The ProPinoy Project » Villaroyo

Liberal Party hits 'dirty tricks' of Lakas-Kampi

Karen Ang — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:03:30 +0000

Liberal Party hits ‘dirty tricks’ of Lakas-Kampi
abs-cbnNEWS.com

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Francis Pangilinan of the Liberal Party (LP) described as “part of the dirty tricks” the latest result of a survey that reportedly showed Sen. Manny Villar of the Nacionalista Party (NP) as the leading candidate in the presidential race.

Last week, Atty. Mike Toledo, campaign manager of Lakas-Kampi-CMD, was quoted saying that a Campaigns and Images Inc. survey showed Villar number 1, administration candidate Gilbert ‘Gibo’ Teodoro number 2, and Senator Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III of the LP number 3.

The report claimed the survey was allegedly commissioned by the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV).

But in a statement on Monday, the PPCRV denied they had commissioned the survey.

PPCRV chair Ambassador Henrietta de Villa said it has never been the policy of PPCRV to commission, participate or be involved in any survey whatsoever, nor has it authorized any group to do so.

“We express concern on this clear effort to mislead the public,” Pangilinan told reporters who attended a briefing at the Liberal Party press office at the 3rd floor of VGP building in Ayala Avenue, Makati City.

Pangilinan said that the opponents of the LP tandem are using dirty tactics to shift the public’s attention.

LP senatorial aspirant, Akbayan Rep. Ana Theresia “Risa” Hontiveros, said the latest spin to the story is a clear indication of the alliance between the Villar’s camp and Malacañang.

“Sa totoo, si Villar ang nakikinabang sa spin,” said Hontiveros.

Atty. Alex Lacson, another LP senatorial aspirant said, “marami na talagang senyales ng Villarroyo alliance.”

Secret weapon vs Pacman?

Pangilinan also said the LP was briefed a few days ago by Pulse Asia on their recent, still unpublicized survey, but he refused to disclose details about it.

“Sa Pulse Asia na lang kayo magtanong. Ang masasabi ko lang ay masaya kami sa resulta”, said Pangilinan, grinning in front of reporters.

Pangilinan, husband of Megastar Sharon Cuneta, was also asked if there’s any celebrity that LP is lining up to match the presence of Pacquiao in Villar’s campaign.

He smiled and said: “Balak sana namin si Clottey, kaso natiklo, hindi nanalo.”

But tongue-in-cheek, Pangilinan added: “Di namin ilalabas ang secret namin”.

Teodoro brushes off ‘dirty tricks’ tag

Meanwhile, Teodoro brushed off the “dirty tricks” accusation of Aquino’s camp.

Teodoro was in Aklan on Monday to open the Eastern Visayas Regional Athletic Association meet in the town of Makato.

He also held a dialogue with students and teachers in Kalibo.

The administration candidate said he prefers to be number one on election day rather than rely on survey results.

Teodoro also belied former President Joseph Estrada’s claim that members of Lakas-Kampi-CMD have signified interest switching parties.

“If they jump ship, they probably are not worthy of the support of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD,” he said.

Fifteen of the 17 mayors of Aklan are members of the administration party, as well as the governor and congressman who will be running unopposed.

The town of Makato has adopted Teodoro as its “honorary citizen.” Teodoro believes he will be able to capture the Aklanon vote. – with reports from Jorge Cariño, and Willard Cheng, ABS-CBN News

San Pedro

Karen Ang — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 07:35:26 +0000

San Pedro
By Lito Banayo
Malaya

HOW could a piece of property sequestered by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), and a lis pendens annotated upon its transfer certificate of title, land in the hands of a corporation called Crown Asia, owned and controlled by the so-called “brown taipan”, Manuel Villar, who wants to be president of the land?

The 2.18 hectare property is in the vicinity of a swanky golf course called TAT, before that Filipinas Golf Course, and even before that, during the Marcos years, known as Holiday Hills, in the municipality of San Pedro Laguna. It straddles the boundary of the first town of Laguna with the last city of Metro Manila, and is now connected to the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) by an interchange, and to Las Piñas and Bacoor to a so-called Daang Reyna, which in turn connects to Daang Hari. Pretty good property, one must say.

It used to be titled to one Maximo Argana, remembered by many to be the feared and powerful mayor of Muntinglupa during the martial law years. When the dictatorship fell, the newly-created PCGG went after the unexplained wealth of Marcos, his cronies and other public officials. They went after Maximo Argana’s wealth, and this San Pedro property was one of them. Because Argana had meanwhile died, the PCGG attached an encumbrance upon the title, what is called a lis pendens, which means the property cannot be sold, leased, or otherwise encumbered while the case is pending. And up till today, that case pends before the Sandiganbayan.

Meanwhile, the informal settlers who had stayed in the property by tolerance or sufferance of the registered owner, Argana, had hoped that when the government finally got full leave of the court to confiscate the San Pedro property, they could apply for land ownership under the social justice programs of the State.

Their hopes brightened with the enactment of the Urban Dwellers Act during the Cory administration, otherwise known as the Lina Law.

But lo and behold! In the year 2000, a corporation called Crown Asia suddenly claimed ownership of the property, on the basis of a deed of sale executed between it and Capitol Bank. Both Crown Asia and Capitol are owned and controlled by the spouses Manuel and Cynthia Villar. Crown Asia, along with its sister corporations, had already acquired other properties in the vicinity, which it was then developing into medium and high-end housing projects.

How did this happen? There was a lis pendens on the property, and a check with government agencies, including the Office of the President shows that the Argana title should not and must not be the subject of a deed of sale, not even a contract of lease, for as long as the courts would not lift that lis pendens (or pendente lite, which means pending legal resolution of the case.

But apparently, Capitol Bank foreclosed the property from a certain Jose Nunez, who failed to pay a short-term loan, and made no effort whatsoever to restructure or re-schedule the loan, as most are wont to do, but instead, immediately had his property foreclosed by the Villar bank. And the Villar’s Capitol Bank turns around and sells the property also immediately, to Crown Asia. Seems like this is a pattern, a modus operandi of the Villar’s interlocking corporations.

In 2002, Villar’s Crown Asia posted security guards and then ordered demolition of the settler’s houses. The demolition squad succeeded in destroying 30 houses and led to the killing of Quirico “Rico” de los Santos, a leader of the neighborhood association of poor informal dwellers called ironically, Paradise Park. But the informal settlers resisted and they remain there to this day, their Paradise Park Neighborhood Association knocking from one government agency door to another, hoping to seek justice and their urban dwellers’ rights under the laws of the benighted land. There are now some 205 family houses walled inside the 2.18 hectare property, with no basic services such as electrical connections and water. They have to walk to buy expensive retailed water and inter-connect or share one electricity source. Guards of the neighboring walled subdivision, armed with shotguns strictly monitor their movements. They are not allowed to bring in construction materials even to repair their rickety dwellings.

Is this another racket where fake titles are produced surreptitiously, and prey on helpless landowners, such as the Dumagat and Remontado farmers in Norzagaray, Bulacan (read our articles of February 25 and 27, Malaya)? In Norzagaray, the titles issued during the Japanese occupation, which under Commonwealth Act 141, as amended, have been declared null and void, were “foreclosed” by Capitol Bank, and then paid in kind to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas which had earlier issued an emergency loan to the said Villar-owned bank of 1.5 billion pesos.

In San Pedro, property encumbered in temporary favor of the Republic of the Philippines, pending resolution of a sequestration case, is suddenly claimed by a family corporation which “bought” the property from the same family-owned bank, which in turn foreclosed the same from a person, fictitious or real, who “borrowed” a short-term loan and “failed” to pay.

But the Paradise Park homeowners are now in mortal fear of imminent ejection, should this “poor man turned billionaire”, whose heart “bleeds for the poor”, and who makes a holy vow (panata) to end poverty (tatapusin ang kahirapan), become president. Truly, night will fall upon the lives of these poor people “squatting” on government-owned land. Because if Villarroyo succeeds with his money, and buys the presidency come May 10, 2010, with secret help from the woman who replaced the man he impeached in 2000, then the “government” and their nemesis will be one and the same.

“Mayaman na siya. Huwag na niyang agawin sa amin ang karapatan na manirahan sa lupang hindi naman kanya”, said Aling Gloria Barrameda of the Paradise Park Neighborhood Association , who along with some 40 other settlers marched and picketed the front of the historic Laurel House that Money Villarroyo bought two years ago, and from whence he launched his quest for the presidency.

