Tribune Editorial - Sloppy hack job shows OVERVIEW OF NOYNOY'S SCRIPT

Sloppy hack job showsWritten by  Tribune Editorial Sunday, 01 September 2013 08:00   Circumstances during the supposed surrender of alleged pork barrel scam artist Janet Lim Napoles and her transfer to a detention facility have been providing tell-tale signs of the scripted grand spectacle of the Palace.   The other day, a US-based Filipino journalist Lino Celle, who works for RMN Radio in New York, said that he had received a lead from a reliable Department of Justice source that Napoles was being held by the government and he claimed receiving the message before 2 a.m. Manila time, Aug. 28.   Celle said his source was A-1 who had “never missed in the past.”   The significance of Celle’s revelation was that Noynoy had announced the P10-million bounty on Napoles at 9 a.m. on Aug. 28 and the subsequent surrender of Napoles to Noynoy happened much later at 9:37 in the evening.   The situation after the surrender of Napoles was much more blatantly being seen as being run from Malacañang.   The camp of Napoles presented Makati City Jail warden Chief Inspector Fermin Enriquez who had admitted before the Makati Regional Trial Court that he could not personally guarantee the safety of Napoles in the premiere city’s detention facility.   Enriquez appears to be courting relief from his job with his admission yet he was too confident that it was what should be said during the moment.   A GMA News TV reporter said that before the transfer of Napoles, Enriquez assured that the city jail is more than capable of providing security for the fugitive scam artist.   Napoles’ battery of counsels led by ace lawyer Lorna Kapunan then supposedly chose a detention house at the Special Action Force’s (SAF) training school at Fort Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, where several high-profile personalities were also detained, to hold Napoles.   Reporters who have been monitoring the facility said that the SAF facility has been on alert for the transfer of Napoles sinceWednesday or Aug. 28.   Napoles thus after being acquired possibly the day before Noynoy’s bounty announcement was intended to be detained in Sta. Rosa before the bright idea flashed in one of Noynoy’s wonder kid in the communications office to maximize the media mileage on Napoles.   Also the lag of several hours when she was actually in the hands of the authorities until her supposed surrender was enough time for her to be briefed on her role on a bigger operation that would have her as state witness against political figures who are being perceived as hurdles to the political plans of the Liberal Party (LP) for the 2016 presidential elections.   Based on the information provided to the New York-based Celle, “Napoles is detained in (an) undisclosed location … approximately 200 kilometers north of Manila,” which straight north would lead to Tarlac City, Noynoy’s hometown.   Celle also quoted his source as telling him that Napoles “offered to become a whistleblower for the state prosecutors.”   Celle while declining to reveal who his source was, he nonetheless, vouched for the source’s credibility saying there had given accurate information in the past.   The testimony of Commission on Audit Chairman Grace Pulido Tan was also reminiscent of the operation to oust former Chief Justice Renato Corona, only that time it was Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales and Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares providing the ammunitions through the financial records of Corona including bank accounts which were supposedly dug up by the Anti-Money Laundering Council.   This time, used was a biased report on the Priority Development Assistance Fund which covered only the years during the term of former President Gloria Arroyo which is now being used as basis for the pork barrel scam investigations.   The elaborate hack job against the opponents of Noynoy and the LP plays on.   People vs the LPWritten by  Tribune Editorial Saturday, 31 August 2013 08:00   The grand plan is unraveling regarding the pork barrel scam based on statements coming out of Malacañang and Noynoy himself.   The plan, which is being rolled out with the aid of all the resources and allies Noynoy and his Liberal Party (LP) can muster, involved using pork barrel scam artist Janet Lim Napoles as witness in indicting opposition personalities in the P10-billion anomaly and consequently douse the fire that is engulfing the Palace on the huge pork barrel being enjoyed by Noynoy.   The theatrics done in the supposed surrender of Napoles until her transfer to the Makati City Jail Thursday evening had the familiar hallmark of a Malacañang production, which has poor artistic and realistic value. Napoles came out more of a celebrity, even a dignitary, rather than a fugitive criminal with the treatment she has been enjoying from Noynoy and alter-ego Mar Roxas that made many to see a bigger picture in the transpiring spectacle.   