Si Manny at kanyang Joker

Ang taon ay 1998; ang buwan ay Mayo. Malinaw na si Erap ang inihalal ng nakararaming mga Pinoy bilang kanilang pangulo. Naglipana na ang mga sipsip at balimbing sa bahay ni Erap sa Greenhills.

Biglang araw-araw ay nakatabi kay Doktora Loi ang maybahay ni Manny Villar, kinatawan ng Las Piñas, isang miyembro ng Lakas na ang dinala ay si Jose de Venecia. Subalit nanalo pa rin si Erap sa Las Piñas, at halos buong Luzon liban sa Pangasinan ay tinangay.

Sinabihan kami ng magiging Executive Secretary ni Erap na si Ronny Zamora na ikampanya na si Joker Arroyo, kinatawan ng Makati, para siyang maging Speaker ng Kamara de Representantes. Ako noon ay nahirang nang PTA General Manager, at matapos ang isang linggo ay dinagdagan pa ni Erap ng ikalawang posisyon, bilang Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs. Noon pa mang kampanya ay alam na naming si Joker ang siyang magiging speaker kapag nanalo si Erap.

Ngunit noong magtatapos na ang buwan, biglang nabaligtad si Joker. Si Manny Villar na raw ang siyang kandidato ni Erap para speaker.

Kinumpirma ng Pa­ngulo sa akin na nagpalit na siya ng minamanok. (Para sa detalye, tunghayan niyo ang ating pitak sa Malaya noong Huwebes, Setyembre 25).

Naitanghal na ngang bagong speaker si Manny Villar, na bumalimbing mula sa kanyang partido Lakas at nanumpa, dala ang 50 pang taga-Lakas, sa LAMMP, ang koalisyong naging bandila ni Erap noong eleksyon. Nu’ng Agosto 17, 1998, tumindig si Rep. Joker Arroyo sa tanghalan ng Kamara at nagtalumpati.

Binira niya ng harapan si Villar, dahil sa pagpapayaman nito na isinangkalan ang kanyang posisyon at impluwensya bilang congressman. Nagpapasa daw ng batas upang dagdagan ang puhunan ng National Home Mortgage Financing Corporation hanggang sa 5.5 bil­yon, at matapos ito,

ang kanya namang mga kumpanya ang siyang gumamit ng pasilidad ng pagpapautang sa mga nagsipagbilihan ng mga low-cost housing na proyekto ng mga kumpanya ni Villar.

Malinaw na ito ay “conflict of interest”, ani Joker, at labag sa sinumpaang tungkulin ng isang opisyal ng pamahalaan batay sa Saligang Batas. Binira pa niya ng paglabag sa mga alituntunin ng Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act ang taong naisahan siya at nasingitan sa pagiging speaker.

Napakabigat ng mga paratang ni Joker kay Manny. Subalit hindi pinansin ng marami dahil akala’y naghihinaing lang si Joker sa kinasapitan niyang pagkawala ng pangakong maging speaker. At tumahimik naman ang Joker. Bakit kaya?

Ituon naman natin ang ating pansin sa pagkakapatalsik kay Erap. Nag-umpisa ang lahat dahil nag-alburuto si Chavit, nang umpisahan ng Pagcor ang Bingo 2 Balls bilang panlaban sa jueteng. Hindi kasi mapigil ni Pangulong Erap ang kanyang bagong PNP Director General na si Panfilo Lacson na walang humpay sa pagpapa-raid sa mga operasyon ng jueteng,

kaya’t nakaisip sila ng kaibigan niyang si Atong Ang kung paano magkakaroon ng legal na pasugal.

Nagpasabog ng bomba pulitikal si Chavit. Mismo raw si Erap ay kumukolekta sa kanya sa kita sa jueteng. Inusig si Erap ng Senate Blue Ribbon Committee na nag-umpisang mag-imbestiga. Nagkaroon na ng mga panawagang magbitiw si Erap. Nagbitiw na ang kanyang pangalawang pangulong si GMA sa kanyang puwesto bilang kalihim ng DSWD.

Ano pa’t mismong Speaker na kanyang pinili at pinapanalo, maski na nagtalusira siya sa pangako kay Joker, ang siyang agarang pinadala ang kaso ng impeachment sa Senado, sa isang dramatikong maniobra na agad namang sinang-ayunan ng higit sa 50 balim­bing na kinatawan, kung sino pa ang mga pinasumpa ni Speaker Manny Villar bilang LAMMP! Nag-umpisa na ang walang kaduda-dudang pagbagsak ni Pangulong Erap.

Pinagtaksilan siya ng mismong taong kanyang ginawang Speaker.

Faking surveys

This is one country where almost everything can be faked. Even the sitting president is a fake.

News is managed because of competing interests. Some publishers and network moguls represent vested interests, their own or those who generously keep their media outfits afloat. Some vested interests, political, economic, or both, also maintain retinues of so-called "publicists."

Some publicists think up and propose communication strategies to their clients. Others are nothing more than bribe-givers, "pagadores" who know no strategy, and define communications tactics purely on the basis of "how much."

Generally, big corporations who appreciate the importance of proper communications and public imaging maintain in-house corporate communications staff, augmented at times by outside consultants when "crisis" strikes. In our corrupted society, some "consultants" dispense nothing more than advice on who in media gets paid how much. This is not to say that this happens only in the Philippines. Even in supposedly "strict" polities where corruption has been effectively minimized, some level of "gentle persuasion" of policy-makers and program implementers manages to continue in actual practice, albeit less brazen and perhaps more sophisticated. In the benighted islands however, everything goes, and hardly anything is unacceptable or inexcusable.

In a polity where so-called perception or opinion surveys have taken over the job of selecting candidates for public office from the political party convention, popularity with accompanying survey figures constitute the singular measure of fitness for election.

One becomes a candidate for senator because he or she has high awareness ratings and adequate conversion of such national awareness into voting potential. Thus, when he swore in Manny Pacquiao into his and his Dona Gloria’s Kampi, Ronnie Puno proudly exclaimed that Pacman could well be a senator of the realm, except that he would be younger than the age qualification prescribed by law. He insults our collective intelligence, but then again, he is probably just telling the truth. Which is why we elect dolts into public office, and his president appoints completely amoral persons to high office.

Thus, media laps up poll survey results, as if they were bible truth all the time. Hardly anyone explains to the people who read or listen to them that surveys are mere snapshots of public opinion for the given field research period. Thus, what may have been public perception in July 1 to 14 may be completely reversed three or six months after. Note how Hillary Clinton was a shoo-in one year ago, and Barack was yet "Obama who?" in the same period? But by June, the Democrats had changed their mind, and Obama is now their candidate, and with the aid of George W. Bush’ monumental failures, will likely be the next president of the most powerful nation on earth.

Here in this country though, as much as fiendish manipulators can manufacture election results, so too can surveys be manufactured – faked as fake can be, but passed off to a gullible people by media.

Take the latest so-called "confidential Malacañang" survey. Of course we know that Malacañang hires reputable and competent research companies, aside from its in-house researcher, Junie Laylo. Perception and public opinion research is an important tool both in the crafting of policy as well as the art of governance.

But think again – why would a "confidential Malacañang" survey be leaked to a rabidly "oppositionist" paper? But there it was, bannered by this "rabidly" opposition paper. Conveniently, the supposedly confidential survey, its provenance unidentified (because manufactured?) places the convicted and pardoned former president, Joseph Estrada, as "numero uno" in the presidential race.

