Nakakaawa naman si Gen. Carlos Garcia

(UPDATED throughout the day)

-- Nakakaawa rin si Gen. Garcia. Kasi siya lang sa mga military colleagues niya ang nahuli, even though alam natin na he couldn't do the stealing all alone without help or knowledge from higher-ups and fellow high-ranking officers.

Here's more:

His conviction raises more questions than answers. Everyone knows that Garcia couldn't have stashed all that money by himself. It was a scam that certainly had the knowledge, consent and active cooperation of many more of his superiors, along with other wheeler dealers within and without the military.

The chief of staff certainly knows damn well how the scam works. Nothing — by way of the practice of conversion can be done without the knowledge of the chief. The Armed Forces of the Philippines Savings and Loans Association Inc., the savings bank of the military, certainly knew that Garcia was not making that kind of money, yet even as the deposits grew and grew, they who run the savings bank, never questioned this, just as they never questioned the many others who could invest tens of millions of pesos in that military investment house.

There were many other Garcias in the military, just as there are still many more Garcias to come. The only difference is that Carlos Garcia had the misfortune of being caught, when his wife and son were found to have entered the United States without declaring the dollars they were carrying.

All those judges and jurors in the military court certainly knew the crime was not committed just by Garcia, but many more. And yet they too, appeared relieved that the case didn't go beyond Garcia, and more important for the top brass, the accused general made it easy for all of them by not fighting aggressively to stave off a conviction.

Even more odd, there was that video footage of the prosecutor who, after the sentence was read, went over to Garcia, not only to shake his hand but also to salute him. Is this not very odd behavior from a prosecutor that had just won his case by having him convicted? And has not Garcia been dishonorably discharged? Why the salute?

Was that salute a way of thanking Garcia for not spilling the beans and bringing down the graft-ridden military house?

Garcia seemed to know he would be convicted, but that the punishment would be light. What, after all, are two years, with at least a year already served? It wouldn't be as if he would be a prisoner in Bilibid or be one more convict in death row. As for hard labor, what's that in the military and under its custodial care?

So why were the chiefs spared? And why was Garcia protecting what can be called the military mafia?

-- It's sad that our so called president could not strongly defend our athletes from the Thai PM's smear. Kasi wala moral ascendancy si GMA eh to stand up against the Thaksin's of the world since she herself cheated and stole the elections to win.

But I'm glad other people who are just as upset as I am about Thaksin's remarks are picking up the slack and demanding a public apology from Thailand's PM. And I won't take none of this "misquoted" nonsense from the Foreign Affairs ministry. Sinong ginagago nyo, ha?

-- This doesn't look good:

Gloria Arroyo's folly of the Philippines rising from an economic limbo and catching up with new powerhouses in the region, Thailand and Malaysia, has been exposed as another folly and wistful thinking by no less than the World Bank (WB).

The WB bluntly told Gloria, who throws around a supposed doctorate degree in economics, making it appear as though it came from Georgetown, which is false, that the economy won't live on remittances from Filipinos sent away to work abroad due to the lack of opportunities in the country

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-- Garci used "Joel Sanchez" for ALIAS?

From the Tribune:

The Filipinos know him as “Garci” but the immigration officials know former poll commissioner Virgilio Garcillano as “Joel Sanchez,” an alias Garcillano reportedly has been using all this time to leave and reenter the country, as well as travel around the country, a Tribune source who asked for anonymity said yesterday.

The source claimed that the Bureau of Immigration chiefs knew of this alias used by Garcillano, which allowed him to travel, without the BI records having a trace of the entry and exit of the controversial commissioner who is alleged to have taken orders from President Arroyo to rig the vote in her favor, as caught on the now infamous “Hello Garci” audio tapes.

The same source said the name Joel Sanchez has been used by Garcillano in most if not all of the hotels he had checked since his arrival last week.

The information, however, could not be independently confirmed as documents proving Garcillano's use of an alias, were however reported to have been intercepted by Garcillano's handlers a few hours after a courier from Mindanao brought the documents to Manila.

The BI has has claimed that there was no record of Garcillano having left the country, as reported by the media.

But the agency was caught lying when it was bared, through official diplomatic channels, that Garcillano had entered Singapore on transit and boarded a Singapore Airlines flight.