Where Have All the Whistleblowers Gone?

[Monseratto]

Would Rodolfo Lozada soon be joining this infamous list??

Before Rodolfo Lozada Jr. became a staple on national TV, there was a string of whistleblowers whose accounts of money-making schemes and dirty tricks by the President’s family and allies gave the impression that this administration is the most corrupt and vicious that this country has seen.

Remember Sgt. Vidal Doble, Sandra Cam, Michaelangelo Zuce, Eugenio "Udong" Mahusay, and Angelo "Ador" Mawanay?

The fate of their testimonies might be instructive for those who are divining where Lozada’s allegations of contract overprice of "forbidden" proportions will go. They failed to nail down a single member of the Arroyo family and government. They have been forgotten.

abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak revisits these whistleblowers’ 15 minutes of fame.

SGT. VIDAL DOBLE




This member of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Intelligence Service (ISAFP) surfaced in June 2005 as the one who performed the wiretapping of the now infamous "Hello Garci" conversations. In those phone conversations, President Arroyo was heard giving then elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano what could be construed as orders to cheat for her.

This was after National Bureau of Investigation Assistant Director Samuel Ong, working for former President Joseph Estrada’s mistress Laarni Enriquez, came out to say he was in possession of the "mother of all tapes," referring to the "Hello Garci" recordings.

Then Doble disappeared. He was later found to be seeking refuge at San Carlos Seminary in Makati City with his girlfriend and Ong, to whom he had supposedly turned over the tapes of the conversations.

ISAFP agents fetched Doble’s wife, Arlene, from the province and used her as leverage to get Doble out of the seminary and of Ong’s custody. Doble was then made to appear at a hearing at the House of Representatives to deny that he wiretapped the President and to say that Ong "gave" him—he never used the word bribe—P2 million to surrender the "Hello Garci" tapes.

After this, Doble went missing again, prompting his wife to file for a writ of habeas corpus. He turned out to be staying at the ISAFP compound in Camp Aguinaldo. Doble said in a hearing on the petition that he voluntarily went to the ISAFP compound so he could be protected from Ong.

He changed his story when he resurfaced in 2007. He told senators in a hearing that, in 2005, then Balanga Bishop Socrates Villegas helped the administration "rescue" him from San Carlos seminary. Villegas allegedly connected him to Remedios Poblador, undersecretary at the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office.

In 2007, Doble testified that he did tape the conversations between President Arroyo and Garcillano using a 3600 Nokia cell phone. He said that the whole time he was missing, he was being held by the ISAFP.

Doble said he came out in 2007 because he feared for his family’s safety. They were kidnapped in Kidapawan, North Cotabato, and detained in the basement of the official residence of Armed Forces chief of staff Hermogenes Esperon in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City.

The justice department’s response: an order for the NBI to charge Doble for violation of the anti-wiretapping law.


SANDRA CAM




In 2005, this self-confessed jueteng bagwoman from Masbate accused the President and her family of being in cahoots with jueteng lords.

As the fourth witness in the Senate of anti-gambling crusader Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz, Cam said the President’s son (then Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo) and brother in law (Negros Rep. Ignacio Arroyo) received a monthly payola of P500,000 from the jueteng lords through Restituto Mosqueda, regional director of the Philippine National Police in Bicol, in 2004.

She also claimed that President Arroyo was present when Lilia Pineda, wife of Pampanga jueteng lord Rodolfo "Bong" Pineda, distributed P2 million to each regional director of the Commission on Elections in a five-star hotel in Manila in April 2004, ostensibly to cheat for her.

Cam also identified Mosqueda as the one who rehearsed Ignacio Arroyo in 2003 to sign the name Jose Pidal to resemble the signature in evidence that opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson had against First Gentleman Jose Miguel "Mike"

Arroyo. Lacson had accused the President’s husband of stashing P321 million worth of campaign funds and contributions to a secret bank account under the name of a Jose Pidal, actually an uncle of Mr. Arroyo. The signature closely resembled Mike Arroyo’s handwriting, but Ignacio claimed it was he, not Mike, who’s using the alias Jose Pidal.

Pineda and Mikey each filed a libel suit against Cam. Pleading not guilty, she went to work in Dubai in September 2006, but was summoned by the justice department for allegedly jumping bail.

She returned to the country in March 2007, denying allegations that she fled to Dubai after receiving a bribe of P20 million to P25 million from the administration. Her legal counsel Francisco Chavez said she also came back to campaign for senatorial candidates of the Genuine Opposition.

