Pala-isip

Janet Napoles finally testifies at the Senate Inquiry and the Senators got...nothing.

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

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. ...

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...

From Inquirer.net Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile played Santa Claus last Christmas, making a list and checking it twice as he gave gifts to Senate members and personnel apparently on the basis of who were “naughty” or “nice.” Enrile gave 22 senators a total of almost P30 million, a gift that one senator said was “unconscionable and unconstitutional.” The cash gift allegedly came from the funds allotted for the Senate post vacated by President Aquino when he won the presidential election in 2010. The Philippine Daily Inquirer on Tuesday tried to set an interview with Enrile in connection with the cash gift but he was not immediately available. A member of his staff said Enrile was on his way out of town and could no longer be reached for comment. The various senators the Inquirer talked to agreed that the P1.6 million bonanza for each of the 18 senators was the biggest yet. Enrile has been Senate President since November 2008. The senators could not remember the amounts ...

Tito Sotto does it again!

After 14 years, the RH Bill has finally passed the second reading. Here are the top 10 reason for those congressmen who voted "no" to the bill. Credit goes to John Dy . Here's a note on the photo above. The ranking is subjective of course. So feel free to rank them yourselves. Let's see who will emerge number 1. :D CLARIFICATION: #9-10 is not a direct quote. My mistake for putting the quotation marks. The "and you know the rest" is added by me because he recited the entire prayer and I couldn't put the whole thing in the space. Here's another photo by John Dy on the Senators who are opposed to the RH Bill.

From GMA News . Senate Majority Floor Leader Vicente Sotto III on Tuesday apologized for upsetting the Kennedy family but maintained that he did not plagiarize parts of his speeches. In a privilege speech on Tuesday, Sotto answered the allegations made against him by 37 individuals who filed an ethics complaint against him earlier in the day for alleged plagiarism. He reiterated that he never claimed parts of his speech as his own and that he always said he got them from other sources. "Wala po akong inangkin so papaano po ako mag-a-apologize ng plagiarism eh wala po akong plinagiarize... sinabi ko ngang hindi akin... para hong pinagpiplead guilty ako sa murder eh ang dapat charge physical injuries," he said. Sotto said his accusers are still basing their allegation on the draft copy of his speech where his blanket attribution was not yet included. "Maliwanag po doon sa tatlong turno en contra speeches ko [na] ilang ulit ko pong sinabi and the journal will be...

Comedian Tito Sotto's Privilege Speech on September 5, 2012 was again a copy of someone else's work. This time, he copied from Robert F. Kennedy’s speech during Day of Affirmation on June 6 1966. However, he did translate it into Filipino hoping maybe that people won't catch it. But sharp eyed bloggers still found out where he copied the speech from. Here's the speech compared with Robert F. Kennedy's speech. Courtesy of When in Manila's Facebook Page Courtesy of Pro RH Bill Courtesy of  Pro RH Bill And of course, a new addition to our vocabulary. Courtesy of Abigail Pastera Abela

CJ Corona, after delivering his opening statement, walks out of the impeachment trial even before he was discharged. He said he will sign his waiver to disclose all his Peso and foreign currency account from all banks on the condition that all 188 complainants in the prosecution to disclose their SALN as well including Senator Franklin Drillon. If they will not sign, he will not sign his waiver. It's getting interesting this circus show isn't it?

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...

The continuing comedy of the Philippine Senate and the Corona Impeachment trial. Atty. Vitaliano Aguirre - How could you respect a person when that person herself does not show respect? Sen. Miriam Santiago said the prosecutors were "anyayabang, anggagago naman (conceited, stupid)" for saying that they already have a strong case against Corona. "When I heard the news yesterday, I felt like creeping back to bed and adopting a fetal position, which is the normal reaction of any sane person when he's faced with a world that is crumbling around him. I no longer know what universe I'm in because I've spent 5 years of my miserable adult life in trial court day after day after day hearing civil, criminal cases and special proceedings but I've never seen this done to a judge before," she said. ============================ The impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona was momentarily suspended on Wednesday afternoon after Senator Miriam Defens...

Miriam Defensor Santiago scolding the prosecution team during the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Corona.

From the Inquirer . The first day of Chief Justice Renato Corona’s trial was filled with ironies but bereft of the highly charged political drama that engulfed the nation 12 years ago, when then President Joseph Estrada went on trial for almost the same impeachable offenses. Unlike the opening of the Estrada trial on Dec. 7, 2001, the hearing on Monday cannot be characterized as a political circus. While both the prosecution and defense panels had traded barbs through the media in the weeks leading up to the Corona trial, there were no such fireworks on the Senate floor when the contending parties delivered their opening statements. Unexpectedly, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile stole the thunder from former Supreme Court Associate Justice Serafin Cuevas, head of the defense panel, and Iloilo Representative Niel Tupas Jr., the chief prosecutor of the House of Representatives. Enrile, a veteran lawyer and defense minister in the Marcos dictatorship, took full control of the ...

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer. ================== MANILA, Philippines—Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas’ remark that it was a pity some men turn vulgar when they grow old may have worked. On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr. asked for forgiveness for using “intemperate language” during heated Senate debates on Monday on a resolution seeking to censure Sen. Manuel Villar over alleged “double insertions” in the controversial C-5 road budget. Pimentel had said Roxas would have his own “insertions” now that he was married. “To those who I might have hurt in this chamber by the use of intemperate language or unseemly expressions, I apologize and beg their forgiveness from You through You, O Lord,” Pimentel said as he led the chamber in its opening prayer. To keep cool He said that “in the heat, some of us tend to use words that are coarse and vulgar.” “Forgive us, then, O Lord, our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us …” Piment...