The former president was beside himself with glee, but did not realize that he was just a convenient tool. The survey, supposedly taken the first week of September, shows the Senate President jumping by leaps and bounds, extremely close and poised to overtake the heretofore "front-runner," Vice-President Noli de Castro. And conveniently too, it shows Loren Legarda, Mar Roxas and the ignored because unreported Ping Lacson being thrashed by the extremely wealthy Manuel Villar.

Neat, eh? Then, the "publicists" juxtaposed another survey, this time real, with their media play. This was the July 1-14 Ulat ng Bayan of Pulse Asia, where the Senate President garnered a performance approval rating of 72 percent, higher than Noli de Castro’s 59 percent, and never mind Nograles or GMA misma, whose approval ratings languish. Conveniently, the media tactical play omitted the fact that Villar’s other opponents actually scored higher in approval rating than he did, or virtually tied with him. Lumping together performance approval ratings of a reputable survey group with a clearly manufactured "confidential Malacañang" survey makes the fake survey look credible, right?

You would think that otherwise "intelligent" radio and television commentators would see through the obvious ploy, but then again, those who lapped it up either didn’t think straight enough, or they were appropriately persuaded – how, I leave readers to guess.

Now let me flash back to a personal experience in the national elections of 1992. In March of the year before, I proposed to my principal, Sen. Orly Mercado, that he float the name of Chief Justice Marcelo B. Fernan Jr. for the upcoming presidential derby. He did so, on May 1, 1991, in Cebu City, Fernan’s home turf. What I had in mind was a Fernan-Mercado team-up for the 1992 elections.

Before then, the announced presidential hopefuls were Vice-President Doy Laurel, whose bitter clash with President Cory left him politically bruised and battered; Senate President Jovito Salonga whose advanced age was seen as a political infirmity; Speaker Ramon V. Mitra Jr., who headed the House of the traditional politicians; Defense Secretary Fidel V. Ramos, who deserted Marcos in Edsa but was hobbled by a colorless political personality and undercurrents of distaste for military types six years so soon after the collapse of military rule, and Ambassador Eduardo M. Cojuangco Jr. who, perception-wise, personified at the time, the "ancien regime" of Ferdinand the dictator, though highly regarded as a potential economic savior of an economy made moribund by military challenges to its stability, and even Senator Joseph Ejercito Estrada, the movie actor tuned political star.

Orly and I thought that Fernan, whose integrity was unquestioned, the only Bisaya in a field of sure candidates all from Luzon, would manage to solidify the Bisaya-speaking population in the Visayas and Mindanao. Thirty-five percent or so of the country spoke Cebuano, and if Fernan clinched Cory’s endorsement, we would have had the first Visayan president since Carlos P. Garcia.

Waiting in the wings was Lito Osmeña, then Cebu governor, who we were assured would give way to Fernan if the latter decided to run. There was also the threat of an Imelda Marcos run, but we calculated that would affect Danding, not us. And at the time, Miriam Defensor Santiago was just a cause celebre, not yet the serious candidate she eventually became.

To cut a long story short, Fernan eventually became Monching Mitra’s vice-presidential candidate, and I was drafted into that campaign. I became the campaign spokesman of the Mitra-Fernan tandem, which led over a ticket of 24 senatorial candidates of which all but six were shoo-ins. We had a humongous party, the LDP, and virtually unlimited resources. But I knew even at the outset that Tata Monching was a hard sell, and survey after survey showed us that the battle, while close, had Tata Monching’s chances, well…chancy.

We had likewise a huge propaganda machinery, the entire Aquino siblings with Paul Aquino as campaign director and Lupita Aquino Kashiwahara as chief media handler. Famous names in advertising and media were consultants. Yet, the people never really seemed to warm up to our presidential candidate. I kept touting our vaunted organization in interviews because there was no way I could claim survey popularity. The machine will deliver the votes, I kept saying like a broken record, but I had this unease in the pit of my guts.

One day, the campaign honchos handed to me a supposed US Embassy survey which placed Mitra on top. Hallelujah! Except when I looked at the "methodology," I knew it was a great credibility stretch. But what the heck, I thought. We were desperate and I was getting paid well.

Of course nobody believed the "survey" despite the stateside pretensions. But media lapped it up. We were banner story in the tabloids, which of course I knew we had virtually bought.

On Election Day, we lost, and lost miserably. We were number four in a field of seven serious candidates, behind Ramos, Miriam and Cojuangco. Mitra got only 14 percent of the national vote. Fernan got close to 30 percent, and would have been a sure winner had Erap not switched to vice-president of Danding halfway through the campaign period. If Fernan had persisted in running for president, and gotten the same number of Bisaya votes as he did in the vice-presidential race, he would have won over all the seven other candidates. Ramos after all got only 24 percent of the national vote to Miriam’s 21 percent and Danding’s 18 percent.

So why do I now recall that harrowing experience of a failed campaign? Well, because most of the guys who helped run the Mitra campaign, my friends even, are now rooting for the beleaguered president of the Senate. They are oozing with pre-campaign money, products of a "Sipag at Tiyaga" handle that has since been corrupted to "Singit at Taga", and of late, a text message that proclaims "C-5 at Taga".

Will lots of money, provenance dubious, once more succeed in buying elections, in much the same way that an incumbent in 2004 used fake fertilizer funds, a humongous machinery, and faked the counting? If money, and lots of it, is all it takes to become president, heaven help this country and its people.

Short and simple

A retired government official, who is a certified public accountant, a member of the bar, and has an academically-earned doctorate to boot, wrote in a reaction to our article "The budget sucks."

He said: "I liked the way you described the budgetary process. Your attempt at reducing the technical jargon for the benefit of your readers was quite admirable. Indeed, both the DBM and the House Committee on Appropriations as well as the Senate Committee on Finance, backed up by an array of technical support groups, have through the years evolved so many ways and means of hiding, inserting and even parking funds in the voluminous General Appropriations Act."

"Senator Lacson admitted in an interview that it was a budget reform advocacy group which pointed out the double entry for him. His humility at telling the truth about his source is quite rare among politicians. A lesser man with bigger pretensions would have simply hogged the credit for such perspicacity.

"I likewise find the accusations made by Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. on this issue, in defense of the Senate President, both mendacious and dissembling. His late father, a man whose brilliance I admired, must be turning in his grave,

"In a queer defense of the Senate President, I watched Andaya Jr. charge Lacson on television with the offense the latter himself exposed. He said that Lacson, as a member of the bicameral conference committee, is "to blame, because he signed the report that was finally approved by both chambers of Congress". Lacson indeed shares a small part of the blame, but in truth, the double entry went past the brilliant mind of Juan Ponce Enrile, as chairman of the Finance Committee, and Edcel Lagman, who, like the late Rolando Andaya Sr., was undersecretary of the budget in the Aquino administration. Andaya Jr. conveniently forgets that the final bill as approved by both chambers of Congress, is transmitted to the President by no less than the Senate President and the Speaker of the House. So, Villar and De Venecia signed the budget likewise, and as heads of their chambers, if only out of command responsibility, they should be responsible more than the peers they lead.

"When the approved legislation is sent to Malacañang for the final act of presidential signing, which is only when it becomes perfected as the General Appropriations Act, it is supposed to be reviewed by Andaya Jr. and his staff once more. So here you see that Andaya Jr. also missed the double entry for the same road. If it was oversight on the part of his staff, it is still his responsibility. How many such double entries may have happened before, in his watch or under his predecessors?

