By Karl Allan Barlaan and Christian Cardiente
Manila Standard Today
The year 2011 was stormy. It ended like it began, only with greater intensity.
January set the pace and the country has never slowed down since.
According to the 5 January news bulletin of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, nearly half-a-million persons were displaced due to continuous rains. There were floods and landslides in many parts of Southern Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. 527 villages in 19 provinces were affected. The death toll stood at 25.
By 23 January, the death toll rose to 68 with 26 others still missing. Almost 2 million were affected and nearly a month’s rain had caused damage to P1.78 billion worth of infrastructure, agriculture, and private property.
At the height of the calamity, while 2 million Filipinos were displaced from their homes, it was reported that President Benigno Aquino III bought himself a P4.5 million 2007 Porsche sports car.
The President defended himself against criticisms. The luxury vehicle was purchased “third-hand” from his own pocket—to help him relax and aid in his decision-making.
A March 2011 Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey would later say that 48 percent of Filipinos disapproved of the Chief Executive’s purchase—“not a good example for a President of a country like the Philippines,” a majority of the respondents said.
In July, two months after the survey, Mr. Aquino would sell the car—not due to public opinion he would insist, but out of “security concerns.”
On 16 January, Aquino appointed election lawyer Sixto Brillantes as Chairman of the Commission on Elections. Brillantes’ appointment would prove pivotal to the events of the coming year.
On 27 January, former Armed Force of the Philippines comptroller Lt. Col. George Rabusa took to the Senate floor and revealed how former military chiefs received millions from public funds as “pabaon” (send-off money) upon their retirement from the service—among them, former AFP Chief-of-Staff Angelo Reyes, who had served under the administration of former President Gloria Arroyo.
February: Drawing the (war) line
February started without pretension. On its very first day, former Commission on Audit Heidi Mendoza testified on a similar controversy of graft in the military before the House of Representatives Justice committee.
Mendoza, while detailing how military officials siphoned funds off public coffers, also talked about the plea bargain agreement that had downgraded from plunder to direct bribery, the charge against another former military comptroller, Carlos Garcia. One of those supposedly responsible in the plea bargain was then-Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez. She at that time was facing two impeachment complaints in Congress, though not including the said issue.
The auditor’s exposé arguably added to the public’s disfavor of the already-unpopular former Ombudsman.
Mr. Aquino would later name Mendoza COA commissioner, in April.
A week later, on 7 February, Angelo Reyes committed suicide amid graft charges related to the AFP fund scam.
But while the perceived hunt against Arroyo allies ensued, the law seemed lax on one particular Aquino ally.
On 03 February, the Court of Appeals dismissed charges against Sen. Panfilo Lacson who was accused of masterminding the murder of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbit.
Lacson, who had then been in hiding for nearly a year, would resurface in late March.
Marching with the numbers
There were two earthquakes in March, a magnitude 5.2 in Ilocos Norte (10 March) and 5.8 in Metro Manila (21 March), though the bigger display of force—man-made or natural—during that month was that of the Executive’s influence over its allies in the Legislature.
On 21 March, Aquino allies impeached Ombudsman Gutierrez by an overwhelming majority of 212 against 4. It was the second for any of the country’s officials but would not be the last for the year.
Previously defiant, the impeachment would cause Gutierrez’s resignation in May.
Two hundred votes may have been sufficient to impeach the Ombudsman, but 200 signatures on a resolution supporting the burial of former President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani did not suffice to change the President’s mind —that honor will not be afforded his family’s traditional nemesis, not under his watch, said Mr. Aquino.
The said resolution was not heard of again.
Debates on the postponement of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao elections were also at their most intense in March. It would be an issue, like all others, to be decided by Congress in favor of the Palace.
April: Catching Capone
On 07 April, the Bureau of Internal Revenue filed a P78.35 million tax evasion suit against Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo and wife, Ma. Angela.
