Christmas should close everything. That’s what the Doña and her handlers think. Better yet, that’s what they thought. They resurrected Garci from wherever in the netherworld he was hiding, so they could put closure to the sordid scandal that has haunted her and the nation. Garci came in from the cold, in mysterious sightings calculated to whet everybody’s curiosity at what he would say. Finally, he came face to face with both his tormentors and attorneys in the House of Representatives, and got the entire nation riveted to what "truth" he would unleash. It was the truth that would put closure to the "poisoned politics" that bedeviled the nation, so the bunyeta went.
Well, it’s fourteen days before the media noche, and just a scant six days before Simbang Gabi, but Garci blew the lid on his telephone affair with Glory even wider. And with the Senate witnessing how a certain Judge Moner lied hilariously through his false teeth, alongside the child-like candor of a Marietta Santos who treated the MIG headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo as some kind of a boudoir for liaisons dangereuse with the macho of the year, "Jet" Doble, l’affaire Garci et Glory just might be the talk of the most sparse Christmas table in memory.
His handlers thought Garci could handle himself with aplomb. After all he is smart and smart-alecky. He is himself a lawyer, and many of the inquisitors assembled before him were his "friends" and he, their "protector". And he had a battery of lawyers, visible and unseen, a retired Sandiganbayan justice beside him, a would-be Comelec commissioner among the unseen. So they did not bother talking to Edcel Lagman of Albay, nor Datumanong, neither Libanan. Not even Monico Puentevella, still basking in Bacolod after the SEA Games where extra special funds were generously apportioned to him.
After all, the second handler would be in-situ. And there would be the reliable bully, Luis Villafuerte of Camarines Sur. And Connie Dy, Girlie Villarosa, even Rodente Marcoleta. Not to forget Douglas Cagas, the Ombudsman who never was. But given "starring" role was no less than Rodolfo Antonino of Nueva Ecija, political killer of the Villareal-Lorenzo egg empire where Anthony Taberna and a lady close to my heart come from.
Rody Antonino, whose presence and presentado loquaciousness at the Batasan makes Darlene Antonino Custodio of General Santos upon Saranggani Bay remind everyone that she is now a Custodio (with apologies to my friend Adel) makes the perfect "attorney" for the man who refuses to be called "Garci". Bagay na bagay sila.
The client obfuscates, and lies unconvincingly. The attorney tries to defend the indefensible, and in the process, looks even more foolish than the lying client. What Malacañang hopes to be Christmas closure is preceded, not by carols, but the mournful dirge of Sondheim"s "Send in the Clowns".
This guy Doble, who should be featured in women’s magazines next, if EO 464 and his captors in the military would allow an interview by Dolly Ann Carvajal or even Alfie Lorenzo, should be the next DBM Secretary.
Recall that his Numero Tres, Marietta Santos, gleefully claimed before the Senate that his ATM-enrolled salary goes direct to his Numero Uno, and he supports both her and Numero Dos besides, on the salary of a technical sergeant, wow! It’s more impossible than the national budget, where two-thirds goes to debt service, and the other third supports the entire bureaucracy. Since the Doña manages the macro-economy like it were a micro-household anyway, she might as well ask this "Jet" Doble how he manages to cram all three and children besides on such meager earnings. That’s the kind of financial legerdemain Romy Neri could never beat. Not even his successor by next year, Junior Andaya of Camarines Railways.
Garci’s List, which his lawyer Ed Tamondong billed as some kind of a Schindler’s List that would spell death to the political fortunes of many, turned out to be another of his dagdag-bawas schemes.
As Roy Golez wondered how come the name of Lanao’s Abdullah Dimaporo was written and then crossed out in haste, Garcillano exclaimed that he could put it back. Ang dali nga naman. Kung statement of votes at certificate of canvass, ang daling dagdagan at madali ring bawasan, what’s so difficult about naming one and crossing it out, then listing the same again?
Did Bobby Dimaporo threaten Garci with bodily harm at the Batasan’s North Lounge before he entered the session hall, such that he hastily crossed out the latter’s name in the affidavit he swore to before Emylou Talino Santos?
I was seated beside Liway Chato in the session hall when Garcillano read his Garci’s List. He emphatically pronounced her full name, Liwayway Vinzons Chato, even as he forgot the first name of Senator Lim, and called others by their nicknames. Liway protested to me, saying that she talked to him about an election protest, after her protagonist, Renato Unico Jr. of Camarines Norte had been hastily proclaimed by Garcillano’s minions. But Garci’s List did not contain Unico’s name.
I instinctively remarked to her, "Hindi ka kasi nagbayad. ‘Yung iba naman na nilista, kulang pa siguro ang binayad".
Some ladies in Congress chided an opposition stalwart last Wednesday, "hindi ba pwedeng mag-file na ngayon ng impeachment ulit? Sige na, para masaya naman ang aming Pasko."
