vonjobi: wow, congratulations! kelan ang trip? i hope i'll be around when you come. had a good time with diosa last...
Keith Bacongco: Knowing Nograles and his Big Boss...garapalan na lang talaga.
Vinia Datinguinoo Mukherjee: Congratulations, PCIJ! Mabuhay kayo!
Lead Philippines: But without credible mass media there, what is left to protect the people..?
vonjobi: it's juned sOniDo.

Latest Message 3 months, 4 weeks ago

hopeless_race : Lets not just focus sa mga malversation of funds, sa mga overpricing..ating pagtuunan ng atensyon ang diskarte ng mga politiko na umuutang ng bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno."Small time" ang ibang pamamaraan ng pangungurakot kumpara sa pag-utang sa gobyerno ng bilyon na tunay ngang masasabing "pinaka big-time" at wala pang sabit.
hopeless_race : Mukhang tikom ang bibig ng lahat pagdating sa diskarte ng mga politiko sa pagutang ng mga bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno na tinatakbuhan. Itong pamamaraan na ito ang tunay na kumakain ng malaking porsyento ng ating national budget batay na din sa sinasabi ng world bank.
hopeless_race : Pakisilip naman po ang mga utang ni Villar sa BSP, ang mga utang nila RAMON JACINTO, RONNIE ZAMORA, JOE DE VENECIA at madami pang ibang mga pulitiko. Iilan lamang yan sa mga nababanggit sa balita na may mga malalaking utang sa gobyerno.
hopeless_race : Nagmimistulang "small time" lamang ang malversation of funds kumpara sa laki ng kinakamal ng mga umuutang sa gobyerno. At ito ay malinaw na natatakbuhan dahil hindi nga naman pwede makulong ang may-ari ng kumpanya sa pagkaka-utang lamang. Tunay na mga tuso at magagaling sa batas itong mga politiko natin. Masasabi ko na malamang lahat ng mga politiko ganito ang diskarte...wala pang kulong.
hopeless_race : PCIJ pkitingnan naman po ang mga gaya ni Villar na my malaking utang sa Gobyerno pero tinatakbuhan. Magtatayo ng kumpanya at uutang ng bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno ng walang balak bayaran. Tunay ngang walang nakukulong sa utang...ito ang prinsipyo ginagamit ng mga politiko ntin kaya nakakapagtaka kung san napupunta ang daang bilyong pera ng gobyerno.
hopeless_race : Sana itreat naman po ng media ang hacienda luisita at mendiola massacre na parang MAGUINADANAO MASSACRE. Ipublicized ang mga katotohanan at ipakita sa tao ang karumaldumal na pinaggagawa sa mga farmers dun. Untouchable po ba sila cory at danding at hindi magawang batikusin ng media about these two massacres?
hopeless_race : Kapag napaguusapan ang mendiola at hacienda luisita massacre ay parang walang nangyari at parang hindi big deal. Anu po ba ang pinagkaiba ng dalawang nabanggit na massacre sa maguindanao massacre?
hopeless_race : Its sad that we pinoys are blind to the fact of what had happened in mendiola and hacienda luisita. Ang tanong..bakit ang media ay hindi manlang matackle ang ganitong usapin? Takot ba sila kay cory at danding?
hopeless_race : Wilkins" brand, for P1.4 billion.-1999 Sugarland Multi-Food Corp. for P2.9 billion 2001- Purefoods Corp P7 billion P60 billion Coca-Cola ... See More 2002- Cosmos Bottling Corp. from RFM Corp. for P14.1 billion October 2008- GSIS' shares in Meralco worth PHP30 Billion. December 2008- country's biggest oil refiner, Petron Corporation. international company shopping spree: Australian boutique brewer J. Boag and Son for A$96 million in 2000. $97 million for Thai Amarit Brewery Ltd $35.5 mi
hopeless_race : Gud am..glad to be back.
jr_lad : rip mr. alecks pabico. you'll be greatly missed!
sevens21 : Dati input mo lng name at SSS ID makukuha mo agad STATIC INFO...
sevens21 : tawag ka sa HOTLINE nila walang ANSWER grrr we need pa namn ng static info SSS Gising!!!
sevens21 : Gawa naman po kayo ng article about SSS. Pangit ng site nila dali ma blocked ng account
guest_899 : we must check the background of each potential candidates to avoid having another big mistake like GMA
guest_899 : congratulations to PCIJ, more power and God Bless !
jazzymuver : how did Arroyo swallow that kind of things!! how come that she just spend the money our countrymen for her own sake!!
guest_3664 : i would be glad if u can include the investigation of the manner public officials announce infra projects as per COA regulation. It is frustrating to see their faces on the tarpaulin instead of the prescribed information like name of project, date of implementation,amount of contract, source/s of fund, among other things. This is very rampant here in Marikina. Thanks and more power on your noble endeavors. We need people like you to have make our country great again.
jhanz_08 : im making research on R.A 9136...with rgards to the privatization of NPC..could someone out there can let me understand more bout this matter?why was monopoly dismantled?email me..jhanycem@yahoo.com...thanks much
erika marie : P.S.:) my paper is due next week and i do hope someone could provide me these reports coming from reliable resources thank you ulit.
erika marie : P.S.
guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study regarding political killings in the philippines. could someone out there please send me human rights reports under Aquino and Ramos administration. you could send it at my email: erikamariet@yahoo.com your response would surely be very much appreciated. thank you everyone. god bless.
guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study for my paper regarding political killings in the philippines. i noted that there are no human rights reports during the Aquino and Ramos administration. could someone out there please send me reports regarding these matter? i do hope these reports came from reliable resources you could send it in my email; erikamariet@yahoo.comyour response would surely be appreciated. thanks everyone. god bless.
jayson bourne : gusto ko po maging member ng PCIJ, panu po ba? may application po ba? sana mapadalhan nyo ako ng info sa email ko... www.jboxpenshoppe@yahoo.com
jayson bourne : cory is OK, but kris & Noynoy sensationalize masyado...
guest_9891 : LABAN pa rin!
meow : boycotts worked during marcos years. how about doing it now against the businesses of the con-ass congressmen?
meow : aside from 168, what other establishments can we boycott that belong to the arroyos and their cronies?
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Arroyo’s legitimacy: An issue that simply won’t go away