The man who claims to have shared the tribulations of the poorest of the poor, who used to live in a single-room house with his entire family (but transferred as a kid later to a 560 square-meter property in San Rafael Village in Balut, built by his government employee of a father and his industrious fish merchant of a mother) and used to sleep in a narrow bench in Divisoria market (but was schooled in a Catholic parochial school where he and brood were fetched by a stainless steel owner-type jeep), and virtually mocks the toil and sacrifices of his truly industrious parents in order to propagandize alleged poverty, now sends his guards to confiscate property held by the Republic, at the expense of poor, landless settlers, one of whom was executed by his unknown security guards.

As Aling Gloria stated in poignant anger: “Sa ginagawa niya sa aming mahihirap, kasinungalingan ang sinasabi niyang siya ay para sa mahirap at siya ay may malasakit. Siya ang tunay na pasakit. Siya ang tunay na pahirap”.

***

(banayo_at@yahoo.com)

Voting against Kris

Karen Ang — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 06:06:41 +0000

Voting against Kris
By Antonio J. Montalvan II
Philippine Daily Inquirer

THAT Kris Aquino (and Boy Abunda) will run Malacañang is an oft-repeated joke one hears in this campaign season. It is a line that certainly should not be given too much weight in the hierarchy of national problems. It is, as it should be, a non-issue.

But a non-issue it does not seem to be. Listen again to Kris saying that she will reside in the United States if and when her brother wins Malacañang; this would appear to be a tacit admission that fears of Kris manipulating the state of affairs had reached the fractious Liberal Party camp. It can perhaps start with a simple suggestion for “Noy to undergo Botox procedure.” And then it can graduate to more serious suggestions that may translate into policies. (This is not to say that state secrets will be revealed on “The Buzz.”)

Not a few estimations—perceptions—describe Noynoy Aquino’s nebulous stance on reproductive health as actually influenced by, among others, Kris’ own sense of personal morality, given her sordid record of past sexual promiscuity. That she is cohabiting with a man without the benefit of church marriage is another view I have heard.

All is quiet now from the mouth of Kris, about what she had repeated before national cameras—“Noy, please don’t get married”—but this silence doesn’t appear to be a mitigating factor in people’s fear of Kris. Rumors, invented or otherwise, are still part of the presidential campaign menu in the Philippines.

If her “opposition” to Shalani Soledad, her brother’s girlfriend, is true, one gets a picture of a cinematic Kris Aquino who herself has no sense of borders of where her real and reel life begins and ends. Shalani then is more than just a pretty face and demure voice but a flesh-and-blood personality who has her own stake in what a Noynoy presidency would be. That is what public perception says.

Kris is a phenomenon in this campaign. I am not referring to her reported 30-plus percent vote-getting rate whenever she endorses a candidate, as contrasted with the less than 30 percent of Willie Revillame’s (another perceived problem person). They are phenomena in this campaign in the sense that they actually confirm the social defect we have been trying to reform in our election system, that Philippine elections are actually personality-based. After “Hello Garci,” we had thought we had graduated to a mature issue-based selection of candidates.

In fact, it is now more than just candidates swaying and sashaying on the campaign stage. Just looking at the cabal of ABS-CBN talents that Kris was able to muster and organize for Noynoy’s campaign sorties and television ads, one readily knows that Philippine elections are still fixated on personalities rather than the meatier issues of national problems. Kris is both symbol and epitome of our infantile politics. Like Baby James, we have all been rendered babes.

Today, March 15, 2010, less than two months away from national elections, Noynoy Aquino has still evaded the opportunity of articulating what his program of government will be—apart from what he has instead used as tirades against the present occupant in Malacañang (notice the personality base of his discourses). Mar Roxas’ tag of “Villaroyo” does not help us mature either. It could very well be Arroyoxas or Arroyoquino. The allegedly perceived front-runners in surveys are all doing the personality-based politics. And the people like it.

This very much tells us that the Cory magic, certainly now on the wane, is not enough to propel even a Cory son or daughter into the same pedestal that we now reserve for the late former president. Certainly not for Noynoy and Kris, the two most visible among the Aquino siblings, but among the most unfortunate archetypes of Cory Aquino.

This very much tells us that the Cory magic is not automatically transferable to any of the Aquino children. This very much tells us that Cory was possibly sui generis—that she was a class of her own and that she is a tough act to follow. But this also tells us by what standards it is possible for the Cory exemplar to be exemplified. And a hazy Noynoy, aided by the wrong paradigm that his amusingly and brutally tactless (as contrasted to “entertaining”) sister is, does not seem to be the formula.

