Rigoberto D. Tiglao
THAT club of megalomaniacs called 1Sambayan was the town’s laughingstock last week. They used our country’s sacred Independence Day to pontificate on the kind of president and vice president they would like, based on their fictional world.
They named six nominees for the presidency. Four rushed in an hour’s time to decline the nomination; Mary Grace Poe – who placed third in the 2016 elections – just minutes after that pathetic group made their announcement. Nominee Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo didn’t say whether she accepted the nomination or not but in her usual way, blah-blahed inanities about the need for us to unite.
Only the super-megalomaniac of them all, the bungling putschist Antonio Trillanes 4th, accepted the club’s nomination. I bet 1Sambayan convenor, the Aquino regimes’ blundering, foreign secretary Albert del Rosario will be squirming in his seat when his club meets with Trillanes on the nomination.
Trillanes had accused del Rosario of treason in his handling of the Scarborough Shoal fiasco, even telling me in an interview that he should be shot by firing squad. Trillanes claimed that del Rosario had even spread fake news during that crisis to worsen the country’s quarrel with China – such as releasing to the Philippine Daily Inquirer an old 1990s photo of Chinese navy men planting their flag on the shoal, to stoke Filipinos’ anger against China.
1Sambayanan doesn’t even deserve to be called an opposition group: Without media, nobody would pay any notice to this group of delusional retired men (and women) and clerics still brainwashed by passé liberation theology rhetoric, none of whom could even win a post as barangay chairman. Worse, with their misdeeds against the country. they don’t have any right at all to open their mouth about where our nation should be going.
– Albert del Rosario spent almost his entire working career helping the Indonesian magnate Antoni Salim, who owns the First Pacific group, become one of the biggest oligarchs in the country and in Asia. It was because of his belligerent stance against China, and his slavish gullibility towards the US that lost us Scarborough Shoal. He prodded Aquino to file the suit against China which only benefited the US but had terrible consequences for our national interest.
– Antonio Carpio; If not for his PR network (or that of the so-called Firm he founded) which even produced two books that were paeans to him, he would be as well-known in public as the scores of justices, better than him really, who became Supreme Court justices. Carpio has boasted that he was the brains behind the arbitration suit against China. However, the arbitration award since 2016 has been exposed as not just winning nothing for the Philippines. It ordered us to give up our Kalayaan Island Group and banned any exclusive economic zones for our islands there, since it is not compliant with United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) provisions. The arbitration suit only provoked China to transform their small reefs in the Spratlys into huge installations, giving the superpower the most developed holdings in the South China Sea.
– Conchita Carpio-Morales: I cannot understand why this lady has the gall to appear in public when it was her false testimony against her Supreme Court colleague Renato Corona, that he had $10 million in his bank accounts, that killed him politically and drove him out as chief justice and eventually to his death.
– Jesuit priest Albert Alejo is another 1Sambayan member who shouldn’t be showing his face in public ever. He should have been charged and thrown in jail by the government. He produced the so-called “Bikoy: Totoong Narcolist” video that was distributed in youtube.com, which falsely accused Duterte’s son Paolo of taking bribes from drug lords. This was disclosed by a participant in that crime, the late lawyer Jude Sabio who was furious that Alejo didn’t even pay him the legal fees he was promised.
Why on earth would these four be so presumptuous as to think they could “nominate” candidates for the Philippine presidency? The only reason I can think of is that they very foolishly think that their misdeeds would be forgotten by history by their nomination of the next president. Seriously, I think these people should seek psychiatric help.
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The following piece has spread quite a lot in social media, an example of the phenomenon that while professional journalism is in decline, the new form of mass communications has emerged with writers as good and as perceptive as the professionals. The following was written by Jun Abines, a Cebu lawyer, the second of his pieces I have posted in this column.
The only point I disagree with, very strongly, is that the 1Sambayan blunder would allow Trillanes and Robredo to raise “billions of campaign funds.” On the contrary, that the two proved to be what’s left at the bottom of the barrel, they, particularly Trillanes, should forget their wild dream that even if they do miserably in the elections, at least it will be a fund-raising project for them.
Abines piece:
“Justice Antonio Carpio is now the biggest laughingstock in the country. He hijacked the Independence Day [celebrations] with thrills and drumbeats like some Steve Jobs about to announce the latest and grandest thing for all the world to see. Only to reveal recycled products fit for the garbage bin.
“Antonio Carpio is the very example of how the Yellows and Reds choose their leaders. Men with guts but no talent. If Carpio is to become a campaign manager for someone running for barangay captain, you can safely bet all your money on the opponent and win. The man is devoid of any political talent whatsoever.
“The 2022 presidential election belongs to whoever is anointed by President Rodrigo Duterte. There is nothing the opposition can do, except cheat.
“The Yellows and Reds are desperate to put Rodrigo Duterte down. They are too focused on asking ‘How to put him down?’ When the right question should be, ‘Why can’t they put him down?’
“If there are any brains left in the opposition group, they better sit down and learn to think. It won’t cost them a dime. They need to go back to the drawing board and analyze why Duterte is successful in what he does. Why are the people so supportive of him despite all his imperfections?
“Duterte’s strategy is very simple: Serve the Filipino like a good father of the family. Put all the government resources to good use. Work with men and women of integrity and the heart to serve the country.
“The strategy of the Yellows and Reds in the past 35 years was the exact opposite: Serve the Filipino people with all hypocrisy. Steal and pocket government resources for personal and family use. Work with men and women who are greedy, thick-faced and ready to flee the country anytime.
“Right now, Carpio and the rest of the gang are merely prolonging their agony. It’s too late for them to get any winning chance next year. Duterte already earned the trust of the people and 2022 belongs to him.
“The best Carpio can do is watch and learn from the master. They need to wake up and accept the reality: Their old strategy is already exposed, and it will never work ever again. The lies of mainstream media no longer work. Social media made them obsolete.
“Until then, no amount of money, media circus and lies can change the mind of the Filipino people. We the People will elect men and women who will serve the country, not plunder it.
“For Justice Carpio, nice try sir. Next time you nominate someone, pick up the phone, talk with him or her and politely ask: Would you like to be red-tagged? Or yellow-tagged?
“That way those people can also politely reply: ‘Oh I’m sorry Mr. Justice, sir. I have no immediate plans to commit political suicide. Please don’t ever, ever, ever, ever…ever, include my name on that list! Thank you!’
“If Carpio succeeded in anything, he made Robredo and Trillanes very, very happy. They will get billions of campaign funds for themselves. Also, Antonio Carpio successfully made himself the first Supreme Court justice ever to become a real political clown,
“The whole country may be laughing, but most in the law profession are mourning. Greed has won against honor this time.”
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Republished from Manila Times 16-06-2021