Posted by: Alecks P. Pabico | November 29, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Filed under: 2004 Electoral Fraud, Arroyo Impeachment, Gloriagate, Governance, In the News

(UPDATED) “THE die is cast,” so declared Brigadier General Danilo Lim, claiming that now is the time to “end the sufferings and miseries inflicted upon us by the illegitimate Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo government and start a new life and a new Philippines.”

Lim read from a statement, contents of which echoed his aborted supposed withdrawal of support from the Arroyo government on February 24, 2006 during a protest march commemorating the 20th anniversary of the first people power revolt. For that “act of destabilization,” the bemedalled erstwhile chief of the Army’s 1st Scout Ranger Regiment has since been facing court martial proceedings.

Early this afternoon, Lim issued the same call to “patriotic officers and men of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police” as constitutionally mandated protectors of the people and the State, urging them to take the “fateful step of removing Arroyo from the presidency and undertake the formation of a new government.”

Read Lim’s statement here.

Lim had holed himself up starting around noon at the posh Manila Peninsula hotel in Makati City, together with Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and Magdalo soldiers facing coup d’etat charges for the short-lived mutiny at the Oakwood Premier Apartments in 2003. Earlier, Lim, Trillanes and their co-accused soldiers had walked out, along with their guards, of their scheduled hearing at the Makati regional trial court. Braving rains, they later marched on Ayala Avenue, joined by a handful of civilian supporters that included former Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr., Bishop Emeritus Julio Labayen of the Prelature of Infanta, and former University of the Philippines president Francisco Nemenzo Jr.

But two hours after the lapse of the 3 p.m. deadline issued by the police, the standoff was over as SWAT and Special Action Forces operatives began firing teargas canisters around the hotel to forcefully enforce the arrest warrant against Lim, Trillanes, and the Magdalo soldiers. They were later brought to Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan to face sedition, even possibly, rebellion charges.

Arroyo, charged Lim, had occupied the presidency under a questionable mandate. “She stole the presidency from President Joseph Ejercito Estrada through unconstitutional and deceitful means, and later, manipulated the results of the 2004 elections to perpetuate herself in power.”

It has not helped that efforts to resolve the legitimacy issue through the normal electoral, judicial and congressional processes have been constantly frustrated at every turn by what Lim referred to as Arroyo’s “use of naked power.” He cited the issuance of executive proclamations as EO 464, and the “sheer weight of numbers to paralyze the impeachment process — procured at the people’s great expense.”

