Press Release from Joey de Venecia
June 2, 2009
A scandalous regime
This week marks the 4th anniversary of the Hello Garci scandal and it is sad to note that the parties involved in the apparent cheating before, during and after the 2004 presidential elections have seemingly gotten away with their crimes against the Filipino people.
The whistleblower of that case, Samuel Ong, recently passed away. He died not knowing if justice can still reign in his homeland.
There were numerous scandals that followed the Hello Garci case, not the least of which is the ZTE-NBN deal of which I am the whistleblower on record. I hope that I do not meet the same fate as Mr. Ong. But two years after I revealed what has been called the mother of all scandals, the parties involved have not been charged, much less penalized.
Two years after I revealed what went on regarding the ZTE-NBN deal, I am still waiting for the Senate blue ribbon committee to come out with its final report. I supplied all the supporting documents to the committee proving that very powerful people worked to make sure that the country would end up with an inferior national broadband network in exchange for hundreds of millions of pesos in kickbacks.
Besides Hello Garci and ZTE-NBN, there was also the multi-million peso fertilizer scam. In two of those cases, a very powerful but unelected personality was involved. He is the same person who went on a lawsuit spree against dozens of Filipino journalists whose only crime was doing their jobs, asking embarrassing questions of the Arroyo regime and almost always getting no answer.
The list of scams and scandals goes on. There was the case of the payoffs in Malacanang where congressmen were given cash gifts so they would follow the wish of the incumbent to change the constitution. There was the case of the regular payola received by the congressman-son of the president.
Other scandals have yet to be unearthed. The public is wondering why the First Couple go on official and unofficial trips to the Middle East so often, specifically to an emirate that serves as the banking center of the region.
Perhaps we can accept that some form of graft and corruption will exist everywhere. But the level of corruption tolerated by the Arroyo administration has reached a dangerous level, dangerous to our existence as a nation and as a people. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has singlehandedly institutionalized corruption with her sins of commission and omission. Hers has been the most scandal-riddled administration of all time.
The legitimacy of the Arroyo presidency has always been under question. It therefore began and will most certainly end under a cloud of doubt.
DISCLAIMER: The press releases, statements and manifestos published in this site do not go through Bulatlat.com’s editorial process. They are published as is and their authors are solely responsible for their content. These materials do not reflect Bulatlat.com’s policy or position.
