PRESIDENT Aquino has confirmed meeting with an emissary of former Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) for him to become a state witness.
Mr. Aquino said Zaldy didn’t ask for anything in return for being a state witness.
Is the President that naïve to believe Zaldy is asking for nothing from the government in exchange for testimony against his own father Andal Sr. and brother Andal Jr.?
It’s out of character for a Moro to tell on his fellow Moro, much more, his close relatives.
A person who would betray his own flesh and blood should all the more be held in suspicion.
The description of Zaldy Ampatuan as a “wolf in sheepskin” is very apt.
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Zaldy implicated Mike Arroyo for allegedly rigging the 2007 senatorial election in Maguindanao.
Acting on orders from Mike Arroyo, a certain Bong Serrano delivered P30-P40 million and filled out official ballots to Maguindanao for the purpose, according to Zaldy.
Serrano is now city administrator of Pasay City Mayor Tony Calixto.
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Let’s accept the apology of the Catholic bishops who asked and were given luxury vehicles by former President Gloria.
By apologizing, the bishops admitted to being human, capable of making mistakes.
But their benefactor, GMA, has yet to apologize; chances are, she never will.
The only time she made a public apology was on the “Hello Garci” election scandal involving Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.
My sources in the Palace then said GMA regretted making that apology later.
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The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) had an intelligence fund bigger than the Armed Forces, even when the charity agency was not waging war against insurgency.
The intelligence fund, not being subject to audit, was an excuse by then President Gloria to spend it on military and police generals so they would not turn against her, and on Catholic bishops for backing her up in the thick of the Hello Garci scandal.
GMA’s relative at the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), retired PNP chief Oscar Calderon, also got an intelligence fund amounting to P66 million.
Calderon, according to my sources at the BuCor, pocketed the money.
It was only during Calderon’s time as BuCor director that the prisons bureau received money from the intelligence fund.
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The overpriced rubber boats and outboard motors and helicopters bought by the Philippine National Police (PNP) that Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo has exposed are just a tip of the iceberg.
Why is Robredo withholding from the public bigger irregularities at the PNP and the National Police Commission (Napolcom), among them:
The repair of 30 units of old and rundown B-150 armored personnel carriers at P300 million, when an equal number of brand-new units could have been bought with that amount.
Only 13 units were repaired. The rest were consigned to the dump.
The swapping of Napolcom property at Fort Bonifacio, worth billions of pesos, for Megaworld property in San Juan City and Quezon City worth only several hundred millions.
Purchase of substandard bullet-proof vests worth millions of pesos that was first exposed by Chief Supt. Leocadio Santiago, then chief of the elite PNP Special Action Force.