Clinging like a barnacle
This columnist begs to disagree with yesterday’s editorial in my esteemed newspaper, the first time I am doing so.
The editorial discredits Rep. Harry Roque’s intimation that the marital spat between the Comelec chief and his wife might lead to an investigation into the alleged massive cheating in the presidential election last year.
Roque said that the quarrel between Andres and Patricia Bautista, which has gone public, “raises serious questions about the integrity of the May 2016 National Elections — wracked as it has been with allegations — that the same elections have been rigged to favor certain candidates for national posts.”
“Despite continuing assertions by some interested parties that last year’s elections were rigged, absolutely no proof has been given of the rigging of a system that would necessarily implicate the victory of President Duterte himself,” said the Inquirer editorial.
Precisely what Congressman Roque was driving at — that there should be an investigation into the integrity of last year’s national election.
The investigation, which should be conducted by both chambers of Congress, would put closure to suspicions of massive cheating in the recent polls.
Many people think that Bongbong Marcos was cheated of the vice presidency and that Digong, even if he won the presidency, actually garnered 21 million votes, instead of the announced 16 million votes.
I was told by a person close to Patricia Bautista that she saw cartons filled with money being brought into their conjugal home and tucked safely in her husband Andy’s study room in the run-up to the national elections last year.
Unless that person was lying to me or Patricia was lying to that person who told me, I take it that the cartons of money didn’t come from law firms giving him commissions for referral; commissions, if ever, would be in the form of checks, not cold cash.
So, where did the oodles and oodles of money come from?
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Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon was either malingering or scared as he failed to attend yesterday’s Senate hearing on the seizure of P6.4 billion worth of “shabu” (crystal meth) that came out of the customs zone.
Customs officials told Sen. Dick Gordon, blue ribbon committee chair, that Faeldon had chest pains and was rushed to a hospital.
Chest pains are symptoms of an impending heart attack.
Chest pains at a relatively young age and a former Marine officer at that?
He probably had so much of a good time.
Or was he just scared of Gordon, who has temper outbursts whenever the guy he’s questioning is lying?
Either way, Faeldon should resign for sheer incompetence.
His former fellow mutineer, former Army Capt. Milo Maestrecampo, has resigned for sleeping on the job when the documents for the shabu shipment passed through his desk.
If Maestrecampo had the decency to resign, why is Faeldon clinging to his post like a barnacle?
