Aquino Gov't: Kakampi, Kaklase, Kabarilan

**chua_riwap** · June 9th, 2011 09:12 AM

Aquino buddies under fire | Inquirer News

Aquino buddies under fire

Opposition lawmakers are training their guns on the “kakampi, kaklase and kabarilan” of President Benigno Aquino III whom Malacañang has purportedly been coddling. Speaking on Wednesday at a press conference, House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman announced the filing of a yet unnumbered resolution calling for the investigation of Interior Undersecretary Rico Puno for alleged bribery, Land and Transportation Office (LTO) chief Virginia Torres for alleged illegal meddling, Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. for his reported P40-million mansion, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima for the alleged filing of tax charges against political enemies and Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) Chair Margarita Juico for alleged irregularities in her office, including its transfer from the Quezon Institute to the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC).
Asked to comment, Malacañang said the opposition was “scraping the bottom of the barrel” in trying to accuse administration officials of corruption.
“These are poor attempts to impute anomalies to an administration that has committed itself against graft,” Edwin Lacierda, the President’s spokesperson, told the Inquirer.
“I suggest to them that they focus their attention on something more useful … for the Filipino people,” he said. Lagman said that while it had taken the people 25 years to stamp out cronyism during the Marcos regime, the same malady was back in the Aquino administration. “And when these close associates run afoul, true to the crony patron he has shown himself to be, President Aquino drags his feet in investigating, reprimanding and firing, even as he harangues and harasses political rivals with no basis or evidence,” Lagman said. He said the resolution would be referred to the House committee on good government.

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In a statement read by Lanao del Norte Rep. Fatima Aliah Dimaporo, the House minority said: “A year ago, we were promised a government run by people chosen on the basis of integrity, competence and performance. Today, we have a government where there is a surfeit of kakampi (party mates), kaklase (classmates) and kabarilan (shooting buddies).
“We in the House minority will also not let good governance and the national interest be compromised to accommodate the presidential barkada (friends) and repay political debts.”
Lacierda said Ochoa had explained the circumstances behind the P40-million mansion in White Plains, Quezon City. Ochoa had said that the house was owned by his brother-in-law Jerry L. Acuzar and wife Tess Ochoa-Acuzar, and that the property was bought by the couple on March 20, 2009, through their company, Hedgerow Retain Holdings.
Lacierda said Torres had already been investigated by the Department of Justice (DoJ).
He said Purisima had sufficiently explained his tax situation to the bicameral Commission on Appointments, had “no tax liabilities” and had “already been confirmed, by the way.”
Lacierda also said Juico had explained numerous times that it was cheaper to transfer the PCSO to the PICC than have the Quezon Institute building repaired after it was declared unfit. “The opposition is scraping the bottom of the barrel without substantial issues that can be taken against [the administration],” Lacierda said.

Based on evidence
Purisima has been accused of harassing the President’s political enemies by indiscriminately filing tax evasion charges through the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), but not filing his own correct income tax returns.
The eldest child of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Ang Galing Pinoy Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo, was the first to cry foul after he and his wife Angela were slapped with criminal charges in the justice department for allegedly evading payment of taxes worth P73.85 million from 2004 to 2009.
Asked to comment, Purisima on Wednesday said: “The BIR and [the Bureau of] Customs file cases based on evidence, and not on personality. The allegation that we are singling out officials of the past administration is far from the truth.
“Taking a look at all the cases we have filed, one can decipher that such have enough bases which, we are confident, can stand court scrutiny.”

‘Unsavory ways’
Torres was told by the President to go on leave in April to allow the investigation of a complaint filed against her by the LTO’s technology supplier, Stradcom Corp. She is scheduled to return to her post on June 19.
A fact-finding committee of the DoJ had recommended the filing of administrative charges against her for alleged complicity in the failed takeover of Stradcom last Dec. 9.
The panel said Torres should be charged with gross neglect of duty or gross incompetence, or in the alternative, with grave misconduct.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has endorsed the committee’s recommendation.
Dimaporo on Wednesday said the minority bloc was hoping that Mar Roxas, the newly appointed transportation secretary, would “not let P-Noy’s kabarilan, LTO Secretary Torres, resume her unsavory ways of threatening to jeopardize the nation’s entire driver licensing and vehicle registration system.”
But Torres said she was “ready to face any investigation at any time.”
“All of my actions are documented and … aboveboard,” she said, adding that she would stay as head of the LTO until told to quit by the President.
Torres’ return as LTO chief has also been linked to the resignation of Transportation Secretary Jose de Jesus.