Right now Napoles, instead of being interred in an ordinary cramped and overcrowded prison cell is being lodged in a converted office with airconditioning, according to Roxas during his interview after Napoles was transferred to the Makati penitentiary.   Prior to the transfer, Napoles and her lawyer were dishing out one condition after another on the transfer of Napoles from the Philippine National Police (PNP) hadquarters in Camp Crame to the Makati jail where the court ordered her to be transferred.   The soap opera started with the personal surrender of Napoles to President Aquino at Malacañang, where it appeared that nearly the entire Cabinet was there to receive the supposed fugitive criminal.   Prior to that, but on the same day, Noynoy had issued a P10 million bounty on Napoles whose disappearance is a controversy in itself since she has been making the rounds in print and broadcast media prior to her arrest order from the court, making it unbelievable that the police intelligence community was so inefficient as to have not put a tail on her.   The fact that Noynoy’s mouthpiece, Edwin Lacierda, and Napoles’ lawyer Lorna Kapunan, were previously colleagues in a law firm underlines the ease at which the Palace can reach Napoles even without going through the antics of issuing a reward for her arrest.   The entire period leading to her surfacing and surrender, Noynoy and his legal lackeys, including Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, were floating the chance of Napoles being made a state witness, which of course enraged the anti-pork barrel groups since a political agenda is now being injected into the process of making Napoles accountable.   By turning into a state witness, Napoles will walk from her detention, likely in exchange for her implicating all the political opponents, imagined or real, of Noynoy and the Liberal Party (LP) in the runup to the 2016 presidential elections.   The grand plan is that Noynoy retains his pork barrel, with something like P450 billion for 2014 and more in the years going to the next elections, while to be instilled in the public mind is that the political opponents of Noynoy wantonly misused their priority development assistance fund (PDAF).   So far, the Palace is largely frustrated on its grand plan as the popular call is for all discretionary funds to be surrendered, including those of Noynoy and that Napoles be prosecuted.   It will be the public will against the LP’s interest in the days leding to the 2016 elections. So who did Noynoy said his real boss was?   Good show, laddiesWritten by  Tribune Editorial Friday, 30 August 2013 08:00   The surfacing of pork scam fugitive Janet Lim Napoles was described by Malacañang as a surrender. Skeptics, netizens included, however, described it as a scripted late evening spectacle that was part of desperate efforts to deflect public outrage away from the presidential pork, which has become the focus of the protest against corruption in government.   The supposed surrender was also reminiscent of the high-profile yielding that happens exactly when it was expected to provide the best impact on massaging the image of those in power.   Noynoy is under siege from anti-pork protestors whose demand in a mammoth rally included the removal of the nearly P500 billion in his discretionary funds.   The Palace was defending the whole day yesterday the process in treating a criminal fugitive who was deemed special, as almost the entire Cabinet was haled to Malacañang during the Napoles surrender, something that happens only when a dignitary visits the presidential residence.   Mouthpiece Edwin Lacierda made a lengthy and detailed narrative of how Napoles had surrendered and how he was instrumental in the surrender.   Lacierda’s recount, however, raised several more questions on the turn of events, foremost of which was the absence of any proof of presence on Napoles, who was now in custody in the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters in Camp Crame.   According to Lacierda, it was he who had contacted Lorna Kapunan, counsel of alleged pork barrel scam brains Janet Lim Napoles, after he saw the lawyer in a television news channel raising Napoles’ intention to surrender to the government.   Lacierda supposedly asked Kapunan to confirm what she said on TV. Prior to Lacierda’s inquiry on Kapunan, Noynoy had issued a P10-million bounty on the head of Napoles and P5 million for her brother, Reynald Lim.   Lacierda related a series of events where he had met Napoles and accompanied her group to Malacañang to meet Aquino before she was transferred to Camp Crame.   