BIR Commissioner Kim Henares denied that the Arroyos were being singled out though the Bureau’s Web site boasted of how it has pulled an “Al Capone” on corrupt government officials. The “Al Capone” strategy was first outlined by Mr. Aquino himself during the 106th anniversary of the agency.
Mikey Arroyo joined others accused of tax evasion—including a celebrity director, retired generals, past and present government officials—most of whom observers opined were in one way or another related to, connected with, or appointed by the former President.
Merci-less May
The Aquino administration was finally rid of Merceditas Gutierrez by May but once more had to deal with another tropical storm, Bebeng.
By the second week of May, 35 had died from Bebeng while the country sustained damages estimated at P1.37 billion. Also affected were nearly 500,000 people in 12 provinces, mostly from the Bicol region.
In May, Aquino’s friend and Bureau of Corrections chief Ernesto Diokno was at the receiving end of criticism when on the 8th, former Gov. Antonio Leviste, convicted of homicide, was found in Makati—outside of his Muntinlupa prison cell.
Diokno would later resign his post because of the controversy.
Jolly in June
Tropical storm Falcon hit the country in June but with relatively less impact. According to statistics from the NDRRMC, it affected 69,000 families from Metro Manila, and Regions 3, 4, and 5.
On 30 June, Mr. Aquino signed Republic Act 10153 synchronizing elections in ARMM with the May 2013 national mid-term elections. The law also provided him with the power to appoint officers-in-charge in the region.
The new ARMM was later questioned before the Supreme Court but passed the test of constitutionality in October by a vote of 8 against 7.
June 30 likewise marked the President’s first year in office. In a speech that once more focused on allegations of graft and abuse against the former administration, Mr. Aquino announced that his government had “done fairly well this year.”
July: trading punches
On 05 July, the Office of the Ombudsman ordered an investigation into Arroyo’s alleged participation in the 2004 fertilizer fund scam.
On 20 July, former Maguindanao election supervisor Lintang Bedol claimed that Arroyo benefited from wide-scale electoral fraud in 2004. The Comelec commissioner would later say that Fernando Poe Jr. had won the 2004 presidential election.
On 25 July, during his second state-of-the-nation address, the President announced former Supreme Court justice Conchita Carpio Morales as the new Ombudsman.
In the same speech, Mr. Aquino once more harped on the “wang wang” mentality —the culture of abuse and impunity among government officials—which his administration had sought to eradicate.
Earlier, the House minority House Reolution 1419 seeking an inquiry into government’s failure to impose sanctions on Mr. Aquino’s KKK—“Kaibigan, Kaklase, and Kabarilan (friends, classmates, and shooting buddies). Cited in the list of “errant functionaries” were Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Ricardo Puno, Land Transportation Office chief Virginia Torres, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, and Bureau of Corrections chief Ernesto Diokno.
No charges were filed against Puno on the bungled Luneta hostage incident; Torres on the Stradcom issue, despite the recommendations from an independent investigating committee and the Justice Department respectively; Purisima, for failing to file income tax returns in 2007 and 2008; and Diokno, on the uncovered living-out-prisoners anomaly, claimed the minority.
In the Senate’s august halls
While Mr. Aquino’s allies were supposedly spared the rod, the onslaught against allies and family of Arroyo continued in August.
On 12 August, former first gentleman Mike Arroyo was summoned to the Senate in connection with the sale of second-hand helicopters—his, allegedly—passed off as brand new units to the Philippine National Police. He did not attend, his lawyers claimed, due to health reasons.
He would be, in November, found liable for graft charges by a fact-finding panel of the Office of the Ombudsman.
Earlier on 03 August, Juan Miguel Zubiri resigned from the Senate, pre-empting the decision on Koko Pimentel’s four-year-old electoral protest against him. Pimentel was proclaimed Senator, replacing Zubiri, on 11 August.
The events would rekindle interest on allegations of poll fraud on the 2007 and even 2004 elections.