They couldn’t wait to suck more blood from a dying vampire. Portents of the next year, and the next, and the next, for as long as Glory exists.
While Garci had Congress in thrall at his unmitigated capacity for lying, dissembling, and creative prevarications, radio was reporting about home-made bombs exploding before the mansion of Garci’s chief handler. And likewise the early-morning strafing of Edificio LTA en Calle Perea.
Later, a group called "Enlightened Warriors" claimed through the Internet that they were responsible. While the timing and circumstances, not to say the "harmless" effects of the mischief might as well be a "bomb me" ploy, the message of the so-called warriors is something every Filipino should hearken to, even in this graceless season of grace.
"We are against the illegitimate, cheating and thieving presidency of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo…We sympathize and unite with all those who have tried to resolve the present crisis of governance through the various means provided for by law and the Constitution…(but) we see no sign that Gloria Arroyo is going to relent and resign. The people are left with no other choice but to bring it down".
Amen, amen, amen. In these fourteen days before Christmas, and even beyond, many of us will pray for that, whether the enlightened exist or not.
Meanwhile, it’s time for my annual rest and recreation. From this day and until a week after the Gregorian New Year rolls along, I shall mail in a column rather sparsely, as I rest weary mind and end another chapter in this seemingly endless vitae horribilis called Gloria in excelsis mala.
Merry Christmas. Sana!
This is funny too: AFP tells wiretap witness to go to court.
More here:
Opposition: Garci should be cited in contempt, detained
----------------------------------------
OPPOSITION congressmen yesterday said former election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano should be cited in contempt and detained for refusing to say if the voice caught in the "Hello Garci" wiretapped conversations on electoral fraud is his or not.
Rep. Teofisto Guingona III (NP, Bukidnon) said the chairmen of the five committees jointly investigating the wiretapped conversations should place Garcillano under the custody of House sergeant at arms Bayani Fabic "for not telling the truth."
Guingona and Rep. Joel Villanueva (Cibac) said they would move to cite Garcillano in contempt on Tuesday when the inquiry resumes.
Villanueva said the House should assume custody over Garcillano as what the Senate did when national security adviser Norberto Gonzales refused to answer questions about the lobby contract that he signed with the US law firm Venable LLP on behalf of the government.
"He (Garcillano) can’t get away with his accountability. He should be placed behind bars for peddling lies," Villanueva said.
Rep. Ronaldo Zamora (PMP, San Juan) told Garcillano when the latter appeared at the inquiry Wednesday that he could not have it both ways – refusing to admit the voice in the tapes is his while asking the Supreme Court to rule that the playing of the tapes and the congressional inquiry are prohibited under RA 4200 or the anti-wiretapping law.
From Manong Ernie:
Former poll official Virgilio Garcillano at the House hearing on the Garci tapes rattled off the names of 30 political personalities who either called him by phone or talked to him personally. But immediately, Garci's list was denied by Senators Loren Legarda, Ping Lacson and senatorial candidates Jamby Madrigal, Dick Gordon, Mar Roxas and Fred Lim. Gordon said Garci was “hallucinating.”
It has also been pointed out that Garci made several significant omissions — namely First Gentleman Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, Sen. Robert Barbers and Rep. Gerry Espina (NPC, Biliran). Garci relative Michaelangelo Zuce also revealed that representatives of Sen. John Osmeña and candidate Heherson Alvarez negotiated with Garci but no agreement was made because of a disagreement as to the “fee.”
Garcillano rightly deserves to be called “Garcinungaling,” Lying is also committed by omissions.
----------------------------------------
Way out? Taguig City Rep. Allan Peter Cayetano may have given GMA another way out of the Garci tapes mess. Cayetano revealed that according to the National Statistics Office (NSO) there is no record of birth of Virgilio O. Garcillano. So how can GMA talk to Garcillano when no such person was born?
Garcillano also gave another way out for GMA. In response to a question by Rep. Escudero, he said “Hindi ko kilala yong Garci!” So how can GMA have said “Hello Garci” to him when there is no “Garci” to begin with.
One follow-up question that we would like Rep. Gilbert Remulla to ask: “Kindly tell us specifically where did you hid in the five months you were on the run?” It would be interesting to hear if he admits that he hide in Tagaytay, Pampanga, Bataan, Subic, Lanao del Sur, Surigao, Sultan Kudarat, Zamboanga del Sur, among others. If Garci insists he did not go to Singapore, then he should be asked to explain where he was hiding in the week of July 4 and who were with him at the time and who provided him vehicles in travelling all over Mindanao.
The opposition should get its act together. Twenty opposition lawmakers should immediately sign up to interpellate but leave the actual questioning to Rep. Chiz Escudero, Ronnie Zamora, Allan Peter Cayetano and Gilbert Remulla who are the more incisive interrogators. That way the four lawmakers can get 15 minutes straight time.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment