INC & Marcoleta, birds of a feather

The DDS ask, bakit inuuna ng Ombudsman ang kasong plunder, or is it indirect bribery, vs Sen Rodante Marcoleta.  Bakit daw hindi inuuna si Rep Martin Romualdez atbp. na matagal nang napangalanan na sangkot sa plunder of flood-control funds?

Malinaw naman kung bakit. Unlike Romualdez atbp. na mula’t sapol ay itinatanggi ang mga paratang — innocent until proven guilty, so kailangan pang maghalungkat ng ebidensiya ang Ombudsman — si Marcoleta ay umamin na, nakapagkuwento na, bistado na, na tumanggap ng Php75 million na campaign donations na hindi niya inireport sa kanyang SOCE o SALN, as required by law. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/

At bakit daw hindi niya ini-report? Kasi mapipilitan siyang pangalanan ang kanyang very generous  donors who insisted that their names be kept secret.

MARCOLETA: They had one request: ‘Please do not disclose our identities.’ So if I put a figure in the contributions, I would have been forced to name names. Why? Because there’s a corresponding Deed of Acceptance of Donation. What happens then? This is a contribution.

They said, ‘No, we’re giving you a contribution, but that is your debt of gratitude to us. Treat it as debt.’ They called it debt, debt with no need for repayment, debt of gratitude.

A debt of gratitude. Utang na loob. Utang na hindi kailangang bayaran, not in cash anyway, but certainly, in the form of some favor in some future, like maybe a vote to acquit the VP?  It’s like having a senator in your pocket. It’s like an investment that’s expected to pay off big time, or why donate at all? At kay Marcoleta ang tanong ay, bakit siya pumayag? Hindi niya alam na labag iyon sa batas? Well, handa naman daw siyang makulong. Good for him.

As for Iglesia ni Cristo‘s pa-Edsa drama, here’s a public Facebook post of Bernard Ong who reminds of “selective justice”, INC style.

SELECTIVE JUSTICE

Noong libo-libo pinatay ni Marcos Sr at bilyon-bilyon ang ninakaw. Kakampi kayo.

Noong may jueteng protection racket si Erap. Kakampi kayo.

Noong ninakaw ni Gloria ang eleksyon at pinagkakitaan ang ZTE. Kakampi kayo.

Noong libo-libo pinatay ni Duterte sa drug war at bilyon-bilyon ninakaw sa Pharmally at “Build Build Build” (kasama flood control projects!). Kakampi kayo.

Noong nag sanib-pwersa ang mga trapo sa Unithieves. Kakampi kayo.

Noong kinupit ni Mary Grace Piattos ang budget ng DepEd. Kakampi kayo.

Nasaan kayo sa deka-dekadang korapsyon at pang-aabuso ng mga mandarambong? Ayun, todo-suporta sa pamamagitan ng rally at bloc-voting.

Lagi kayo pabor sa injustice. Never dumepensa sa Justice.

Ngayong dawit si Marcoleta sa plunder – at inamin niya ang pagbulsa ng P75m na palihim. Iiyak kayo ng selective justice.

Oo selective nga kami. Hindi kami kulto. Hindi uto-uto. Pinipili namin yung tama at nararapat. Hindi si Sara o Marcoleta yun. https://www.facebook.com/bernard.ong

INC rally Jun30

10:21 p.m. Balita ng GMA News. The Armed Forces of the Philippines has placed all its units in the National Capital Region under “red alert” amid the ongoing rally at the EDSA-White Plains area.

“This standard measure keeps AFP personnel and assets prepared to support civil authorities, when requested, in accordance with the Constitution, existing laws, and established procedures.” The AFP said that it was coordinating with the PNP and other agencies “to promote public safety, security, and the uninterrupted delivery of essential services.”

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1:30 p.m. Balita ng One News, hanggang Thursday itong INC rallies, may parating nang portalets. Hmm. can the DDS be far behind?

