GMA’s fiscal discipline
I have heard Gloria Macapagal Arroyo lie before, but never as
big as the one dished out Saturday when she said that no one beats the
Philippines when it comes to fiscal discipline.
I maintain the contrary. No one beats the country when it
comes to lack of fiscal discipline.
Yes, I hand it to her for narrowing down the budget deficit
because of her will to pass the expanded value added tax. But after that, her
so-called fiscal discipline is in disarray. It no longer exists.
If it does or ever did, she would have prosecuted Joc Joc
Bolante for squandering P1.1 billion for her 2004 campaign.
If she had fiscal discipline, she would encourage higher
productivity of rice instead of subsidizing foreign farmers with our imports.
If she had fiscal discipline, she would have curbed
corruption that eats into the moral fiber of her people.
If she had fiscal discipline, she would have spent less on
her minions in the House to abort her impeachment.
Fiscal discipline is not her problem because she has never
been possessed of it. Her problem is the lack of ability to distinguish between
right and wrong, Her problem is believing we believe her lies.
Fiscal discipline takes the cake in the expanding arena of
unadulterated lies half truths. The poor girl is lost because she listens only
to what she wants to hear. She is detached from her people.
The other big problem
Biggest among the big problems of Gloria Arroyo is her
limitless capacity to react. She has never been known to be proactive. Always
she has been reactive. The latest example is how she tried to deal with the US
Congress investigating the extra-judicial killings. After vainly trying to
white-wash the Melo Commission report, she declared that her government will
continue to get the people to be aware of the plus points in her government.
What I see are "flash points" or danger areas she closes her
eyes to. Again the Melo report is another example. This is a "flash point" she
will be hard put to deal with. She avoids the issue but does not, in public
appearances, seem to be perturbed by the US Congress investigation of
extra-judicial killings.
She will get it in the jugular. She is scared stiff. Uncle
Sam has many funny ways of dealing with recalcitrant "friends."
The Congressional investigation in the United States is what
Filipinos will believe. Not the special courts. Not the show of courage by
President Arroyo that she is unperturbed.
She is not only unperturbed. She is, in fact, deeply
disturbed.
Compensating a dangerous terminal
I have the report of Ove Arop and TCGI which conducted
physical examination of Terminal III under authority of the International Centre
for Settlement of Investment Disputes.
The report details the many and dangerous defects that make
the supposedly new airport definitely unsafe.
Yet President Arroyo wants a soft-opening and claims that the
anomaly-ridden terminal is one of her many accomplishments.
While she is making that claim — frequently, at that — people
close to her are following her orders "to just implement" the settlement with
Fraport and Piatco.
That means that the state is prepared to pay about $550
million in compensation for an airport whose contractor, Piatco and Fraport,
cannot document the expense.
The investigation of the terminal started with the Senate but
should not end with the declaration by the Supreme Court that its contract with
the Department of Transportation and Communications is null and void.
So much dirt has been swept under the rug. One of them is the
question of money laundering that the courts have practically protected.
Piatco is an election issue the Opposition does not want to
exploit to their advantage. They are so busy tangling withTeam Unity over less
important issues.
GMA’s Achilles Heel
Human rights violations now condemned by civil societies of
the world, is the Achilles Heel of the Arroyo government. As in all cases that
left her in a spot since she grabbed power in 2001 and stole it in 2004, she
always has a solution.
She agrees with her sycophants that economic progress will
save the day for her and obliterate the issue of human rights violations.
She could not be more wrong.
The nature of the Filipino follows an old saying "people will
adore and love you for all the things you’ve done for them but will hate you for
a single mistake."
In the Arroyo presidency, very few "good things" have been
done. But there is an endless litany of mistakes.
The solution is always a cover-up. You name them, you have
them. Joc Joc Bolante squandered P1.1 billion for her campaign. And he was
allowed to leave and escape the wrath of the Senate.
You folks try going around the rural areas and hear for
yourselves what they say of the economy. They are indifferent to doubtful
economic gains. Talk about corruption. A day is not enough listening to how
powerful people protect smuggling and cut big illegal deals.
Towards a reign of fear
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is said to be considering the revival
of the Anti Subversion law. The target is definitely the Leftist groups hundreds
of whom have been executed allegedly by the military.
After Congressman Satur Ocampo was arrested for alleged
crimes committed 20 years ago, the government, on the advice of National
Security Adviser Norberto Gonzalez, is trying to make us believe that it was the
likes of Ocampo who was responsible for the killings in the form of a purge.
Malacañang can lie till hell freezes over, but nobody
believes what it says in at least three areas:
The extra-judicial killings, the drive against corruption,
and the election cheating in 2004.
They believe that these crimes can be covered by proper
placing in media of what it says is economic growth and the extra-judicial
killings as a purge.
Nobody wants to give Malacañang an ear. We have heard enough
lies and twisted logic.
Even if they tell the truth this time, believers will be few.
The international pressure on Mrs. Arroyo on the
extra-judicial killings is a nightmare she will never awake from.
Illegal withdrawal
If there is one corporate fraud that has not caught the
attention of authorities, it is the continuing thievery in Philcomsat Holdings.
In spite of a ruling by a Makati Regional Trial Court that
the proxies used by the present directors in the 2004 election were not valid
and therefore the election that year was similarly invalid, an officer tried to
withdraw a reported P100 million from the Bank of PI last week.
The bank refused, invoking a fund freeze order that resulted
from that decision.
However, a more "friendly" bank, the Export Industry Bank,
defied the freeze order and allowed the withdrawal of P450,000 last week.
The officers and directors have been occupying positions
illegally since 2004. However, the Securities and Exchange Commission refuses to
allow an annual stockholders meeting saying it would be dangerous to be involved
in an intra-corporate feud.
Little do they admit that at least five court cases have been
resolved. What feud is the SEC talking about?
Manuel Nieto Jr. has asked the Court of Appeals to lift the
TRO against the meeting because he did not even know that he sought one.
Yet Justice Vicente Roxas converted the TRO into a preliminary injunction.
Now Philip Brodett has filed an appeal with the CA seeking to invalidate the RTC
ruling.