"You hit the nail on the head when you described the secretive manner by which a few men, negotiating in behalf of their peers in both Houses of Congress, or for their respective leadership, finally hammer out the bicameral conference report. Andaya Jr. was chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations before President Arroyo appropriated him into her cabinet as minister of the purse. When the DBM Secretary was yet the appropriations chairman, his Senate counterpart was Senator Manuel Villar, who was chairman of the Finance Committee before he became Senate President. Both presumably are experts in the budgetary process, and both presumably likewise, should have possessed the eagle eyes to review a budget that they sign.

"Former DBM Secretary Emilia Boncodin said in kind fashion that this may have been a case of "human error." Possibly. But when you take note of the dramatis personae, Villar, Andaya and Lagman, all budget experts, and their presumably competent support staff, an "error" like this is inexcusable. One could probably excuse Senator Enrile because of advanced age, though certainly not for any lack of wisdom, which towers above most.

"I have some very short and simple questions regarding this double appropriation for a similar project:

"First, if as Senate President Villar states, he just wanted to increase the budget for a worthwhile project, the Carlos P. Garcia Avenue, formerly C-5, why did he not just cause the amount appropriated to be increased from 200 million to 400 million pesos?

"Second, Senator Enrile has publicly said that it was an insertion, as contradistinguished from a floor amendment, which under transparent conditions should be the acceptable way of increasing or decreasing proposed appropriations in the budget. And Sen. Enrile admitted that it was Villar who asked for the insertion. Was there a letter-request from the Senate President to Enrile for the inserted amendment? That (if any) should provide some clues into this double-entry mystery.

"Third, the Senate President stated that he just wanted to augment funds for the project. He did not state in his press conference that the additional 200 million was for a fly-over, as Senators Arroyo and Cayetano now allege, after the DPWH, almost a week after the double entry was exposed, also claim. If it was a fly-over, this is the first time in my long experience in government that such a monumental project was relegated to a single inserted line called "C-5 Road Extension, from SLEX to Sucat." Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane or his trusted undersecretaries must be called to explain this unusual description, and show the according programs of work.

"Fourth and finally for now, why did Andaya, after having been apprised of the mysterious 200 million double appropriation, state before the Senate Committee on Finance that he would no longer release the other 200 million, for which he claimed no SARO had yet been prepared? This is clear admission, contrary to what DPWH and Villar’s defenders are saying, that the appropriation was intended for a fly-over.

"Lastly, let me express my appreciation for your quotation from Sen. Dominador Aytona, about the budget being the economic plan of government expressed in pesos and centavos. For that is precisely what it is, and that is precisely why the budget is the single most important piece of legislation every year. Senator Aytona is one of the most brilliant Filipinos I have known, and it was my honor to have served under him at one time in his selfless and dedicated career.

"Please convey my best to Sen. Panfilo Lacson though I have never had the pleasure of his acquaintance. I had already retired from government service when he was appointed chief of the PNP. Giving in to the desires of family members, I migrated to North America during the unfinished term of President Estrada, which Gloria Macapagal Arroyo completed. Watching from the sidelines as a concerned citizen, I admired how he instituted reforms in quick fashion in the largely discredited police force.

"But let me tell you this: Before I migrated, I hosted a simple dinner for colleagues and staff with whom I served our Republic. Some of my guests worked with the Commission on Audit. When I asked them about Lacson, one of them said, "Sir, the secret of Lacson’s success is really on how he devolved funds from Camp Crame to the field stations of the PNP. Before, close to 40 percent of the PNP budget was retained by the generals in Crame, and only 60 percent went to the police stations in the field." Lacson made a simple budgetary rule, he explained to us: 15 percent for headquarters, and 85 percent for field operations, and made sure the money really went to the police force and not just the generals and colonels.

"I heard Senator Arroyo deride Lacson as a mere "policeman" in one of the heated debates broadcast by TFC, and I remembered what my auditor-friend told me about the policeman who understood what good management is all about."

Further this writer sayeth naught. The letter of our North American reader needs neither explanation nor any attempt at analysis.

Queenmaker, kingmaker?

After Joseph Ejercito Estrada was all but sworn in as the 13th president of the Philippines, his announced Executive Secretary, Ronaldo B. Zamora, instructed Elmer Mercado, Jimmy Policarpio and myself, among others I presume, to start working for the election of Joker Arroyo, the congressman of the first district of Makati, as speaker of the House of Representatives. This was a campaign commitment, as soft of course as political commitments go, made by then candidate Erap to Joker.

At about the same time, Mrs. Cynthia Villar of the landowning Aguilar clan of Las Piñas and Muntinglupa suddenly became a regular fixture at the incoming president’s Polk address in North Greenhills. Her husband Manuel was elected virtually unopposed for his third term as representative of Las Piñas, the family fiefdom. Villar openly supported Jose de Venecia of his party Lakas for president. Of course Erap swept all of Metro Manila including Las Piñas, but that was no thanks to the Aguilar-Villar clan. Erap maintained that Nene Aguilar "secretly" supported him, but then, even if the latter did not, all of Luzon except Pangasinan was swept by Erap. Surely the residents of the fiefdom of Las Piñas are not the unthinking robots of their landowners.

One fine Sunday, the exact date of which I have yet to check from a diary I am too lazy at the moment to retrieve from an antique baul in my den, Erap’s secretary asked me to proceed to Polk Street, and witness the mass oath-taking of 50 Lakas congressmen brought in by Lakas into LAMMP, the coalition that Erap used as flag of convenience for his successful presidential run. I did not feel like going, because I have always had a distaste for balimbings. But Erap was my president, and so I had to go. I was quiet all along the mass turncoatism ceremony, and didn’t even bother to stay for the food and drinks, always overflowing in Erap’s manse.

I asked confirmation the day after from Erap about my reading that Villar had become "it" for the speakership. He said, "Tamad kasi si Joker". And added, "besides, Villar is the choice of the majority. Pinondohan niya pala ang kampanya ng maraming nanalo."

I said, "Kung ayaw ninyo kay Joker, bakit hindi pa si Bibit (Duavit)?" And he chuckled, "Okay sana, pero tamad rin iyun, golf lang ng golf." And so Manuel Villar became speaker of the lower house, by the grace of Joseph Ejercito Estrada, who (chuckle), hated lazybones. Nobody becomes Speaker of the House in this country without the president’s imprimatur.

On August 17, 1998, a dejected Joker Arroyo rose on a question of personal and collective privilege, and began lambasting the man who beat him to Numero Quatro in Philippine officialdom, for clear conflict of interest between his dealings with government agencies as real estate magnate and his sworn responsibilities as a congressman under the laws of the land. Joker listed down some ten issues against Speaker Villar, including his sponsorship of a bill in 1994 that eventually became the Comprehensive and Integrated Shelter Finance Act of 1994. That law provided for the increase in capitalization of the NHMFC from 500 million pesos to 5.5 billion pesos. Joker charged that as head of the country’s largest low-cost housing conglomerate, Villar made piles of money from the housing loans that government provided, and which he "took out" and monetized out of future installments of Pag-ibig loan homebuyers. He also claimed that Villar and his family corporations had caused the conversion of some 60 million square meters of agricultural land in Southern and Central Luzon in contravention of the Agrarian Reform Law. He even made his peers visualize what 60 million square meters meant. All of Makati, he said, is 21 million square meters, and all of Las Piñas is 41 million square meters. "If you add the entire area of Las Piñas and Makati, that is the (size of the) residential subdivisions covered by the companies of Speaker Villar," Joker said.

And many other charges, made by Joker, ten years ago. Now Joker calls it "idiocy" to even discuss the same issues, which are at the core of what Ping Lacson detailed in a privilege speech last Monday in a Senate now headed by Senate President Manuel Villar whom he had accused of double insertion in the current budget for a road that would cut across his corporation’s properties. Now Arroyo has taken the role of being chief defender of the man he accused of far worse things ten years ago than Lacson is now charging his principal.

