The Abads of Batanes

The “substate” that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is proposing to set up is no different from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The ARMM is practically a substate because its leaders are all Muslims and most of its constituents are Muslims.

The government in Manila practically left the ARMM to itself.

That’s the reason why most of its leaders were free to do as they pleased.

Some, like the Ampatuans, became so abusive they thought they could kill people with impunity.

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Congressmen and senators should scrutinize the proposed budget for infrastructure of Batanes in the national budget.

Batanes is the province of the Abads, who are well-entrenched in the Aquino government.

Butch Abad, the patriarch, is the secretary of budget and management; Rep. Henidina Abad is chair of the House appropriations committee; daughter Julia Abad-Parker is chief of the Presidential Management Staff; and son Luis is the chief of staff of Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima.

You know how much the Abads have put up as the proposed infrastructure budget for Batanes? P800 million!

In contrast, according to my Malacañang source, Davao del Sur has zero budget for infrastructure.

Batanes, with a population of 15,000, is just as big as a barangay of Davao del Sur.

If you don’t consider that abusing their position, I don’t know what is.

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The same Palace source who told me about the proposed P800 million for Batanes, told me this story:

President Noy allegedly scolded the father-and-daughter tandem of Butch and Julia for submitting to Congress the proposed national budget one day after the State of the Nation Address (SONA).

P-Noy reportedly received the proposed budget on the day of the SONA itself.

“You’re making me your rubber stamp,” the source quoted the President as telling the Abads.

The President had no time to go over the national budget proposal before it was submitted to Congress because he got it late.

The proposal should have been given to P-Noy two months earlier for his perusal.

There were talks circulating in the Palace that Julia was planning to resign because of the scolding she and her father allegedly received from the President.

But apparently, Julia changed her mind, my Palace spy said.

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Nearly three weeks after he shot to death Norwegian-Filipino Mikael Troy Rasay, Manila cop PO1 Harold Meneses has yet to be arrested.

Even if the victim’s family has put up a P200,000 reward for his arrest, Meneses roams the streets with the 9mm Beretta pistol that he allegedly  used in shooting Rasay.

The news of Rasay’s death is another blackeye for our country since his killer is a cop.

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Rasay, 18, was trying to pacify a man who was beating up a woman on the street when he was shot by Meneses.

It turned out the woman-beater was Meneses’ brother.

The fact that Meneses is a cop, is a double-whammy against Filipinos in the eyes of Europeans.

To many foreigners, the Philippines is a country where men beat up their wives or girlfriends in public, and cops kill peace-makers.