Pinoy Sounding Board » corruption http://www.pinoysoundingboard.com Commentaries l Socio-Political Issues l Blogging Issues Tue, 31 May 2011 07:32:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Ang Recipeng Pambayan ni PGMA and The Black Smoke Inside the Supreme Court http://www.pinoysoundingboard.com/2010/03/ang-recipeng-pambayan-ni-pgma-and-the-black-smoke-at-the-supreme-court/ http://www.pinoysoundingboard.com/2010/03/ang-recipeng-pambayan-ni-pgma-and-the-black-smoke-at-the-supreme-court/#comments Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:54:43 +0000 elmot http://www.pinoysoundingboard.com/?p=1337 Ang Recipeng Pambayan ni PGMA

Kumuha ang isang kutsaritang Garci,
At ihalo sa pinakulong Lintang Bedol
Sa gintong kawa galing China.
Ilublob ang mga retiradong heneral sa
Mga pwesto sa gobyerno, takpan hanggang
Sa muling pagkulo.

Magpiga ng mga health workers at
Ang mapait na katas ay ihalo sa NFA-imported
Na bigas galing Vietnam.

Maghanda sa kabilang pugon
ng kawali, lagyan
Ng mantika at kasinungalingan
Hanggang sa uminit. Igisa ang
Mga aktibista, mga guro, mga
Tuwid na sundalo, mga whistle-blowers
At mga nagbabayad ng tamang buwis
Hanggang sa matusta. Hanguin at ihalo
Sa mga rekado sa gintong kawa.

Idagdag ang ginayat na mga mistah,
At isabay ang dalawang nominadong si
Mikey at Angie kasama ang mga
Kapit-tukong Mercy, Norby at Ronnie.
Patikman sa mga Ampatuan at kay Joj-joc
Kung tama na ang timpla.

Ang panghuling rekado ay magka-krisis
Sa kuryente at mag-emergency powers.
Ihalo ang mga ito sa pinalambot na
Mga mistah at heneral.
At huwag kalimutang ihabol sa
Presidential recipe ang
Pagpili ng Chief Justice.

Tikman.  Hmmm…

Ihanda ang baluktot na kutsara’t tinidor
Para sa halalan, ihahain na ang
lasong recipe ng lipunan.

NOTE:  The Supreme Court with its latest decision approving Arroyo’s power to appoint a Chief Justice in line with the has lost easily thrown into the garbage its integrity to appease the “cute” woman in the Palace after these magistrates were appointed into the highest court of the land.  The dark smoke has been proven today to have seeped through the big crack on the fortified walls of the Supreme Court.  It has transformed itself into nothing but a chamber where the majority always wins, but not necessarily what is true and right.

And that really sucks!

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]]> http://www.pinoysoundingboard.com/2010/03/ang-recipeng-pambayan-ni-pgma-and-the-black-smoke-at-the-supreme-court/feed/ 8 You Can’t Handle The Truth http://www.pinoysoundingboard.com/2009/10/you-cant-handle-the-truth/ http://www.pinoysoundingboard.com/2009/10/you-cant-handle-the-truth/#comments Mon, 19 Oct 2009 06:51:25 +0000 elmot http://www.pinoysoundingboard.com/?p=816 I don’t know exactly what to post.

Good thing, I was on a jeepney ride with four old women who were trying to fatally convince one another that what they individually say is actually the truth; like preachers on busy street corners telling everyone to stop believing on false “Gods”, false doctrines, and the killer line of course, to mend our ways and follow the “real truth” lest suffer the anger of God.  Wow, is there such a thing as a real truth or semi-real truth?

These women were actually discussing the fact that another strong typhoon is hovering closely near our country and is gathering strength to pour in its fury to hapless victims; as if the previous typhoons that had brought tremendous flooding and damages to properties and crops were not enough.

Though most of their opinions were poles apart, all of a sudden they instantaneously agreed that all these typhoons, flooding, earthquakes and miseries of men are all God’s punishment to humanity for its sinfulness and treachery to the “truth”. Or as they qualified it, the “real truth”.

I felt Jack Nicholson screaming inside my membrane:  “You can’t handle the truth!”

There are always some reverberating effects to our ears and a small something being pinched inside us whenever we hear the word “truth”.

What is really the truth?

Truth is, I don’t also really know the “whole truth”.

The truth is always being challenged by the personalities, behaviors, attitudes and interests that surround it.  It could easily be manipulated but very difficult to be faithful with especially when the truth runs counter to a personal agenda.  It is like a face-to-face confrontation between the death that will give you eternal life and the instant gratification that will give you eternal damnation.