One of the questions asked of Lacierda was what he or other Palace officials had raised with Napoles during the long period Napoles was supposedly presented in Malacañang on the way to the PNP headquarters. Lacierda’s reply was that he recalled only asking about the accent of Napoles in the way she talks which was incredulous since it was he who supposedly worked for her surrender.   There was no effort from Palace officials to persuade her to surrender her brother who was a co-accused in the illegal detention case and it seems that Napoles was not in hiding anyway since she was immediately at the designated place to meet Lacierda within Metro Manila.   The elaborate show would have been believable if photos were immediately presented showing Napoles’ mug shots or her fingerprints taken which are standard in the processing of the accused in criminal cases. There was none except for a photo presented by Lacierda showing Napoles supposedly in a holding room in Malacañang prior to a meeting with Noynoy.   Also the supposed surrender was timed for the start of the Senate inquiry on the pork scam which was essentially Commission on Audit Chairman Grace Pulido Tan talking on the selective special report on the Priority Development Assistance Fund which is being played up as basis to pin down primarily members of the Senate who are the perceived political rivals of Noynoy, in the scam.   Mar Roxas was pricked when a news anchor demanded that the government show any proof that Napoles was in government custody and said irritatedly “do you see this as a moro-moro?”   Well no, Mar, it seems to be something more elaborate, such as a telenovela.   An operation that backfiredWritten by  Tribune Editorial Wednesday, 28 August 2013 08:00   It is clear that a campaign was launched to link certain senators and members of the House of Representatives to the pork barrel anomaly, mainly through the scam said to have been perpetrated by businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles but which seems to have backfired and is now hounding Noynoy.   The smear effort was meant to be confined to the perceived rivals of the Liberal Party (LP) during the next presidential elections in 2016, which is an issue worthy of a campaign anchor but those who devised it have a poor appreciation of Filipinos believing that many will swallow the peddled allegations hook, line, and sinker. The camp of Noynoy was bewildered by the turn of events when the protest against the pork barrel prominently highlighted the Special Purpose Fund (SPF) of Noynoy of which the assailed Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) given to legislators are merely part.   The SPF should have never been an issue, Noynoy’s aides said, arguing that Noynoy has not been found to have abused his discretionary funds. Are we to just accept this on their word, which has lost whatever credibility they had left, without a public accounting by the Commission on Audit (CoA)?   The bright boys of Noynoy in Malacañang should have realized even before the Napoles scam and the selective special report on PDAF of the CoA, the demand for the removal of discretionary funds in the budget was already an issue but which has been largely ignored since Noynoy is on the side of legislators on the use of the pork barrel.   Pork can be put to good use, he is often quoted as saying, despite the outrage generated by the Napoles scam.   The CoA report was intended to support the campaign to link the Noynoy adversaries to the scam since it covered the years 2007, 2008 and 2009 when the Liberal Party (LP) had severed its ties with former President Gloria Arroyo and which are also the years when Gloria was desperately buying off support from members of Congress.   That the CoA report was very selective, can be gleaned from the fact that the LP senators, including Noynoy, hardly had any pork barrel that should up in the CoA report, courtesy of the budget office which refused to submit the complete documents.   Public rage should have been directed against Napoles, her syndicate and the political personalities linked to the scam but instead, based on the issues raised in the Rizal Park picnic rally, the demand was for the removal of all discretionary funds including the SPF of Noynoy.   Many have also demanded that the CoA issue a similar special report on the PDAF and the SPF covering the years under Noynoy which the CoA has been trying to evade by claiming that the reports on the funds are already part of the reports provided in the CoA Web site.   Now the demand is for a wider probe of the PDAF abuse which will include the implementing agencies under Noynoy. The review of the PDAF should also begin when it was created as the Countrywide Development Fund during the term of former President Cory Aquino, Noynoy’s mother.   