Easy target
According to Davao del Sur Rep. Marc Douglas Cagas, Juico’s “arrogance” in office should not be tolerated, especially because she heads an office that deals with the poor.
The minority bloc assailed Juico for “claiming financial troubles and denying much-needed assistance, while sitting on billions of pesos in the bank left intact by the previous administration.”
But Juico expressed no surprise over the criticisms, saying that she was an easy target considering how she and other PCSO officials were discovering the way things were run by the past administration and the persons who had benefited.
“I anticipated that at the rate things are being uncovered [at the PCSO, certain] people will be out to derail us. I expected as much,” she told the Inquirer in a phone interview.
Juico, nevertheless, said she was prepared to answer criticism over the PCSO’s transfer to its current location. She said the move was supported by documents.

Long-time friend
Puno, a gun enthusiast and longtime friend of the President, was included on a list of officials who were purportedly receiving protection money from operators of the illegal numbers racket “jueteng.”
The list was submitted by retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz during a Senate inquiry into the matter. Puno was also among the officials recommended by a fact-finding committee as liable for the Aug. 23, 2010, hostage crisis that resulted in the killing of a number of Hong Kong tourists by a dismissed police official, who was also shot dead.
Commenting on the hostage crisis at Rizal Park, Lacierda said Puno was not administratively charged even after the committee’s investigation.
“What did he do wrong?” Lacierda said. With reports from Norman Bordadora, Paolo G. Montecillo, Jeannette I. Andrade and Ron Domingo

**shadow** · June 9th, 2011 09:29 AM

eto naman mga opposition, weather weather lang yan, panahon ni GMA ganun din sila eh...lol

**chua_riwap** · June 9th, 2011 09:33 AM

di nga ba't pati manikurista nya at hardinero ng malacanang, in-appoint ni gma sa gobyerno nya.......

**oliver1013** · June 9th, 2011 10:02 AM

Onga naman...

**CVT** · June 9th, 2011 10:10 AM

[COLOR="teal"]
Makabayan kung ganoon... Katipunan e.... (malapit sa ADMU iyan....)...

Saan ba puwedeng mag-apply, este, mag-shooting pala?...

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**111prez** · June 9th, 2011 10:50 AM

lahat naman na makakapuwesto ganyan din

kung may fraternity yan, eh di ka-brod. kung sorority, ka-sis

may pagbabago pa ba?

as akin naman, it does not matter kung KKK, KKB or what

mas importante ang kakayahan, katalinuhan at integridad ng isang appointee at handa itong mag kalas kaagad pag may bahid na masama

**niky** · June 9th, 2011 12:36 PM

At least with Torres, he's letting due process take its place and she has been suspended.

Tignan nalang natin yung mangyayari sa kaso...

**CVT** · June 10th, 2011 08:34 AM

May balita yata bro na na-abswelto na rin.... Na-i-post ko yata sa kabilang thread....

Heto ang article:

Noy’s shooting buddy Torres back at LTO

By Aytch S de la Cruz
The Daily Tribune

From all indications, President Aquino appears to prefer retaining Land Transportation Office (LTO) Chairman Virginia Torres over his Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) Secretary Jose “Ping” de Jesus, as the latter is out and Torres, his subordinate, is definitely in and ready to take up her position again.

Aquino has earned the reputation of coddling and protecting his friends and target shooting buddies as well as his classmates, many of whom he has appointed to high government positions.

Torres is set to return to government service soon after taking a two-month leave due to her 60-day suspension while an investigation was supposed to have been conducted.

To this day, however, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has not furnished the public through the media the results of the investigation, and no charges — not even administration sanctions — have been filed.

Torres was suspended following her raid of the Stradcom offices, along with a faction of the LTO she favored.

The raid was caught on video, and clearly, she had no authority to raid the Stradcom offices.

