Former First Gentleman Mike Arroyo says graft charges against him in connection with the botched NBN-ZTE deal should be dropped because he did not work for the government.
Being a civilian during the presidency of his wife, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, is Mike’s shield against graft charges.
He may be able to get off the hook in the NBN-ZTE gross overprice deal because he didn’t hold any government position during his wife’s term.
Technically, that is, although he brandished the title of “First Gentleman” like a badge of honor even if many say “honor” is not in his vocabulary.
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The saying “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely,” suits Mike Arroyo.
He used his power against people who crossed him, especially journalists.
I was one of the unfortunate ones.
Some of my friends turned against me upon Mike Arroyo’s instigation.
When I asked one of them why he was persecuting me, he said he was pressured to do so by the First Gentleman.
I found out that the persons who filed trumped-up charges of extortion against me were represented by lawyers from the same law firm that Mike Arroyo hired to represent him in his libel cases against me.
Mike Arroyo ordered the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines to post agents outside my home in Quezon City to scare me.
He ordered the Philippine National Police not to renew my permit to carry a gun for my protection, leaving me at the mercy of my other enemies.
At the Bureau of Customs, Mike Arroyo’s playground, officials and employees who got the ire of Vicky Toh, his special friend who allegedly engaged in smuggling, were given hardship assignments.
My friend and partner in a restaurant business, a Chinese-Filipino, found himself persecuted by tax examiners even if he was honest in paying taxes just because of my friendship with him.
Another friend at the customs bureau lost his chance of becoming commissioner because he refused to renounce his friendship with me.
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What’s happening to Mike Arroyo now is proof of the saying that you reap what you sow.
Since he made some people miserable when he was in power, his life is now miserable.
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I was shaking my head as the spokesperson of the Western Command (Wescom), a major, told the public service program “T3” on TV5 the other day that two Marine detachments in Barangay Bacungan, Puerto Princesa, Palawan province were set up because of the clamor of residents.
If so, why would two residents of the area come all the way from Palawan to Manila to complain about the detachments whose members, they claim, are abusive?
Lt. Gen. Juancho Sabban, Wescom chief, reportedly has a beach front lot in the area and wants squatters out of his property.
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I have the names of the agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency who allegedly extorted P8 million from a Chinese man whom they arrested for alleged drug trafficking.
Jonathan Morales, Antonio Romero, Martin Francia, Marvin Mendoza and Norman Daez have been relieved of their posts and are now on “floating” status.