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12:30 p.m. Still wrapping my head around this latest INC show obviously to keep Marcoleta in the Senate and to stop the Impeachment. Akala nila ganyang kadali ang naganap noong 1986? But it was never just about people gathering in huge numbers. Or playing “Handog ng Pilipino sa Mundo” in Tiktok videos.

How Ninoy made LABAN

He says that “no family holds a monopoly” on Ninoy Aquino‘s name because no one holds a monopoly on heroism”, even, that he has every right to identify with Ninoy’s “struggle for truth” and to use the Laban sign to win people over to his kulto. May I just say, the senator has yet to earn the right to claim Ninoy as his inspiration, given, as Manila Times columnist Chin Wong reminds, his long history of “shameless political maneuvering and defense of the fascist administration of Rodrigo Duterte, whose policies resulted in the death of thousands in his bloody war on drugs, and who used government agencies to shut down media critics.” Ninoy set the bar very high, too high even for an ambassador of Jesus Christ. But all is not lost, the senator can still make habol.

L is for loser
By Chin Wong

… But all is not lost. With some well-placed and well-timed actions, Cayetano could still come across as a courageous defender of the truth. Here are a few practical suggestions:

1. Go to prison for seven years. When President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. declared martial law on Sept. 21, 1972, Ninoy Aquino was the first person arrested. He was brought to Fort Bonifacio and later held in solitary confinement in Laur, Nueva Ecija. Some time for self-reflection may do Cayetano some good.

2. Go on hunger strike. To protest the injustice of being tried by a military tribunal rather than a civilian court, Aquino went on a punishing 40-day hunger strike, surviving on nothing but water and salt, dropping from 180 to 120 pounds. He ended it only when his family and church leaders begged him to stay alive. Similarly, Cayetano could be induced to stop his hunger strike — after his sister, also a senator, asks him “Kumusta ka na? (How are you doing?)” while dabbing at nonexistent tears.

3. Be sentenced to death by firing squad. The military tribunal eventually sentenced Aquino to death by firing squad on trumped-up charges of murder, subversion and illegal possession of firearms. The international outcry was so massive, Marcos had to suspend the execution. Of course, we cannot guarantee there will be a similar outcry for Cayetano.

4. Run for office from prison. From his prison cell, Aquino ran for a seat in the interim parliament under the newly formed Laban party. The night before the election, Manila residents staged a “noise barrage” — honking horns and banging pots to show their support — and give voice to the strong anti-Marcos sentiment. Maybe Cayetano can try this over Facebook Live. After all, he supported online voting for senators so that his fugitive colleague Sen. Ronald de la Rosa, wanted for crimes against humanity, could still join Senate sessions while on the run from the law.

5. Go into exile. In 1980, Aquino suffered severe chest pains in prison. Reluctant to let his chief rival die in a military camp, Marcos permitted Aquino to travel to the United States for a coronary bypass. He spent three years in Newton, Massachusetts, as a fellow at Harvard University and MIT, and traveled across the US giving lectures, rallying the Filipino diaspora and warning international leaders about the critical economic and social state of the Philippines. Cayetano would surely win some brownie points here with a three-year absence.

The last action may be a bit too drastic. In 1983, against the warnings of friends, family and even members of the Marcos administration who told him his life was in imminent danger, Aquino returned to the Philippines and was shot in the back of the head on the tarmac, right after being escorted by soldiers off China Airlines Flight 811 at the Manila International Airport.

Cayetano might want to give martyrdom a hard pass. On the bright side, he could win some more PR points by simply staying away.  https://www.manilatimes.net/

Ateneo, Bobet, Divine

It was the saddest Independence week ever. While it was a relief that VP Sara rejected calls to lead DDS people-power moves to oust the president a la 1986, and the June 12 rites proceeded smoothly, even elegantly, flag-raising by the First Family and all, still it felt like konsuwelo de bobo given the pall of grief and gloom enveloping nation — across class, generation, gender, politics, religion — over the tragic deaths on June 8 of Ateneo University basketball scholars Bobet Baterbonia, 19, of Agusan del Sur and Divine Adili, 21, of Nigeria.

