Cracks on the credibility of Heidi Mendoza?

Is there no end to the “kapalpakan” of the Aquino Administration? It’s bad enough that the Aquino government caused a serious diplomatic rift between the Philippines and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) last Aug. 23 when the Philippine National Police (PNP) bungled that hostage situation that ended with the untimely deaths of 8 Hong Kong tourists who were hostage by a highly-decorated but deranged PNP officer. Now, the P.Noy Administration has angered Taiwan when the Foreign Department repatriated Taiwanese nationals to China instead of doing the right thing by deporting them back to Taiwan.

Now former Vice-Presidential candidate Mar Roxas has been sent to Taiwan for what we call “damage control” and the Taiwanese wants an apology, which Malacañang refuses to give. Call it P.Noy pride if you want, but there is nothing wrong in apologizing to Taiwan even if we didn’t do anything wrong. But sending a man at the level of Mar Roxas tells us that the PNoy Administration made another faux pas.

I don’t need to go into the details of this brouhaha, but no doubt an apology from Malacañang is in order. Sure, we accede that in this country we adhere to a One-China Policy, but the reality on the ground is, thousands of Filipinos are working in Taiwan through special diplomatic channels that were created decades ago. Ever since, we never had any diplomatic row with either Hong Kong or Taiwan. It’s already eight months under the PNoy Presidency and we see no reforms, no changes, only “kapalpakan!”

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I’m supposed to be writing stories about the 25th anniversary of the EDSA Revolt today, but an explosive story was splashed on The Philippine Star that the United Nations (UN) denied giving the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) a US$5-million reimbursement check that was supposedly exposed during the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee that was allegedly pocketed by AFP Comptroller Gen. Carlos Garcia. This report stemmed from an inquiry made by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DRA) to its permanent mission in the UN.

This report puts a serious crack in the credibility of whistleblower Ms. Heidi Mendoza who insisted that a military officer allegedly picked up this US$ 5 million check slated for the AFP at the UN in New York City in January of 2001. According to her, this check was never recorded in the AFP books of accounts. As the Star report says, DFA Assistant Secretary Lesli Gatan said that Mendoza’s story that an officer picked up the UN check was not possible. So, is the DFA ASEC telling us that Mendoza lied?

At this point, we will not make any knee jerk opinion on this until we hear a retort from Ms. Heidi Mendoza. I would like to believe that she would never lie over such things. Right now her credibility is on the line and let’s hope she can give us a credible reply to these allegations about the UN denying the existence of this check and how it was allegedly pocked by a military man. Mendoza’s testimony is crucial to the future corruption cases against corrupt AFP officers.

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During the Full Council Regional Development Council Region 7 (RDC-7) held at the Montebello Hotel, the Department of Public Works and Highways Regional Director Pedro Herrera Jr. whom I met for the first time admitted that a cemented road lasts more than 20 years, while he stated that an asphalted road would last only half of that. Given that these roads are made with good quality, then this is proof that in this country, the DPWH should be concreting roads, not asphalting it, especially at this time when a barrel of oil has hit the US$100 mark due to the uprisings in the Middle East.

I have always maintained that here in Cebu Province, we play host to some four cement plants, therefore using cement for our roads is not only logical, it doesn’t cost us any dollars to bring out of the country. Above all, it’s about time for us Filipinos to accept the reality that we are a tropical country with only two seasons - rainy or hot! With the world’s climate going crazy, where we are getting record rainfalls, it is unwise for DPWH to continue using asphalt, which in my book is a tool of the unscrupulous politicians to get themselves elected.

Yes, since time immemorial, our traditional politicians would use asphalt as their weapon to get themselves reelected. When the citizenry cries out loud that their road is potholed, these politicos would only repair those roads a few months before election so that we stupid and forgetful people reelect those politicos for giving us what was, in the first place, really due to us from the money we paid for our taxes.

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