During the two years and a half of Erap’s stay in Malacañang, Joker played the oppositionist’s role, floor tactician even to the so-called "Spice Boys" led by Mike Defensor, Nonoy Andaya, Migs Zubiri and a few others.

Now let’s go back to those tense moments in the impeachment saga of Joseph Estrada. One fine afternoon in November 2000, right after the opening prayer, Manuel Villar suddenly segued into transmitting to the Senate the committee report signed by seventy or so congressmen, swelled by the same number of congressmen that Villar brought into the LAMPP from Lakas when Erap won in 1998. Oh, these balimbings.

Erap can’t say I did not warn him. Even days before the masterly transmittal of the impeachment complaint by Villar, I had told him that contrary to what his wheeler-dealer Danilo Suarez, the Quezon congressman, had been assuring him, Villar and company would bolt. (When I write a book, I will detail the classic words of Danny Suarez each time he would report to the Palace.) Mga balimbing before, balimbing forever.

Now everybody and his mother knows that it was Joker Arroyo who coached Villar on that sleight-of-hand railroad of the complaint, over the hoarse floor objections of Didagen Dilangalen of Maguindanao. Even Mala-cañang’s shepherd for congressmen, the PLLO, didn’t realize what hit them when Joker got Villar to turn traitor to Erap.

Arroyo led the prosecution team when the Senate trial of Erap’s impeachment by the House of Representatives began in December. And after the telenovela that gripped the nation, climaxed by the refusal of Erap’s Eleven to open the second envelope, Joker Arroyo and Manuel Villar succeeded in being queenmaker to Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

In the aftermath of Edsa Dos, both became senators of the realm; Joker believed by a gullible nation as "uubusin ang corrupt" and Villar as "Mr. Sipag at Tiyaga." They became buddy-buddies since, forming a fine dining cabal called the Wednesday Group.

How did the man who would be speaker become the chief apostle of the Speaker by the grace of an Erap they both conspired against? How did the man who charged Villar with gross violations of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act in 1998 now become the chief apostle and defender of the credo of "Sipag at Tiyaga", even when indications point to "Singit at Taga"?

Someone who was close to Erap intimated to me and some friends the "real reason why Erap junked Joker and chose Manny for Speaker: "There were a hundred million reasons behind Erap’s support of Manny in 1998." He qualified – "for the party".

Now I will segue into speculative theory and ask you, my readers to think if this theory of mine is plausible: What impelled Manny Villar to play along with Joker’s desire to install Gloria as "queen"? Could it have been because, had Villar not been nimble-footed enough and abandoned Erap when all the signs showed that the conspiracy of an anti-Erap Cardinal Sin, big business and others would be inexorably successful, Joker Arroyo could have played sweet revenge on a Villar he himself had determined guilty of acts of corruption, and in sums so humongous that indirectly qualify as plunder? And assuming these could not be directly proven, what, pray ask, would have happened to a Villar whose real estate and banking fortunes had crumbled as a result of the 1997 Asian crisis that doubled his peso liabilities? If he had not jumped ship and become Joker Arroyo’s chief instrument in playing queenmaker to Gloria, could balimbing Manny have succeeded in re-structuring and rehabilitating his fortunes so quickly if he had not abandoned Erap and joined Gloria? Remember, Joker had the goods on him.

When the Hyatt Ten resigned in the wake of the terrible revelations of Hello Garci, where were Joker and his Manny? Did Manny and his Nacionalistas ask for the resignation of Gloria? Of course not. But nimble-footed, brinkman-ship expert Manny got his wife Cynthia, now congresswoman after him of the family fiefdom, to play "oppositionist" and vote against Gloria. Moro-moro or a woman’s conviction?

And yet, when re-election time was up in 2007, and the surveys were so dismal for Dona Gloria, what did Manny Villar do? He renewed his friendship with a so-forgiving Erap, and voila, he became an instant "oppositionist." Still, minding the now-resuscitated business empire that a hostile Gloria could throw a monkey wrench into, Manuel Villar styled himself throughout the campaign as an "independent" along with Kiko Pangilinan. But while Kiko maintained his independence admirably throughout, Villar saw the forthcoming sweep of the so-called Genuine Opposition (a phrase that made me puke when they coined it), and rode the bandwagon at the tail-end, after spending hundreds of his fabled millions.

These days I wonder how otherwise intelligent people could refer to Manny Villar as "opposition". He supported Joe de V as Lakas in 1998, then switched to Erap right after the latter’s victory, then dumped Erap because Joker must have reminded him of the many "bukols" he had exposed in that 1998 speech in the floor of the House. Then he ran successfully for senator together with his mentor-tormentor Joker under the flag of the Dona Gloria they had collaborated with to proclaim "Queen" at the expense of their "friend" King Erap in 2001. When Gloria’s fortunes soured in 2007, he allied himself once more with an Erap whose memory is as feeble as his forgiving nature, and metamorphosed as "opposition."

The balimbing aka be-lim-bing, is an elongated fruit with five star-like sides, that is so tart, "mapakla" in Tagalog. Only traditional politicians of the Filipino variety love it, and consider it "sweet", depending on the "juice" (read that as money) they could squeeze from its mushy pulp.

Now a gaggle of trapos, young and old, dream of making a certified balimbing "king" of the benighted isles. And Joker Arroyo, the man who made an administrative disaster out of a well-meaning President Cory’s first year in office, the man who was "out-bought" from the speakership of the House, and bamboozled the same Speaker into overthrowing Erap to install Doña Gloria queen of the land, hopes to play kingmaker in 2010 for his now beloved King Balimbing.

O tempora, o mores!

Buking!

Mula kay Ferdie ng Quezon City, na nagtatarabaho sa Commission on Audit, nakatanggap tayo ng liham:

“Napakarami namang butas sa pabagu-bagong pag-isplika nina Senate Pre­sident Manny Villar at mga kaalyado niya ukol sa bukol na 200 milyung pisong dagdag niya sa budget. Tuloy ay lalo lamang nilang binigyan ng lubid si Villar upang maibigti ang kredibilidad nito.

“Maliwanag na pareho ang tinutukoy na proyekto. Kung ito’y magkaiba, dapat ay malinaw na isinulat kung mula saang kilometro patungo sa kung anong kilometro ng tinaguriang C-5 Road na pareho rin pala ng Carlos P. Garcia Ave­nue. Sa tagal na naming nagsusuri sa mga gastusin ng pamahalaan, ngayon lang kami nakakita ng ganitong maliwanag na double entry.

“Nu’ng naglubid-lubid ang paliwanag ni Villar, na ‘diumano’y ayaw aminin, pagkatapos umamin din ukol sa dobleng P200 mil­yon, sinabi namang fly-over daw ang karagdagang P200 milyon. Ano ba talaga? Kalsada o fly-over? Nakapagtataka, sina Andaya at Ebdane pa ang siyang nagdedepensa kay Villar, na ayon kay da­ting Pangulong Erap, ay “oposisyon”. Nakatutuwa!

Sino ang kanilang pinaglololoko?”

***

Mula naman kay Mon ng lalawigan ng Quezon: “Mayabang na sambit ni Senador Cayetano, ang 200 milyung piso ay barya lamang sa isang bilyunaryong tulad ni Villar. Naalaala ko ang sinabi ng isang senador din nu’ng panahon pa ni Pangulong Garcia, “Millionaires don’t steal”. Binanatan siya ni Senador Claro Mayo Recto, na sinabing ang tanong ay simple, nagnakaw ba o hindi, mahirap man o mayaman.”