The issue should be about the pork barrel system and not only the specific cases in the Napoles scam. Some of the senators are saying that Napoles is only one of the many syndicates that has been offering services to launder the PDAF.   A complete sense of the pork barrel anomaly should be the goal of any investigation taken on the issue, including ways to make the SPF more transparent since the Palace is dishing out several excuses for Noynoy’s decision to hold on to his own pork barrel while indicating his desire to have the legislators’ funds subjected to stringent rules.   The issue on the misuse of government funds, or simply put by one rallyist as government officials stealing people’s money, should include the whole gamut of the bureaucracy, including Noynoy and the reason that he is not misusing his pork barrel anyway can’t be valid since Noynoy is not expected to be a president for life. The intended black propaganda against the perceived opponents of Noynoy and his group’s scheme clearly backfired on Noynoy who now seems reluctant to heed the demand of an outraged public.   It was a classic case of Noynoy pointing a finger not realizing that more fingers are directed at himself.   Palace does damage controlWritten by  Tribune Editorial Wednesday, 28 August 2013 00:00   Noynoy and his Palace spin masters were all over social mediayesterday trying to cushion the effect of the nationwide march against pork barrel to make it appear that the administration of Noynoy is one with the protest movement.   “The abolition of the priority development assistance fund is just the first step and the immediate concern is the prosecution of those involved in the abuse of the PDAF’s use,” according to one of the Palace tweets.   Since it started in social media, Noynoy believes that this new form of communications should be flooded with messages to contain the damage on Noynoy from the first-ever massive protest movement held under his term.   Clearly among the rallyists, however, Noynoy is the culprit since he is considered to be tolerating the abuses among legislators on the use of the PDAF, that incentive money which Noynoy dangles whenever he wants Congress to do his bidding.   A strong disincentive for Noynoy to abolish the PDAF was the likely loss of a leveraging tool with Congress amid the crucial measures he will push in the final three years of his administration.   Those in Luneta the other day only hold two things: that they religiously pay taxes to the government; and their elected officials have taken liberty in appropriating public money.   The discussion now in Congress and Malacañang on the reforming the allocation of funds for legislators falls short of the expectations from the so-called Million People’s march. The call was not to change the name of the PDAF but to strike it off the yearly budget.   The demand is also for the removal of all discretionary funds in the yearly government appropriations, including that of Noynoy’s which amounts to a much bigger pork than the combined PDAF of all legislators. The Special Purpose Funds (SPF) is pork barrel and the removal of it is precisely that which the protest movement is all about.   In the budget, the PDAF is but one of the items in the SPF.   For the 2014 General Appropriations Act, the proposed SPF totals P310.1 billion. Aside from the SPF, Noynoy also has P139.9 billion in unprogrammed funds, the spending for which is all under his discretion. The biggest items in the SPF are the Pension and Gratuity Fund of P120.5 billion; Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund for P80.7 billion, Budgetary Support to Government Corporations for P46.7 billion; Allocation to Local Government Units for P19.7 billion and the PDAF at P25.240 billion.   Malacañang’s social media campaign to insulate Noynoy from the pork outrage also targeted the deflection of public criticisms away from Noynoy’s own pork.   The line being peddled from Malacañang is that the demand for the removal of Noynoy’s pork is part of efforts to muddle the issue about the misuse of the PDAF.   The reply of anti-pork groups is that pork barrel by any other name remains a fiscal health hazard to the nation and that it should be removed in the politicians’ diet.   The Palace’s effort to divert the issue away from Noynoy shows the worries that the pork barrel outrage is starting to stick into public awareness as partly Noynoy’s fault.   Most of the Luneta protesters remember Noynoy as saying without batting an eyelash that “pork is good” when the P10-billion PDAF scam of Janet Lim Napoles erupted.   The nation expected leadership amid the ravaging of public funds and Noynoy was found standing in defense of his allies in the legislative.   Now the damage control from the Palace is at fever pitch.### *************