One interesting information that shows the ties that bind Tiu and the Binays: Tiu is also the CEO, president and chairman of AgriNurture Inc. (ANI), formerly known as Mabuhay 2000 Enterprises Inc., which was identified by Commission on Audit (COA) Commissioner Heidi Mendoza as the supplier of the overpriced hospital beds for the Ospital ng Makati (OsMak) back in 2001 and 2002 when Mrs. Binay was mayor.
via Binay can kiss his 2016 presidential bid goodbye | The Inbox – Yahoo News Philippines.
Revilla P87M deposits found | Inquirer News
BOO YAH!!!
MANILA, Philippines–Justice is catching up with accused plunderer Sen. Bong Revilla, with a forensic investigation into his and his family’s bank transactions from 2006 to 2010 indicating that he received kickbacks from the pork barrel funds he channeled to bogus foundations controlled by Janet Lim-Napoles as exposed by whistle-blower Benhur Luy.
The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) report on Revilla’s bank transactions involving his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) also showed discrepancies in his official cash declarations that could indicate “concealment of unexplained wealth”; P87.626-million deposits made in the personal accounts of Revilla, his wife, Cavite Rep. Lani Mercado, and his children, and some of his siblings that tended to confirm his receipt of the kickbacks; and more than P40 million in suspicious funds were poured into a dummy corporation, Nature Concepts Development and Realty Corp., controlled by his wife.
The AMLC said the deposits and withdrawals from the bank accounts of the five foundations corresponded with the names, amounts and dates in the entries made by Luy, Napoles’ finance officer, in his ledger of Napoles’ cash and check disbursements, one of the evidence in the P10-billion pork barrel scam case.
“Considering all the foregoing, there are indications of money laundering scheme using the aforementioned bank accounts. There is, however, a need to conduct further investigation to determine the extent of the subjects’ participation and identify the other monetary instruments that were possibly involved in the laundering scheme,” the AMLC said in a confidential report received by the Office of the Ombudsman on Oct. 8.
via Revilla P87M deposits found | Inquirer News.
The Marcoses never really left home | Inquirer Opinion
I’d share the whole article if that wasn’t considered unethical blogging.
Just read the whole damn thing.
Convicted but never jailed
This transaction involved leasing out two train station terminals at below market rates to a private foundation that she herself put up and headed. Philippine General Hospital Foundation was supposed to raise funds for the state-owned Philippine General Hospital but its hospital director told me then in an interview that PGH never got a cent from PGH Foundation. Mrs. Marcos signed the contract with LRTA on behalf of the foundation even though she was also the LRTA chair.
In 1996, the Supreme Court found Mrs. Marcos “guilty beyond reasonable doubt,” sentenced her to 12 years in jail and fined her the equivalent of the anomalous contract. Dans was acquitted because the Court found “no conspiracy” between him and Mrs. Marcos.
Around the same time that the government of Fidel Ramos—the dictator’s second cousin—was prosecuting Mrs. Marcos in court, it was secretly negotiating a deal that only came to light in 1996 when former Solicitor General Frank Chavez asked the Supreme Court to stop it. The deal would have allowed the Marcoses to walk off with 25 percent of all their ill-gotten wealth—here and abroad. Tax-free. In addition, all pending criminal and civil cases against them would be dropped.
But that wasn’t all. Chavez presented a letter dated Jan. 24, 1995, from Mrs. Marcos’ lawyer to Presidential Commission on Good Government chair Magtanggol Gunigundo saying “it is further understood that $50 million will be taken from the top as approved by President Ramos and your
(Gunigundo’s) good self.”
“Where will the $50 million taken from the top go?” Chavez demanded to know as he asked to court to permanently bar all compromise deals with the Marcoses.
via The Marcoses never really left home | Inquirer Opinion.
The Marcoses never really left home | Inquirer Opinion
#NeverAgain
These marcos zombies need to be identified and shamed.
Political roots intact
The 1986 People Power Revolution did chop down the Marcos political tree. But its intricate roots that spread far and wide across the state bureaucracy and Philippine society remained intact. All the Marcoses had to do was nurture the roots and wait for the tree to grow back.
In 1998, by Imee Marcos’ own reckoning, “we waited 12 years to be on the right side of the fence.” Right side meant a political alliance with then victorious President-elect Joseph Estrada, velvet seats in Congress for Imee and her mother, and a governorship for Bongbong.
An ecstatic Imee spilled the family’s secret to success: “Many professionals were appointed by my father. So you have this immense bedrock of Marcos appointees who keep moving up.”
Like secret stay-behind units, this vast army of professionals scattered in all sectors of society have defended the Marcoses and helped erase the dark legacy of their regime.
via The Marcoses never really left home | Inquirer Opinion.
Miriam wants 24-hr security for Heidi Mendoza | ABS-CBN News
Big fan of both of these women. Upright people should not stand alone, We cannot let Comm Mendoza feel she is fighting alone.
Miriam wants 24-hr security for Heidi Mendoza
ABS-CBNnews.com
Posted at 10/03/2014 5:06 PM | Updated as of 10/03/2014 5:06 PM
MANILA – Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago is asking for 24-hour police protection to Commission on Audit Commissioner (COA) Heidi Mendoza after she revealed receiving threats and harassment for testifying in the Senate investigation on the alleged overprice of the Makati City Hall building 2 and other anomalies.