On 09 August, the Justice Department issued a watchlist order against Gloria Arroyo in connection with plunder charges filed against her.
The next day, the former President underwent a 12-hour surgery to fix the dislodged titanium implant on her spine.
On 24 August, the Comelec reopened investigations on the “Hello Garci” scandal.
September storms
On September 15, Pulse Asia released the results of its August-September surveys. Aquino’s approval rating stood firm at a high 77 percent and his trust rating remained stable at 75 percent.
Taking into account, among others, issues of electoral fraud and graft being investigated by administration allies in the legislature, the survey appeared to confirm the public’s approval towards Mr. Aquino’s seeming onslaught against the previous administration.
On 19 September, former election supervisors from Mindanao, Lilian Radam and Yogies Martirizar, submitted sworn statements implicating former Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos in electoral fraud to favor Arroyo’s senatorial candidates duing the 2007 elections.
While attacks on the previous administration continued, twin typhoons Pedring and Quiel also struck the Philippines in September.
Together they accounted for nearly P10 billion in damage to infrastructure and agriculture, with the latter sustaining most of the damage at more than P8 billion. Three million people were affected, most of whom were from Central Luzon. The death toll stood at 77—66 from Pedring and 10 from Quiel.
It was the second time in 2011 that two tropical storms had hit the country almost simultaneously. In July, Juaning and Kabayan combined for a death toll of 70 while displacing nearly a million.
October: Laying the predicate
President Aquino was at the defensive in early October for convening the NDRRMC only five days after Pedring and Quiel had devastated Luzon. He was criticized for having prioritized attendance in the Asean 100 Leadership Forum and the anniversary celebration of McDonald’s Philippines a few days prior.
Attention, however, soon shifted back to Arroyo.
On 17 October, after investigations in the Senate were concluded, Sen. Koko Pimentel filed criminal charges against the Arroyo couple in connection with the supposed rigging of the 2007 senatorial elections.
Ten days after, on 27 October, the DOJ issued a second watchlist order against Arroyo relevant to the then-ongoing joing DOJ-Comelec panel on the charge of electoral fraud.
November’s three-day blitz
On 15 November, the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order on the Justice Department’s watchlist order against the Arroyos. The couple were, however, still prevented from leaving the country upon orders by the Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.
On 18 November, the Comelec en banc voted in favor of the DOJ-Comelec joint panel’s recommendations. On the same day it filed criminal charges of electoral sabotage against Arroyo before the Pasay Regional Trial Court (RTC).
Probable cause was determined by the Pasay RTC on the same day. The warrant of arrest against the former president was issued and served, also on the same day.
On 21 November, Arroyo’s petition for hospital arrest was granted.
December: like January, only much worse
The juggernaut against Arroyo and perceived allies continued in December.
On 12 December, 188 Congressmen —in a caucus exclusively among members of the majority—signed the impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Renato Corona. On the same day, without deliberation or debate, the Articles of Impeachment were transmitted to the Senate.
Next year, the Senate will convene as an impeachment court to try to Chief Justice.
But before the administration and its supporters could even celebrate, a tropical storm once more hit the nation. Sendong struck causing damage to the tune of P1 billion—as of last estimates. The bigger tragedy is that the typhoon also took a thousand lives.
And the President did find time to celebrate after all—at his security group’s Christmas party, sharing laughs with an actress—while countless mourned.
The events of December 2011, sums up the whole of 2011. In matters of governance, even at the start of the year—purchasing a luxury sports car while 2 million Filipinos were displaced from their homes—Mr. Aquino always managed to find himself in the eye of the storm.
But he has weathered it all, immovably popular and trustworthy to the majority despite his shortcomings and insensitivity, perceived or otherwise.
In politics, he stirs up a tempest. He is the eye of the storm, never blinking, gaze obsessively intent on bringing his foes to their knees.
mst.specialreports@gmail.com
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