CARLOS ISAGANI ZARATE: During what was reportedly a team-building activity—a “break the men” ritual and “band of brothers” rite of passage—at a beach resort in Dipaculao, Aurora  Province, both young men drowned. Two lives ended long before their time. Two families were left shattered. Two communities lost sons they had invested their entire futures in. https://kodao.org/

TONY LOPEZ: The players went missing at 3:04 p.m. that day. Baterbonia was found first, around 3:40 p.m., with rescuers recovering Adili several minutes later. Both were around 50 meters from shore when a deathly rip tide occurred into the vast Pacific Ocean, drowning them.

From Monday to Thursday, the Ateneo management imposed a news blackout. The Ateneo coach, Ted Baldwin, was told to shut up, as were the team manager and the players themselves. https://www.philstar.com/

There is no doubt that the deaths were accidental, but these were accidents waiting to happen, accidents that should have been anticipated and avoided simply by opting for safer spaces, given how dangerous and high-risk and deadly the Aurora waters are known to be. Resort peeps say that the coaches were warned that conditions that day were not good at all but that they were shrugged off, one saying he knew how to read the water, or something like that. So fearlessly macho.

KATRINA S.S. Toxic masculinity comes in many forms, is practiced in many ways. Including bootcamps that are supposed to build your sense of “brotherhood”, which tests not just your endurance as an athlete, but how you will save each other in the face of risk.

Ateneo de Manila University has to realize that this content is already out there about its basketball team’s training. It’s been out in the wild, as spoken of by the team’s own players, in interviews. It IS the bigger context (for good or bad), by default, of what happened to the two players who died during the same bootcamp. There is no erasing this context, there is no silencing it. Yes, it fuels speculation, but that is the state of our social media lives. No, it is not wrong in contextualizing these deaths in the same bootcamp, the same brotherhood that it is supposed to build. https://www.facebook.com/

Perhaps the Jesuits in their ivory towers had no idea? Or maybe they simply trusted that Coach Baldwin knew what he was doing, they were happy with Ateneo’s basketball victories? But at what cost to the boys’ mental and physical wellbeing, never mind the team. And where was all that macho shit when it came to facing the wrath and grief of Bobet’s parents Rovelyn and Rene?

ZARATE:  The families of the victims reportedly learned of their sons’ deaths through social media rather than through direct communication from university officials. Rene’s mother, Rovelyn, publicly showed her righteous outrage. She was not speaking as a lawyer or a sports analyst; she spoke as a mother whose world had collapsed. In public interviews, she repeatedly asked: “Bakit ganoon ang nangyari sa anak ko?”  It was a cry of grief from a parent trying to understand how a healthy young player—whom just days ago she hugged tightly while sending him off at the Davao airport—left his home chasing a dream and returned in a coffin.

JOSE “BUTCH” DALISAY: Ultimately, an institution’s image is made more by what it does than what it says, but the saying is also part of the doing. I would have arranged an immediate meeting between the Ateneo president and team coach and Rene’s family – and at least by Zoom with Divine’s – for them to personally explain what happened and to make the necessary amends. https://www.philstar.com/

ORLY MERCADO: Words cannot erase grief. They cannot bring back lives lost. But honest communication can provide something indispensable in the aftermath of tragedy: dignity for the victims, respect for their families, and trust that the truth is neither hidden nor delayed.

Sometimes leadership is measured not by the decisions made before a tragedy, but by the honesty, humility and courage shown after it. For institutions, as for individuals, character is often revealed not in moments of victory, but in moments of sorrow. https://www.manilatimes.net/

Beyond needing to know why and how Bobet and Divine died, their parents would want to know what that last day was like for their beloved boys. Were they having a good day otherwise, or was it difficult from the start? Their teammates have stories to tell, surely, and we want to hear them, no matter how painful.