppointed by their chosen leader will stage yet another revolution in the hope of putting a better leader. The cycle continues.

Re Noli de Castro grades – studies have shown that university performance does not predict the future success of individual. Winston Churchill had very poor report during his academic days.

History shows that it is the psychopath, neurotic and evil leaders, (i.e Stalin, Mao amongst the few) are normally succesful leaders. Whether or not they have brought their countries forward is another matter. They may have killed thousands of innocent people in the process but that is the way it goes.

Perhaps we should elect people who are already rich. But of course these rich families know too well to stay out of the limelight. Hence the pool where we select our leaders are from financially, power fixated indivuals who do not really have any idea on how to take our country forward.

It is a shame that Gloria Macapagal is still in power. Perhaps, one should seriously reconsider Ramos’s proposal regarding Parliamentary system of governance.

Hi Toro, Many thanks for your comment.
No doubt you mean no ill regard when you commented that, but I could construe it as you are insinuating that the lower strata ( with their sheer number) is bringing our country down by profoundly influencing the outcome of every election, i,e. as history suggests, corrupt and inept leaders.To say this is rather elitist which I am certain you are not.

Alright, I’ve heard enough.
Toro, start a Philippine Renaissance, an enlightenment period long overdue.

Just wondering, what is your profession?

Rye

Toro, that is an interesting argument. Philippine culture of Fanatical Devotion a big influence in the choice of leaders. A very scary concept especially in what appears to be a totalitarian society such as the Philippines.

Church/Religious leaders command profound respects amongst the followers. Given that this kind of society is prone to what Noam Chomsky describe as Human malleability, why was the so called Church or religious leaders failed to influence the outcome of the election? No doubt that the Poor Masa belong to some kind of religious sect.

I am throwing out comments, looking from the outside. I have no knowledge of Philippine Law, and I do not by any chance think that you are an elitist.

lomala and abdul about-faced, according to jess santos (fg’s lawyer). the great crawler’s at it again…so what’s new?

Mike A. is back!!!!! Welcome Back!!! Happy days are here again for the ARROVO family…..enjoy while it last…….. enjoy at the expense of the 80Million Filipino……. i really hope i can change citizenship in a snap of my finger……..ayoko na sa Pinas………… baka mas ok pa sa IRAQ….. dahil don walang Garcinungaling…..walang Tita Glue……walang Mike Arrovo.

[…] have been many reports on the behind-the-scenes role Atty. Arroyo plays in the administration (see Did Mike Arroyo fund postelection ’special operations’ in Lanao? in the PCIJ blog), his own statements for posterity leave little room for speculating as to what he […]

ano pa ba ang bago sa sarswela?…sa takot kasi ng mga marurunong at matatalino noon na si FPJ talaga ang nanalo…nanahimik na lang ang mga marurunong at matatalino…kaya nga ang konklusyon agad ay dun na lang tayo sa matalino…pero di lang matalino…masipag pang mangurakot….okay sana ang parliamentary system…kaya lang…kulang sa self-respect and patriotism ang mga public officials natin…biro mo ha…kumuha ng artista ang administration tiket na para tumakbong senador…ang purpose lang naman talaga nila ay makapaghakot ng manonood para sa mga talumpati blues nila…what a shame…yan ba yung matalinong lider ng mga matatalino?