Marcos Truth: Letters prove Marcos didn't sequester Meralco from Lopezes

Let the Marcos Truth prevail.

Letters prove Marcos didn't sequester Meralco from Lopezes
05/15/2008 | 12:07 AM
MANILA, Philippines - The late Eugenio Lopez Sr had written three letters to former President Ferdinand Marcos offering the sale of their shares in the Manila Electric Company during the Martial Law years.

The letters, which were included in the book "Let the Marcos Truth Prevail" that was published by the Marcoses, would belie claims the Marcos administration sequestered Meralco from the Lopez family.

In GMA's Saksi, Maki Pulido reported that in the first letter, dated February 1973, Lopez Sr informed the late dictator of their plans to sell their Meralco share to Meralco foundation, which was composed of Meralco's employees and customers.

An excerpt of the said letter read: "... would like to offer sale of our holdings to a cooperative composed of Meralco employees, customers and the general public that could be organized with the assistance of the government."

In the second letter, Lopez Sr reportedly proposed a financial scheme that will transfer to the Foundation the more than P100 million debt incurred by the Lopezes from banks.

Part of the second letter read: "It is proposed that the Foundation's note to the banks be predicated on amortization over a period of 8 years beginning with the third year following consumation of the sale..."

The third letter reportedly contained Lopez Sr's detailed account of the sale as well as his request for assistance from Marcos.

An excerpt of the letter read: "I hope Mr President, that you could spare some time from your more pressing duties of State to help us and to give this proposal your sympathetic consideration."

The sale of Meralco's share by the Lopezes pushed through in 1978 at the price of more than P800 million.

However, when Marcoses were driven out of Malacañang as a result of the People Power Revolution in 1986, the Lopezes were able to regain their shares without paying a single centavo.

Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, who was then Defense minister, expressed incredulity at this turn of events involving the country's largest power distributor.

"I thought it would've been better if they allowed the Sandiganbayan to decide the issue of whether this (Meralco) is ill-gotten weath or not," he said.

For his part, Sen. Joker Arroyo, who was executive secretary during the Aquino administration, admitted that Meralco was returned to the Lopezes without formal written documents because it was a sequestered asset.

But according to Sen. Benigno Aquino III, son of former President Corazon Aquino, it was the Supreme Court that ruled in 1991 to return to the Lopezes their Meralco shares that were not paid by Meralco Foundation.

He also urged Enrile to bring the issue to the courts if he has questions about it.

"He (Enrile) is a member of the government and if he feels that my mother did something wrong, then the courts are open," he said.

GMA's news team tried to get the Lopez family's comment but the family refused to issue one.

In an open letter to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, however, Oscar Lopez, chairman of First Holdings Corporation, claimed that Eugenio Lopez Sr was forced to sell their Meralco shares due to pressure from the Marcos family.

"Given the Martial Law situation and the fact that the son of Lopez Sr, Eugenio "Geny" Lopez Jr, was at the time rotting in jail, can there be any doubt that it is a transaction done under duress?" the letter said. - GMANews.TV

PCGG and PAGC probe incoming.

The PCGG should have been dissolved years ago. The Marcoses were found innocent in the United States and the assets should have either returned to the Marcoses or the Republic of the Philippines. Instead, we have the officials of PCGG milking the cow dry for their own corrupt purposes. On this aspect, i applaud you Madam President.

Probe of PCGG, PAGC heads ordered
By Edu Punay (The Philippine Star) Updated November 14, 2009 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines - President Arroyo has expressed alarm over reports of corruption and nepotism in the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) and the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) and directed concerned agencies to investigate the allegations.

Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera ordered yesterday an investigation into reports that PCGG Chairman Camilo Sabio had misused the agency’s $5-million travel funds for round-the-world travel with his wife.

“We will look into this. I haven’t seen the letter yet but what we can do is (have a) fact-finding investigation,” Devanadera told reporters.

The justice secretary was referring to a confidential letter from PCGG employees that reportedly accused Sabio not only of misusing the foreign litigation fund but also of nepotism and excessive hiring of consultants.

She said a fact-finding committee would be created to determine if there are ample grounds in the complaint against Sabio that would warrant a preliminary investigation, where it will be determined if the PCGG chief should be charged in court or not.The PCGG is under direct supervision of the DOJ.

In their letter, the PCGG employees also reportedly alleged that Jaime Bautista, PCGG commissioner for litigation, joined Sabio in his travels.

They accused Sabio of hiring some 35 consultants – mostly legal consultants – who were already of retirement age upon their appointment.

One of them was former elections commissioner Manuel Gorospe who had been involved in a controversy over kissing another Comelec commissioner, the employees added.

The PCGG employees said Sabio has appointed several relatives as consultants and aides in his office or in PCGG-controlled companies.

Among these are his sons-in-law Gerry Ledonio and Titong Feria, his son Jayvee and daughter May, the employees added.

Sabio and Bautista allegedly tapped the PCGG’s foreign litigation fund set up in 2004 by then chair Haydee Yorac to pay for the legal fees of foreign lawyers retained to represent the government in foreign ill-gotten wealth cases.

The PCGG employees said Sabio also gets huge allowances on each foreign trip.

On one trip alone, he had an allocation of $120,000 for himself, the employees added.

Serious allegations

Presidential economic spokesman Gary Olivar said such allegations should be taken seriously owing to the sensitive mandate of the two agencies, but stressed the accusers should file the proper complaints before the appropriate agencies along with working evidence.

“Obviously, charges like that should be taken seriously and the Palace would have to share everyone else’s concerns about whether or not these charges are true,” Olivar said.

He said he was sure the Department of Justice would “get to the bottom of these charges.”

“The PCGG is an important body. It is supposedly at the forefront of a particular type of anti-corruption effort. So this kind of behavior to be alleged is something that deserves investigation,” he said.

He noted that it was not the first time that such allegations have been hurled against Sabio and that would also be taken into consideration.

Olivar urged Sabio’s accusers to file a formal complaint as part of the legal process instead of “stabbing someone in the back or distributing white papers.”

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said in a telephone interview that the Palace would also look into the allegations of nepotism and corruption against PAGC chair Constancia de Guzman.

He said he is awaiting a formal report on the matter.

STAR columnist Jarius Bondoc in his second column on the matter reported that De Guzman has appointed her son and his fiancee to top posts in her agency.

The unnamed fiancee, he said, revised PAGC rules so that she can hire her sister to the agency.

Bondoc also said De Guzman’s children bring their pet dogs to the office and are attended to by the agency’s guards.

“The Constitution states: ‘Public officials and employees must at all times be accountable to the people, serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty and efficiency, act with patriotism and justice, and lead modest lives.’ Supposedly among the provision’s lead enforcers is the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission. But the elite Malacañang unit, in charge of keeping presidential appointees on the straight and narrow, can’t do its job. That’s because the boss and her minions treat it like it’s their private kingdom,” Bondoc wrote in his column that appeared yesterday.

Meanwhile, a PCGG source said Malacañang has already ordered the PCGG to explain the use of government sequestered United Coconut Planters Bank’s plush executive dining room at the head office in Makati last Friday for a conference to discuss initiatives to amend the Constitution.

Sabio was being questioned for allowing the conference, attended by several anti-Arroyo personalities like former ambassador Roy Señeres and Jose Luis Alcuaz, the source added.

The source said former House speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., vocal critic of Mrs. Arroyo, was invited as guest speaker.

The event was organized by Sabio and Danilo Coronacion, administrator of the Philippine Coconut Authority and president and chief executive officer of the CIIF Oil Mills Group, the source added. – With Paolo Romero

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=523192&publicationSubCategoryId=63

Manny Pacquiao! The real pound for pound king!

Congratulations Manny Pacquiao! The real pound for pound king! Manny Pacquiao beat Miguel Cotto in the 12th round via referee stoppage for the TKO win. Manny has broken a world record with 7 belts in 7 different weight classes after taking Miguel Cotto's WBO welterweight belt.

It was a grueling first two rounds with Miguel Cotto effective with his jabs. Manny then scored a knockdown in the 3rd with a right that Cotto didn't see coming. In the 4th, Cotto again hit the canvas but came back with a good performance in the 5th and 6th rounds. In the 7th however, Manny punished Cotto once again which caused the Puerto Rican to start retreating. He then took a serious beating from our countryman. After taking more vicious blows in the 12th, the referee Kenny Bayless intervened as he has seen enough.
Congratulations again Manny. It was great seeing him perform this well albeit his singing, acting, etc etc etc. (not to mention his political rendezvous with another Manny-- presidentiable Villar). Bring on Floyd Mayweather!

Aquino Truth: The yellows' dark age

An interesting article by Mr. Herman Tiu Laurel on the Daily Tribune

http://www.tribune.net.ph/commentary/20091009com6.html

I do believe that Cory should never have ceased the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant project. It caused the downward spiral of the country.

