Even if the newly appointed chief of the Bureau of Corrections, retired Lt. Gen. Gaudencio Pangilinan, is facing a plunder case in the Department of Justice, he is still presumed innocent until the court finds him guilty.
Even if he did what he is being accused of doing, how could you blame him for being a “bagman” of the late Gen. Arturo Enrile, then Armed Forces chief of staff?
How could Pangilinan be charged with plunder for handling money entrusted to him by Enrile, his boss?
If Pangilinan refused an order from General Enrile to handle his money, he could be court-martialed for insubordination.
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The scuttlebutt is that whistle-blower George Rabusa, a former Army lieutenant colonel, was paid P30 million by people who were affected by the ouster of former President Joseph “Erap’’ Estrada.
Rabusa’s testimony in the Senate about corruption in the military drove former AFP chief of staff Angelo Reyes to commit suicide.
Reyes joined the civilian crowd at Edsa calling for Erap’s resignation following his impeachment for plunder.
Reyes’ action set off the withdrawal of support for Erap by the military.
Apart from the P30 million, Rabusa was reportedly also promised a position of undersecretary in the Aquino government.
The talk came about because Rabusa himself spread it, according to a very reliable source.
Now, who would believe a whistle-blower who is paid?
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Former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has hired a battery of topnotch lawyers to defend her in court on plunder cases now being filed against her left and right.
“It’s expensive,” said her legal spokesperson, Raul Lambino.
With the money she and her husband Mike earned in her nine years in power, she can afford to pay her lawyers P1 billion.
No exaggeration, P1 billion is peanuts to the Arroyos.
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Seven Marines, including an officer, were killed and 21 others were wounded in a clash with Abu Sayyaf bandits in Sulu.
Obviously, the firefight was one-sided in favor of the bandits as not a single casualty on the other side was reported.
In short, the Marines were ambushed.
This means that they walked into a trap set up by the enemy.
If a ragtag band can defeat the Armed Forces’ best soldiers in combat, just imagine the blow it can deal on ordinary foot soldiers.
The military’s repertoire of tactics should be reviewed because it has become obsolete.