MICHAELANGELO ZUCE




A nephew of elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, Zuce said he was there when Lilia Pineda, in the presence of President Arroyo, handed out envelopes containing P30,000 each to regional and provincial election officials twice in January 2004. The bribery purportedly took place in the President’s home in La Vista Subdivision in Quezon City.

Zuce said he was the "Louie" mentioned by Garcillano in the latter’s wiretapped conversations with a woman that sounded like President Arroyo.

Zuce said he decided to reveal what he knew after he received death threats after he resigned as presidential staff officer in May 2005.

He said that prior to the 2004 presidential elections, his uncle asked for a P2.4-million "consultation" fund from President Arroyo, but received only P1 million. The money was allegedly distributed to election officials in Mindanao during "consultations" from 2003 to 2004, where Garcillano allegedly secured the support of local election authorities for Mr. Arroyo’s votes.

In 2006, Zuce returned to the government as a consultant for the small-town lottery monitoring team, a part of the anti-jueteng task force created by Malacañang and headed by Puerto Princesa City Mayor Edward Hagedorn.

In 2007, Zuce ran for mayor of Malitbog, Bukidnon, under the Genuine Opposition banner. He lost to Osmundo Neri de la Rosa.

EUGENIO ‘UDONG’ MAHUSAY

Mahusay, who claimed that the First Couple stood as sponsors in his wedding, worked as an errand boy at the Mr. Arroyo’s office at the LTA Building in Makati. Disgruntled, he quit his job and took some supposed evidence of corruption and influence peddling by his "Ninong."

Mahusay said he saw the First Gentleman sign a check with the name Jose Pidal. He also alleged to have deposited and withdrew money from the Jose Pidal account when he worked for him in 2002.

In an affidavit he executed in 2003, he said that the money came from Benjamin Chua of La Tondeña, then Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation Chairman Efraim Genuino, National Food Authority Officer Kishore Hemlani, lawyer Ching Vargas of the Finance Division of the Office of the President, then Department of Transportation and Communications Secretary Pantaleon Alvarez, and Philippine International Air Transport Corp. treasurer Jeffrey Cheng.

He said the orders for bank deposits and withdrawal came from Vicky Toh, former private secretary and alleged mistress of Mr. Arroyo.

While at Milestone Apartelle, a safe house in Tagaytay City provided by opposition Senator Panfilo Lacson, Mahusay was "rescued" by his other "ninong," Housing Secretary Michael Defensor, in August 2003. Defensor said that Mahusay requested to be fetched, thus the presence of a helicopter and the Presidential Security Group. Lacson said that it was a clear case of abduction.

Mahusay recanted his allegations a month after, saying that he concocted those tales out of anger toward the First Gentleman and Toh. He said that Mr. Arroyo sided with Toh when the latter accused him of stealing money and a cellular phone.

His brother, Ferdinand Mahusay, was later appointed Presidential Assistant for Region IX.

[oliver1013]

Diba meron pa isa yun niratrat sa tower ng airport?

[chua_riwap]

Sana di magaya si Lozada sa iba...........

[oliver1013]

Mukha ngang dun na papunta...alaws e, Abnoy na tingin ng karmaihan kay Lozada Ganyan talaga dito satin...ginagago na peace loving parin Sabi nga sa Fast and the Furious Tokyo drift, the nail that sticks out gets hammered..Most pinoys would rather be the ordinary nail that dont stick out..just minding your own business no matter what..

[[archie]]

IMO yung ibang whistleblower kawawa naman talaga pero for jun lozada, i really believe na may political agenda siya kaya ganyan.

i just hope he fade away fast kasi pati mga pari naloloko na niya. hindi na siya nahiya,,, pati servants of the Lord ginagamit niya

tsk tsk tsk..

[chilli]

hmm i hope di sya magaya nga sa kanila... now i wonder nasan na nga kaya sila?

[4JGtootsie]

Even Senator Alan Cayetano claimed that FG had an account in Germany. He was even invited to go there to see for himself if there is really one.
But it was not proven!

After PGMAs term or even now, I hope this people would file their case so that we would know if they really have something or have nothing.

[safeorigin]

if only marcos were alive, this wouldn't have happened.

[rademamj]

Would Rodolfo Lozada soon be joining this infamous list??

I think he will and should be forgotten! So far he has not provided one document of written evidence. Everthing is "I heard this..." and "He told me that...". Jun Lozada said he feels like a Jedi Knight...but when out of the public eye, he acts more like Darth Vader. He is just turning out to be another whistleblower who is trying to get famous. So who is paying this guy?

[Isuzoom]

They are all going to hell for selling their soul to the devil.