Dagdag ni Mon: “E hindi ba itong si Villar ang siyang mina­dali ang pag-upo ng pinakamalaking kurakutero sa ating kasaysa­yan, matapos na talikuran si Pangulong Erap bilang Speaker of the House? Ngayong lumalabas na ang kasakiman ay mahirap tala­gang supilin ng mga may “immoderate greed”, sino ang nagtatanggol sa kanya, kundi mga alipores ni GMA. Wika nga sa Barangay Ginebra --- “Bilog ang Mundo”!

***

At habang sinusulat natin ito, banner story ng ating pahayagang Malaya ang Chapter Two ni Ping Lacson ukol kay Villar.

Noon palang 1998, kauupo pa lang ni Villar bilang Speaker, sa panguluhan ni Erap, nag-privilege speech itong kanya ngayong masugid na alalay, si noo’y Cong. Joker Arroyo ng Makati, kung saan inakusahan si Villar ng katakut-takot na dami ng paglabag sa Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, na diumano’y paggamit ng kanyang kapangyarihan at posisyon bilang congressman para kumita ng limpak-limpak na bilyones sa NHMFC at Pag-ibig! At nag-convert pa raw ng kulang-kulang anim na libong ektarya ng lupa na dapat ay sakahan, upang gawing mga subdivision ng kanyang mga kumpanya. Nasa records ng Kamara de Representantes iyan at permanente nang nakatitik sa opisyal na talaan ng ating kasaysayang pulitikal.

Kay aanghang ng mga pananalitang binitiwan ni Cong. Joker Arroyo noon laban kay Villar. Pero ngayon, tuta na si Senador Arroyo ni Villar. Paanong lulunukin ni Joker ang laway na kanyang ipinutak sa Kongreso noon ukol kay Villar?

He, he, he ... joke only iyon?

Ayaw umalis sa pwesto

Bilang miyembro ng FSGO, isang grupo ng mga dating hinirang at nanilbihan sa bayan sa matataas na posisyon sa pamahalaan, at bilang isang mamamayang sawang-sawa na sa baluktot na pamamahala na batbat ng katiwalian, minabuti kong ilathala sa ating pitak ang “official statement” ng Former Senior Government Officials, na nilagdaan din ng iba’t ibang mga organisasyon ng mamamayang Pilipino, na nagbababala sa masamang pangitain na mukhang isusulong na muli ng pamahalaang Arroyo, ang pag-amyenda sa anumang paraan ng Saligang Batas, o sa kasukdulan, ang paggamit sa kaguluhan sa Mindanao upang manatili sa pa­nguluhang hindi naman pinanalo sa paraang marangal:

“Kailangang Maghanda ang Mamamayan para Kumilos laban sa Pananatili sa Malacañang ni Gloria Arroyo.

“Mga mamamayan kami, mga indibidwal at organisasyon, na nababahala sa kasalukuyang nangyayari sa larangan ng pulitika. Kahit na maraming tumututol na lider ng administrasyon at oposisyon, patuloy pa ring nababalitaan na walang balak umalis si Ginang Arroyo sa Malacañang sa 2010.

“Hindi na sana pinag-uusapan ang pagbabago ng Saligang Batas sa pamamagitan ng isang Constituent Assembly, dahil malakas na tinututulan ito ng maraming Senador. Hindi kasi matutuloy ang isang Constituent Assembly kung hindi sasang-ayunan ng 2/3 ng Senado. Pero patuloy na sinasabi ng Mababang Kapulungan, ayon sa Speaker at sa Tagapangulo ng Komite sa Constitutional Amendments, na tatanungin daw nila tayong mga mamamayan kung nais nating magkaroon ng isang sistemang federalista, o dapat na magkaroon ng isang parliament, o kung ano pang kunwaring dahilan na maiisip ng mga Kongresista para magmukhang makabayan at hindi makasarili ang pagbabago sa Saligang Batas. May mga Kongresista pa nga na nagpahayag na ni hindi kailangan ang boto ng mga Senador dahil, ayon sa kanila, magkasama daw bibilangin ang boto ng mga Kongresista at Senador. Dahil napakarami ng mga Kongresista, bale wala ang boto ng mga Senador.

“Papalit-palit ang isip ng administrasyon tungkol sa labanan sa Mindanao. Sa simula ay minadali nila ang pagpirma sa MOA sa MILF tungkol sa Ancestral Domain. Pagkatapos ay bigla nilang kinansela ang usapang pangkapayapaan. Binuwag nila ang Peace Panel ng gobyerno. Nagsinungaling pa na hindi naman daw alam ni Ginang Arroyo na may pipirmahang MOA. Para pa ngang sila ang nagpasimula sa bagong labanan sa Mindanao. Parang sinadya talaga ni Arroyo na magalit ang MILF at ang iba pang armadong grupo. Parang gusto nilang gumamit ng dahas at tuluyang makipaglaban sa gobyerno ang mga ito. Balak yata ni Arroyo na gamitin ang gulo sa Mindanao bilang dahilan para isuspinde ang writ of habeas corpus o, huwag naman sanang mangyari, na tuluyang magdeklara ng Batas Militar. Ayon kasi sa Saligang Batas, mayorya lamang o nakararami ng mga Kongresista at Senador, na sabay bibilangin ang boto at hindi hiwalay, ang kailangan para payagan at ipagpatuloy ang Batas Militar.

Crime without punishment

A friend of mine has been stranded in the town of San Fernando in Sibuyan Island, one of the three major islands that make up the province of Romblon. He is there to report on the start of the salvage operations to be undertaken on the MV Princess of the Stars which sank last June.

The salvage operations intended to extricate the drums of endosulfan from the ill-fated ship could not however be started because a storm has engulfed the area with four to five-foot waves and sheets of rain. The heavy rains started pouring Saturday night, and by dawn of Sunday, the small town was knee-deep in water, even as the helpless residents were asleep. Many were unable to save their few belongings. An old lady was weeping on Sunday noon while she tried to dry what probably amounted to a sack of rice in some concrete structure. What would her family eat, she asked? This was all she had saved for the rainy day, and the rain drenched their food.

Residents told my friend that the only way he could get back to Manila was for him to ford the river that separated San Fernando and Cajidiocan, and from there, hire a pumpboat that would take him to Tablas Island. Ford the river, he wondered? The residents told him the relatively new bridge had been washed away by the rampaging waters from rain-soaked Mount Guiting-guiting early Sunday morning.

When he got to the site where the washed-off bridge was, he was shocked. What manner of beast, what kind of profiteering or tongpats-paying contractor built this kind of bridge? For there its smashed pieces were, slabs of concrete with hardly any sturdy reinforcing steel bar. Talagang pinagka-perahan lamang. Built to be destroyed by the first rush of river water.

If this was a DPWH project, both the supervising DPWH engineer and the contractor should be hanged. If this was financed by a "congressional insertion," well, the money literally washed off. And since this is such a remote municipality in such a remote island, the national officials and the national auditors will likely not even know about this criminally-constructed bridge.

The governor will just declare a calamity, appropriate whatever funds he could scrounge for the people of San Fernando, and next time around, the congressman will ask for another appropriation, perhaps an insertion, or likely as part of his PDAF, otherwise known as pork barrel, to construct a replacement bridge. And likelier than not, this favourite contractor will construct the same kind of bridge that was washed down by the floods from Guiting-Guiting. So when nobody is looking, yet another insertion or yet another pork barrel allocation will be wasted on sub-standard construction of the most criminal kind.

