by Lito Banayo
from MALAYA
In Iloilo which I just visited, most every elected public official is a declared Lakas-Kampi toady. But guess who the political overlords are whispering all over? Not Gibo, the official Pa-La-Ka candidate, but Money Villarroyo.
In nearby Antique likewise. And in Capiz, why, Joc-Joc Bolante, the “genius” who sold bottled water with a spoonful of urea, packaged it as foliar fertilizer, and sold the useless concoction at a 1,500% overprice to the Department of Agriculture where he was the most trusted undersecretary with a direct line to the Palace, mismo, is running for governor. He is the Nacionalista Party candidate, and his propaganda tarps proclaim Money Villarroyo as his president!
Yet here comes Alan Peter Cayetano, who claims that it was the Villar Senate which prosecuted Joc-Joc Bolante. But aside from boycotting the last session day of the Senate where the Gordon Blue Ribbon report that damned Bolante and his superiors in the Arroyo regime was supposed to be resolved in plenary, Manny Villar’s Nacionalista Party has anointed El Joc-Joc, mismo, as their “next governor” of Capiz. Breathtakingly “bolantic”. The “aswangs” must be rolling in glee.
In Caraga, NP senatorial candidates were all over the place a week or so ago, and guess who was “shepherding” them? Why, the wife of a Pa-La-Ka “loyalist”, who swears to the highest heavens that Gibo is it! And the powerful political families in the region, while maintaining their Pa-La-Ka ties and close affiliation with Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, are hosts to Money Villarroyo and his wife Cynthia whenever he or she visits.
In Bohol, hardly any Pa-La-Ka, incumbent or not, is working for Gibo. Only his former colleague in the Arroyo cabinet, Art Yap, who is running unopposed as congressman of the 3rd district, is hewing to the party line, and moves around for Gibo. Instead, it is common knowledge that administration “loyalists” are engaged to Money Villarroyo. The incumbent governor after all was Villar’s deputy speaker for the Visayas, and the vice-governor he has endorsed to succeed him is the official candidate of the NP.
In Batangas, a former governor, well known not because he was such a good administrator of the province, but because he was a most successful operator/financier of the numbers game called jueteng, swore into the Nacionalista Party more than a year ago. His legal confidante is the lawyer of Cezar O. Mancao, the “star” witness of Agnes Devanadera and Peter Ong of the DOJ. Who pays the lawyer’s professional fees? Or is it pro bono, he, he, he? The lawyer is such a loquacious fellow who loves to preen before TV cameras and has been caught peddling false information about the case against Ping Lacson. Does the governor pay his fees, or does Money Villarroyo foot the bill? But wait till you read the next paragraph.
A highly respected armed forces general, who retired with several stars, intimated that no less than the wife of a very powerful cabinet member played host to Money Villarroyo and his wife in Dipolog City recently. Wow! And Gibo hasn’t added it all up yet? Akala ko ba “galing at talino” ang kaibigan ko? Paano kang makaka-take-off kung ang makina ng eroplano ay na-cannibalize parang Nomad ng mga kasamahan mo sa Pa-La-Ka?
What’s the connection between the previous two paragraphs? Guess where the powerful cabinet member comes from. Why Batangas, of course! Like many other Arroyo cabinet members, he is running to reclaim his old seat in Congress.
And then there is this “wonder boy” who is super close to the First Couple. After losing his senatorial quest in 2007 because many Filipinos refused to recognize him as their “uTol”, he has lowered his sights somewhat. He hopes to succeed Sonny Belmonte as mayor of Quezon City. But is he the Pa-La-Ka candidate? Nope. He is the adopted candidate of Money Villarroyo and his Nacionalistas.
It all adds up. And Gibo cannot seem to figure it out. Or if he has, he tries hard not to show it.
All the surveys show that GMA is the most distrusted person in the history of the Philippine presidency. Still, there are anywhere from 15 to 18 percent benighted souls in the country who approve of her according to the same surveys. Gilbert Teodoro was introduced as Dona Gloria’s “champion” eight months ago, and his survey ratings have inched up from one percent to five, even four points, despite heavy media presence, good debate presence, and Galing at Talino ads lumilipad over the place. Where are Gloria’s 15 to 18% loyalists? Where is the vaunted party machinery that Gibo relies upon? Surely they should have shown in the surveys after 8 months, even little by little?