Malacañang confirmed yesterday that Torres will be back at her post.

Deputy presidential spokesman Abigail Valte, however, was not able to give the exact date of Torres’ impending return at the LTO but said she is expected to be back by the second or third week of this month, counting from the time she filed her leave of absence.

Torres, who is said to be one of Aquino’s target shooting buddy and fellow gun enthusiast whom he had appointed as LTO chief, was said to be among the reasons behind DoTC’s De Jesus’ surprising resignation last Monday.

Torres used to man the Tarlac LTO but was made chief of LTO nationwide by Aquino.

She was also alleged to have been involved in the the “hot-car” illegal registration while she was the LTO Tarlac chief, although she has denied it.

De Jesus and officials from Malacañang have already denied that Torres’ return had something to do with the former’s sudden decision to quit his post but the speculations haven’t died down, especially with several sources in the DoTC already confirming that Aquino’s failure to fire Torres, as De Jesus wanted in the first place.

Malacañang appealed to the media put all the side issues to rest while claiming that Aquino is paying equal attention to DoTC since it is among the key government agencies attending to the public-private partnership programs of the administration.

“I think we should really leave it at that because it is not getting productive to speculate or to put out stories on why he (De Jesus) resigned. Secretary De Jesus had already stated that it’s his wish to return to the private sector,” Valte told the state-run radio dzRB.

Meanwhile, Valte assumed that the morale of the employees working for the DoTC is still high despite the courtesy resignations tendered by three of its key officials to make way for the new leadership at the said agency, days after De Jesus’ exit was made public.

“I wouldn’t be in the position to say (something about the morale) but I suppose also there are (already people) waiting from the ranks, our fellows from the DoTC with regard to the replacement of Secretary Ping de Jesus and I would think the transition phase is already moving toward the next set of appointees,” Valte said.

Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Herminio “Sonny” Coloma, on the other hand, who was reportedly included in Aquino’s shortlist as a possible successor to De Jesus at the DoTC, merely issued a text message when sought for his comment regarding this matter.

“My focus is on my current assignment as PCOO Secretary. Let’s wait for the President’s decision on this matter,” said Coloma in a text message. He used to serve as DoTC Undersecretary during the administration of former President Fidel V. Ramos.

Valte reiterated presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda’s statement the other day, showing no surprise over the announcement of DoTC undersecretaries Dante Velasco, Glicerio Sicat, and Ruben Reinoso that they will also leave their respective positions by the end of the month.

DoTC Assistant secretary Racquel Desiderio “asked to be relieved from the LTO (Land Transportation Office) starting June 1,” while another senior official, Undersecretary Aristotle Batuhan, is also leaving, according to Velasco.

“I think in the case of the (resignation of the DoTC) undersecretaries and an assistant secretary, those are expected. We no longer were surprised by it because we all know that the Cabinet Secretaries were given leg rooms, so to speak, to form their teams,” explained Valte.

“The DoTC team (right now) was formed by Secretary De Jesus, so it is but natural for them to tender their resignations in order to give the incoming (DoTC) Secretary a free hand (in choosing his staff members),” she added.

Read more: http://tsikot.com/forums/politics-ec...#ixzz1OpE7gCDr

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“Doesn’t take a lot of beer to cause a lot of trouble” :starwars:
“You are because of the choices you made”

**Altis6453** · June 10th, 2011 04:34 PM

Wow. BUT....

When GMA's brother-in-law, Ignacio "Jose Pidal" Arroyo ran for congressman they didn't raise hell.

When Congress created an entirely new congressional district so that GMA's son, Dato Arroyo, can get a seat in the House of Representatives, they didn't even howl.

When they pulled strings at the Supreme Court to allow another GMA son, Mikey Arroyo, to run as party-list representative (ANG GALING NG PINOY) of security guards they didn't protest.

When GMA appointed Renato Corona, a close aide and associate of FG Mike Arroyo, to the Supreme Court, and subsequently as Chief Justice, these monkeys (Magsasay, Dimaporo. Cagas, Lagman, etc.) didn't raise questions.

Add to that the appointments of GMA's manicurist and gardener. Sheesh! Like the pot calling the kettle black.