Do crimes like these ever get punished? They are everywhere in these benighted islands.

Senators and congressmen, governors and the national government fund river-dredging projects where hardly any real dredging is done. Scoop a little here, scoop a little there. Anyway, when the rains come pouring, who will know how much has been dredged? Who will bother to measure the cubic meters of sludge or sand retrieved from river beds? It’s robbery, it’s plunder, but does anyone ever get punished? No. Because the perpetrators are the high and the mighty, the politically powerful and their economic backers, and never mind if the people get screwed over and over again.

OPM no longer refers to "original Pilipino music" which at one time during martial law was regulation music for a quarter of each hour over radio. OPM means "other people’s money", which is what the high and the mighty use to further enrich themselves. Banks use our savings, and when they go bankrupt, people suffer the consequences. Crooks in government, in cahoots with crooks in business, waste our people’s money with overpriced and sub-standard projects like that abomination in dirt-poor San Fernando in dirt-poor Sibuyan.

Will these crooks ever be punished? Don’t bet on it.

Joc Joc Bolante has failed once again in trying to stave off his deportation so he can answer for his fake fertilizers sprayed in the concrete of Metro Manila. When he gets back to these benighted islands, expect the Ombudsman to either drag its feet on prosecuting him, or file a case so weak that the co-opted Sandiganbayan will dismiss for "lack of evidence."

Jun Lozada was clearly abducted from the NAIA, taken on a forced ride to Laguna and Rizal by persons unknown and menacing, yet the government reasoned that they were only escorting him on a joyride. And the absolutely discredited and almost completely dishonourable Court of Appeals sustains this demonic rationalization. Meanwhile the police colonel who Lozada charged for complicity in his abduction has been promoted to a police general, and the airport security officer who brought him from tube to waiting agents of the Presidential Security Command is still as smug as ever in his post. Worse, the conspiracy to rob Filipinos with the mind-boggling sum of 329 million dollars in future tax money remains among the high and the mighty in a country where impunity is the rule.

Oh, but I am being unfair. Some do get prosecuted by our venerable Ombudsman.

Last week, the Ombudsman announced the filing of graft charges against Tamantao Amerol. regional director of the Bureau of Internal Revenue in Cebu City.

It also ordered the dismissal of one Beltran Dy, revenue district officer of Balanga, Bataan. Great!

Problem is, Beltran Dy has already retired. And Tamantao Amerol is dead.

Don’t you find all these revolting?

Well, your president is back in the United States, purportedly to address the annual junket for heads of state of the United Nations. She had earlier cancelled this trip (wasn’t she in the US of A just three months ago?) because of the situation in Mindanao (kuno), but when Lehman Brothers went down, and Merrill Lynch was absorbed by Bank of America, and AIG is under rehab, infused with billions of US Treasury money, and who knows what’s next, Doña Gloria suddenly decides to go back to her US of A.

And whaddaya know? Just before she left Sunday night, with a "lean" delegation of seventy-one hangers-on kuno (did a GFI president and a lady stockbroker, among others, precede her entourage?), Malacañang announced that among the things she will "accomplish" in the suddenly resurrected visit is a "high-level discussion with financial and banking experts" on the crisis rocking the foundations of capitalism centered on the banks of the city that never sleeps.

Is it really how the crisis affects our puny economy, or how it has affected their fat pocketbooks?

Go figure.

The budget sucks

Sen. Dominador Aytona, a former customs commis-sioner, finance secretary and briefly the Central Bank governor during the time of President Carlos P. Garcia (when the Philippine economy was Number Two in Asia after Japan), once remarked that "the budget is the economic program of government stated in pesos and centavos." The definition may sound like it was taken straight from an Economics 105 textbook, but that is precisely what the budget of the Republic is.

The process of making a budget is tedious. I shall not belabour our readers’ patience by using technical jargon, but in simple terms, it is like this: As early as the first quarter of the year, the different departments and line agencies of government (excepting GOCC’s whose budgets are not submitted to Congress) are asked to submit their proposals. These proposals are grouped in three accounts: Personal Services (salaries, wages and benefits including the 13th month pay), Maintenance and Operating Expenses (MOOE), and Capital Outlays (for equipment purchase, building construction, etc.). In the case of infrastructure agencies like the DPWH and DOTC, a list of projects that require either one-time funding or continuing appropriations is included.

These proposals are submitted to the Department of Budget and Management, which then forms technical working committees for each agency to reconcile differences between the macro-economic spending limits set by NEDA and the economic team, based on income projections of DOF and the economic policies and goals of government.

See why Senator Aytona defines the budget as the "economic program"?

Eventually the "final" draft is presented to the President, who in the case of Doña Gloria the economist is perused personally. In the case of Erap the artista, whatever Ben Diokno of DBM and Philip Medalla of NEDA, with the nodding approval of Titoy Pardo of DOF presented, went. Which is not necessarily bad, because the three gentlemen are not crooks.

Doña Gloria herself "inserts" or "re-aligns" for reasons more political than economic, but that is a long, long story, the truth behind which will probably come out only when she is no longer La Presidenta.

The result is the National Expenditure Program (NEP) which, along with the prepared enumeration of sources of funding, is presented to the House of Representatives, and is usually called "The President’s Budget." The House Committee on Appropriations with its myriad sub-committees (of which practically all congressmen are members since Joe de Venecia invented the "win-win" solution to all problems, otherwise called the practice of "happy-happy", or pleasing everybody) then deliberates on the budgetary proposal. This is the time for congressmen to show "may alam sila" or for the wise and wizened to corner the secretaries of departments with resources and push for their "pet" projects. Insertion na naman.

After the usual moro-moro, the Committee consolidates its House Bill, and brings it to the plenary for approval. Maghahabol na naman ang ilan. "Yung dagdag ko, ‘yung dagdag ko!" For the lazy and the hindi wa-is, hanggang siguruhin lang ang pork barrel nila, otherwise known as the CDF, now PDAF. Hating kapatid lang ang nalalaman. For the wise and the hawk-eyed, malaki pa ang singit.

Approved, it goes to the Senate. Hearings na naman. Singitan na naman. At the end of the tortuous road, it goes to the floor for amendments. This is where guys like Ping Lacson and Mar Roxas propose direct amendments on the floor, as when Lacson removed 20 million from the Office of the President and transferred it to the Department of Science and Technology. Hindi singit, kundi lantad. As Vince Lazatin of the Transparency and Accountability Network would say, "open and transparent".

After the Senate version is approved on third and final reading, there is another hitch. Both houses have to reconcile their two versions. Enter the "dragon." Not the dragon that says "Pag bad ka, lagot ka!", but the Bicameral Conference Committee, the powerful "third chamber." By this time, the clock is ticking fast and furious. Malapit na ang adjournment ng Kongreso. Photo-finish time na. While the bicam has about a dozen or so members from both houses, it’s really just between the chairs of the Committee on Finance in the Senate and the Committee on Appropriations of the House where the "negotiations" are pursued. The last-minute singit. But in the House, there is a "speaker’s eye", usually the majority floor leader, to make sure "everybody is happy" and the minority floor leader, if he is someone like Ronaldo Zamora of San Juan, who always "takes care" of his boys, and is no push-over with his sharp intellect and long experience. Hindi kayang isahan. Of course, there are the patient, overworked (half of the year lang naman) technical staff of both houses, who have to pander to the requests, now popularly known as "singit", or "congressional insertions" in well, more elegant language.

