GLOBAL BALITA

by Lito Banayo
from MALAYA 

            In the years when FVR was president, a prominent businessman whose name I shall not mention because he is old and ailing, was conned by a police character into buying prime real estate right smack along Roxas Boulevard.  He was given a torrens title (TCT) and seizing the opportunity to land a bargain, he paid.

            When his lawyers went to the Registry of Deeds, they learned that he bought land that belonged to a foundation.  In short, the title he had was fake.  Policeman could not be found any longer.  So, he peddled the property to a big Chinese businessman, whose shipping and airline empire based abroad was as big as big could ever be. The Chinese businessman wanted to put up a hotel, and nothing could beat a view of the Manila Bay for a luxury hotel.  His Philippine representatives paid the Filipino businessman for what seemed a bargain at the time.  But when the Chinaman’s lawyers went to have the torrens title transferred, they learned the awful truth — it was fake.

            Genuine taipan (bigger than Lucio Tan and Money Villarroyo combined) however developed a friendship with one who would become president of the Philippines.  And indeed, when Erap became president, the Chinaman expressed interest in investing heavily in the country, proposing, among others, a huge container seaport and an international airport in Sangley at the tip of Cavite.  But, could his friend Erap please help him recover his losses for buying a property with a fake title?  And Erap tried, but as far as I know, the Filipino businessman would not relent.  The Chinaman refused to have anything to do with the Philippines, other than as an occasional port of call for his ships and landing his jets at the NAIA every now and then for the paltry business they get from budget travellers to the US of A.

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            Now what happens when the people of these benighted islands elect a man who has: (1) converted prime irrigated ricelands into subdivisions without getting the approval of the Department of Agrarian Reform, and instead fix the local government units to get his permits (against the CARP law); (2)  use government monies either from his pork barrel allocations or his “insertions” to finance the building of roads that would connect the subdivisions he has since converted (abuse of power for personal gain); (3)  causes a planned major metropolitan thoroughfare to be re-aligned/relocated, so that the new road would traverse properties that belonged to his family corporations ( again, abuse of power for personal gain);  (4) allocate funds in the budget so that the Republic of the Philippines will buy his properties for road right-of-way for lands that will be utilized for the road that he had caused to be re-aligned (punishable under the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act; plunder if the amount involved is more than 50 million pesos); (5) wastes the money already paid by the Republic for land already purchased for road right-of-way because of the re-alignment of the road (abuse of power once again; betrayal of the public trust);  (6) causes the BIR, the DPWH and whatever other government agency to value his properties at three to four times higher than adjoining properties, and getting either paid for, or still await collectibles from the purse of the Republic (profiteering at the expense of the taxpayers of the Republic)?  There are more:

            What would you think of a man who presents himself to the people as the next “saviour” of the benighted, particularly the poor from where he claims to have sprung, who upon the other hand,  (7) purchases and/or produces through layers of corporate veneer, spurious titles to hectares upon hectares of land (estafa; falsification of public documents);  (8) pawns the same to his family-owned bank (against the General Banking Act, as amended, which prohibits self-dealing, also called DOSRI loans);  (9) which in turn borrows huge sums of money from the Republic, and specifically, the bank of all banks, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, using the same FAKE titles as collateral (I am running out of legal violations and certainly have lost track of wilful violations of the moral law);  and worse, (10) in the process, effectively grabs the land of poor and penniless farmers, mostly less-educated “katutubo”, whose forefathers through several generations have tilled the land, and who have been awarded by a just and responsible Republic original certificates of title to their land?  (Heartless!)

            How could you consider a man who wants to be president of this country, who (11) spends obscene amounts of money, billions upon billions, in advertisements peddling fake but embellished claims, the better to fool a gullible voting public (paano babawiin iyan?);  (12) and who openly declared that “If you don’t have one billion (to begin with), why run for president at all?” (yabang!);  (13) whose fabulous wealth can be traced to:  (13.1)  a housing empire financed by government through the NHMFC, supported by GSIS and SSS and whatever other infusions of monies of the Republic;  (13.2)  and who sponsors legislation to tap all kinds of revenue sources to re-capitalize and replenish the money of government housing agencies, so they can pay him for houses he sold, again financed by Pag-ibig;  (13.3) when his business acumen fails him, or perhaps his desire to get fabulously rich in such a fabulously short period of time catches up with his reckless and imprudent business adventurism, passes on the burden of rehabilitation to government, using his power and influence, as Congressman, as Speaker (all of nine years), then senator (all of eight years and counting, three of which were as Senate President, and prior to that, as Senate President Pro-Tempore and Chairman of the supra-powerful Committee on Finance), and profiting much, much more; and (13.4) when his “rehabilitation” is done and its strange manipulations hidden under the rug, goes to the Philippine Stock Exchange and cashes in through an IPO that, according to his chief apostle cum apologist, Alan Peter Cayetano, netted him and his Vista Land 23 billion pesos, more than enough to finance a campaign where he buys media through a limitless advertising budget (thanks in part to those dolts who run the Comelec), and buys “free” media even more, from reporters to desk men (and women), so that bad news could be “killed” and good news about him purveyed by his lying spokespersons can be “magnified”, so that he becomes like a “skin whitener” or a “beauty” product, peddled to the gullible and the shallow?

