Comment: Pathetic Evasion

MINDAVIEWS

by Patricio P. Diaz

GENERAL SANTOS CITY

In trying to evade the monster named "bribe" with its several aliases
that they have created, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the
other chief dwellers of Malacañang look pathetic. True to the meaning
of the word, they are both compassionately and contemptuously pitiful.
But feigning innocence and anger, the President invites contempt more
than compassion.

All evidence point to President Arroyo as the giver of paper bags
containing bundles of P1,000 bills as gifts to House representatives
and provincial governors who attended separate meetings with her in
Malacañang on Thursday, October 11. Despite the many denials, it is
believed that each of the 190 representatives, 48 governors and some
mayors in attendance received a bag.
The bags contained amounts varying from P200,000 to P500,000. An
estimated P119 million was given out that day. The feigning of
innocence and the denials from the Palace marked October 11 as a day
of gift-giving without a giver.
Confirmed

That money in bags changed hands in Malacañang that day was not
"insinuation" or "rumor" as Palace officials would want it to appear
in denying news reports on October 12. Even if they did not call it
bribe, some congressmen and governors confirmed the payola.

Most of those who admitted as having received the money asked the
press not to identify them by names. They considered the P500,000 or
P200,000 as gifts or remembrance for work well done or as donation or
assistance for their projects – not as "bribe".

Four House representatives came out in the open: Antonio Cuenco of
Cebu City (P200,000), Rachel Arenas of Pangasinan, Mauricio Domogan of
Baguio City, and Rep. Bienvenido Abante of Manila (P500,000). Cuenco
made the revelation in a radio interview in Cebu City.

Gov. Emilio Macias of Negros Oriental said he received P200,000 for
the governors' meeting in his province on October 29. Gov. Eddie
Panlilio of Pampanga and Gov. Joselito Mendoza of Bulacan did more
than just admitting; their exposé was most damning to Malacañang.

Challenge

Mendoza, to clarify the exposé, recalled in a press conference last
October 21 (INQUIRER.net, Oct. 22), that two bags – each containing
P500,000 -- were given to him by a woman inside a room in the Palace
in the presence of Interior Undersecretary Austere Panadero and former
Agusan del Sur governor Eddie "Bong" Plaza. One bag was for him and
the other for Panlilio. He had already been told that the money was
for "community projects".

A Roman Catholic priest, Panlilio said in several press interviews
that he accepted the money believing it was for barangay projects –
not a form of a bribe. But since the money was released without the
usual documentation, he sent a letter to Malacañang – duly received
–
last October 16 to acknowledge receipt of the money and to request for
its source and the name of the payer.

Panlilio was challenging Malacañang to tell the truth about the money
handed out without the usual documentation. He said that without a
positive reply to his letter within 15 days he would return the money
as it could not be spent according to law.

Mendoza, despite his closeness to President Arroyo as a member of the
president's party, Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi), said he
would follow whatever Panlilio would do.

Responses

Malacañang and the allies of the President have met the public uproar
with silence, denials or justification; and, on the part of the
President, a show of innocence, hurt feeling and anger – feigned or
real – that spurred decisiveness.
"Arroyo men won't say where the cash came from," headlined
INQUIRER.net (Oct. 16), citing or quoting Interior Secretary Ronaldo
Puno, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, and Budget Secretary Rolando
Andaya Jr.

Puno: "I don't know where the funds came from." Concerning the money
given to governors and mayors, the Union of Local Authorities of the
Philippines (ULAP) should explain that. ULAP has its own funds –
suggesting that the handouts came from ULAP funds. Regarding the
handouts to the congressmen, it was Speaker Jose de Venecia who could
explain.

Ermita: "I told you I wasn't there. What I know, I read in the media."

Andaya: "We are under election ban. (October 29 is barangay election.)
… The President can't just give money to government officials,"
stressing, "That is illegal. … All government disbursements must be
accompanied by receipts and they must be first allocated in the
General Appropriations Act." And he did not know if private money was
used.

Commenting on Panlilio's television interview where he showed the
P500,000 in five bundles of 100 x P1,000 bills each, Malacañang denied
having distributed the money (INQUIRER.net, Oct. 16). However, last
October 19, the Office of the President's finance office formally
wrote Panlilio and Mendoza that "the Office of the President has not
released/disbursed any amount to your province". (INQUIRER.net, Oct.
23)

Panlilio said he would forego his earlier plan to return the money
while tracing the source of the money following some leads. One lead
is the paper binder of the bundles indicating that the money was
withdrawn from the Bank of Commerce.

