With so many issues cropping up every day, a controversy is usually good only for a week. Unresolved, it is set aside to make way for another controversy. Nobody gets punished, the culprit gets away with the crime. The problem stays and goes on.
The Gordon-led Blue Ribbon Committee, in its report more than a week ago on the 604 kilos of shabu that passed through the Bureau of Customs under the leadership of Nicanor Faeldon has found Davao City Councilor Small Abellera Jr. liable of direct bribery for allegedly accepting a P5-million bribe from customs broker Mark Taguba as enrollment fee with the Davao Group, which reportedly facilitates the release of shipments at the BOC. Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on the 604 kilos of shabu smuggling. Photo by Alexis Nuevaespaña
Yet, it cleared presidential son, Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte and his brother-in-law, lawyer Manases Carpio of complicity with the Davao Group.
Honeylet Avanceña fixes the President’s barong before deplaning in Cambodia. May 2017. Looking on is their daughter, Veronica. Malacañang photo.
Cielito “Honeylet” Salvador Avanceña has weighed in on the more serious issues of her partner’s presidency.
And we are stunned by her logic.
In her talk with the members of the Philippine National Police Monday, Avanceña commented on the allegations that Duterte is a killer, a reputation that the President has cultivated by his boasts of having killed some persons.
Avanceña said, “You’ve seen it, Trillanes has been hitting us since a week before election. Eh bakit buhay pa siya? ‘Di ba? Wala naman nangyayari eh.”
Behind President Duterte’s curse-laden talks is a man in panic.
And the one subject that drives him up the wall is his alleged huge bank deposits that Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV first exposed last week of April 2016, weeks before the election that he won.
The latest development is the receipt by the Office of the Ombudsman of his and his family bank records from the Anti-Money Laundering Council in connection with the plunder and graft complaints filed by Trillanes.
Pres. Duterte lambasts Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno, and Overall Deputy Ombudsman Arthur Carandang before members of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Davao City Chapter. Malacañang photo by Joey Dalumpines.
President Duterte admits alleged Trillanes offshore accounts were products of his imaginaion. Screengrab from PTV4.
President Duterte never ceases to stun us.
Yesterday, he admitted that his story about the offshore accounts of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV was a product of his imagination.
“Wala ito. Produkto ng isip ko ito. Tinanggalan ko talaga. Ginamit mo. Nag-issue ka ng waiver… Iba ang account number, iba ang totoo. Sinadya ko iyan,” he said after Trillanes went to Singapore and proved that the two bank accounts supposedly based in Singapore in the list Duterte read to the public were non-existent.
His admission made him a manufacturer of fake news.
If that was not jarring enough, he bragged that he has fooled Trillanes.”Kita mo siya ngayon. He’s desperate. Pumunta ng Singapore, mag-gastos lang para propaganda lang,” he further said.
In his desperation to get back at Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, President Duterte resorts to fake news.
In last Thursday’s Senate investigation of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee of the 604 kilos of shabu that slipped through the Bureau of Customs, Trillanes presented bank accounts of presidential son Paolo Duterte, vice mayor of Davao City (totaling P104,2812.165 made in 2011 to 2015) and presidential son-in-law Atty. Manases Carpio (totaling 211,109,236 made in 2003 to 2012). The two neither confirmed nor denied the deposits invoking “right to privacy.”
Last Saturday, in a speech at the closing ceremony of the Mindanao Business Conference, Saturday said Duterte said he will also expose Trillanes’ bank accounts abroad. Pres. Rodrigo Duterte addresses 26th Mindanao Business Conference in Cagayan de Oro City on September 9, 2017. Malacanang photo by Ace Morandante.
Malacanang photo of Pres. Duterte’s first family at his inauguration June 30, 2016. Presidential son-in-law Atty. Manases Carpio is at extreme left and presidential son Paolo, second from the right.
The saying “A fish is caught by its mouth” applies to President Duterte on the issue of the alleged involvement of his son, Davao City Mayor Paolo Duterte, and his son-in-law, Atty. Manases Carpio in the release without inspection by the Bureau of Customs of a shipment containing 604 kilos of shabu worth P6.2 billion last May.
Duterte told reporters Sunday, “Ang advice ko kay Pulong? Punta ka doon. And then pagdating mo, dun sa questions, sabihin mo, ‘I will not answer you.’ I’m invoking my right of silence kasi noong eleksyon pa, hindi pa Presidente tatay ko, binibira mo na kami. So if you want evidence, do not get it from the mouth of other people. Go somewhere else.”