            Why can’t the poor understand the legal and moral implications of C-5?  Because paid “free” media makes certain it is the Villar soundbytes that get prominence in the news.  Because few even bother to explain what ought to be their duty as journalists, which is the truth … the truth.   Why aren’t the print and broadcast media, again save for a few, bothering to take up the plight of poor Dumagat farmers robbed of their land titles because of a deal hatched between the corporations of Manny and Cynthia Villar and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas using fake land titles?  Isn’t it our responsibility as the “powerful” Fourth Estate to expose anomalies, to check abuses of the other “estates”, to uphold the law, to help the poor and the under-privileged, most certainly the victims of abuse by powerful men and powerful institutions?

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            Now the Magdalo, whose cause I believe in, whose unjust suffering I commiserate with, officially support the candidacy of Manny Villar for president of this benighted land, because of his “competence, character and vision”.  And their spokesman, a fine former lieutenant of the Air Force, adds that behind this decision is a “man-to-man” talk between Villar and Trillanes.

            Now let me tell you this:  Sometime in early November 2009, I visited Senator Sonny Trillanes in his cramped detention cell.  This was not my first visit; there had been several in the past.  We were discussing the viability of the presidential run of young Chiz Escudero, given his paucity of financial resources, an affliction that also visited another common friend, Ping Lacson.  The conversation drifted to C-5 and the Senate investigation of the same.  I bewailed the lack of a coherent communication plan among the senators to inform the public, given that Manny Villar had practically “bought” many in media.

            I almost fell off my monobloc chair when Senator Trillanes told me (there were five of us in the room), that (and I quote from memory) “Ganyan naman daw ang kalakaran…nag-explain sa akin si Manny dito…ganyan din naman daw ang ginagawa ni Enrile sa Cagayan)”.

            I did not argue at the time, because the matter was extraneous to the reason why we were there in the first place, and because our time was limited.  If I had the chance of a one-on-one, I would have explained, argument after argument, and not in the presence of one who was related to Juan Ponce Enrile, and who may have felt slighted by the reference to her kin.

            But Senator Trillanes reads, and reads voraciously.  Senator Trillanes is a very intelligent man.  When everybody thought he was a quixotic choice for senator of the realm, I personally sponsored his inclusion in the Genuine Opposition ticket in 2007, and I was mightily pleased when he won against all odds.  Hence you could understand how crushed I was by his defense of Manny Villar — “Ganyan…ang kalakaran”.  And I thought we were fighting for what was right, against what was wrong; against what is evil, and for what is good.

            I invite all the Magdalo, Senator Antonio Trillanes most especially, to re-read the Senate Committee of the Whole report on the C-5 anomaly.  I invite them to read this week’s three articles I wrote, this included.  And I certainly would hope my friend Sonny Trillanes would react.

            Oh, and by the way, in the list of senatorial candidates Magdalo will support, Juan Ponce Enrile was not included.  Hindi siya kasama sa “kalakaran”?

*          *          *

            One day in July of 2008, an esteemed friend whose brains is definitively one of the best among all of our 92 million people, invited me to a meeting in the presence of another treasured friend.  He told me that he would support Manny Villar’s quest for the presidency, and invited me to be part of the campaign team.  I told him that I had a commitment to Ping Lacson, who at the time was yet in the pre-qualification race.  Then I added as well:  “Parang si Tata Monching (the late Speaker Ramon Mitra in whose failed 1992 campaign I was the spokesman) ang image — bland, trapo”.

            But he responded: “No, you should get to know him.  He is down-to-earth (Mitra was likewise), and authentically from the poor”.  He quipped, “Si Erap nga, never naging mahirap … you know that”.

            Once more, in polite hesitancy, I said: “Pero parang mahina, parang walang laman”.  And my esteemed friend, who will always, no matter what, be my friend regardless of political differences, “E bakit, si Erap ba…hindi ba pinagtulungan lang natin?”  (Sometimes I think this talent for spin-and-imaging is really against my moral scruples, but I try to be as honest as possible, consoling myself with the adage “truth well told”.  Still and all, I try to see the inner man, the redeeming value, and make a judgment call, as I did with Erap). 

            To cut a long story short, I politely declined my close friend.  Our other friend joined him, but in mid -2009, left the team, and admitted to me later that “it’s a question of character”.

            Manny Villar is without doubt cunning, skilful, intelligent. Even more cunning, skilful and intelligent than GMA.  His communications ability might be weak, but media, fuelled by a humongous throw-away war chest, compensates for that weakness.  His being a “visionary” as expressed by the Magdalo, is probably true.  He has invested in thousands of hectares of raw agricultural, even forest land, by bargaining well or cajoling the weak, or pressuring them to sell, or disenfranchising them through spurious titles and legal machinations.  If that in the book of Magdalo is “visionary”, I will give them up for lost.

            Now let me hear how Magdalo as a group and Sonny Trillanes as a person, will defend their choice of Money Villarroyo because of his “character”.

(banayo_at@yahoo.com)