Former Tarlac Rep. Peping Cojuangco, an uncle of President Aquino on his mother’s side, is part of a group calling for his ouster.
If Peping were former Sen. Butz Aquino, his call would have been credible.
Butz, an uncle of the President—this time, on his father’s side—didn’t abuse his powers during the administration of Noy’s mother, former President Cory.
Peping did. It was he who was reportedly behind President Cory’s mismanagement of the country.
And Peping has an axe to grind against his nephew because he has not been given a position of influence in the P-Noy administration.
The President apparently doesn’t want to commit the same mistake his mother made under Peping’s tutelage, that’s why he didn’t take in his uncle.
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I’m not referring to Peping Cojuangco, but during President Cory’s administration a Chinese-Filipino tycoon was a victim of extortion by some of Cory’s relatives on both sides whom the late columnist Louie Beltran referred to as “Kamaganak Inc.”
The Chinoy tycoon, who was reportedly a crony of deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos, cried in anguish as the victim of constant extortion activities of Kamaganak Inc.
On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, one group of Kamaganak Inc. would come to the Chinoy and extort millions of pesos from him.
Another Kamaganak group would do the same on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
That vicious cycle was repeated in other big businessmen or corporations that had connections with the deposed dictator.
Those businessmen and entities came across because they were scared of being sequestered by the then notorious Presidential Commission on Good Government which was controlled by Kamaganak Inc.
This was not lost on President Noy who, at that time, was still a young and carefree man.
That’s the reason P-Noy hasn’t appointed any of his paternal or maternal relatives to powerful positions in his administration.
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Mark Soque, a suspect in eight robberies, four incidents of rape and the merciless killing of a Korean woman in a restaurant he held up, was killed—also it seems without mercy—by the police who brought him to the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office to face charges.
The police said there was a scuffle after he grabbed the gun of one of his police escorts, a woman, resulting in his being shot to death.
If you are perceptive enough, you know that the claimed scuffle with the police is fiction. But nobody cares.
Soque was a menace to society and deserved his fate.
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Why does the citizenry rejoice when a notorious criminal is executed without the benefit of a court trial by the authorities? The answer is simple: There is a universal mistrust in our judicial system.
The perception is that the judges who would have heard the cases against him—for the many incidents of crime he allegedly committed, there would be separate cases to be tried—might give him light sentences after being bribed.
After serving few years in prison or given parole, Soque might go back to his old ways.
Or, Soque could have escaped from jail while being tried and would again commit crimes.
Better to see him dead than risk setting him free and victimizing more innocent citizens.
Bleeding hearts will argue that Soque had constitutional and human rights.
But what about the constitutional and human rights of people he had victimized?