Riddle me this, why is there a need to televise the Senate inquiry on the progress of the investigation on the Cotabato bombing? Isn’t this about national security? If it is, then it should be basic measure that the less that the perpetrators know, the better.
“The public needs to see that we are doing our jobs”, justified a senator on the need to televise the senate inquiry.
I say, the only way that the people will buy that each PUBLIC SERVANT is doing their jobs is WHEN WE GET SUSTAINABLE RESULTS! Not the ones being sold at all forms of media!
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The bigger riddle now is, why haven’t we seen the Senate investigating their own on the Janet Lim-Napoles issue? That would merit better mileage, so why not grandstand on that?
It was news in social media that the Senate should have held a caucus last August 5, 2013 armed with the probes from the Ombudsman, the Department of Justice (DOJ), the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and the Commission On Audit (CoA) so that they can decide IF they should investigate on the 5 senators and 23 congressmen implicated in the Php 10B scam, WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO THAT?!
Tyranny of the urgent?
I think not, this smells more like DELAYING TACTICS to me.
The scarier version of the bombing invokes of DIVERSIONARY TACTICS, in an effort to diffuse a “bomb” just waiting to explode. One that will scar Philippine history deeply. The rabbit hole goes deep in the comments section of the “mom and pop moments” blogsite. As posted by Anonymous:
“… Jimmy Napoles is a retired Marine Major officer and BFF with Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan. They are together in the failed coup attempt during the Cory administration.
…Prospero Pichay created the Asia Prime Energy Development Corp (Asia Star Power Resources Corporation) and Jimmy Napoles is the Chairman Of The Board. The purpose of the corporation is to become a front company in the energy sector in Mindanao as a provider of electricity and power. Funding for their “proposed projects” will be coming from PDAF of house representatives members based in the South. http://a-starpower.com/BOARD_MEMBERS_AND_OFFICERS.html
…Manuel “Mar” Roxas is implicated because of his cousin / relative Johnny Roxas, a former JLN employee. The two Roxas received gifts like cars and watches from JLN as an incentive for PDAF allocations and signatures of mayors in the Negros region.”
The inputs from Anonymous convulse with more big names and details. Details of the past, present and the future:
“… What JLN Group Of Companies do and their sub-companie, Jo-Chris Trading (named after their eldest child, Jo-Christine “Neneng” Napoles) – they use their foundations as the implementing agency for the funds of congressmen or senators. You see, congressmen and senators have budget, PDAF or the “pork barrel”, but these politicians do not have direct access to their funds and they can never touch it. So what they do is the politicians will create a project (common one is “fertilizer distribution” to farmers) and will ask DBM to set the budget. Then, there will be a public bidding to be held by DAR. The outcome of the bidding is already fixed and it’s Napoles foundation wins. The fund or SARO will be released through Janet’s foundation and the congressmen/senators will ask 70% of the whole amount. So if the project is 10M, Janet will give 70% of that. Usually Janet’s nephew, John Francisco Lim is the courier of the money, they will meet at Podium or at a parking lot. The money are stored in plastic bags or paper bags.
So, whatever is left from the budget, 30% goes to Janet. They usually cash-in the cheque they get from DBM at Landbank in Greenhills and the manager there is part of Janet’s payroll. Janet also need to pay the inspectors from COA and whoever is involved in DAR.
This is their workflow.This is what they do for more than a decade. This is how the senators and congressmen make money. This is why theses politicians have so much and working class filipinos almost have nothing. This is not only Janet’s fault. The greediness of the senators and congressmen are the driving point that keeps this system operating. It is also amazing that if Janet’s family and her company goes into trial, the people who will try them – judges, senators, congressmen, are also part of this…”
If all the implication doesn’t stir the Senate to conduct a hearing immediately and pull out un-doctored documents to clear the names and departments that were dropped, then travelers we all are, outside of Thebes just waiting for the Sphinx to devour us for our failure to solve the Riddle.
The PUBLIC has been asking for HEADS TO ROLL since over TWO DECADES BACK!
27 years since Edsa Revolution and all that has been delivered is posturing, like actors in a play that guise their motives so that their performance, regardless if it will sell or not, benefits all stakeholders.
All that we have seen are the changing of dirty hands from one greedy politician to another. Of late, even low ranking Generals have joined the high rollers.
Have we seen any big names on the choppng board in the last 27 years other than those whose fall were funded by the same high rollers?
Are we to see any of the incumbent and implicated with the corruption at the Bureau of Customs or the latest 10B Pork Barrel misallocation, axed?
I guess if there will be any proverbial “sacrificial lamb”, it will again be the little fishies swimming in the pond, the weakest link or the bottom feeders of the chain but NONE of the top brass experienced scum bags whom THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES KEEPS ON ELECTING, notable of the lot are those affiliated with the Yellow. They will again and always be unscathed.
Immunity as granted by a population deluded by good merchandising and ignorance, yet another riddle unsolved.
Mike is the author of “Minsan may Isang Puta”, an allegory which has been circulating since 2004 and with over 50,000 likes and shares in social media alone. It won a film grant in 2010 to be included in the multi-narrative Indie film “Ganap na Babae” (International title: Garden of Eve). The teaser, reviews and commentaries are here. The movie was honored as Cinemalaya 2010’s opening film and has won international and local recognition.
