GINA Lopez is heiress to the wealthy Lopez clan of the ABS-CBN broadcast network. The former drug addict is now Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. She faces the Commission on Appointments as some 20 oppositors have submitted documents; they do not want her appointment confirmed.
I wrote the other day that the Lopez case would be a good opportunity for President Rodrigo Duterte to really effect change and end graft and corruption in government.
Unfortunately, the more he talks about change, the more things seem to stay the same. Mr. Duterte even made a pitch for Lopez’s confirmation. He wants her to be able to explain her side after she violated due process in suspending mining operations.
This reminds us of President Benigno Aquino III’s brand of selective justice. He always defends his allies and persecutes his political enemies.
I was happy when Mr. Duterte exhibited political will in firing two Immigration officials even though they were his fraternity brothers. The two accepted a bribe from gambling mogul Jack Lam. He also fired his former campaign manager, Peter Tiu Laviña, on accusations that he had extorted money from contractors of the National Irrigation Authority.
Why is the President making an exception for Lopez?
Lopez is now being accused of accepting a bribe—which I cannot understand, given how rich her family already is. Lopez supposedly went to Paris in October, right around the time she intervened for her French friend’s company Ecological Foundation Inc.
There is also the accusation that she was involved in a P1-billion air monitoring device that did not work. She also granted an environmental clearance certificate to her family’s Energy Development Corp. for its geothermal efforts.
Her failure to act on that pipeline leakage at the West Tower Condominium in Bangkal, Makati also puts her into question. The company involved is also owned by the Lopezes.
If these are not acts of graft and corruption, I don’t know what are.
If the CA does not reject Lopez, the only conclusion that people can form is that
Malacañang intervened.
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Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales’ act of giving former Budget secretary Florencio Abad a slap on the wrist for his role in the Disbursement Acceleration Program is perplexing. Abad was found guilty of simple misconduct and was ordered suspended for three months.
Worse, she even found former President Aquino not liable for it.
Would Abad have implemented the DAP without Aquino’s participation and approval?
The Ombusdman is really soft on the former President, who appointed her. Isn’t she? This is the same way she excluded him in the Mamasapano case where 44 members of the Special Action Force were killed. This is also confounding since he is commander-in-chief!
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There’s this American television series called Madam Secretary depicting the Philippine president as groping the secretary of State. She punched him, resulting in his bloodied nose.
The Philippine Embassy in Washington has already cried foul over this.
The implications are serious. It depicts the Philippine president as a womanizer.
Malacañang was right when it said through its spokesman Ernesto Abella that the producers of the series are confused.
Our President is not that brazen to be groping women Cabinet members. What is demeaning to President Duterte and to Filipinos alike is that the reference is made to a Philippine president. We should protest this.
In the same vein, there was also a comedy series in one of the television networks in Taipei which made fun of President Duterte. The character used expletives to emphasize a point.
But the Manila Economic Cultural Office, now chaired by Duterte propagandist Lito Banayo—who also writes for this paper—did nothing. What happened?