At the heels of the successful launching in Cebu City of the National Transformation Council (NTC), which followed the equally successful launching of the NTC in Lipa, Batangas last Sept. 27, suddenly more people wanted to know what the NTC is all about. Yes, the NTC made the headline news in The Freeman when it blared, “Group wants P-Noy to Quit!”
The next day, The Freeman front page news blared, “Palace brushes aside Church-led group’s call for P-Noy to resign.” Then ABS-CBN came up with that report where purportedly it said that “Ricardo Cardinal Vidal denies seeking the ouster of P-Noy. So was Cardinal Vidal really misquoted or was the NTC the subject of Yellow propaganda?
First of all, let me say it here that his eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal was not the prime instigator of the call for P-Noy to resign. In fact the NTC issued a clarification saying, “The P-Noy resign campaign was the product of the collective decision of the NTC, not an individual initiative of Cardinal Vidal alone. The whole NTC and the participants of that event called for and shouted for the entire Aquino government to quit!
In fact the word that the NTC used was not even resign…but ”Relinquish” (this is the title of our column last Saturday) power after the NTC heard the speeches and powerpoint presentation of former Biliran Congressman Glenn Chiong who gave the group the most convincing report on how the Comelec cheated in the 2010 and 2013 elections using the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines, which we’ve called the massive “Electronic Dagdag Bawas”! In short, the NTC was convinced that because of this massive cheating in the 2013 elections, all elected officials are considered de facto government officials and should relinquish their respective posts.
Then came the speech of Rev. Greco Belgica. Mind you, he is a born-again Christian and surely you must have noticed that the Catholic Church leaders, evangelical Christians and Muslims were united in this endeavor to cleanse the government of corruption and incompetence, which is why it is wrong to say that the NTC is led by the Catholic Church.
It was the first time that I met Greco Belgica and yes, that name isn’t exactly common. So I asked him if he was related to Butch Belgica? Apparent, Butch is his father. Indeed, Butch Belgica was a notorious character in the ’60s and ’70s where he led a life of wild abandon and was sent to a long prison term. In jail, Butch Belgica met our Lord Jesus Christ and he turned into a Christian preacher. Now his son is also committed to our Lord Jesus.
So who is Greco Belgica? As we already wrote last Saturday, it was Greco’s petition before the Supreme Court (SC) that led to the unanimous decision declaring the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) as unconstitutional. In short, the Filipino people owe much to Greco Belgica. What an irony!
Greco, the son of Butch Belgica is perhaps the best proof of a man’s transformation from a notorious convict to a good citizen. Indeed, a bad tree can still produce good fruit, which is true to the family of Butch Belgica and a good tree can produce bad fruit, which is happening in the case of the late Sen. Ninoy and Cory Aquino with his only son President Aquino who has done so much to damage our democratic institutions just like Marcos!
Sure we read the report that Malacañang brushed aside calls by the NTC “led by the Roman Catholic Bishops” for P-Noy to resign. What can we expect Malacañang to say? But that’s because of their lack of information regarding the NTC, which has no visible leader. Mind you, we got this from the National Transition Councils during the Arab spring.
Meanwhile the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) issued a statement distancing themselves from the NTC. First of all, the NTC never sought the help of the CBCP. But if they seriously looked at what is happening to our nation today, I’m sure that the CBCP would want to join the NTC in our quest to transform this nation and depoliticize it.
Ask yourself, how come there is no Senate Blue (I think this color should be changed to yellow) Ribbon Committee investigation on the massive electronic cheating using the PCOS machines? The reason is simple… if it can be proven with evidence that there was massive electronic cheating, and then every single Senator and Congressman, Mayor and Governor becomes a de facto official. This is what the NTC believes and it is the truth.
Again if you recall, the Comelec cheated for Marcos in the February 1986 elections when 44 computer programmers walked out of the PICC, which resulted to the EDSA Revolution. But the opposition was so euphoric when the Marcoses fled the country that they did not even investigate the Comelec and the people who cheated. The new dispensation merely changed the heads of the Comelec and now the Filipino voters have lost their right of suffrage as one man, Chairman Sixto Brillantes, decides elections.
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Email: vsbobita@mozcom.com or vsbobita@gmail.com.