In a statement, Santiago said she sent a letter to Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas to provide security for Mendoza.
She is also set to file a resolution that calls for heightened and fully-armed, 24-hour VIP police protection in favor of Mendoza, after she testified in the subcommittee hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee last October 2.
“If we let this pass, no other significant witness will be willing to testify in any congressional hearing because of fear. Let’s put our boots on the ground and stomp out fear sown by hooligans,” Santiago said.
via Miriam wants 24-hr security for Heidi Mendoza | ABS-CBN News.
Pointless initiative | Inquirer Opinion
Why media people should stop interviewing Neri Colmenares.
It pains me to write this because I have great respect for many figures who stood up to lead the antipork movements, but I have severe reservations regarding others. As I fear that the proposed law was not well thought out, I instantly face-palmed when I saw Rep. Neri Colmenares quoted in many reports. He had previously consistently come unprepared and made vague claims before the high court. He was quoted saying, “I am not very familiar with the Internet” in the cybercrime case and, “I am not very familiar with Epira (Electric Power Industry Reform Act)” when he sued the Manila Electric Co. Similarly, it is difficult not to have reservations about the CBCP, given how they seem to be more of a political actor than a moral compass these days. So what are the real agenda?
via Pointless initiative | Inquirer Opinion.
rePost:Wasting Your Life: One Peso at a Time, One Minute at a Time | Filipino Freethinkers
I moved to makati because I felt this way. I was wasting my life by commuting. I haven’t regretted my decision save for a weakening of some bonds due to my lack of initiative to now go to places far from my boarding house.
In the paper entitled, “Stress That Doesn’t Pay: The Commuting Paradox,” economists Bruno S. Frey and Alois Stutzer found that for an extra hour of commuting, a worker has to be compensated with a 40% increase in salary, just to make it worthwhile.
In other words, don’t work for a far location if the salary difference is minimal. If you’re working at an office 15 minutes away for P14,000, the same work SHOULD pay you P19,600 if it’s 1 hour and 15 minutes away. If it’s 2 hours away, the same work SHOULD pay you P27,440. Anything less and you’re incurring a loss.
The time we spend commuting takes a major toll on our lives. We experience neck and back pain,spend less time with friends and family, experience loneliness, spend more, get fat, exercise less, sleep less, worry more, and get stressed.
80% of Filipinos are commuters. 80% of Filipinos will have their happiness and their health compromised. Every minute we spend in the MRT line or on a bus along EDSA is a minute of work that we did for free. It is a minute with a loved one that was taken from us. It is a minute we could have invested in our own physical or intellectual development. It is a minute we could have spent preparing a healthy meal. It is a minute we could have spent with our children. It is a minute of our lives that was wasted.
Apparently, it’s not just our money, our taxes, that corrupt and inefficient government officials can squander. They’re wasting our lives: one minute at a time, one peso at a time.
via Wasting Your Life: One Peso at a Time, One Minute at a Time | Filipino Freethinkers.
rePost:Bam wants foreign ships to have access to local ports
During one of the committee hearings, it was disclosed that it is cheaper to send products from other countries to the Philippines than to ship goods within the country.
For example, the cost of shipping a 20-foot equivalent unit (TEU) from Kaoshiung, China to Cagayan de Oro is $360 or P16,000 only.
However, the cost of shipping the same cargo from Manila to Cagayan de Oro will cost $1,120 or almost P50,000.
via Bam wants foreign ships to have access to local ports.
How Much is 2.2 Billion?:::Will Senator Nancy Binay call on her dad to do the same? | Opinion | GMA News Online
How much is P2.2 billion?
In real numbers, just how much is P2.2 billion?
· It is equivalent to providing PhilHealth benefits to 916,000 indigent families all over the country.
· It is equivalent to providing full college scholarships to 5,500 financially underprivileged but deserving Filipino youth.
· It is equivalent to providing low-cost housing to 14,000 indigent families all over the country.
As you can see, this staggering amount is enough to change the lives of so many Filipinos thus, the least we can expect from our government leaders from the President down to our barangay leaders is to use our hard-earned taxpayers’ money in a most effective and ethical way.
via Will Senator Nancy Binay call on her dad to do the same? | Opinion | GMA News Online.
Japanese companies turn Filipino workers into overseas leaders- Nikkei Asian Review
I’m so happy reading stuff like these that I have to link to in twice.
THI sends Filipino hires to Tsuneishi Shipbuilding, a core company of Tsuneishi group, in Fukuyama, for training in Japanese craftsmanship. Kawano said the company’s goal is to dispatch engineers from Cebu as instructors in Tsuneishi factories around the world.
Fifty THI employees have already been sent to Paraguay to work as technology instructors at a Tsuneishi Holdings dock that began building river boats in 2011. Tsuneishi also plans to build a new shipyard in Southeast Asia and dispatch THI technology instructors there too.
Learning to lead
via Japanese companies turn Filipino workers into overseas leaders- Nikkei Asian Review.