Many students have even understood the truth as could be defined by particular situations, instances and call of practicality.  Gone were the days for some when the truth is nothing but the truth, no matter what the circumstances could be:  or simply put it, the truth could never be compromised.

I once asked a big group of students if they cheat during examinations and on making their assignments.  And they unanimously roared the affirmation like hungry lions as if showing their pride on doing the act.

Some even shared that cheating is not bad; it is an act of generosity for the one who gives the answers and a academic salvation for the one who copied.  It has somewhat taken the new definition as not only an act of generosity but also of a “fad” among some of the teens.  Better to cheat than to fail so they say.

It is therefore quite a big challenge for educators today on strictly implementing a “No Cheating” policy inside the classroom or even inside the university when what the students see in the different public and private institutions are big political figures who went unpunished after cheating bigtime on government projects and contracts, election and even on face-to-face confrontations regarding irregularities on governance.  Colluding to twist the truth and showering the graces of financial rewards to all those who wants to join the financial bandwagon; these are the concrete challenges to everyday learning of students and parenting.  Better to cheat than to fail.

Hey, I am not immaculate.  I also cheated or haven’t exactly said the truth on many instances of my life.  But I think does not mean that I cannot speak of the truth nor choose what is true anymore.  At least I haven’t cheated to make thousands and millions live on daily misery.

A student particularly went up to me on one occasion and said:  “Why are you so strict with us regarding the “No Cheating” policy and even punishes us when we err when many of our elected officials are cheating here and there and they are not punished but even get riches and more powerful?”

Felt Jack screaming again:  “You can’t handle the truth!”

But my simple reply was: “Because we don’t want you to grow up cheating like them.”

That is the difficult truth we are all wrestling with.

Image by KekeNet

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]]> http://www.pinoysoundingboard.com/2009/10/you-cant-handle-the-truth/feed/ 35 Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Mike Arroyo and Mikey Arroyo: The Dynasty of Corruption http://www.pinoysoundingboard.com/2009/09/gloria-macapagal-arroyo-mike-arroyo-mikey-arroyo-dynasty-of-corruption/ http://www.pinoysoundingboard.com/2009/09/gloria-macapagal-arroyo-mike-arroyo-mikey-arroyo-dynasty-of-corruption/#comments Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:25:36 +0000 elmot http://www.pinoysoundingboard.com/?p=696 I really hate moments when relatives and uninvited guests (especially those who will introduce themselves as long lost relatives that you will meet for the first time) probe me and wheel the whole conversation during one of the most special days of the year to me by greeting a “happy birthday” and saying “you are totally like your father” after handing over to me their gifts of multi-colored towels and picture frame just like what I am always receiving during exchange gifts on my school’s Christmas party. Now I’ve got a whole collection of all the colors of towels from the darkest hues to neon green.

It is not because I hate my father that makes me flare up this way but basically because I am not my father. We are just totally different. I am a new person. I much more handsome than him!

But on this particular case, I think the old saying that the fruit is the same as its tree holds true.

Corrupted Macapagal-Arroyo Son

After getting caught with his pants off on national television under the wit and proving prowess of Professor Winnie Monsod about his questionable SALN (Statement of Assest, Liabilities and Networth) and his U.S. Property worth millions, Mikey Arroyo has resorted to singing different incoherent hymns in order to find that elusive justification to the obvious acts of perjury and graft and corruption.

Asked about why the sudden jump on his networth of P5 million in 2002 before he joined Congress to a whooping P76 million after a year and P99 million in 2008 (which is by the way an almost 1000% increase in just 6 years considering the global financial downturn that has swept down the richest of nations and people) and how he acquired such an expensive U.S. Property, here are his litanies of lies:

Mikey Arroyo said that the $1.32 million beachfront property in the U.S. was not his; then he said that his wife owns it (the property was transferred under his wife’s name); then the property actually is owned by the Beach Way Park LLC (for which he is one of the stockholders of the company); the he accumulated such a big wealth in just a span of six years because of the gifts they received from their wedding in 2002; then said that he received a great amount of campaign contributions from donors in 2004 and 2007; and then reasoned out most recently that his wife came from a wealthy clan but quelled speculations that he is a gold-digger; and that he filed for an amended SALN at the Office of the Ombudsman but the same office actually denied of receiving such an amended SALN from Mikey; then…then…then…

Mikey Arroyo fired back at detractors who still refuse to believe his long lists of justifications saying,

“to those who refuse to listen, the issue is unexplainable.”

Oh I see.

