Guilt by association is a logical fallacy that members of the yellow press and yellow army have played ad nauseam — not really counting on the possibility that it could swing back at their faces like a double hinged door.
For example, pictures of Janet Napoles with Bong Revilla have been circulated after the senator denied knowing Napoles – who has been accused in various news reports of masterminding the P10 Billion Pork Barrel Scam.
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The surfacing of such a picture did two things: One, it tended to portray Revilla as a liar, and two, it gave the opportunity for a number of insinuations including involvement in the P10 Billion Pork Barrel Scam.
Just this morning, I caught a picture put up on Facebook as a boosted or sponsored post and in that picture is Senate President Franklin Drilon with Janet Lim Napoles.
In the inset of the picture is a caption of what I assume to be the explanation of Drilon regarding his appearance in a picture with Napoles, it reads: “Kaming mga politiko, marami kaming nakikilala… hindi ko alam ang kanyang negosyo. Siya po ay ipinakilala sa kain at other than that, wala naman kaming ibang transaksyon.” (Translation: We politicians get to meet a lot of people… I don’t know what her business is. She was just introduced to me and other than that, we had no other transaction.)
Just one thing, does one have a transaction with everyone they meet for the first time? Is that a Freudian slip?
Is Drilon the senator referred to by a Pork Barrel Scam witness as the senator whom Napoles gifted with expensive pen?
The ninth whistle-blower said dinners with the lawmakers were in expensive restaurants, like the Greenhills Stone Grill and Tsukiji in Makati City. She said Napoles asked her to buy gifts for the senators.
“One time she asked me to pick a ball pen, Montblanc, worth P65,000 from Rustan’s,” she said, adding she paid for it in cash.
“I had to pick up the ball pen the following day because it had to be engraved with the senator’s name,” she said.
The thing is, why did this picture surface only now?
Is it at all true, that in an effort to debunk the view that Malacanang is using the Pork Barrel Scam to derail the political careers of potential presidential and vice presidential candidates in 2016, Palace spin-masters will have to sacrifice some of its allies.
Drilon is one of DILG Secretary Mar Roxas’ closest allies, being both fromVisayas regions — Roxas being from Capiz and Drilon being from Iloilo.
According to the Liberal Party Website, Drilon is the Vice Chairman of the Liberal Party.
Could it be that the feud between the Samar and Balay factions of the Aquino Administration is heating up again? (According to an article in the Inquirer: The Samar group is composed of Aquino’s supporters who backed the candidacy of Vice President Jejomar Binay while the Balay group is composed of those who supported Roxas’ candidacy. Roxas is Aquino’s running mate during the last presidential elections.)
Also included in the roster of party officials are President Benigno Aquino III (Chairman), Speaker Feliciano Belmonte (Vice Chair), DILG Secretary Mar Roxas (President on leave), DOTC Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya (Executive Vice President now Acting President), Congresswoman Henedina Abad (Vice President for Policy, Programs and Advocacy), Rep. Mel Senen Sarmiento (Secretary General) and Gov. Alfonso Umali, Jr. (Treasurer).
Congresswoman Abad is the wife of DBM Secretary and former Batanes Representative Butch Abad. It will be remembered that Malacanang recently defended Congresswoman Abad over the issue of having been allocated PDAF way above the yearly P70 Million that most other congressmen receive.
Every year, each congressman is given P70 million in PDAF while each senator gets P200 million.
But Abad, wife of DBM Sec. Butch Abad, was reported to have a PDAF of P92.5 million in 2012. This is reportedly even bigger than the PDAF of House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte.
During a press briefing on Thursday, however, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the current PDAF for each lawmaker may vary depending on their use the previous year.
“Every year, you are given P70 million. [The end amount] depends on your use. It’s rolled over,” he said.
The Palace official said that this is called a continuing appropriation, which applies to all congressmen.
Governor Umali is the brother of Mindoro Congressman Reynaldo V. Umali who was a member of the prosecution team in the Corona Impeachment Trial. Umali will be remembered mostly for having claimed that he had been given bank documents purportedly of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona by a “little lady”.
Oriental Mindoro Representative Reynaldo Umali said that he did not give importance to the “small lady” who gave him the envelope containing the bank documents of Chief Justice Renato Corona.
“Madali ako pumansin ng tao pero ito hindi ko talaga binigyan ng importansya kasi akala ko kung ano lang eh,” Umali said in an ambush interview after the trial proceedings Monday.
He said that he could not remember exactly where it was given to him in the Senate building but was sure it was before he had entered his vehicle. He said that he was rushing to another meeting that’s why he did not give much attention to the envelope.
Umali’s claim of having been given confidential documents by a small lady, however, was contradicted by Senator Tito Sotto who said that the Senate’s CCTV did not show Umali receiving any such documents from any little lady.
The closed circuit television (CCTV) in the Senate showed no ‘little lady’ handing bank documents to a member of the prosecution team, Senate Majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III reported on Monday.
Sotto turned over a copy of the CCTV to the Senate which he requested to find out if Oriental Mindoro Representative Reynaldo Umali’s claim was true that a “small lady” gave him the identification and specimen signature cards of Chief Justice Renato Corona with the bank.
“It has not contained any little ladies giving anything to Representative Umali from the time he arrived 1:00 p.m. up to the time that he boarded his vehicle…” Sotto said
Nevertheless, a source revealed to me that some time in 2013 just before the elections, Umali was seen with Janet Lim Napoles at a popular coffee shop. The source said that this was not a casual meeting as the two were together for more than an hour. Whether they were discussing the transfer of funds or other matters was not clearly disclosed.
Writer.
Looks like the yellows have gotten a taste of their own medicine. “Guilt by association”, this was a tactic that they used against their political enemies but now it seems, that the tables have been turned against them.