The royalties from the initial 150 copies of Mike’s first sole-authored book, The Dove Files, went to a Project Malasakit scholar who graduated Cum Laude in April 2013, the rest was also paid forward to baby Mark who underwent a liver transplant in March 2013.
Part of the royalties of the “Minsan may Isang Puta” book at Barnes and Noble Online goes to support the education of a young Yolanda survivor taking up B.S. Accounting at U.P. Tacloban.
HA HA HA, at least this author has the guts to tell lt as it appears. THEY ARE ALL IN ON IT, that is why NO ONE EVER GOES TO JAIL, and NO PESO’s are EVER returned.a gigantic well choreographed charade perpetrated by generation after generation of the same SCUMBAGS.
Your being laughed at by people who are in the vast minority, could easily be pushed aside and YET, NOTHING HAPPENS.
a kleptocracy in action. Crony capitalism at its ugliest.THIS CHARADE is as despicable as it gets, not an honorable one amongst the entire bunch of SCUMBAG/CRIMINALS. its EZ to see if you do not walk through life with blinders on.
Invoking Rizal,1889:
“Ignorance is bondage, because like mind, like man. A man without will of his own is a man without personality. The blind who follows other’s opinion is like a beast led by a halter,”
That Anonymous seems to know too much… as if they were actually part of the scam itself. If that’s so, they should go under the investigator’s eye too.
Very detailed indeed are the inputs of Anonymous, isn’t it, Chino? Either s/he’s a local John Grisham or s/he was/is part of the machinery. If this source gets sniffed by the NBI, my hats off to the agency but for the sake of Anonymous, I hope his posts will just serve as a catalyst for a system reformat.
The Philippines is like a sexy version of Afghanistan. It has all the corruption, but with a slick and shiny MTV style coat of paint.
The Napoles family are being victimized by a smear campaign because a bunch of Pinoys are just jealous of their success.
This was never about justice. People saw the video of Jeane’s party TAPOS INGGIT SILA.
Why? Because they are jealous that they are not as beautiful and glamorous as Jeane. Inggit sila sa kanyang high fashion tastes. Don’t hate her because she is beautiful and wealthy. She was given these gifts by the grace and wisdom of our Lord.
Stop hating Jeane, she is a first class Christian. Stop hating the Napoles family.
God bless you all.
This is my take on the Lim-Napoles issue, Pastor Ernie. God bless you too. :
The general public, specially the taxpayers, has been more than frustrated with the system of governance and public fund (mis)allocation over the last two decades that being implicated in corruption is a sure and slow death in the arena at the Court of Public Opinion.
So goes the uproar around a set of photos of the overly lavish lifestyle of the daughter of Janet Lim Napoles.
Like who the, is Lim-Napoles, one might ask?
We know not of the name around the “Old money” set nor is it associated with a big name celebrity but thanks to trial by publicity, what the name invokes now is a scandal worth P10-B in pork barrel misallocated to bogus foundations. Pork Barrel equals our honorable and elected you-know-who’s. The offices of our “public servants” must either be so busy and/or so undermanned that they do not have the time and/or resources to investigate a soliciting foundation before “donating” billions of our hard earned taxmoney.
Now the people are lusting to draw first blood from this new controversy and thanks to the grand display of the “poor-little-rich-girl” syndrome at the now defunct Instagram account of the daughter of Janet Lim-Napoles, Jeane, the public now has a Magdalene to throw rocks at.
So far, the only good that this buzz has created, apart from distracting the public from what is more relevant, is that it has caught the attention of the BIR. The taxpayers now await impatiently as the clamor for heads to roll mounts.
It has been since mid-July that the photos were getting some heat over the web and as much as my stomach turned over the ostentatious name dropping of brands, there are MORE IMPORTANT matters that the public need to tune into.
If the BIR finds that Lim-Napoles “matriarch” didn’t evade paying the correct taxes then Jeane Lim-Napoles is only found to be guilty of crass behavior most often associated to camwhoring Japayukis. It’s another story all together if their books don’t match their returns, noise will sure to be made once that is made public.
For now, crass behavior of the kind that Jeane Lim-Napoles is found guilty of, has got nothing to do with any of our day to day transactions unlike the common crass behavior of ALMOST EVERYBODY, RICH and POOR alike.
Why not crucify in social media those who are found guilty of littering and those who lack discipline that result in flash floods and traffic congestion which cost our economy millions? Why the luke warm temperament over Maynilad stealing the public blind?
If we are really after getting the shimmy on the Pork Barrel then why not make an uproar on the SONA fashion divas instead?
Why the hate over the spectacle of the misallocated P10-B in pork barrel when we are being robbed blind in every overpriced project and representation that the government undertakes?
WHO VOTED and KEEPS ON VOTING FOR THESE PORK BARREL HUNGRY POLITICIANS IN THE FIRST PLACE?
Only if the noise against Jean Lim-Napoles is as loud when the Freedom of Information Bill is being debated on, maybe we can easily and JUSTLY pronouce judgement over the likes of her.
#10BporkBarrel #LimNapoles #poorLittleRichGirlSyndrome
what Ms. Mike Portes is trying to say is that said displays of ostentation are in a very, very, very, poor taste considering the what’s going on in our country. Really do this rich types have to brag he fact that they have more money than the rest of us folks?
kaya pala yung mga mayor na inaalukan namin ng products dati siansabi na dapat daw pag nag alok kami ng products sa kanila may dala na rin kaming fund from the congressman or better yet senator. ganon pala kalakaran dun. tsk tsk tsk