Since 2005, impeachment complaints have been filed against Arroyo for the numerous allegations of government corruption, electoral fraud as evidenced in the “Hello, Garci” wiretapping scandal, and the killings of activists and journalists. The impeachment complaints though — including one recently filed charging Arroyo of complicity in the bribery-tainted national broadband network (NBN) deal and the distribution of “cash gifts” to congressmen and provincial governors in Malacañang — have all been summarily trashed on the strength of an overwhelming number of pro-administration legislators in the House of Representatives.

All those implicated in the Garci recordings — from military generals to Commission on Elections officials — have been absolved by non-transparent investigations whose findings were never made public, like the Mayuga report. On the contrary, the Garci tapes’ cast of characters even got rewarded with juicy promotions (read here, here, here and here).

As Lim also mentioned, the Arroyo administration has either blocked or sat on investigations of alleged cases of corruption and wrongdoing in government, among them the following:

the P728-million fertilizer funds scam involving former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn ‘Jocjoc’ Bolante;
bribery in the IMPSA contract involving former justice secretary Hernando ‘Nani’ Perez;
“Jose Pidal” and the jueteng scandals;
overpriced North Rail project;
Venable and other multi-million lobby contracts;
unresolved extrajudicial killings of activists, journalists and members of the judiciary.

The Senate blue ribbon committee’s investigation into allegations of bribery and overprice in the cancelled NBN project has also had to contend with the Arroyo government’s invocation of executive privilege. Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita even issued a gag order to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) not to release to the Senate committee NBN documents as the minutes of meetings held by the Special Joint Investment Coordinating Committee (ICC) and the joint NEDA Board and ICC, and the project’s evaluation report.

To this day, no case has been filed against Bolante (who remains in detention in the U.S. for an immigration case) despite a Senate investigation last year that recommended that he be tried for plunder. Though the Ombudsman finally recommended the filing of graft charges against Perez early this year, nothing has been heard of the case since then.

Though Lim, Trillanes and the Magdalo soldiers are to be faulted for another exercise in “adventurism,” one which however was not like the aborted military “withdrawal of support” in 2006 and the Oakwood mutiny in 2003, the roots of military restiveness — corrupt and unaccountable governance — have not been addressed with the quick resolution of the Manila Peninsula crisis.

Indeed, as Gen. Lim remarked, though regrettably, there does remain “unfinished business” here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 29th, 2007 and is filed under 2004 Electoral Fraud, Arroyo Impeachment, Gloriagate, Governance, In the News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

7 people have left comments

This was not a fight for what is right. It was nothing but politicking. It did the country no good. All it did was to give these people media mileage.

Those opposing the government of GMA are not different from her. They all want power. No one really wants to serve.

caroll284 wrote on November 29, 2007 - 8:47 pm | Visit Link

[...] caroll284: This was not a fight for what is right. It was nothing but politicking. It did the country no good. All it… [...]

The Daily PCIJ » Blog Archive » Curfew a throwback to Marcos era wrote on November 29, 2007 - 10:49 pm | Visit Link

Trillanes and company is delusional, and so is the squatter in Malacanang.

viking wrote on November 30, 2007 - 10:42 am | Visit Link

Trillanes, Lim, Guingona, Villar, Pangilinan, Pimentel, De Castro, Puno, Arroyo, De Venecia, Ramos…..and all elected officials….from national to local…what do they have in common?

paoloJD wrote on November 30, 2007 - 12:18 pm | Visit Link

instead of talking about how corrupt and illegitimate our president is - why not those who want her go down , invent a machine or program an operating system to compete with windows vister or max os x ?

if they want t help our governmetn then they should target economic solution .. not target the who is in power ..

try to invent a thing that money , we dont need another power to corrupt . your words wont turn into money , so shut up

johnvill wrote on November 30, 2007 - 12:38 pm | Visit Link

[...] along with Brigadier General Danilo Lim and their co-accused Magdalo soldiers, embarked on another failed exercise in military intervention. They walked out of the Makati regional trial court hearing their coup [...]

The Daily PCIJ » Blog Archive » ‘We cannot afford another military intervention’ — Trillanes wrote on December 1, 2007 - 1:14 pm | Visit Link

SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW?

