Caught lying, but still secretive about health

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was caught lying as usual. That is the to-do over the true cause of her recent hospitalization. Spokesmen’s obfuscating can’t distract public disgust with her habitual fibbing.

In checking in at the hospital Wednesday dawn, Arroyo made it look like she was self-quarantining upon arrival from abroad. Health authorities had earlier said there was no more need to isolate travelers for A(H1N1), but she was insistent. If she was acting on social duty, it was a farce. Why, she had partied all night Tuesday, bussing pals cheek-to-cheek at a Cabinet man’s wedding anniversary. And when she finally went into hospital at 4 a.m., it wasn’t to avoid spreading virus. She had mainly cosmetic procedures and, adding the Palace’s claim, one gynecological check on the side. The cosmetic job can be called delicate, given that it’s the President going under the knife. She had mammoplastic repair of leaking breast implants done in the 1980s, excision of inguinal (groin) cyst, and laser depilation of unwanted hair in that area and the armpits. Having survived all this, Arroyo saw no more need to self-detain for the prescribed ten days, and groggily checked out at 2 p.m. Thursday.

The chief talker gnashed that “the story is totally absurd ... I mean, look at the President if she’s the type who’ll have breast implant like movie stars.” By late afternoon he was eating his words, stammering that Arroyo had just told him she did have implants, so earning the moniker Ab-Cerge. Leave it at that, Lore-Lie butted in, Arroyo had a breast mass taken out and replaced, plus biopsy of a groin lump that turned out benign.

But that’s not the point. They were overemphasizing the President’s privates, yet imputing malice on the press for imagined doing so. Still the issue was why Arroyo hid the real reason for the hospital visit, the same way she made secret a Colombia side trip days before. For that matter, the same way they wrongly invoke privacy about Arroyo’s political plans after 2010 and the facets of her many financial schemes.

The issue is about transparency in public dealings, and telling the truth for a change. They evaded my item on Arroyo’s dysfunctional bleeding mid-last year that necessitated D&C (raspa) and three follow-up checks since Jan. The President’s health is a state concern; she has the duty to disclose, and citizens have the right to know, it. Feigning self-quarantine was devious. They could have announced the biopsy, if true, in a nice way. Example: the White House disclosed all about the removal of Ronald Reagan’s colon polyps. And the Great Communicator endeared himself to the world when, upon hospital discharge, he chuckled that his only distress was “now everyone knows about my internal pipes.” By contrast, it’s hard to pray for speedy recovery of someone you know is fooling you. Or worse, someone who’s inciting a witch hunt at the Asian Hospital for the leaker of her medical info, when the culprit can very well be inside Malac... oops, my lips are sealed.

Arroyo’s hospital stay came at a price to taxpayers. Her bodyguards and cooks took five rooms: P4,000@, or total P20,000 a day. She got two suites for herself and the First Family: P18,000@, or total P36,000 a day. Spokesmen claim the hospital did not charge a cent. But how can we believe them, when they lie at every turn.

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Congress is to probe the link of poll automation contractor Total Information Management to the Aboitiz Group. It might as well dig into Comelec files of the Group’s lucrative deals since Arroyo came to power. Known to be close to the First Couple, Aboitiz reportedly has bagged many contracts to ship ballots, boxes and other election paraphernalia from 2001. Were there public biddings, or “tong-pats” per payments?

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Two months after I reported it, Jeverps Manufacturing explains its hot supply to the Dep-Ed of instant noodles worth P427 million. The deal has since been cancelled and the firm sued for graft. Excerpts from lawyer-spokesman Chito Dimaculangan’s very long letter:

“Why did complainant Prudencio Quido of Kolonwel have to go to faraway Vietnam to have our noodles tested for fortified fresh eggs, when BFAD-accredited RP testers can do so? They want to hinder verification of the Vietnamese report. BFAD certifies our noodles ‘positive for egg.’

“Kolonwel misrepresents that ordinary noodles are priced only P4.50 per 55g pack while ours is P22 per 100g. It is comparing ordinary ‘cooked’ noodles with our fortified ‘no-cook’. Universal Robina Corp. testified at the Senate that no-cook costs more than cooked. Its no-cook is P22 per 72g and P14 per 40g, while cooked is P5.75 per 55g.

“Dep-Ed set a budget of P427,215,360 for 19,418,880 packs, roughly P22 per 100g. Our bid was P427,215,352.14 for 19,511,114 packs, or P21.896, below the ceiling price but over 100,000 packs more.

“Kolonwel paid non-refundable P5,000 for bid documents. Quido was at the pre-bid conference on 12 Feb. 2009 and bid opening on 27 Feb. Surprisingly Kolonwel did not submit a bid; Quido held sealed envelops, which he kept. If they now say ours was overpriced, why didn’t they submit their claim of P11 per 100g?

“Quido is in the habit of demolishing competitors that beat Kolonwel in biddings. In 2007 it secured a court injunction on the distribution of 17.5 million Makabayan textbooks and teacher manuals, on grounds that it should be the bid winner. In 2004 Kolonwel’s sister Joodar Cottage Industry joined a bidding to supply combat boots to the AFP, worth P102 million. When Joodar lost, it went on media frenzy, peddling lies that the bidding was rigged.”

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