In actual practice, a few men make the final decisions. The only caveat which the law provides is: You cannot appropriate more than what Malacañang submitted. You can juggle, also called "re-align", and you can make singit (with the concurrence of Malacañang’s DBM boy), but you cannot exceed.

Now let’s look at how Prof. Ben Diokno (he advised Sen. Ninoy Aquino on the budget, became budget undersecretary under Cory, and was Erap’s budget secretary) reads the double 200 million insertion:

"At what point in the budget authorization phase was the first project inserted? It could have been done during the preparation of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) by the House, or during the preparation of amendments of the Senate to the GAB, or during the bicameral conference committee. Based on available information, the first project was not in the GAB nor was it in the Senate proposed amendments to the GAB. The logical conclusion is that it was introduced during the bicameral conference committee meeting.

"Political analysts call this committee the "Third Chamber." It operates under extremely secretive conditions. (No recorded minutes, much like a meeting of Mafiosi dons).

"The first plausible explanation is that the new project was approved by the Third Chamber and incorporated in the bicameral conference committee report. But only the two chairpersons of the two chambers of Congress can certify that indeed the controversial item was taken up and approved in the Third Chamber’s sessions. The second explanation is unlikely but possible. If there was no agreement to include the new budget item, then it might have been inserted during the printing of the General Appropriations Act (GAA), which would be a criminal and punishable act. (This is what Lacson suspected when he grilled Rolando Andaya Jr., except that the guy threw the ball back to the senators by saying that this was a "congressional insertion.")

So that rules out the "criminal" act of "printing" magic. Has this happened before? The brother of a former senator who is now a cabinet member said that when another senator was yet the chair of the Finance Committee, and the current DBM secretary was yet the House Appropriations chair, some last-minute "singit" was rushed, but that is his allegation, not mine. Now back to Ben Diokno:

"Executive officials have conflicting statements on the alleged double appropriation. Public Works officials argued that the road project has two parts, including a flyover infrastructure, which required the additional P200 million. By contrast, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. acknowledged the double funding, stated that the other budget item was a congressional initiative, and then assured the doubting public that no funds will be released for the second appropriation.

"Andaya’s explanation gives rise to another question: If the funding for the inserted budget is a redundancy, and will not be released, why didn’t the President veto it? Since the new budget item was not expressly vetoed, it continues to form part of new authorized appropriations for 2008, which may be released between now and December 2009 (just in time for the May 2010 elections). Or the appropriations for the new budget item may be declared "savings" and used to augment other items in the 2008 budget (including the first project). In effect, through some convoluted way, the funding for the project will be raised to P400 million or higher.

"Some cynics can’t resist raising the question: Was the redundancy (or redundancies) in appropriations an oversight or was it intentional? Remember that any redundant appropriation may be declared as "savings" and later used to increase (or augment) the appropriations of other items in the 2008 budgets – including the lump-sum appropriations. By augmenting lump-sum appropriations, the President would then be able to use "savings" to finance projects that have yet to be identified."

So why should the Senate get to the bottom of this? Naisahan ba sila, o sa pag-singit nila, iisahan sila ni Dona Gloria and her favourite Nonoy? O inisahan ang taongbayan ng kasamahan nila?

In any case, see how the process of passing the budget, from preparation to deliberation, from insertion to approval, and even to printing, can be so debauched by men and women with sinister intentions. Kaya nga ba’t Ms. Korina Sanchez coined the phrase, "Singit at Taga".

Now listen to Miriam Defensor Santiago, in her privilege speech last Wednesday: "That is the raison d’être or the very reason why I have filed that resolution to have an independent group review the entire 2008 budgetary process. This will depend on the subjective judgment of every senator."

Santiago feels that Lacson’s tirades should not be considered as an attack on the entire Senate. "For me, it is not offensive for the Senate as a whole; it is an act of self-cleansing on the part of the Senate before someone else does it for us. It was an attack on the budget process and its ultimate secrecy," she said.

Saying it is unconstitutional for Congress to keep secret the budget process, she added it also leads to abuse of authority by committee members during the bicameral conference. "With the budget, the bicam not only reconciles the differences between the House and the Senate versions. Under the most secretive conditions, the conference introduces budget items that did not exist in any version," she said.

"No new projects should any longer be introduced during the process of budget reconciliation," Miriam suggests. "Even I, a senator no less, was refused by the Legislative Budget Review and Monitoring Office (LBRMO under Yolanda Doblon) when I asked for a list yesterday," the senator says. Why the veil of secrecy? Ano ang itinatago?

See now how the budget sucks? As in how government sucks our blood, sweat and tears by taxes here and taxes there, and gives us in return, over-priced projects, sub-standard projects, miserable service, and collusion between the legislature we elected, which is supposed to provide checks and balances, and the executive we did not even elect?

As I ended last time, it is time to revolt.

Was it the handling?

Favorite topic of conversation in coffee shops these days is the tempest in the Senate. For those who have not read the narrative that we printed in this space Thursday and Saturday last week, let me encapsulate the events:

On Monday, September 8, in a hearing of the DBCC on the budget, Senator Ping Lacson confronted Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. with a discovery: A double appropriation of 200 million pesos for an identical project. After Andaya consulted his staff, he responded to the Senate Finance Committee that the additional 200 million for the C-5 Extension road was a "congressional insertion." Asked by Lacson caused the insertion, Andaya could not answer.

By Monday afternoon, before the session opened, the speculation over media was that the insertion was initiated by Senate President Manuel Villar. For one, some budget department sources had told media that the insertion was done at the instance of Villar. Then again, Lacson sent his staff to check if there was a billboard proclaiming the proponent or "political benefactor" of the project, and while there was no billboard any longer, tricycle drivers plying the neighbourhood routes said that there used to be one with SP Villar claiming the project. Media came to town with the revelation.

This is where politicians of high stature and big dreams usually call in a coterie of media and communications advisers. Some senators have none, and rely on their own instincts. Some have a battery of such. I would not know for certain how many "handlers" Villar has, or whether he relies purely on his own political instincts.

But Villar’s handling of the issue, as most every political observer and coffee shop habitué these days wonder, was clearly wanting. And wanting is putting it kindly.

At the time he called a press conference in his office (Tuesday afternoon, September 9), Lacson had not accused him of any wrongdoing, and had not identified him for certain. The person who said it was a congressional insertion was Gloria’s budget secretary. But Villar was angry. He lashed at his critics, even said something disparaging about a colleague whose lady friend, a well-known broadcast journalist, was stridently critical of him. Which should be par for the course for someone who has been Speaker and is now Senate President, and who wants to be president.

But while he praised the C-5 extension road project, also known as Carlos P. Garcia Avenue, he did not specifically say that it was he who requested the insertion, or call it amendment albeit not done on the floor.

One week after the discovery of the double entry, Lacson delivered a strongly-worded privilege speech, and in front of the dais where Villar sat glumly, directly asked Villar to own up to the additional 200 million. It was supposed to have been delivered the day after Villar’s press conference tirade, but the rains interfered. So both Villar and his handlers could have come up with a cogent explanation between the rains of Wednesday and the expected tempest of Monday of the next week. Why the eerie silence on the part of Villar, mismo?

A man whose integrity is being questioned, and who railed and ranted six days about "political motives" a week before, this time meekly reiterated that he has been clean all his life, that every centavo of his fortune was derived from the sweat of his honest labor. That is rather uncharacteristic for one who feels his reputation was maligned, and frontally at that, in front of peers among whom he is primus inter pares.

He should have gone down from the dais, and defended himself, with righteous indignation.

