Philippine President Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino III certainly puts his money where his mouth is — to the tune of Php70,000. Aquino seemingly bets the welfare of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) on a hunch that former Isabela Governor Grace Padaca is innocent…
“I don’t believe she is guilty…She has helped ease the problem of her farmers in her province,” he said.
Padaca is being accused by the Sandiganbayan of being accountable for irregularities in the disbursment of Php25 million in funds lent by the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) for the Priority Agricultural Modernization Project or Priority Hybrid Rice Program of Isabela province in 2006. President BS Aquino has paid the Php70,000 needed to post bail for Padaca, presumably so that she could serve her appointment to the COMELEC.
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Writer Ben Kritz had this to say…
Apart from being a gross insult to any sense of ethics, it is probably pertinent to ask whether taxpayer funds were used for this. And if they were not, why is the President using personal funds for government activities? As I understand it, not only is Grace Padaca under indictment, there is a proscription against elected officials being appointing to the COMELEC in the term immediately following their own term in office.
…and in a subsequent comment makes highlights the key issue surrounding this latest blatant demonstration of President BS Aquino’s tradition of using the influence of the presidency to pay off political debts…
And what makes Grace Padaca so well-qualified […] that out of 97 million other people in this country she has to be the one and damn the torpedoes? It is, as I said, a matter of his personal judgment. And I am obviously not alone in regarding that judgment with an enormous amount of skepticism. I can think of 20 names that are probably as well-qualified, at least to the extent that I infer what the qualifications for that job are, so the argument that Grace Padaca is singly superior to anyone else is futile, whether it comes from him or from you. He needs someone on the Comelec with a marker he can call in, because he and his ‘party’ are concerned about the outcome of the elections next spring. If he doesn’t want people to draw that conclusion, then he should do things the right way and not give them the ammunition.
The COMELEC is the latest of what is becoming a shelf-full of institutional trophies the President has so far bagged since 2010, having demonstrated his virtually absolute power over the the House of Representatives in railroading a hastily-written impeachment complaint against former Chief Justice Renato Corona through their halls and installing cronies in the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the Ombudsman’s office, and the Supreme Court.
What’s the next institutional domino to fall?
Kritz nails it. The coming 2013 Senate elections is likely to be the next presidential prey which makes the damn-the-torpedoes appointment of Padaca to the COMELEC truly the in-your-face affront to common decency that it is.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
Mga walang delicadeza!
Somebody tell me what the difference is between this and the appointment of former CJ Corona.
Weeeeeell… for one, former CJ Corona did not have a pending graft case at the time of his appointment.
When Noynoy speaks we should all stop what we are doing , listen, ignore previous written down protocol and obey. Oh, that’s what yellow zombies already do.
When GMA does something, it is utterly corrupt and wrong. When BS Aquino does the same thing it is right and justified for the straight path.
That is of course, B _ L _ _ HI _ and H _ _ O _ _ I _ Y (fill in the blanks), but this will simply fly over the Pinoys’ pointed but dull heads.
But where’s the illustration of what you are saying? You insinuated something but you did not complete it by giving an example. For clarity, you could have provided an example of what GMA did that was ‘utterly corrupt and wrong’ even though it was not and an example of P-Noy doing something what was ‘right and justified for a straight path’ even though it was not.
I think I had that covered well ahead of your snarky comment. GMA made a sketchy appointment of CJ Corona for what were reasons of political advantage. Yes, I know it was probably technically legal, but it didn’t look good. President B.S. and his supporters utterly lost their shit over the whole thing. Now, he appoints Grace Padaca – a move done for political advantage, and one that is even farther from being “probably technically legal” than Corona’s appointment – and that’s supposed to be okay. A commenter on my re-blog of benign0’s original article on this in fact said it was okay in so many words, perfectly encapsulating the Aquino double standard.
Well, I didn’t know that FallenAngel and BenK are the same. I’m so sorry.
Anyway, you have a point there in so far as technicality in appointment is concerned. But let us see the difference.
If I remember right, former CJ Corona’s appointment was made, practically, with a sleigh of hand for it was alleged that it was a midnight appointment. And it was very controversial because there was an impression that GMA want Corona in the SC to take care of things for her, that is, present and future cases that may be filed against her would be handled accordingly. It was so controversial that the issue was resurrected during the impeachment trial of former CJ Corona. In short, aside from the technical aspect, the ulterior motive or the intent of the appointing authority, GMA, was put under the cloud of doubt.
