Pala-isip

Vice President Jejomar Binay built a parking building for the city of Makati when he was the mayor. The building is now under investigation for being overpriced after being found to have cost P2.7B to build an 11 storey parking building. Senators Trillanes IV and Koko Pimentel III conducted and ocular inspection of the building on Monday, Sept 1, 2014. Obviously, the building is way overpriced. We can all understand if it is over budget, since most constructions do become over budget especially if it is done by the government. However, being over P1B over-budget (according to some estimates) is just outright robbery. When grilled during a Senate hearing committe, Mayor Junjun Binay said the reason for the price is because the Makati City Hall 2 is a world-class . Here are some of the reactions from the online community about the building From  DARTH BINAY's Page After the fierce reaction of the online community, Senator Nancy Binay argues what "world-class"...

Senator Bong Revilla's privilege speech where he basically thanked his supporters and friends by making a music video. If you don't feel like watching the whole video, here's the part with the music video.

This has been posted by several friends and one said he was actually caught by this guy. Beware and remember this Face! He is a MTPB positioned near Binondo Church. He will flag you down and suddenly said that you have beaten the red light. And at the same time mention in front of you the amount you will be paying for your violation, which he already summarized. Plus saying you will be needing to have seminars. Hoping you will beg him to spare you. For things you didn't commit in the first place. Let's cooperate please share... So as to get rid of this kind of extortionist working as traffic aide here in Metro-Manila. I didnt sign the ticket he gave me. I plan to complain in City hall. To give this person a lesson... please share!!!

In other news... Bong Revilla to file plunder countercharge vs Luy, other whistleblowers in 'pork' scam

Senators Teofisto Guingona II and Alan Peter Cayetano on Thursday admit availing themselves of an additional P50 million fund allocation last year but clarified it was not in exchange for their guilty vote on then Chief Justice Renato Corona. Video by INQUIRER.net's Cathy Miranda

Sen. Jinggoy Estrada's Privilege Speech on The PDAF Pork Barrel Scam in the Senate. Speech starts at the 15:00 mark. Video courtesy of GMA TV.

I saw this headline from the Philippine Daily Inquirer posted online. It was the headline back in August 13, 1996. Nothing has changed. http://instagram.com/p/emCk_QNGYz/

Here are the list of 38 individuals charged over the PDAF complaints. 1. Senator Juan Ponce Enrile 2. Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. 3. Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Ejercito Estrada 4. Ex-Representative (Now Masbate governor) Rizalina Seachon-Lanete 5. Ex-Representative Edgar Valdez (Apec party-list) 6. Ex-Representative Rodolfo Plaza (Lone District Agusan Del Sur) 7. Ex-Representative Samuel Dangwa (Lone district, Benguet) 8. Ex-Representative Constantino Jaraula (Lone District, Cagayan de Oro) 9. Atty Jessica Reyes - Chief of Staff, Enrile 10. Atty. Richard Cambe - Staff, Revilla 11. Ruby Tuason - Representative, Enrile/Estrada 12. Pauline Labayen - Staff, Estrada 13. Jose Sumalpong - COS, Lanete 14. Jeanette dela Cruz - District Staff, Lanete 15. Erwin Dangwa - COS, Dangwa 16. Carlos Lozada - Staff, Dangwa 17. Alan Javellana - former President National Agribusiness Corp. (Nabcor) 18. Gondelina Amata - President, National Livelihood Development Corporation (NLDC) 19. ...

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago talks about the silence of the Senators and Congressmen on the Pork Barrel Scam.