Corrupted Macapagal-Arroyo Parents

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo may have been considered “the luckiest bitch” in town by Joey Salceda but she always run out of luck as to not being linked to the exposés of grand schemes of corruptions. From the Fertilizer Fund Scam, Macapagal Boulevard Scam (the most expensive stretch of road in the world, a record-breaker for the Philippines! Yahoo, another Guinness!), NBN-ZTE Deal, Northrail Project, Palace Bribery, Quedancor Swine Scam, Hello Garci Scandal, and many more that always pin down her name to be at the receiving end of corruption and kickback. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s SALN or networth on 2002 was standing at P66.7 million but that has exponentially jumped to P171.8 in 2008 in just a span of 6 years! Beating even the number of our annual GDP and that of the stock market.

And not to lose his share of the loot is the kingpin of the present Arroyo dynasty Mr. FG or Mike Arroyo also known as the infamous Jose Pidal. He has been embroiled on countless corruption scandals and allegations on numerous government projects that my neighbor has given him a moniker as Mike-kickback Arroyo.

Of course, the Malacaňang people will always come to the rescue for GMA and her whole gang of corrupted kindred. Sporting the usual poker face they were trained to in front of the media. They come to the rescue for their boss by painting her as someone who is immaculate as snow. And if we still not buy their counter-arguments? Here is what they say:

“What is important is that we believe the truth and we are not getting tired in explaining the truth”.

Ooopss, I heard the sound of the cash register.

Macapagal-Arroyo’s Dynasty of Corruption

Coming with the obvious conclusion that these are despicable acts of obvious corruption if not plunder, not only by one person but by the tandem of a father-mother-son is not really a very taxing exercise for the Filipinos. It is not some rocket science or a legal parlance that only a few men understands. Sheer street smarts and if one practices that rare virtue of honesty are all that are needed to see the “red flags” of corruption.  Inquirer.net interviewed anti-corruption agents who said that these “red flags” could be easily detected with politicians starts saying,

“having married a really wealthy spouse, transferring property to spouses or listing them under corporations, taking out “loans” from relatives for which there are no paper trials, owning unprofitable business with substantial assets and racking up increasing liabilities that cannot be paid for a public official’s meager salary.”

Mike Arroyo, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Mikey Arroyo.

It is all too obvious.

Unless if you are Merceditas Gutierrez.

Ooopss, I heard once again the sound of the cash register.

Do you believe that GMA, Mike Arroyo and Mikey Arroyo has amassed millions of pesos indicated through the sudden jump of their networth, even beating the stock market growth year-by-year since 2002 be attributed to corruption?

Image from kapirasongkritika

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]]> http://www.pinoysoundingboard.com/2009/09/gloria-macapagal-arroyo-mike-arroyo-mikey-arroyo-dynasty-of-corruption/feed/ 14 P1 Pork Barrel for Congressmen, Should I Sing Hallelujah? http://www.pinoysoundingboard.com/2009/08/pork-barrel-of-congressmen-2/ http://www.pinoysoundingboard.com/2009/08/pork-barrel-of-congressmen-2/#comments Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:28:10 +0000 elmot http://pinoysoundingboard.com/?p=478 Partylist Representative Teddy Casiño already fired the first shot against the furthering of making our poverty-stricken country the milking cow of the greedy cold-blooded politicians.


But instead of hearing the siren roaring down the halls of Congress and seeing collective volleys of fire hurled against the aggressor, there were the usual confused and disjointed litanies of justifications that ranges from sheer arrogance to keeping their lips sealed until the issue would just die down a natural death when Madam Auring’s sex scandal surfaces.  Or paper bags with taxpayers’ money on it are once again handed out to their wide open arms plus the lazy script that they are all set to act in front of the probing public.


Casiño proposed that each Congressmen are to receive P1 on their allocated Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or “pork barrel” as to slam Sorsogon Representative Jose Solis’ proposal to increase the PDAF of each lawmaker by P30 million from its current standing of P70 million.


This pompous proposal of Congressman Solis came even after the scandalous trip of the Palace with all its lapdogs to the United States, spending millions of pesos from taxpayers’ money on expensive dinners to bare-face flaunt their unmoderated thirst for the good life despite the 3 million Filipino families who have nothing to eat everyday.


Adding insult to injury huh.  Seems they have come to love the phrase too much.


Everyone knows this “pork barrel” has been one of the main sources of corruption on this country; a very fertile source of wealth in the middle of wasteland.  A politician’s oasis when thrust into the deep scorching desert of Sahara.


I think it is already high time for the “pork barrel” of our most beloved and respectable Congressmen to be scrapped out, reconsidered and evaluated with the end-view of the public’s welfare for the following hopefully not-so-lame personal reasons and stop the bleeding of this nation from the carnage of all these wolves and hyenas:


1.  The “pork barrel” of congressmen is totally under the control and discretion of the occupant of the Palace.  With such very stupid system in place, the President has all the powers under her little baton to manipulate, control, lobby and even blackmail congressmen on key issues involving her office.