On Padaca’s case, there was nothing final yet. She has to huddle the CA. Everything is up in the air. It’s all transparent and P-Noy’s decision may still be contested and questioned. One more glaring difference, the reason given by P-Noy in his choice of Padaca was because she was a victim of election cheating. Her personal knowledge of electoral fraud put her in a position to correct and reform the system.
So, while I agree with you on the technical side on both issues, Padaca appointment is not yet a done deal for you to grouse this early.
If they are the same people then I have two different cell numbers for the same guy. Man was I fooled. You can say nothing is final but as usual Noynoy does the most awkward action possible by declaring a verdict on something pending, no wonder I refer to him as genius.
Oh, spare me your semantics. As if Padaca’s appointment is in any sort of doubt. And you seem to be implying that N/A’s appointment of her is not like GMA’s appointment of Corona, “ulterior motive”. And, since there is some evidence to suggest that Padaca herself may have benefitted from election fraud – I stress may, lest I be accused of making an accusation as unsupportable as N/A’s Solomon-like perception of her innocence in the other case, his rationale for appointing her is sketchy at best.
Anyway, the whole thing makes a certain impression. If it gives you a different impression, well, there’s no law against being a dullard.
And we’re all the same person. Or not. Gogs too, for that matter. Think what you like, I don’t think anyone here is interesting in wasting time playing check ID’s with a troll.
Wow, what an astounding display of logic: just because BenK and I thought of the same thing, we are one and the same person. Keep guessing.
Then again, doing that might be too much of a stretch for you, given that it doesn’t fall snugly into the dakilang mangongontra/stonewalling quibbler template which your comments generally follow.
Commercial over, let’s go back to regular programmig, trolls, este, guys.
I’m not implying, I’m telling you they are not the same.
Padaca’s appointment, unlike Corona’s, was not a midnight appointment. While Corona’s appt. was made in the still of the night, Padaca’s was made under the glare and transparency of media lights and is still under review, question, pending and undergoing criticisms. While Corona’s appt. was done with a sleigh of political hands for alleged benefit to the appointing power, Padaca’s was made on the basis of future benefit to the electorate at large.
“…Padaca’s was made on the basis of future benefit to the electorate at large…”
Future benefit? This government did not re-appoint Gus Lagman, an IT expert, and N/A’s alternative instead is Grace Padaca? Oh please do tell what possible future benefits can the Filipino electorate receive from a politician as compared to an IT expert.
IT expert din po si Pnoy.
InTegrity expert.
What a lame comeback, mr. Jonas.
Jon-ASS translation- Grace Palaca is the most qualified of all the appointees..
How do you do all these complex text layout shit, guys? 🙁 How do ya quote and italicize? Is this on HTML?
Look you got an emoticon. Maybe look for a rich text editor. Then copy paste here.
statement: Padaca and corona’s appointment are the same – both questionable and probably for the benefits of their respective appointee
rebuttal: no it is not, corona was a midnight appointee while padaca is not.
i look forward to jo-nas’ comments here as it is highly amusing. hope some of his or her wisdom rubs off on me.
@jo-nas
And what about CJ Sereno appointment, what do you call it? 16 years as a CJ?! I think Sereno’s appointment is more questionable!
18 years. Baka bumaba na sa pwesto si Hugo Chavez, Cj parin si Sereno.
I would like to advise all who think that Pnoy can do no wrong, to have your heads examined. Imagine a president who puts up bail for an accused.
this is trully betrayal of public trust at the highest level.
Criminal complaints are titled People of the Philippines vs accused. In Padaca’s case Pp vs Padaca. By posting bail for the accused, the president has taken the side of the accused against the PEOPLE whom he represents. So i say again, come on guys, HAVE YOUR HEADS EXAMINED.
@RSR and Noynoy’s head examined too!
@RSR Noynoy thinks he is righteous, so whatever he does is right! But Filipinos should not be fooled by the propaganda of Noynoy! Let’s dig deeper beyond the righteous facade of the Aquino administration!
So…not only is he the president…but he’s the law now? Is he like Judge Dredd or something now? Next thing we know, he’ll be preaching about god, followed by him actually BEING GOD.