The headlines said the Commission on Audit has found irregularities in transactions of agencies totaling more than P15 billion involving the Malampaya Fund during the Arroyo presidency. This was the report by Grace Pulido Tan during the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearings the other day. All this involved fake NGO's who are friends or "Suki" of Janet Lim Napoles. Should we be happy that this was brought out in the open?
P15 billion is a lot of money that should have gone to projects to improve the lot of the Filipino people. But before I give Grace Pulido Tan a standing ovation… I just would like to know why it took her so long to spot this anomaly when it is a fact that you just can't hide 15 billion big bucks without the alarm bells clanging all over the place?
I suspect that this was brought out in the open because until now the Aquino Regime has not found a single shred of evidence to keep former Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in hospital arrest. So will this keep GMA incarcerated? If I know her, I don't think she would sign anything that would connect her to the Malampaya scam.
Meanwhile, by now everyone has already heard that United Nations Convention Against Corruption and Transparency International report, which I saw on YouTube with the commentator saying "The Philippines is one of the most corrupt countries in the world and the most corrupt democratic country." What a shame for the Aquino Regime that boasts to have a very strong anti-corruption campaign called "Daang Matuwid!"
In my book, this is a very embarrassing statement coming from the UNCAC. To make matters worse, the UNCAC issued a threat that the Philippines could lose its membership in the UN if we don't fix our problems with corruption specifically on the pork barrel. What an insult! Never in the history of the Philippines did we ever get such a threat from the UN!
Read your history and you'll see that the Philippines was one of the original signatories that created the UN. Yet we could lose our membership if we didn't fix this decades old problem that has made our politicians rich and sent the majority of Filipinos below the poverty line!
There's no doubt UN officials have not bought the Aquino propaganda that tells all and sundry they are in the midst of this fight against corruption where Pres. Benigno Aquino III uses the incarceration of former Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and the removal of former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Renato Corona as his best examples. Yet despite the President's boasts, the UNCAC issued this stern warning to the Philippines.
Perhaps triggered by that UNCAC report, suddenly the Aquino Regime held an impromptu meeting with the two other co-equal branches of the government, the Legislative and Judiciary in Malacañang last Tuesday. Supreme Court Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno in her speech took the opportunity to say that the fight against corruption needs new technology and she reminded the Executive of the budgetary requirements of the Judiciary.
That meeting prompted PNoy to respond positively to CJ Sereno's speech, citing that the leaders of the Legislative Branch were also listening to her speech, thus possibly this is the beginning of the thawing of strained relations between the Executive and the Judiciary. We certainly hope that this UNCAC statement may have caused the healing of this rift.
Meanwhile, still as a response to the UNCAC statement, we call upon Pres. Aquino to immediately suspend Philippine National Police Chief Alan Purisima so he could answer the corruption charges against him.
It is also high time for the Aquino Regime to press charges against Vice President Jejomar Binay.
Of course Pres. PNoy must also prosecute the other Senators who figured prominently in the Janet Napoles scam. Right now only three senators have been incarcerated and it is high time for the Aquino Regime to get serious in this call to fight corruption, especially with the Legislative Branch. If he still pays lip service to this UN threat, then it is time for PNoy to go!
Incidentally, his uncle, former congressman Jose "Peping" Cojuangco has joined a movement to establish a "transition government" that will be headed by former Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno to support the call of the National Transformation Council for the country's incumbent leader his nephew Pres. PNoy Aquino to step down. This was headline news of The Manila Times last Monday. Well last Oct. 1st, I also met PNoy's aunt, Tingting Cojuangco, and she too was seeking the President's resignation and they would be gathering some 10 million signatures nationwide to call for his resignation. So we're not alone in this endeavor.