OPPOSITION senators yesterday described as "desperate" Malacañang’s attempt to discredit Michael Angelo Zuce who accused President Arroyo of being present when alleged jueteng money was distributed to buy the loyalty of Commission on Elections regional directors before the 2004 presidential polls.
Minority leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said President Arroyo’s effort to cast doubts on Zuce’s allegations by coming out with a supposed statement from former presidential liaison officer Joey Rufino, who is seriously ill with liver cancer, could backfire on her.
A source said Rufino is comatose at the intensive care unit of the Medical City hospital in Pasig City and could not have issued a statement denying the allegations of Zuce, his former staff member.
"He’s very ill, he could not talk. Actually Joey is in coma," the source said.
"How could he have issued that statement if he is in coma?" another source said.
- IMPEACH Gloria 8 Pirmas na lang!
- Ellen Tordesillas says Arroyo was being "clintonian" when she said that "no one gave bribes in her presence."
TAKE a good look at Gloria Arroyo’s replies to questions about the meetings with Comelec officials at her La Vista home before the 2004 elections where sums of money were reportedly distributed.
In an interview with John Susi of ABC-5’s Sentro last Friday, Arroyo said, "Ang masasabi ko, walang nagbibigay ng suhol sa harap ko." (What I can say is, no one gave bribes in front of me.)
She was asked again by Korina Sanchez of ABS-CBN about the same incident and her reply was. "I deny that. People bribing in front of me. I deny that."
Arroyo’s answers are equivocal. As related by Michaelangelo "Louie" S. Zuce, nephew by affinity of former Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano and aide to Arroyo’s political adviser, Joey Rufino, the white envelopes containing P30,000 each provided by Mrs. Lilia Pineda, wife of alleged jueteng lord, Rodolfo "Bong" Pineda, were distributed to 23 election officials after Arroyo had left.
Zuce said Pineda gave the envelopes to Southern Tagalog regional director Johnny Icaro, who distributed them.
Arroyo was correct. Not in her presence. But it doesn’t mean that she was not a party to the conspiracy to corrupt the election officers to make her win the elections. Inviting employees of a constitutional, independent electoral body to her home for dinner is improper enough. Asking them to help her candidacy and bribing them are violations of the law.
She is being clever. But she is still a liar. (Shades of Clinton saying "I did not have sex with that woman.")
She has more too on Malacanang's reaction to Zuce.
Malacañang officials were apparently caught by surprise by Zuce’s testimony. All that Gabby Claudio, presidential adviser for political affairs could say was Zuce was "a mere functionary" and thus it would have been impossible for him to attend such a sensitive meeting in Arroyo’s home.
Claudio forgot that Zuce is Garcillano’s nephew. Besides, one should not belittle the information that "mere functionaries" know. As a reporter, I have gotten valuable information from "mere functionaries", from gardeners, drivers, waitresses.
When we were covering the foreign affairs beat, Tress Reyes (now with Nikkei Shimbun) found an important document in the trash can.
Truth can be found in the most unlikely places and can come from the most unexpected sources.
So rattled were Malacañang officials that Bobi Tiglao, head of the presidential management staff, told ANC’s David Celdran that Isah Red, entertainment editor of the pro-Arroyo Manila Standard Today, was always seen in press conferences of the opposition.
Tiglao accused Red of being behind the "massive smear campaign" against the Arroyo administration.
While Tiglao was accusing Red, the camera was focused on Ishko Lopez, media officer of the opposition group, Unity for Truth and Justice.
Tiglao, Red and Lopez worked together with the now defunct Manila Chronicle.
While Lopez was laughing, Red was furious. "If Malacañang can’t even get their facts right, what the opposition is saying might be true," he said.
Red said Tiglao’s accusation is serious and he is thinking of taking legal action if he does not apologize to him.
Zuce’s coming out puts another face to the unidentified voices in the wiretapped conversations of Arroyo and Garcillano that showed a conspiracy to rig the 2004 elections.
"Louie", Zuce’s nickname was mentioned in the May 25, 2004 conversation between Garcillano and Icaro.
Zuce/Louie was also caught on the tape talking with his uncle on May 28, 2004. He was with George Goking described by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism as "one of the President’s fund-raisers in Cagayan de Oro."
PCIJ said Goking is Chinese-Filipino businessman based in Cagayan de Oro who was appointed by Arroyo as Pagcor director and Cabinet officer for regional development.
The May 28 conversation started with Garcillano talking with Goking who was apparently on his way to their meeting in Silahis Hotel. But they found out that there were FPJ supporters there. They decided to meet instead in Garcillano’s house. Then Goking said " Okey, sandali lang, kakausapin ka ni Louie" (Wait a minute, Louie will talk to you.)
When Louie was on the line, he addressed Garcillano as "’Cle", short for ‘Uncle."
Garcillano instructed him "Pumunta na lang kayo sa bahay para hindi na ako ma-expose." (Just go to the house so I won’t be exposed.)
Garcillano called up Louie, who was at Harrison Plaza, on June 16, 2004 looking for Goking.
- And this is a good one from de Quiros:
For some reason, the bishops discover the practical demands of the here and now when it comes to corrupt presidents they do not like but discover the irresolvable dilemma of evil throughout the ages when it comes to corrupt presidents they like. Jaime Cardinal Sin was like that -- his morality was selective. He rose to heroic eloquence when faced with the corruption of Marcos and Estrada, plucking out the moral imperative from the political retrogression, but lapsed to bovine contentment when faced with the corruption of Cory and Ms Arroyo, taking in the survival of the fittest in moral evolution. What did Sin and Jose Concepcion, chairman of the election watchdog Namfrel, like to quote? All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. They were never more right -- about themselves.
True enough, we may not forget about the sins of the past, notably Marcos'. But if this country forgets the sins of the past, it is also because its moral guardians refuse to see the sins of the present, and protest them. I've always said that what rehabilitated the Marcoses was not so much the policy of reconciliation that Cory took but the practice of thieving the Kamaganak Inc. [Relatives Inc.] took. The same is true of recent times: What has rehabilitated Estrada is not the failure of the courts to prove him guilty, it is the person who succeeded him proving more crooked than he was. Current sins always drown out past ones. No, more than that, they blot out past ones in the eyes of a jaded people. You do not protest what is happening before you, you make people forget what has gone before.
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