An excerpt:

"As we begin with this piece, we find ourselves in more dark days, reminiscent of the great Dark Age in the late 1980s and early 1990s, during the time of Cory Aquino and Fidel Ramos. Those were the days of week-long blackouts that ensued from Cory’s mothballing of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, plus the cancellation of the mini- and large-scale hydro-electric dams and other alternative energy programs of Marcos. Millions of Filipino households and enterprises suffered staggering losses while the oligarch cronies of the Yellows, earned billions in supplying emergency generators. FVR’s Yellow business cronies then packaged almost 50 Independent Power Producer (IPP) contracts worth hundreds of billions of pesos. And just like déjà vu, we are again being plunged into blackouts."

Let's hope history doesn't repeat itself.

Don’t Forget Smoking

One of the articles posted in the Inquirer Politics website on October 1, 2009 written by the Cebu Daily News is entitled Make Smoking an Election Issue. This article informs that a Department of Health official said that smoking should be one of the issues that should be tackled in the 2010 Election. This is because smoking has been a one of the prevalent causes of illness and death in the country. Dr. Paulyn Jean Ubial, health assistant secretary implied in her statements that health should be one of the priorities of our leaders. This assertion of the DOH is only one of the calling to the 2010 candidates that they should dwell on issues that affect on Filipinos rather than destroying each other’s reputation and spending too much money for their materialistic campaign. Aside from health, other issues that I know Filipinos would love to hear discussed by the candidates are poverty, debts of the country, imperialism, terrorism, peace and order, security, climate change, and sustainable development among others. It would be also better that these issues are specific to know how aware and educated the candidates are. Aside from the discussion of the candidates, voters should not be carried away by the rhetoric speeches of the politicians. Instead, they should focus on sound and reasonable statements that are seldom to a candidate.

Marcos Truth: Criminal Allegations to Marcoses, Mere Fictions (Archive)

*A repost from my Wordpress Blog, I thought it would be relevant especially with the current platform of Senator Noynoy Aquino*

Years had passed after the EDSA People Power Revolution in the Philippines and the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) was established, yet up to now, the government has not recovered mostly of the said ill-gotten wealth and has even freed Imelda of some of her criminal convictions.

Is it because there is really NOTHING to be recovered? Is it because those accusations are mere fictions, of no facts and truth? Is it because the false accusations were only effects of the an anti-publicity campaign against the Marcoses which were said to be led by the former President Corazon Aquino? Are the Filipinos given the false hope shaped by the media and former and even recent administrations?

In 1995, Peter Cosandey, one of the persons in charge in the said Swiss accounts of the Marcoses told the PCGG that it would take 150 years or even no assurance of recovering it. This is primarily because there is no sufficient evidence of the existence of that wealth. The statement of Cosandey seems to be right because until now, PCGG has not so much boasted that they have accomplished their mission. It is funny to say that four administrations have already succeeded Marcos yet PCGG has not accomplished its battle against graft and corruption. Maybe, they have also to expand their fight against graft and corruption to the administrations proceeding Marcos.

Meanwhile, Imelda Marcos, wife of Ferdinand Marcos has been freed of criminal convictions early this decade because also of lack of evidence.

These happenings among others should have long awakened the nation to stop the useless and false accusations to the Marcoses. Instead of dwelling to the long time fiction and imagination of the ill-gotten wealth, the country should spend its money to the real and tangible problems of the society nowadays.

Wednesday Rant: Mobile Emission's Testing

I recently got flagged along C5 by the MMDA for allegedly smoke belching. It's been just a few months since i got my van registered and i was appalled that my car was in question. I argued for a few minutes with the officer in charge to no avail. After debating that I was newly registered and tested he still demanded that my van get tested with their mobile emission's testing units. Ready to submit to the test, I glance upon a pickup in front of me who had also been caught and was midway into the testing. To my surprise, they were really revving the car's engine. With the sound the pickup was making they must have really had the pedal to the metal. Now, I'm no expert but there's no way any 2 year old diesel vehicle here in the Philippines will pass an emissions test conducted that way. Luckily, i remembered an acquaintance of mine who runs and emissions testing center and told me to watch out for these so called mobile testers. He instructed me to ask the officer about the calibration of the machines as these are supposed to be calibrated twice a year to ensure the fair testing. True enough when i brought this up to the officer, he admitted that it has not been calibrated since it was acquired 3 years ago. I told him i had a "friend" who will be very angry about that and in the end, he let me go.

Watch out for these mobile testers. It seems very sneaky and looks like another revenue scheme for the MMDA. It's not fair to motorists if you're doomed to fail.