Upon the other hand, and I have kept writing about this, Dona Gloria knows that she cannot transact with Noynoy. Moreover, she hates those “traidores” (that’s how she calls them) among the Hyatt Ten who left her in the middle of 2005 when conscience bothered them about Hello Garci, and they are all with Aquino and Roxas, including her erstwhile defense secretary who left her in 2006. But Money Villarroyo is “otra cosa”. He can always be relied upon, because he has always been transactional.
He transacted with the late Speaker Mitra of the LDP in 1992, then with the FVR administration afterwards. He shooed off an Erap promise to install Joker Arroyo as speaker of the House right after May 1998, and was proclaimed Speaker. By transaction.
Mysteriously, Joker who even delivered a scathing privilege speech on the “transactions” of Money Villar in the floor of the House on August 17, 1998, became his buddy-buddy. Another transaction? And Villar, following the brilliant parliamentary maneuver taught him by Joker Arroyo, impeached the president who made him speaker. Another transaction?
Villar became senator in the wings of the 2001 Edsa Dos “People Power” Coalition, courtesy of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the woman who would not have become president had not Villar impeached Erap. And he became Senate President after 18 months of Frank Drilon, because he “transacted” with the Palace. In the wake of the Hello Garci revelations, did Money Villar denounce GMA? Of course not. He kept as quiet as an Egyptian sphinx. But the brinkmanship in him let loose several Nacionalistas to denounce Gloria and Garci. Like Alan Cayetano and Gilbert Remulla, both congressmen under his patronage. Even his wife Cynthia quietly aligned herself with the minority. But the other half of the Nacionalistas voted against impeachment or abstained to deny the opposition the requisite number. Including Cavite Representative Boying Remulla, now Money Villarroyo’s rabid attack dog.
Yet in 2007, when because of Hello Garci and other scandals, he found Gloria’s company a “kiss of death”, he flits back into the “opposition”. Which stupidly adopted him. Right after winning re-election, he “transacts” with known Gloria allies to ensure he retained the presidency of the Senate, and jettisoned his new allies in the Genuine Opposition.
Money Villar is a most “transactional” politician. The kind that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo loves to deal with. And has always dealt with.
You want six more years of business as usual, with President Money Villarroyo and Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo? With Joker Arroyo as President of the Senate? Wow! A gaggle of Arroyos, enough to suffocate us all.
It all adds up. And now, the piece de resistance — Manila RTC Judge Myra Garcia-Fernandez, issued a warrant of arrest against Senator Ping Lacson right on time, right after C-5 at Taga was banner story for several days, punctuated by the boycott of Money’s loyalists after Money delivered his defence sans sense. This despite the fact that the Lacson lawyers filed a motion for her to judicially determine whether probable cause existed, in the light of revelations in her own court, where Dumlao said Ping had nothing to do with Dacer-Corbito, and Mancao was caught in a web of factual inconsistencies, and where Mancao admitted that GMA’s loyal Romeo Prestoza of the PMA Class of ’78, did convince him to implicate Lacson, who was such a pain in the neck for the Arroyos.
Voila! C-5 at Taga has vanished from the news, and instead, the manhunt for Lacson is top running story, with fuel added by the ululations of that idiot in the NBI. Perfect timing?
Indeed! RTC Judge Myra was recommended by the Judicial and Bar Council to be appointed to the Court of Appeals, with only one brave man dissenting, Senator Chiz Escudero who has been following developments about the Lacson case.
The intent of the Arroyo regime, dear friends, is not to seek justice, but to impose revenge. Humiliate Lacson. Get him behind bars, and the Dacer sisters think they will get justice? Makulong lang, never mind if the evidence eventually exonerates Ping. Tutal, malilipat na sa ibang judge, because Myra Garcia Fernandez will soon become “Justice”, no longer “Judge”.
In the language of transactions, how do you call this?
Kaliwaan.
And for Money Villarroyo, ever so lucky, ever so wealthy, there is the bonus of C-5 at Taga out of the headlines. Now the Noynoy group would be absolutely stupid to let C-5 at Taga and other horror stories die down. Already, Villarroyo’s attack hounds are on the offensive, with SCTEX and Hacienda Luisita. They have even produced a lengthy documentary on Hacienda Luisita, slickly and professionally produced with the help of the communists who adore Joma Sison, and will soon launch the same.
And all with the blessings of the stinking palace beside the stinking river.
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