Who gave them license to drive? - Gotcha

Could tremendous pressures of the Presidency be driving him to the booze and into blissful amnesia? Or is he living in a make-believe world where he and kith and kin can do no wrong?

Whichever, critics are wondering why, without batting an eyelash, Joseph Estrada keeps daring them to name names whenever they decry cronyism. More so since names they've named already have seen print.

There's presidential cousin Celia Ejercito de Castro, for one, who was found lobbying for release of P240 million in textbook funds. Estrada let her flee to America instead of face a Senate probe. Before that, he denied appointing her presidential consultant -- only to claim later that he forgot because she had used her married and not her maiden name.

Then there was his son Jude's unauthorized use of an Air Force jet to take friends to Cagayan de Oro. Two government officials picked up the group's hotel and food bills that ran up to more than their combined monthly salary. But Estrada dismissed it as Filipino hospitality.

There's the Indian butler who got plum concessions at the Manila airport. Estrada twitted the press for giving his manservant too much attention, but couldn't explain why a mere valet had wangled a deal to build a restaurant on Malacaqang grounds.

And there's his pal Mark Jimenez's brokering of multibillion-peso business takeovers in Malacaqang instead of corporate boardrooms. Estrada praised Jimenez as a finance genius, but couldn't explain how his then-adviser pulled in SSS and GSIS money to bag the deals.

There's the award of a highway contract to a firm owned by Executive Sec. Ronnie Zamora's brother, Manny, pal Juan Luis Virata, and former PM Cesar Virata. Manny Zamora was Estrada's 1998 campaign manager; the Viratas were campaign donors. Spokesman Jerry Barican did the talking that time. Despite documents to the contrary, he denied the trio's attempt to hit DBP for a P700-million loan.

There's also the award of an irrigation contract to the company of presidential adviser Antolin Oreta and wife Sen. Tessie Aquino. Estrada saw nothing wrong with it since the couple has been in the construction line since the '70s. But he glossed over the irrigation agency's increase of its official project estimate from P435 million to P701 million within only two months, which allowed the firm to win the bidding at P757 million.

And there's his phone calls to Securities & Exchange Commission head Perfecto Yasay to intercede for pal Dante Tan in a price-fixing case. Estrada claimed he was only after justice because Tan supposedly was the victim, not the villain, in the BW Resources scam. Yet he was asking for Yasay's resignation while the latter was still investigating Tan.

Critics and plain businessmen can add more cases to this recap. But Estrada might still not admit to favoring his kamag-anak and kumpare.

Political scientist George E. Reedy noted there's something about the job -- immense power, public attention, sycophants' actions -- that makes Presidents think that everything they do is for the national interest, and all critics are subversives with fertile imaginations.

They load and unload passengers in the middle of the road. They counterflow traffic on highways or sidestreets. They swerve in and out of lanes, and don't signal their intent to turn. They overtake on bridges or on solid-yellow lines. They even stop and back up in expressways.

Ever wonder where all those uncouth, uneducated drivers got their licenses when they don't even know how to read signs or write their names? It's because the Land Transportation Office is concerned with raising revenues, not enforcing order.

The LTO has always been under pressure from the transportation department to collect billions of pesos per year from drivers' licensing and vehicle registration. Why, it ranked in the early '80s as the government's second-highest revenue agency, next only to the BIR. Today, it's the third, since Customs has overtaken it.

Corrupt LTO officials are also wont to ignore irregularities such as failure of license applicants to pass written exams, or violations like high emissions of cars to be registered. It's from such cases that they draw opportunity for bribes.

INTERACTION. Bing Ramos, Hayward, Ca.: Lito Banayo should stop ill-advising Erap on politics but concentrate on his job as Tourism Authority GM-- and desecrate Luneta with his projects. About VP Macapagal's not speaking out on issues (Gotcha, 1 Mar. 2000), maybe she has no convictions.

Danny Maclan, yahoo.com: What they did to BW shares (Gotcha, 26 Feb. 2000) is called "pump and dump" -- pump up the price, then dump it.

Jonathan R. Dy, BF Resort, Las Pinas: Erap is promising to wipe out poverty and corruption before his term ends. Nonsense! Aquino and Ramos had dismal records in fighting the two problems. Poverty and corruption will still be the issues in the 2004 presidential election.

Royco Hautea, yahoo.com: Erap praised Zamora for offering to resign for the Manero brouhaha, saying that's delicadeza (Gotcha, 23 Feb. 2000).

Doesn't real delicadeza call for irrevocable resignation?

Fred Esteban, Cubao, QC: When he won, everybody expected him to run an inept government (Gotcha, 19 Feb. 2000), but nobody expected his cronies and kin to be so adept at stealing.

Norman G. Perez, Mla: I was fascinated with your article on cloud formations (Gotcha, 16 Feb. 2000) because I encountered the odd phenomenon. At 4:35 p.m., 29 Nov. 1994, I saw in the clouds the face of Jesus Christ as commonly depicted in pictures. I was then driving through BF-Paraqaque.

Enclosed is a photocopy of my sketch of what I saw. Like you, I don't care if friends call me mababaw; what I saw was real.

Being mababaw could be the child-like faith that God is asking of us all, Norman.

Thank you, Sen. Juan Flavier, U-Sec Susy Pineda-Mercado, Marvin Bionat, Pete Lacaba, Eggy Apostol.

YOUR BODY. Bone marrow tests are a valuable tool in the care of breast cancer patients. Doctors usually perform a lymph node biopsy to determine a patient's risk of relapse, but a study in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests a bone marrow test to boot for accurate prediction.

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