Those without sin, let them cast the first stone!

There is no doubt that the political fever has already gone on a very high pitch, especially when someone reported to the media that Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) and her entourage wined and dined at the luxury Le Cirque Restaurant that purportedly cost some US$ 20,000 dollars. Now whether this was considered an inappropriate behavior or being insensitive to the plight of poor Filipinos? Well for one, it was Rep. Martin Romualdez who paid for the dinner, so if there is anyone who ought to be questioned about the cost, it should be thrown to Rep. Romualdez, not the President.

The problem really is with the opposition, like Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay who chastised the President for her extravagance. This issue has been magnified by the opposition because it gives them free front page news coverage. But in truth, many Manila-based politicians from both sides of the political firmament are wined and dined in Manila’s posh restaurants that cost upwards from P2,000 per person even to P4,000 per person, if you include expensive wines.

In fact, whoever revealed this info to the press failed to give us an idea of how many persons were in that restaurant so we could find out how much was the cost of that dinner on a per head basis? The reason for revealing this info is more than obvious, just to gain political mileage at the expense of the President, even if she did not spend government money for that dinner.

It’s about time that those who chastise the President ought to be reminded by that famous Bible story, when the woman caught in adultery was about to be stoned by her accusers. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not stop nor prevent the angry mob from stoning the woman. He merely wrote on the ground and said, “Let those who is without sin, cast the first stone!” No one cast that stone because everyone committed sins!

Please don’t tell me that Makati Mayor Binay or those in the opposition never accepted a high prized dinner in a posh Makati restaurant or those luxury hotels? It is a sad plight for this country that the poor are mislead by the opposition to the extravagance of the Arroyo Administration, but in truth, the opposition are just as insensitive to the plight of the poor. Perhaps when we see the opposition stalwarts eat lunch in a Jollibee Restaurant or Chow King then maybe they would earn the right to chastise those who eat dinner at the cost of a month’s food budget of a poor family!

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While we are defending Pres. Arroyo from that New York Restaurant brouhaha, simultaneously, we got a rather disturbing report coming from the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) that the income of Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) from 1992 which was only pegged at P7 million has increased to P144 million in the year 2008 and her net worth has increased by 2000% or around P10 million per year! This is coming from a President that only earns a measly P45,000 monthly salary.

We are not saying that the PCIJ is making false accusations; after all, they do have an excellent track record in exposing anomalies. But it is only fair for us to wait for the reply of Pres. Arroyo to these latest accusations against her Presidency. So is this a case of unexplained wealth or can Mrs. Arroyo explain this to the people. And while we’re at it, perhaps it is time to go into a mass lifestyle check on all our politicians and government officials, which is something we already wrote before for the sake of transparency!

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I don’t know why the rush, but Pres. Arroyo just signed the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). I fully concur with the observations of fellow Freeman columnist Fidel Abalos that this CARP extension would amount to nothing if we allowed the same crooks running the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to go on. We have exposed many anomalies by DAR officials and thanks to our snail’s paced Justice System, these cases are merely clogging our courts. How I wished that Pres. Arroyo first overhauled the DAR before signing that CARP extension.

Mind you, my mother’s family are victims of DAR’s shenanigans because they CARPed our farm in Bohol, which was still under loan by the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP). How could DAR take over a property when the law clearly states that lands that have been used as collateral in the bank cannot be CARPed? This farm was bought by my grandfather Capt. Valeriano Segura before the Second World War and it allowed my grandma to single-handedly (my grandpa died in Bataan) raise her eight children as professionals thanks to that land.

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