A recent investigative study making the rounds of the Internet amply says it all for us regarding Noynoy’s personality-based politics:

“Even after Arroyo delivered her famous ‘I am sorry’ speech on TV on June 27, 2005, which the public took as an admission of guilt … Rep. Noynoy Aquino said in a June 29, 2005 report that President Arroyo should be commended for admitting her mistake. He said her televised apology was ‘a good start’ for her administration. At the fifth Congressional hearing on the Garci issue on June 30, 2005, three days after Arroyo’s televised ‘I am sorry’ speech, Rep. Noynoy Aquino voted against playing the ‘Hello, Garci’ tapes.”

“‘Tarlac Rep. Benigno Aquino III disappointed his colleagues in the House when he voted on Thursday night against the playing of the audio tape, although an overwhelming majority had voted yes,’ reported the Philippine Daily Inquirer on July 2, 2005.”

Enter “The Buzz” unto the gates of Malacañang, for, after all, we have lost our civility as a nation.

* * *

Comments to monta@cu-cdo.edu.ph

Villar to benefit from poll fraud, says LP

Karen Ang — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 06:59:22 +0000

Villar to benefit from poll fraud, says LP
By Edith Regalado
The Philippine Star

DAVAO CITY , Philippines – Former Defense Secretary Avelino “Nonong” Cruz said Nacionalista Party standard-bearer Sen. Manuel Villar is poised to benefit from the suspected massive poll fraud that would be done in the May 10 elections.

Cruz, who heads the Liberal Party’s vote protection team, said there are clear indications that there would be cheating in the coming elections as the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has failed to put in place the necessary safeguards to ensure that there would be a clean and honest conduct of the first-ever automated polls.

“The secret candidate of the administration would benefit from it,” said Cruz, emphasizing that Villar is the secret candidate of the administration and that former Defense chief Gilbert Teodoro is candidate of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD party but not necessarily that of President Arroyo.

Cruz said no funds have been coming from the leadership of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD for the candidacies of actor Edu Manzano, who is running for vice president, their senatorial bets as well as for those running for local offices.

Cruz said everybody in Lakas is complaining of lack of funds, which shows that the President has another preferred presidential candidate.

Cruz further said that even if the President has not raised Villar’s hand, still it is very evident that he is her secret candidate.

The former defense chief said that there have been disturbing events that showed theer would be cheating in the May 10 elections.

“The marked security features of the ballots like the ultraviolet markings which the PCOS (precinct count optical scan) machines should read have not been put in place. These and other safeguards for the ballots have not been implemented. I can see that there is really an attempt to cheat in the elections,” Cruz said.

He also lamented that the Comelec insists on an audit of all the PCOS machines used two weeks after the elections.

“Why two weeks when by then there would already be a declaration of winners. The audit should be done right then and there after the election itself or else there would be chaos,” Cruz further said.

He also pointed out that Comelec should also print tally sheets for manual count should the automated elections fail.

He stressed that there are three critical dates to watch out in order to stop the suspected poll fraud, one of which is the period from May 4 to 7, in which the 75,000 PCOS machines are expected to be delivered to the precincts.

Meantime, LP vice presidential candidate Sen. Manuel Roxas told newsmen in Dagupan City yesterday that the public remains hopeful that they will be given a chance to express their sentiments through the forthcoming elections.

“That’s why this election must not be maneuvered, it must be credible,” he said.

He also urged the Comelec to work overtime to finish the ballot printing on schedule. – With Eva Visperas

Binay gives hints Villar is Arroyo's secret bet

Karen Ang — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 05:44:00 +0000

Binay gives hints Villar is Arroyo’s secret bet
NIKKA CORSINO
GMANews.TV

Add vice presidential bet Jejomar Binay to the list of candidates who have taken a swipe at Senator Manuel Villar Jr. for allegedly being President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s secret candidate.

On Friday, it was Binay’s turn to hurl the long-rumored accusation at Villar, albeit indirectly this time.

“Naniniwala po ako na mayroong isang kumakandidato na nagkaroon ng sikretong usapan kay Presidente Arroyo. Naniniwala po ako dun. Bakit po hindi tinutuligsa ang administrasyon? Mayroon rin po siyang kasaysayan ng baliktaran. Tinulungan siya ni Erap [former President Joseph Estrada] para maging Speaker, pero isa siya sa mga nanguna sa impeachment,” Binay told anchor Mike Enriquez during radio dzBB’s Ikaw Na Ba? The Vice Presidential Interview.

