By Luz Rimban, VERA Files THE photograph is 30 years old, but it provides startling details to an old, almost forgotten story. Taken by a…
Making life worth living.
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Ang buhay talaga. When it rains, it pours. Kapag umulan, talagang buhos.
Noong isang linggo, kasama sa sinampahan si Revilla ng plunder o pandarambong. Ayun sa dokumento na hawak ng National Bureau of Investigation, si Revilla ang may pinakamalaking nabulsa mula sa pera ng PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) sa pamamagitan ng operasyun na kasabwat si Janet Lim Napoles.
In this day and age of internet and cellphones!
Lacierda said Wednesday: “You know, the problem in Zamboanga is that no planes are flying there. They’re not getting news there. No newspapers are being flown there.”
Lacierda thinks we will believe that? I’d rather think he was not in the mood to think up of excuses why the President has not made a statement on the filing of charges against three senators and 34 other persons in connection with the pork barrel scam operated by Janet Lim Napoles who surrendered to him last Aug. 28. He even brought her to Camp Crame to make sure she is safe and well taken care of, remember?
The offer: “I will return the money I got from my PDAF fund plus interest. I will make a public apology. I will resign and will not run for elective office again.”
The requested reward: “Please don’t file plunder charges against me.”
Reason for the offer: “One, I want to spare my grandchildren the stigma of having a grandparent convicted of plunder. Two, I am currently ‘down.’ This is not the best time of my life.”
My source declined to identify the lawmaker and the branch of legislature. I can only guess the identity based on the demands: he or she is old enough to have grandchildren and is eligible for election in 2016.
Last Monday, a total of 37 persons were charged in connection with the misuse of the Priority Development Assistance Fund. Three senators were charged with plunder: Ramon “Bong” Revilla; Jinggoy Estrada, and Juan Ponce Enrile.
Watching Yaya Teresa (played movingly by actress Rustica Carpio) in Joey Reyes’“Ano ang Kulay ng mga Nakalimutang Pangarap?”, I saw my grade school classmate Antonia.
After elementary school, Antonia, a farmer’s daughter, didn’t go to high school. She worked as a helper in the Gomez family. She was more than just a helper to the wife of the master of the manor. She was a friend, a shoulder to cry on. In the quarrels of the mistress of the manor with in-laws, Antonia was also a combatant.
She was a surrogate mother to the two children of the Gomezes.
Jeane’s picture with the President was sent to broadcaster Anthony Taberna Wednesday afternoon and made the rounds of social media immediately after it was posted.
Today’s photos came from Malacañang. Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Secretary Ricky Carandang said after checking Malacañang’s photo files of that Cebu event, they found more photos of the President with Janet herself and her husband, Jaime. He said in that event, a lot of people were having their pictures taken with the President.
He said they decided to release the pictures “so people would not speculate.” The President had earlier said he does not remember having met Napoles until her surrender last week in Malacañang.
But we doubt if we have seen the end of photo releases from different sources. Last Monday photos of Senate President Franklin Drilon with the Napoles couple were passed around in social media. Drilon said it was taken during an event at the Heritage Park in Taguig City where seminarians from China were guests.
In a few parties that I attended where Vice President Jejomar Binay was a guest, I noticed that he was always accompanied by a photographer. The VP gives out the website where one can view the photos.
But with the Janet Lim Napoles, alleged pork barrel scam queen exploding and dragging with her known political personalities, just being seen with her is a nightmare.
Malacañang is downplaying the importance of the picture of the luxury-loving Jeane Napoles with President Aquino which Malacañang has confirmed to be authentic.It was taken after the national thanksgiving mass for the canonization of San Pedro Calungsod in Cebu November last year.
Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte said,“I understand the photo was taken at an event last November in Cebu. She had her photo taken with the President, as did a dozen other people who lined up to have their photo taken with him.”
At the launching of the book, “Beyond Tears and Borders” at the office of the Commission on Human Rights, Edith Burgos, mother of farmer/activist Jonas Burgos who disappeared on April 28, 2007, said in the six-year search for her son, the emotions “vacillate between hope and despair.”
She said, “no matter what you do, there will always be indifferent people. “
She said families of the disappeared have to contend with labeling. “The moment you speak about the disappeared, you become labeled.”
But she said in the agony of the search, she has found “examples of selflessness.” She said it was her son’s love for others that made him devote his life for the farmers and caused him to be disappeared.
Remember, it was China who gave notice to the Philippines that they didn’t find this time “conducive” for Aquino to visit China.
Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Raul Hernandez released Monday a Q&A briefer and like all badly written script, it raised more questions.
Four of the five questions (The first one was about the invitation.):
Were there any concerns and conditions from China for the President’s attendance?