From Global Balita The Napoles Story: So the entire Philippines will know August 21, 2013 | Opinion By Alfredo Masigan Janet Lim Napoles and husband Jaime Napoles Janet Lim Napoles has strong ties before with the late Emilia Boncodin, DBM Secretary. Emilia is the one that keep Janet in the loop whenever a budget or SARO is approved and to which senator or congressman. Gringo Honasan is a dear friend of Janet’s husband, Jimmy Napoles. I was surprised when I read somewhere online when Honasan was interviewed and he said that he doesn’t know the Napoles family. During the coup in Cory’s time, Jimmy Napoles was driving a tank on the way to Camp Crame when his tank was hit by a mortar. Jimmy was operating the .50 caliber machine gun and the soldier driving the tank died during the blast. Jimmy survived and was jailed along with Honasan. If you can get clear photos of Jimmy Napoles online, you will see that part of his face and his arms show burn marks. Their wealth started t...

Photo of Janet Napoles as she surrendered at Malacanang Palace the day after President Noynoy Aquino put a P10 million bounty on her. Photo courtesy of ANC 24/7

From Normando Gonzales' Facebook Page Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago: Don’t call it PDAF. Call it PNF. The “Pwedeng Nakawin Fund.” “If I die, it will not be because of my blood pressure but because of my enemies. Biro mo sa diyaryo, 5 senator ang kasangkot, persons of interest, sa isang P10 billion scam. Billion, hindi million, B as in baboy talaga,” Saying her colleagues were fooling the people, Santiago called on all 5 to take a leave of absence “not as an admission of guilt but as a courtesy to the Filipino public so the process can proceed unhampered.” “Senators are extremely powerful, both with their money and with their influence and contacts in government so we cannot have them investigated by the DOJ because a Cabinet member Leila de Lima, has not even been confirmed by the Commission on Appointments. On that issue, she will be vulnerable,” Santiago told reporters. Santiago called on the 5 senators to speak the truth, saying many Filipinos have a hard time makin...

Got this from an e-mail. Miriam Defensor Santiago was featured in Correspondents. Maganda rin naman ang naidudulot ng pagiging prangka ni Senador Miriam Defensor-Santiago. Ayon kay Santiago, marami ang tumatak-bong Senador dahil sa laki ng budget na ibinibigay sa kanila kada buwan. Lumalabas na P35,000 suweldo nila kada buwan ay pakitang-tao lang sa milyun-milyong budget ng bawat senador. Kada buwan ay may Fixed Monthly Budget ang bawat Senador ng humigit-kumulang P2 Milyon. Sa opisina pa lang nila ay humigit-kumulang P500,000 ang budget nila sa Maintenance and Operating Expenses (Rental, Utilities, Supplies at Domestic Travels) at P500,000para sa Staff at Personal expenses. Kaya para makatipid ang ibang Senador, kaunti lang ang staff na kinukuha nila. Nagtataka ka pa kung bakit mayroong mga Ghost Employee? Bukod diyan, may P760,000 allowance pa sila kada buwan para naman sa Foreign Travel. At ang masakit pa nito, hindi na kailngan i-liquidate ang mga resibo ng mga gas...

Hollywood actor Taylor Kitsch, best known for playing a football player in the NBC series "Friday Night Lights," revealed how he was stopped by a customs officer at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

Paulino Elevado is a Porsche-riding clerk from the Bureau of Customs is in hot water after he was involved in a traffic altercation with a student at the South Luzon Expressway last January 21. A CCTV camera caught the clerk's speeding Porsche chasing after the student's Innova, which had sideswiped it. The clerk allegedly beat up the student and fired shots at the Innova after the incident. Video at ABS-CBN News .

This is a great article by Conrado De Quiros in the Philippine Daily Inquirer about our culture of corruption. I READ an interesting story last weekend. In Japan, a 19-year-old was arrested in a case that has become a media sensation, producing all sorts of editorials on the subject. If convicted, he faces up to three years in prison and a fine of $6,000. His crime? Cheating in college entrance exams. The kid was caught using his cell phone to access the Internet to get answers to questions mainly involving Math problems and translating passages from Japanese to English. Someone saw the site postings, noted that the dates coincided with the exam days, and notified the university, triggering an investigation. The kid readily confessed to the wrongdoing. An investigation is underway to see if this was merely an isolated incident or had been done by others. “It’s not a mere cheating case,” Mainichi said in an editorial. “The impact of the wrongful use of the Internet, capable of massivel...

