A mediocre lawyer who knows how to use power

Mike Arroyo, husband of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, uttered a non sequitur in reaction to the filing of a graft complaint against him and 18 others by the Senate blue ribbon committee in  the Office of the Ombudsman.

The complaint was for the sale by Arroyo to the Philippine National Police (PNP) of second-hand helicopters which he allegedly  passed off as brand new.

What was Mike Arroyo’s non sequitur or an inference that does not follow from a premise?

That the Senate action was meant to deflect attention from Ronald Llamas, President Noy’s political adviser, who is being criticized for the high-powered firearms found in his sports utility vehicle.

What has the Senate got to do with Llamas who is not employed by the upper chamber?

For an Ateneo law graduate and a lawyer at that, Arroyo sometimes makes foolish statements.

* * *

When I was still a close friend of Mike Arroyo, I nearly fell off my seat when he told me during dinner that he was employing a low-caliber lawyer as one of his attorneys and spokespersons.

I’ve known the elderly lawyer from way back. He is a clown and can’t speak straight English without committing grammatical errors.

I asked Mike why he chose that lawyer, who was the laughingstock in the legal profession, to become his spokesperson.

He said the lawyer spoke very fluent Tagalog (the lawyer is from Bulacan) and he would come in handy when he came under attack from his critics.

No matter how I tried to dissuade him from employing the lawyer since he’s not so bright, Mike stuck to his guns.

A few months later the lawyer was even given  a sinecure.

On hindsight, I now realize why Mike Arroyo was fond of that lawyer: They have the same IQ level.

Arroyo took the bar exams three times and passed on his third try; the same thing with that lawyer.

* * *

But don’t laugh at Mike A’s mediocrity as a lawyer because he knows how to use raw power and manipulate subordinates to do his bidding.

After I exposed the smuggling activities of his alleged girlfriend, Vicky Toh, Mike Arroyo got back at me like a wounded tiger.

He ordered a special task force formed by the National Bureau of Investigation  to manufacture evidence against me.

He convinced some customs officials and employees whom I  had never met to file extortion charges against me.

Arroyo even asked my friend and former hunting buddy, then Deputy Customs Commissioner Celso Templo, to denounce my supposed extortion activities in the bureau.

Templo was promised the highest position in customs bureau if he did as he was told.

Templo turned down Mike A, and never got to be customs commissioner.