GMA’s & Villar’s Greatest Fear

FRANKLY SPEAKING
by Frank Wenceslao

What happened in Thailand last week explains why Gloria Macapagal Arroyo would enter into a deal with the devil if that would keep her in power.

Thus, the report is plausible that GMA has entered into an agreement with Manny Villar, a.k.a. “Money Villaroyo” for protection in case he wins. GMA knows Villar is on the same boat she is and has better chance to win than Gilbert Teodoro but could lose to Noynoy Aquino which is GMA’s and Villar’s greatest fear.

They must feel like Nazi leaders during the last days of Hitler’s Germany when the Russians were knocking at the gates of Berlin. GMA wants to avoid the fate of former Asian leaders like Thaksin Shinawatra, Taiwan’s Chen Shui-bian, and South Korea’s former presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo who went to prison while Roh Moo-Hyun committed suicide rather than face charges of corruption.

Thanks to her Supreme Court appointees GMA is allowed to run for Congress that serves no useful purpose for the nation. It’s outrageous “utang-na-loob” each justice appointed by her should’ve exorcised from his/her heart upon taking the oath of office.

As already known worldwide, Thailand’s Supreme Court ruled last week that fugitive former Prime Minister Thaksin had abused his power for personal gain and should be stripped of $1.4 billion of his frozen $2.3-billion fortune at home. However, Thaksin’s hardly headed for the poorhouse.

The ruling included he could keep about $900 million of the frozen wealth because some of it was made before Thaksin became prime minister. He operates foreign businesses and was quoted in The Times of London in November saying he still had $100 million outside Thailand.

Prosecutors accused Thaksin and his former wife, Potjaman na Pombejra, of hiding ownership of shares in family business Shin Corporation during his five years in office, and of abusing his power by crafting policies that benefited the company. Thaksin, who faces a two-year jail term from an earlier conviction for selling land to his wife at below-market prices, was convicted Feb. 26, 2010 in four of the five corruption counts against him.

One count involved approving a $127-million low-interest government loan to Myanmar in 2004, with the understanding that the neighboring country would buy satellite services from Shin. The nexus of power and money is hardly unknown in Thailand, however. Corruption watchdog Transparency International ranked it 84th among 180 countries in its 2009 perception index.

Obviously, Thaksin’s case has impacted current and former Philippine government officials, their close associates and immediate family members including private individuals and businessmen that colluded with them.

What happened in Thailand surely can happen in the Philippines if the next President were untainted with corruption and wanted to reduce it down to manageable level, thus lay a basis for his success. There’s no doubt corruption is the country’s most debilitating problem.

Unless it’s effectively addressed, the next President’s efforts to turn around the nation’s political, socio-economic and moral deterioration are doomed to fail and so will he. He must set up examples by enforcing anticorruption laws in the books like the Thais did against Thaksin, invoke the UNCAC’s international cooperation provisions (UNCAC-ICP) and prosecute every “big or small fish” responsible for messing up every administration with the most callously and unprecedented anomalous government deals than its predecessor.

We used to laugh at Thai athletes during Asian Games. However, that country has overtaken the Philippines in every aspect of national progress such as the judiciary and rule of law, trade and industry, economic development and respect of the international community.

I believe the next President surely not Villar, who has many skeletons in his closet, will do what Thailand’s, Taiwan’s and South Korea’s governments have done in no nonsense and without fear-or-favor prosecution of current and former public officials, their close associates and immediate family members, or private individuals and businessmen that colluded with them.

They perpetrated the most outrageous government contracts destroying millions of Filipino lives. Because had the resources stolen by them been invested in pro-poor development projects, millions of lives could’ve been saved from malnutrition, lack of health care and medicines and those driven to poverty, criminality, prostitution and hopelessness.

Winnie Monsod has one of the best cautionary tales why Villar should not be elected President. She said Villar’s pecuniary involvement in the C-5 road extension project led to the loss of billions of pesos that could’ve gone to the poor he now promises tongue-in-cheek to liberate from poverty and its debilitating effects.

Had Villar given a thought to the resources wasted? The project could’ve been financed with private funds through build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract or official development assistance (ODA) instead of Villar’s diverting funds for it from deficit-heavy national budget.

Villar simply has no legal and moral defense using government resources without investing his capital to build up his real estate development empire. His modus operandi is like the Mafia’s except that the latter do not hold government positions on which Villar and his wife have leveraged their criminal enterprises.

All of which is the reason Villar for all intents and purposes is buying the presidency with billions of pesos he illegally earned shamelessly claiming the money he’s spending is his for the unprecedented campaign expenses the Filipino people hadn’t seen since the 1986 snap presidential election in terms of callousness and arrogance.

Surely, Villar, his wife, children, and/or their owned or controlled corporations have transferred by mail or wire to deposit ill-gotten income in the U.S. banking system and invest in American real estate, securities and commercial enterprises. These acts violate U.S. laws on American soil.

If Villar loses, they will be indicted and arrested for trial in the U.S. In case he wins, Villar will be subject to impeachment and under GMA’s thumb if she becomes House speaker.

For direct comments: fcwenceslao1034@gmail.com.