Yet he did not. Instead, it was Juan Ponce Enrile, the senator from Cagayan who chairs the Finance Committee, who manifested on the floor that for the sake of transparency, for the sake of the budgetary process that has become questionable in the minds of the public, an investigation should be made, and "let the axe fall where it should." Earlier, in an interview, Enrile identified Villar as the one who requested him for the insertion of an additional 200 million.

On the eighth day (Tuesday the 16th), Villar gave exclusive interviews for the two major television stations where he finally admitted it was he who requested the additional appropriation, but explained that these were two distinct parts of the total C-5 road project. He now parroted the line given by DPWH Undersecretary Manuel Bonoan, that the addition would fund a flyover. Note that Bonoan made the explanation five days after the Monday discovery.

Why should a simple explanation of the specifics of a massive undertaking such as this take the DPWH five days to produce? The project exists. There are plans and specifications, even cost estimates for every phase. To begin with, as Lacson pointed out in his speech, why were these alleged two phases of a project not so specifically described in the GAA? Other projects which Lacson named were very, very specific. In the case of 400 million, there clearly was sleight-of-hand in the generic listing of identical projects, the legerdemain being "neat" – an old name, and a new name for the road.

And why did it take Villar eight days to finally admit the additional appropriation, not before his peers in the Senate, but in two "exclusive" and presumably arranged interviews?

Meanwhile, through all of the previous week, his political acolytes did the contorted explanations for him. Even a party spokesman had to bear the brunt of speaking for his party boss on an issue that was on the plate of a Senate he is not part of. Why, simply because he had, in the words of Ms. Korina Sanchez, "an angelic face"? The advice of "handlers", perhaps? Or simply an eager-beaver who wants to be in the limelight because he harbors senatorial plans for 2010?

In falling all over the place, the explanations were varied. Two stretches of the same road, later, a flyover here and a flyover there. But then again, the DBM secretary, he who holds the power of disbursements from the purse, earlier and forthrightly declared that he was impounding the additional 200 million. But these are "two legitimate phases of the project", hindi ba? What gives?

It should have been a simple phone call right after the Monday, September 8 DBCC hearing, between the secretaries of DPWH and DBM, and on the same afternoon, a clear explanation about the "two phases" of the C-5 project would have been produced, and communicated to the public. Why did that take five days for a career "senior" undersecretary? Why did it take eight days for the DPWH Secretary? And why is Malacañang now the one clearing the "opposition" Senate President, through Andaya, plus this Golez, and now, even the presidential legal counsel, Apostol?

Was it a case of "nagpa-palusot" as plain folks call such contorted, delayed explanations? Delayed justifications to save the day for a beleaguered Senate President who did not have either the righteous indignation to defend himself from questions on his honor, or the presence of mind to explain what ought to have been so simple to explain away, if, and that is the big IF, he is telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but.

In the meantime, through all that week of wagons circling their beleaguered master, Villar’s political allies and acolytes spewed arrogant words so similar of the way Malacañang dismisses alleged "political noise". "Bring it to court!" (That’s very, very, Palace-plagiarized). "A mountain out of a molehill," which gave Lacson a chance to come to town. And "200 million is just loose change", which gave Lacson the opening for comparing the standards of the mighty and the wealthy with the little dreams of the ordinary Filipino.

So, was it the handling?

Trying to be dispassionate, especially since I know some of the acolytes very well, and since I know some of the "handling" advisers as well, I could only conclude that the fault lay, and lies, in the character of the man who would be president.

Why the evasiveness? Why send your lieutenants to do battle over a matter which only needs a clear and simple explanation following a clear and simple admission, if indeed nothing was the matter? Or is something the matter?

Simbahan kontra mambabatas

Matindi ang ginagawang pressure ng mga obispo at kaparian upang hindi maipasa sa Kongreso ang Reproductive Health Bill at maisabatas ito. Liban sa mga kalatas na pinalalabas ng mga obispo, at mga sermon ng kaparian sa mga misa sa kani-kanilang parokya, iniisa-isa ang mga mambabatas upang magbago ng kanilang mga paninindigan ukol sa nasabing pa­nukalang batas.

May mangilan-ngilan na ngang kinatawan sa Mababang Kapulungan ang nagpalit ng kanilang paninindigan dala ng matinding “pressure” mula sa Simbahang Romano Katoliko. Nabawasan na ang mga awtor ng ilang nasindak ng kanilang mga obispo. Alam naman ng mga ito ang posis­yon ng mga kaparian ukol sa anumang pagpapalaganap ng birth control liban sa tinatawag na “natural”. Ngunit pumirma pa rin sila maski na sila ay kaanib sa Simbahang Katoliko dahil alam nilang kaila­ngan nang bawas-bawasan ang pa­tuloy na lubhang pagdami ng ating populasyon.

Kahanga-hanga sana ang kanilang paninindigan para sa kapakanan ng mga kababaihan at kapakanan ng ekonomiya, na siyang naging dahilan upang lumagda sila sa panukala, bagama’t alam nilang kontra ito sa dogma ng kanilang simba­han. Kaya’t kung sila’y umatras matapos ma-pressure ng mga obispo at kaparian, e malinaw na takot sa kapangyarihan ng kaparian na maaaring gamitin sa susunod na halalan. Mababaw, ngunit ito ang realidad ng pulitika, lalo na sa mga lalawigan.

Kaya’t bagama’t ako ay Katoliko, humahanga ako sa posisyon ng Iglesia ni Cristo sa usapin ng reproductive health at population management. Para sa kanila, ang kay Caesar ay kay Caesar, at ang sa Diyos ay sa Diyos,

gaya ng nakatala sa banal na bibliya. At ang isyu ng pagpigil sa lubhang parami nang paraming populasyon ay desisyon ng estado (Caesar) para sa kapakanan ng bayan. At dahil malinaw rin naman sa Saligang Batas ng bansa ang paghihiwalay ng simbahan at estado, e na­rarapat lamang na sa usaping ganito, ang paninindigan ng estado ang siyang masusunod. Sila ang gumagawa ng batas, at sila rin ang nagpapairal nito.

Hindi naman tinatanggal ng estado sa simbahan ang karapatang pangaralan ang kanilang mga kasapi. Bahagi ito ng karapatan sa pananampalataya. Kaya’t kung alituntunin ng Simbahang Romano Katoliko na masama ang birth control, e walang hahadlang sa kanilang pangaralan,

maski pa badyaan ang kanilang mga kasapi. Sabihin man nilang pupunta sa impiyerno ang magbi-birth control sa artipisyal na paraan, nasa kanila iyon, pero hindi naman dapat na gamitin nila ang estado para ipatupad at ipairal ang kanilang posisyon sa isyung ito.

Bakit pamahalaan ang siyang dapat magpatupad ng alituntunin ng Simbahang Katoliko, e hindi naman lahat ng Pilipino ay kasapi ng Simbahang Romano? At maging kasapi man, may sariling isip at karapatan ang bawat isa na dapat ay pangalagaan ng pamahalaan,

lumabag man ito sa nais ipairal ng kanilang simbahan.

Kaya’t ako ay humahanga sa mga mambabatas sa dalawang kapulungan na naninindigan para sa panukalang batas ng reproductive health bill,

maski pa sila’y mabigat ang pressure mula sa sari­ling simbahan na tinututulan. At sa ating konting pana­naw, nasa tama rin ang posisyon ng ibang simbahan, tulad ng INC, na ipinauubaya sa mag-asawa ang desisyon ukol sa nai­sing dami ng mga supling, at pagpapaubaya sa pamahalaan ang pangangalaga sa katawan ng tao, habang ang ukol sa kaluluwa ang siyang responsi­bilidad ng pananampalataya.