SENATOR TRILLANES IS A MODERN-DAY GREGORIO HONASAN. AMBITIOUS, ADVENTUROUS AND PLAIN OPPORTUNIST. BOTH ARE BICOLANOS. HONASAN TRIED TO POWER GRAB THE REINS OF GOVERNMENT FROM MARCOS WHEN THE MARCOS SHIP WAS FAST SINKING AND FROM CORY BECAUSE HE WAS SIDELINED BY CORY AND LOST HIS LIFESTYLE DURING MARCOS.

TRILLANES SAW THE HONASAN MODEL AND HAD TRIED TO DUPLICATE THE FORMER’S FEAT. HE WAS ELECTED SENATOR BECAUSE HE MADE THE SAME MILITARY ADVENTURE HONASAN DID BY COMMANDERING OAKWOOD HOTEL IN 2003 AS HIS COMMAND POST.

NOW HE RELOCATED HIS COMMAND POST, WITH ONE GENERAL LIM IN TOW AT MANILA PEN, ACTING AS IF THEY OWN THE ESTABLISHMENT AND CAN THROW OUT LEGIT OCCUPANTS SO THEY CAN HAVE UNFETTERED ACCESS TO THE HOTEL.

THE GULLIBLE ELECTORATE FELL FOR THE FIRST SHALLOW BUT CALCULATED MISADVENTURE OF TRILLANES AND ELECTED HIM SENATOR. EXPECT GENERAL LIM TO RUN FOR SENATOR IN THE NEXT ELECTION.

THIS IS OUR TRAGEDY AS A NATION. WE CANNOT DISTINGUISH THE VILLAINS FROM THE REAL HEROES.

THE VOCIFEROUS AND IRRESPONSIBLE MEDIA UNDER THE GUISE OF REPORTING THE EVENTS HAD ACTUALLY HAMPERED AND OBSTRUCTED PURE POLICE OPERATIONS BY NOT LEAVING THE PREMISES WHEN ASKED TO DO SO, SO THE MISGUIDED MILITARY PERSONNEL UNDER TRILLANES COULD BE ROUNDED UP AND PUT BEHIND BARS.

ALAS, EVEN A SICKLY BISHOP HAD TRIED TO MAKE A SCENCE BY SYMPATHIZING WITH THESE “REBELS” ONLY TO BE BAILED OUT BY ANOTHER BISHOP AFTER THE FORMER WAS ARRESTED.

EVEN THE RESPECTABLE FORMER VICE PRESIDENT TEOPISTO GUINGONA HAD TRIED TO STEAL THE SCENCE BY GOING TO MANILA PEN AND BLABBERED THE CALL FOR GLORIA TO RESIGN.

WHOM ARE THEY KIDDING? SOMEONE INTERESTED IN REFORMING OUR SOCIETY MUST HAVE A BLUEPRINT ON HOW TO DO IT. THE ACTORS IN THIS LATEST ADVENTURES ARE POLITICAL MIDGETS, (WITH THE EXCEPTION OF GUINGONA) AND HAVE NO MORAL ASCENDANCY OVER THE PRESENT LEADERSHIP. WHILE I AGREE WITH ANYONE WHO SAYS THAT EVERYTHING IS NOT ROSY AND WELL WITH THE NATION AND ITS PRESENT LEADERSHIP, I DO NOT SEE ANY ALTERNATIVE FOR ITS EARLY DEMISE, ESPECIALLY IF ITS DEMISE IS BROUGHT ABOUT BY PURE MILITARY ADVENTURISM AND A CALL FOR TRANSITIONAL GOVERNMENT HEADED BY THE CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT.DUHH?

ATLEAST IN MY BOOK, I HAVE OFFERED A BLUEPRINT SO WE CAN MOVE FORWARD: “GO TO OUR CHILDREN AND INCULCATE IN THEM THE VIRTUE OF HONESTY, INTEGRITY AND THE CONCEPT THAT PUBLIC OFFICE IS A PUBLIC TRUST”. WE HAVE BEEN OVERTAKEN BY OUR ASIAN NEIGHBORS, JAPAN AND SINGAPORE BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS BECAUSE THEIR CITIZENRY ARE WELL DISCIPLINED AND THEIR LEADERS HONORABLE AND JUST. (PLEASE READ MY BOOK, “TERMITES FROM WITHIN”).

INCIDENTALLY, I AM A BICOLANO TOO, BUT NOT IN THE SAME CUT AS HONOSAN AND TRILLANES.

JCC

jcc wrote on December 1, 2007 - 9:07 pm | Visit Link