(I believe that there is a candidate who had a secret agreement with President Arroyo. Why has he [the secret candidate] not been openly criticizing the administration? Besides, he has a history of shifting allegiances. Erap helped him become Speaker, but he was among those involved in the impeachment case against Estrada.)

“On a scale of 1 to 10, I’ll give it a six or seven,” Binay said, referring to the truth behind allegations of Arroyo having a secret candidate in this year’s polls.

“Mayroon diyan, oposisyon daw ‘pag magsalita, pero ‘pag kumilos, parang administrasyon (There are those who say they belong to the opposition, but their actions suggest that they are for the administration),” he added.

Reached for comment, the camp of Villar challenged Binay to categorically state who the Makati mayor was referring to during the radio interview.

“We challenge him to name categorically who he was referring to. We challenge him to prove what he has been saying. Otherwise, outside of it, it’s just pure malice. I hope he has the guts to prove whatever allegations he makes rather than hide behind statements like that,” said NP senatorial candidate Gilbert Remulla, a party spokesperson.

Villar’s camp had long denied the rumor. Even administration bet Gilberto Teodoro Jr. believes the supposed alliance should be dismissed as a political gossip.

Impeachment, ouster

Binay is seeking the vice presidency with Estrada as his presidential standard bearer under the banner of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino-United Opposition (PMP-UNO).

To recall, Estrada was forced to step down from power in January 2001 following the withdrawal of support of the military and police from him. Then Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was installed as president.

In late 2000, an impeachment complaint was filed against Estrada at the House of Representatives, then headed by Villar, who was a member of the ruling coalition Laban ng Makabayang Masang Pilipino (LAMMP).

Estrada was eventually impeached when Villar transmitted the complaint to the Senate, doing so by incorporating the order in his prayer amid objections by several allies of Estrada.

The impeachment trial, though, was never completed as the prosecutors walked out of the proceedings when senator-judges allied with Estrada voted not to open a second envelope purportedly containing bank records of Estrada. This led to the second EDSA uprising which culminated with Estrada’s ouster from power in January 2001.

Top spender

Also in the radio interview, Binay also criticized a national candidate’s excessive campaign expenses.

“Kung pera-pera lang ang halalan, e ‘di ‘di na sana ako tumakbo pa. Ang mga botante, educated and intelligent na. Nangangailangan sila ng mga ‘di namumuhunan. ‘Yang mga gumagastos ng bilyon diyan, hindi naman pilantropo ‘yan eh. Gumagastos ‘yan dahil may nakikitang ROI (return on investment) ‘yan. Kung bilyun-bilyon ang gastos mo, natural babawiin mo ‘yan,” Binay said.

(If the election was really about money, I wouldn’t have run in the first place. I believe that voters today are educated and intelligent. They don’t want people seeking to profit from the elections. Those spending billions in campaigns are not philanthropists. They are spending that much because they’re seeing a return on investment later on.)

Binay did not identify the national candidate, records show Villar is the biggest spender among presidential candidates. [See: Over P2B worth of pol ads before campaign period]

Still, Binay vowed to cooperate with whoever presidential contender gets elected should he himself win in his bid.

“I am a team player. I was elected by the people, and I am going to render services to the president. Umasa siya na susuportahan ko siya at magtutulungan kami para iangat ang bayan (I assure him of my support in fulfilling our responsibilities to the people),” he said.

“Mr. President, you can sleep soundly as I assure you I am not going to usurp your position,” he said in Filipino. — RSJ, RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV

Evasive candidates

Karen Ang — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:51:30 +0000

Evasive candidates
By Juan Mercado
Philippine Daily Inquirer

“Our lives are mostly a constant evasion of ourselves,” T.S. Eliot once pointed out. Look at how our candidates duck and weave.

Candidate Joseph Estrada reworks his para sa mahirap spiel for a return to Malacañang. “They stole my throne,” Erap moaned. He never learned, from downfall and detention, that the president is a servant, not a sovereign. He glosses over his conviction for plunder.

Candidate Manuel Villar shunts aside the C-5 road budgetary scams. “Partisan politics,” he mutters. Are his zippered-lips on Malacañang scams a swap? For covert Palace support, will he provide an “Erap-style bailout” for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo when she loses her presidential immunity? Villar waves that question away.