Ironic that this is the cause of their imminent downfall.
Not even attacks in mindanao can erase the lingering issue of pork barrel corruption.
I just found it funny that in an Inquirer article, Loren Legarda was described as an administration ally.
But the 2012 audit report said Legarda, an administration ally, had authorized P5 million of her PDAF allocation for the distribution of farm products for high-value crops in Dinalupihan and P10-million allotment in Pilar, both in Bataan province, coursed through Napoles’ NGO People’s Organization for Progress (POPDF).
Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/484371/six-senators-2012-pork-tied-to-napoles#ixzz2eSNTUUHn
Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook
Peoples Organization for Progress?
OR, P.O.P. for short? HAH HAHAHAHAH!
Oh, that is funny, and guess what P.O.P. does?
It goes round and round the Mulberry bush, POP they are all fuckin thieving weasels, sounds about right.
BWAH HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH!!!!!
By association shown in pictures or corroborated personally by witnesses most politicians will brazenly deny the truth.
They are the chilfren of the “father of all lies” which is Satan himself.
PDAF begets political dynasty.
The product of political dynasty are as follows:
1. Massive jobless Filipinos – it can be obviously seen everywhere in the country people with no jobs loitering the streets or just sitting anywhere doing nothing.
2. No jobs and nothing to do usually make people think evil. “A lazy man’s head is the devil’s worksop” – old adage.
3. Corrupt and distorted mindset among majority of the people – politicians are the roots of the moral degradation of the way people conceptualize human values.
4. Decay and total destructions of government infrastructures – without maintenance and upkeep because the annual budgeted expenses for the country is being allocated solely for the politicians’ and their families’ pockets.
5. Substandard new government constructed infrastructures, if ever there is – most of the bridges built have only 5 tons gross capacity. What kind of vehicles can it just carry accross? Inadequete classrooms for students. No electricity and clean water system in most parts of the provinces.
6. Rotten government services – the methods of acquiring clearances and permits i.e. NBI clearance, COMELEC registrations, business permits with SEC, etc. would a person to stand in very long queue for hours and get lucky if he can get it in just one day. This process is grossly degrading and total disregard of human dignity.
7. Massive propagation of government employees’ tendency to resort to extortion in rendering their services to the people i.e. customs accreditation and clearance of importated goods, business registrations with either SEC, BFAD, TESDA, among the few experienced agencies.
8. Massive miscarriage of justice – the rich, especially the politicians and their family members, get special treatments and mostly get acquitted from the crimes they’ve commited despite of obviously strong evidences.
9. Selective implementation of the laws and regulations – or no laws being implemented at all. Lawmakers could not ensure the strong implementation of the laws they “massly” produce for fear that it will imposed on them.
All of the nauseating evil stated above propagate consistently in the Philippine society because majority of the citizens ALLOW IT!
PDAF is pure evil. It produces more evil political dynasty.
The result is rotten mindset of majority (if not all) of the citizens of the country.
PDAF must be demolished completely.
I’m glad the Filipinos are now realizing the wrong things many politicians are doing. Sometimes, a congressman would announce to the public in his province that a budget for the construction/repair of this and that project has already been approved by the national government – other words there is already a budget for such project. People wait with so much enthusiasm, after 2 years nothing happened about said project(s). Yeah, right – it’s budgetted from the mayor to the governor and those involved in the planning of the project.
and the joke is on you! not funny? Awww, whatchew gonna dew, huh? Whatchew gonna dew?
Nothing, just like they know you will. Want change? Be ready to die, or get a P500 note and by some rice, then you might get some change.
UH-HUH, and GOOD LUCK with that there!
Photoshop?
PDAF Should be Abolished, It’s the Root of all Evil…
So what’s the big fuss. As long as Sen. Drilon did not give any of his pdaf to any napoles ngo there’s no problem. It only shows napoles was known by lawmakers, contrary to her claim that she has not met any of them.
korek
I’ve heard someone call Drilon one of the worst turncoats in government.
Oh I thought that belongs to Loren Legarda.
and that is all they can come up with? c’mon, you can do better than that, or NO?
looka like a pig! a fat flip-pin PIG!
Oah, this blog, tingin nyo ba nababasa ito ng mga istambay at mga tao sa depressed area? (kung saan milyon milyon ang boto)… As long as sikat ka sa pinapanood nilang television, siguradong malaki ang chance mong manalo…
-And by the way, advance congratulations to SENADOR KRIS AQUINO for 2016 elections… 😉
korek ka dyan po….paano natin mababago ang sistema eh nasa kanila ang maraming boto…..
It will be interesting to watch the political and legal machinations as the senate/congress circle the wagons to protect their own.
” there, but for the grace of god, and lack of transparency, go i”
Remember the PhP 728-million fertilizer fund scam, also using solons’ pork barrel? Here’s a simple illustration on how it was supposed to be released. Send us your thoughts.
Click here to enlarge the flowchart image: http://citizenaction.net/images/DA-infographic-CANA-up.jpg
Full Story: http://citizenaction.net/index.php/cana-reports/128-aquino-ally-in-north-cotabato-figures-in-pork-barrel-scams
Rumours of ochoa, aquino, and drilon’s links with janet lim napoles have been circulating for a while, and not just as vindictive gossip, but some very specific facts.
They are no doubt planning damage limitation, but the more they refuse to divulge their pdaf allocation details, and election contributors, the more questions will be raised.
hypocites and liars
“Hey Frankie, sing that song, u kno? “I only have eyes for you”, that one, OK, Frankie? Ah, thattsa nice. Yeah, good boy…now go get the drinks and keep your hands off my daughter or I have you swimmin witta de fish, capeche?”.