26-year old customs broker Mark Taguba at the Senate hearing Aug. 31.
Last Friday, 26-year old customs broker Mark Taguba, through lawyer Raymond Fortun, released the following statement:
“I have been informed of the circulation of fake news that have been deviously spread on social media relative to my testimony at the Blue Ribbon Committee hearing of the Philippine Senate yesterday (31st august 2017).
“I wish to categorically make it clear that:
1) I had never testified, nor will I ever testify that Vice-Mayor Paolo Dterte and/or Atty. Manse Crpio were involved in the shipment of illegal drugs into the country. Neither have i testified, nor will I ever testify that the aforementioned individuals were involved in the “tara system” that was in-place at the Bureau of Customs.
2) The names of Vice-Mayor Duterte and/or Atty. Manases Carpio were merely mentioned by the “Davao group” whose direct contacts to me were ‘Tita nannie’ and ‘Jack’. As I had repeatedly stated before Congress and the Senate, the alleged involvement of the aforementioned individuals are hearsay in nature.
3) At no time have I met either Vice-Mayor Dterte or Atty. Carpio in person, much less discuss any illegal transaction at the bureau of customs with them.
4) To this day, I contest that the container that my company caused to be released on May 24,2017 contained the 605 kilograms of shabu. As I have repeatedly testified, the contents of the container (otherwise known as the “packing list”) which was duly certified to be correct by the port of Xiamen under the Asean-China Free Trade Agreement will reflect that it only contained general household items and not the five (5) cylinders where the shabu was discovered.
“I am making this statement to clear Vice-mayor Paolo Duterte and Atty. Manse Carpio from any involvement in the shipment of illegal drugs into the country, and any anomalies in the Bureau of Customs. I also hereby apologize to Vice-Mayor Duterte, Atty. Carpio and to the first family for the proliferation of fake news arising out of my testimony at the senate yesterday.”
It was obvious in Thursday’s Senate Blue Ribbon hearing on the 604 kilos of shabu that slipped through the watch of the Bureau of Customs under then Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon, that Committee Chair Sen. Richard Gordon does not want the truth to come out since the trail was leading to the direction of the Davao Group which allegedly involves not only presidential son and Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte but also presidential son-in-law lawyer Mans Carpio.
During the hearing, it was very noticeable that Gordon was soft on Davao Councilor Nilo “Small” Abellera, a very good friend of Paolo, who admitted having met Customs broker Mark Taguba and a certain Jack in a restaurant in Davao City.
Taguba claimed that in the Davao meeting, he gave P5 million to Abellera as “enrolment fee” for the Davao group that facilitates release of shipment at the Bureau of Customs. He gave the money in Abellera’s car after they had lunch. They again met in the evening at a restobar.
Taguba said Abellera complained about another customs broker who reneged on their agreement. The councilor denied Taguba’s narration of the meeting saying they met only in the evening.He also denied receiving money from Taguba.
The reason for the Davao meeting of Customs broker Mark Taguba Davao City Councilor Noli “Small” Abellera.
Screeshot of ext messages between Tita Nani and Marc Taguba from Taguba’s mobile phone presented at the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.
Paolo Duterte’s name cropped up once again in Tuesday’s Senate hearing on the 604 kilos of shabu worth P6.4 billion that slipped through the watch of the Bureau of Customs last May.
Paolo Duterte,vice mayor of Davao City is the son of President Duterte. His name appeared in a text message between customs broker Mark Taguba and a certain “Tita Nani”, said to be also “brokering” between brokers and the powerful groups that make things happen at the BOC. Taguba mentioned also the name of Davao City councillor Nilo “Small” Abellera, known to very close to Paolo.
Here are the relevant portions of the transcript of yesterday’s hearing:
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte raises his fist as he takes the center stage during a meeting with the Overseas Filipino Workers based in Qatar at the Lusail Sports Arena in Lusail City, April 15. Malacañang photo by King Rodriguez.
Information empowers. But in the age of fake news which has found a fertile base in social media especially Facebook, lies being passed on as information have become a powerful tool for mass idiotization.
This occurred to us watching President Duterte regal the Filipino community in Saudi Arabia, with falsehoods which the audience lapped it up with gusto.
Before some 6,000 OFWs at the Lusail Sports Arena in Doha, Qatar last Saturday, Duterte repeated the false stories he had peddled before about Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and his fellow military officers stole utensil and beddings of the Manila Peninsula where they set up their base of resistance against the government of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo after walked out of a hearing in Makati City Hall on Nov. 29, 2007.