Candidate Gilbert Teodoro shrugs off queries on “Villarroyo.” Is he being led willy-nilly to the slaughterhouse? He’s not a naive waif, Gibo backers stress. He’d do without strident Malacañang endorsements, thank you. They are a “kiss of death,” the surveys say.

Candidate Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo rarely appears in public with the First Gentleman. Not even in Pampanga, where she’s running for Congress. Out of sight, out of mind? The Palace, meanwhile, churns out ads on her “legacy of achievements.”

Their claims don’t ensure credibility of those ads. That’s also set by what they evade.

There’s one “achievement,” for instance, that’s been shoved under the rug so far: President Arroyo created more local government units (LGUs) than Presidents Fidel V. Ramos and Estrada combined.

Ramos stepped down in 1998. He oversaw then 78 provinces, 84 cities, 1,540 towns and almost 42,000 barangays. People Power booted out Estrada in 2001. The number of provinces remained constant. Towns decreased to 1,513. So did barangays, to 41,943.

Under Ms Arroyo, LGUs “multiplied like amoeba.” From January 2001 to December 2006, she added three provinces, 22 cities, 17 towns and 52 barangays

So why do these LGUs get the “First Gentleman treatment”—out of sight, out of mind?

“Under President Arroyo’s watch, [these LGUs] were created or converted shortly before election periods,” former Finance Undersecretary Milwida Guevarra points out in “The Fiscal Decentralization Process in the Philippines: Lessons from Experience.”

Before the 2001 senatorial and local campaign started, 14 towns were elevated to city status. Zamboanga Sibugay was carved out of Zamboanga del Sur Province.

Except for a solitary town, all new LGUs in 2004 were created before the presidential elections: two cities, two municipalities and 16 barangays.

Three months before the 2007 national campaign started, Shariff Kabunsuan was sliced off from Maguindanao. Dinagat Island was also spun off from Surigao del Norte, but the Supreme Court knocked it back into being a town, since it doesn’t have the requisite population.

That same year, 18 towns were converted into cities. Also created were 15 towns, 52 barangays and four cities.

The new LGUs are concentrated in Mindanao, mostly in Maguindanao province. “At least eight municipalities and 12 barangays were created in the said province under the Arroyo presidency,” the Guevarra study notes. They accommodated members of Gov. Andal Ampatuan’s clan. In return, the Ampatuans handed Ms Arroyo 193,938 votes over Fernando Poe’s 59,892. They also delivered a 12-0 shut out for the administration’s senatorial slate.

There were 57 persons massacred last Nov. 23 in Ampatuan town. Among the victims, 32 were journalists. (The body of Midland Review’s Reynaldo Momay is still missing.)

Thus, the number of media workers killed in the line of duty since 1986 bolted from 82 to 113, according to the Center for Media Freedom. The Philippines overtook Iraq as the “most dangerous country in the world for journalists.”

Among those charged for the slaughter are Andal Ampatuan Jr., Datu Zaldy “Puti” Ampatuan, Datu Akmad “Tato” Ampatuan Sr., Datu Norodin Ampatuan, Datu Jimmy Ampatuan, plus 190 others. They are the President’s closest allies.

Political influence is also about money. At local government level, this swirls around Internal Revenue Allotments. The size of IRAs pivots around population head counts.

Census returns in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao are overstated, demographers have cautioned. In Maguindanao, there were more 18-year-olds than in any other age bracket, the Philippine Center for Journalism reports.

Except for the ARMM, all regions reported declines in population. Thus, IRAs for ARMM provinces soared from P6.8 billion to P8.7 billion.

There’s little public accounting. “Warlords” treat IRAs as their personal checkbooks, North Cotabato Vice Gov. Manny Piñol noted. The Commission on Audit has yet to report on Maguindanao’s IRA splurges.

The “scent of cash” also drove the number of cities from 60 in 1991 to 136 by 2009. Few perform as “engines of growth.” Instead, they dip into the IRA pool, reducing the share of others.

Ms Arroyo allowed 16 bills creating new cities to lapse into law. The 16 didn’t meet the Republic Act 9009 criterion of P100 million in income. The Supreme Court struck that down in “a final decision that had become executory.”

The Court, however, flip-flopped. It would “reconsider a final decision.” The 16 are back. But not their IRAs—for now.

Pontius Pilate was badgered to reconsider the text nailed to the cross. “Quod scripsi, scripsi,” he snapped. What I have written, I have written.

Tell that to some of our justices.

(Email: juanlmercado@gmail.com)