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer. MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE 4) Former Armed Forces Chief and Defense Secretary Angelo Tomas Reyes on Tuesday morning committed suicide by shooting himself in front of the grave of his mother at the Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina City. He was 65. A close friend of Reyes called the Philippine Daily Inquirer to break the news, while Colonel Boogie De Leon, a former administrative officer of Reyes when he was AFP chief, said Reyes was rushed to the Quirino Hospital at about 7:45 a.m. to revive him. Members of his family could not be reached for comment. De Leon said that Reyes’s son Jett called him up to inform him of the incident. Reyes, who earlier suffered a mild stroke before the congressional investigations on the alleged AFP financial irregularities, said he could not take anymore the smear campaign against his name and his family. “Not my family,” he said. Reyes, who loved his mother very much when she was still alive, earlier told the Philippin...

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer. MANILA, Philippines—A retired lieutenant colonel on Thursday made a surprise appearance at the Senate and disclosed how he and his ex-bosses allegedly amassed wealth, with a large portion of the loot taken from soldiers’ salaries. Seated on a wheelchair following a stroke, George Rabusa dropped a bombshell: that Angelo Reyes, a former Armed Forces chief of staff, received a send-off gift (“pabaon”) of “not less than” P50 million when he retired in 2001. Rabusa said he personally delivered the cash to the “White House,” Reyes’ then quarters at Camp Aguinaldo, that year. He said he was accompanied by the then military comptroller, Lt. Gen. Jacinto Ligot. “We had to convert [the money] to dollars because it was very bulky,” Rabusa said during the Senate blue ribbon committee’s initial hearing on the plea bargain between government prosecutors and ex-military comptroller Carlos Garcia. On top of the purported “pabaon,” Reyes, who later became defense sec...

Got this from an e-mail. If only... ======================== To all Filipinos Everywhere: I used to think that corruption and criminality in the Philippines were caused by poverty. But recent events tell me this isn't true. It is one thing to see people turn into drug addicts, prostitutes, thieves and murderers because of hunger and poverty, but what excuse do these rich, educated people have that could possibly explain their bizarre behavior? And to think I was always so relieved when petty snatchers got caught and locked away in jail because I never fully realized that the big time thieves were out there, making the laws and running our country. Every night, I come home & see these "honorable" crooks lambast each other on TV , call each one names, look each other in the eye and accuse the other of committing the very same crimes that they themselves are guilty of, is so comical and apalling that I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I have never see...

Someone forwarded this to me. I don't know how true it is, but knowing LTO, it probably is. ================ Noong 2007, ang kontrata ng STRADCOM sa computerization ng LTO ay nagtapos na. Subalit dahil nakasaad sa kontrata na "HAWAK NILA SA LEEG" ang LTO, dahil sa pagtatapos ng kanilang kontrata ay dadalhin nila ang mga computer hardware at software, at ang ititira ay ang DATA lamang, nanatili ang STRADCOM sa LTO. Patuloy sa paninigil ng COMPUTER FEE kahit na ang DATA ng bawat sasakyan ay naka-encode na at wala ng dapat pang i-build up o i-data entry. Patuloy ang pagkulekta ng STRADCOM ng bayad, dahil walang kumukwestiyon, sa ilalim ng ilong ng mga motorista. Sa kabila nito, ang pamunuan ng DOTC at ng LTO ay humingi ng mas malaking "PARTE", ibig sabihin, patong, lagay, kickback, etc, dahil nga naman, tubong lugaw na ang STRADCOM dahil dapat tanggal na nga sila. Syempre pa, medyo nagpakipot ang pamunuan ng STRADCOM at nagmungkahi na magdagdag na lang ng mga s...