Time travel: Are the impeachment cases against GMA still fresh on your mind?  Hmm.


Remember: Among Ed Panlilio, the priest-turned-governor of Pampanga spoiled the beans by crying out in the open the giving out of paper bags at the Palace with whooping P200-P500 thousand cash in it to congressmen and local officials during the heated discussions whether the Lower House of Congress should endorse the impeachment case against the President to the excited and vengeful Senate.  Huh!  To make the story short, all the impeachment cases filed against GMA every year where thrown out into the trash bin with the verdict:  the case is valid in form but not in substance!  WTF!  And the Congressmen?  They partied and lived the good life.


All those congressmen who chose to be lapdogs of the Palace were obviously rewarded with expensive dog food and first-class grooming, while all those who bravely continue to scorch our vicious President content themselves with bread crumbs falling from the dinning table of the impoverished public.


Those who traded their souls for easy cash were given lots of infrastructure projects on their provinces approved by the President through their “pork barrel” while opposition congressmen has not received any of the allotted budget to them.  Indeed ingenious eh?  Pay back time to enemies, is the name of the game; follow me or political and material poverty is the only rule.


In the same way, Congressmen can always threaten a government agency in order for it to get what it wants especially during budget deliberations.


Casiño said, “The threat of one-peso budget has always been used by Congress to get what it wants from an agency. Perhaps it is time congressmen get a taste of their own medicine.”  Bravo, bravo! But lemme also think…


2.  Having all these projects awarded to congressmen through their “pork barrel” mislead them and people to what they should have been doing as legislators.  That is to make laws, amend laws, and more laws…and not to sponsor the making of roads, buildings, schools, basketball games, beauty pageants, baptism of constituents, derby, etc up to the point of begging and kneeling in front of the illegitimate President.  These stuffs take most of their time from sitting on committee meetings and deliberations, actively participating on plenary discussions and debates and passing crucial resolutions that the country needs.  Most of the time, many important and crucial laws are pending on Congress for so many years because of the lame excuse that they cannot wrestle a quorum.  Because many are always absent!


3.  Congressmen having a “pork barrel” tucked on their numerous responsibilities gives false hopes and a blurred understanding of who they really are and what they should be doing as public servants to their constituents.  Most often than not, constituents are expecting visible signs from their congressmen that he/she is really working like a dog by seeing constructions here and there with the caption:  Construction Of 2 million kilometers of road leading to nowhere…By:  The Corrupt Illegitimate President and Congressman Lapdog of the Palace.



Their measure of accomplishment is most of the time by things the eye could see.  And unfortunately, when a congressman has not constructed anything on his province because of his anti-administration stance, he could easily be not elected anymore come next polls.  This political consciousness of most people is not only erroneous but also built on a sandy ground.

It could be either way: the system of politics permits and cultivate such kind of thinking among the people or the people’s thinking and expectations are the ones pushing the government to recourse to such weak and corrupt political governance.


Either way, it is not the work of congressmen.  “Let’s allocate one peso for the pork barrel and let the various nominated projects of congressmen undergo line item budgeting and the public scrutiny it deserves,” said the Partylist Representative.  Exactly!  It is the work of the local government units to build all these stuffs for their constituents.  And a better option is to put into the LGUs some of those “pork barrel” allocations that goes through the scrutiny of public, so that our most revered congressmen could alas do their work.  (crossing fingers)


4.  And the most obvious.  It will end or at least lessen opportunities of corruption among the ranks of the congressmen.  Each project under their “pork barrel” is usually padded and bloated for them to get commissions.  This should stop.  Heard me, stop!  It may be sounding some tall order but for me I would not settle for seeing infrastructure works here and there courtesy of our congressmen well in fact we all know that they got a good paycheck on each of those same projects.  I don’t want to be shortchanged.  I want my 100% ROI from the heavy burden of paying my tax dutifully.


Let us see if many politicians would be still over eager to get a seat at the Lower House of Congress.


Should I sing hallelujah?  I think such this call is a breath of fresh air to our political system from time to time.  A P1 pork barrel may not be imposed for obvious reasons, but at least this is somewhat a voice crying in the desert for our government leaders to straighten up; and from the public to be always aware of  “our government’s” actions that certainly would affect us.


Do you agree with Representative Teddy Casiño proposing a P1 “pork barrel” for our congressmen?  What are maybe other reasons why the “pork barrel” given to our representatives be reduced significantly or just be totally scrapped out?  Oh, I need some pill.


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