Very many of the congressmen and governors saw nothing wrong with the
President's giving out money as it is a standard practice – to give
assistance for barangay projects, to help candidates of the
administration during election.

An administration congressman justified the "gifts": "It is normal at
the end of the session days for congressmen to be given token of
remembrance. In this case, congressmen worked extended hours for the
national budget. They slept very little. So it's natural for the party
to make members feel that they are remembered." (INQUIRER.net, Oct.
12)

Angry, Hurt

Puno and Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye took great pains in portraying
President Arroyo's innocence and how hurt and angered she was "by
insinuations that she had tolerated the incident" and by "the
accusations that she's not doing anything [but] allowing all of these
things needed to be corrected to go on without question."
(INQUIRER.net, Oct. 18)

However, they said, unknown to all, she was decisive. As early as
October 12, or the day after bags of money were purportedly given out,
she ordered the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission to do a "thorough
investigation. … to find out, first, the source of the funds, and
second, who are responsible for giving the funds."

The PAGC investigation was not supposed to be disclosed to the media.
But circumstances forced her to. Puno said that while the President
"wanted something really more substantive to be brought" to media, she
"was at a loss [what to make out of] the different statements coming
out." Swearing, "None of us knew what was going on, honestly". (Bold,
Italics supplied.)

"So people were making statements, and she was wondering where
everybody was getting their comments from, and wanted to find out
what, if anything, anybody knew." So, she decided to disclose last
Friday, October 19 the instruction that she had given to the PAGC. How
innocent really President Arroyo was!

Not Bribe

Congressmen and governors who asked not to be named called the bags of
money by names other than bribe or payola. But the giving had all the
trademarks and motive of bribe – given surreptitiously with the
evident purpose of buying favor in the form of loyalty.

With another impeachment complaint filed against her and her alliance
with De Venecia, the Speaker and president of the ruling party, on the
rocks, President Arroyo needs loyal supporters in Congress and in the
Local Governments. The payola exploits the Filipino utang na loob
(debt of gratitude) tradition. The payola recipients will pay back the
favor in her time of need.

The denials are both pathetic and paradoxical. Here are elected
leaders who dislike any kind of association with bribe. But they are
willing to be bribed as long as the bribe is called by names other
than bribe.

Pathetic

What's pathetic about people in power, their minions and allies is how
they evade damaging truth by lying, denying or justifying. They think
that powerless people under their thumbs or heels will readily swallow
lies, denials or justifications as truth. This is true of the Arroyo
presidency; and, to a lesser extent, so it was of past presidencies.

With the open admission of three governors and four House
representatives, the silence, denials and justifications from the
Palace and the rest of the 190 representatives and 48 governors were
tacit admission. Those reactions are well known to be common to the
corruptors and corrupted, who like ostriches bury their heads in the
sand.

There was payola in Malacañang last October 11 after President Arroyo
had separately met the congressmen and the governors. ULAP denied
having that much funds; Speaker Jose de Venecia said that if the money
were from his office, he would have had distributed it himself. So the
money must have been sourced from the Palace or elsewhere and brought
to the Palace.

The President and other chief Palace dwellers cannot just feign
innocence or ignorance. Nothing can happen in the Palace without their
authority. Such multi-million peso cash could not be in the Palace
without their knowledge. The bags were distributed by Palace staff;
they must have been filled by the same staff. The Palace staff could
not have done these on their own.

The Office of the President's financial office has no record of any
amount released to Pampanga and Bulacan. By writing Panlilio and
Mendoza about this, finance office director Gloria Bundoc tacitly
confirmed the estimated P119-million payola -- for payolas are never
recorded.

The decision of the President to have the payola investigated by the
PAGC – not by a neutral commission – is tacit admission that the
Palace is dissembling. Will the President allow PAGC to reveal the
source of the payola fund and the person or persons responsible? That
the Palace "would not tolerate sacred cows" is empty boast and does
not include "the most sacred cow".

The President and her chief advisers know where the payola money came
from -- either from her discretionary and intelligence funds or from
other sources like the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office or the
Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation. By no means will the
source be revealed.

However, the more they evade and confound the critics and the people,
the deeper they sink in the mess of their own making. Pathetic evasion
can become disastrous.

("Comment" is Mr. Patricio P. Diaz' column for MindaViews, the opinion
section of MindaNews. The Titus Brandsma Media Awards recently honored
Mr. Diaz with a "Lifetime Achievement Award" for his "commitment to
education and public information to Mindanawons as Journalist,
Educator and Peace Advocate." You can reach him at
patpdiazgsc@yahoo.com.)

(File from www.mindanews.com)