What’s happening now to Senator Leila de Lima, former secretary of Justice, and the “female public official” whom President Duterte vowed to destroy is something I would not wish on my worst enemy.
The President has called De Lima immoral and an adulteress, with a driver-lover for whom she built a mansion for their trysts.
Worse, the senator is allegedly involved in the illegal drug trade.
Santa Banana, De Lima has since been ousted as chairperson of the Senate committee on justice and human rights by no less than 16 senators. They claimed she had been using the committee to denounce the President by presenting a self-confessed member of the “Davao Death Squad.”
Edgar Matobato claimed that over 1,080 had been killed by the DDS, in which the President was involved. Mr. Duterte has since denied everything.
My gulay, now De Lima is being roasted, squirming her seat, by the House of Representatives. Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre presented witnesses to the House committee investigating De Lima’s involvement in the drug trade. The witnesses said De Lima obtained millions of pesos as payola from convicted drug lords.
I said in earlier columns that I wanted to sympathize with De Lima but could not. She has absolutely no chance to survive this politically. The powers of the President are vast and awesome.
Mr. Duterte not only has the House of Representatives under his thumb. He also has the others: The National Bureau of Investigation, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Philippine National Police.
De Lima, for sure, will be prosecuted since the testimonies of the long line of witnesses against her would amount to probable cause for a case in court.
De Lima had it coming. Former President BS Aquino used her as his attack dog in persecuting former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Mr. Aquino had wanted to show the world that he could send a former president to jail. Mrs. Arroyo was his poster child for the fight against corruption under the hypocritical “Daang Matuwid.”
BS Aquino also used De Lima to prosecute minority senators like former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, and Senators Bong Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada. In my over six decades as a journalist, I have never seen a president as vindictive as Aquino was.
And now I wonder: Would we have problems in drugs, criminality and corruption if BS Aquino had done his job?
Only the courts can say whether De Lima is guilty or not. But politically speaking, he is a dead duck. It’s karma—what goes around, comes around.
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President Duterte and people around him should not dismiss reports that some Filipino Americans and Filipino immigrants in the United States are plotting to oust him. Things like these have a way of growing numbers.
Together with all the negative reports coming from the Western press, like the recent Time Magazine issue and other negative news coming from Europe, condemnations of President Duterte and his alleged human rights violations may start something else. I have seen these things happen.
I am not into conspiracy theories, but the Central Intelligence Agency may just come in, especially after Duterte cursed US President Obama and proclaimed that the Philippines would now pursue an independent foreign policy. Worse, he said he would now buy military equipment from China and Russia.
I could be wrong, of course, but in my long years as a journalist, I have seen these things happen. I think the problem is that Duterte has opened himself too much to criticism—he talks too much.
It becomes worse when there are so many people around him talking at the same time, explaining what he supposedly really meant.
The point I am driving at is that the President should only appear and speak on matters of national policy. He should only have one spokesman.
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There may still be light at the end of the tunnel for some 6,000 workers and employees of Philweb—the operator of e-Games cafe’ numbering 131 entities; and their investments of P1.8 billion. All these stand to be wiped out if Philweb stops operating.
With the President changing his mind against online gambling that café should be far from churches and schools, Pagcor has opened the doors for offshore online gambling.
Meanwhile, Pagcor is also studying and considering Philweb’s proposal of an earlier plan to go into “Pagcor Text Bonanza” to supplement the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office Lotto. The advantage of the Text Bonanza is a proprietary software developed by Philweb. A bettor chooses a lottery number and texts it to Pagcor servers via Globe or Smart. He then receives a confirmatory message regarding the chosen number. The bettor saves the number in his cellphone and that effectively becomes his ticket.
In PCSO’s Lotto, bettors have to queue under the rain and the sun.
PhilWeb estimates that Pagcor would earn from P50 billion to P100 billion annually from its text bonanza. From PCSO, the amount is P30 billion.
Philweb’s “Pagcor Test Bonanza” is now in the Office of the President for review.
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Through this column, I would like to thank all those who greeted me when I marked my 89th birthday last week, September 15.
I did not know that my daughter Nina posted my photo on Facebook. I got more than 150 likes.