'Unsolicited advice'

For all it’s worth, there was validity in the concerns raised by former President Fidel V. Ramos on the many investigations going on all over the place on suspected shenanigans by the past administration. The former President has rightfully noted the negative impact of such politics-instigated investigations as they give the wrong signals abroad on the stability and continuity of government policies, especially in every change of administration.

While not giving any specifics, Ramos obviously referred to the various ongoing investigations into reported government anomalies and alleged irregularities committed during the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

There are currently investigations taking place all at the same time against ex-President Arroyo who is now congresswoman of Pampanga. She and other members of her family led by her husband, former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, and their sons Mikey and Dato are also being investigated on plunder and tax evasion cases. Many Arroyo administration officials are also facing graft, tax evasion and plunder cases in various courts.

Ramos echoed his frustrations over the seeming preoccupation now of administration people of digging up dirt and other suspected anomalies of the past government.

It was not all in defense of Mrs. Arroyo who in the past had been supported by Ramos. After all, the two were the erstwhile leaders of the previous ruling party Lakas-CMD-Kampi. As elder statesman, Ramos has taken upon himself to give his usual “unsolicited advice” to whoever is in power.

Ramos has been giving “unsolicited advice” since he stepped down from the presidency in June 1998. His immediate successor, former President Joseph Estrada, and subsequently Mrs. Arroyo had their respective share of such “unsolicited advice” from Ramos. So, it would be uncharacteristic of Ramos if he should now stop giving “unsolicited advice” even to President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.

Ramos played a key role in the both the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution and the so-called EDSA-2 in January 2001 that ousted Estrada and installed then Vice President Arroyo at Malacañang Palace. EDSA-1 swept President Aquino’s mother, the late Corazon Aquino, into the presidency. 

So it was no fluke when Mrs. Aquino decided to make Ramos her “anointed” candidate, making him win the May 1992 presidential elections. When she chose Ramos as her presidential candidate, Mrs. Aquino cited the need for “continuity” of her administration’s programs and projects.

Unfortunately for Ramos, when it was his turn to anoint his own successor, former Speaker Jose de Venecia lost miserably to Estrada. Thus, after his own term ended, Ramos, too, had to parry accusations of irregularities in his administration’s Centennial Expo project, the PEA-Amari deal, and the Smokey Mountain land reclamation project that were investigated when Estrada took over the government.

Now 83 years old, Ramos continues what he loves doing best - traveling abroad. Performing a self-appointed role as the country’s “No. 1 salesman,” Ramos promotes the Philippines to foreign investment communities around the world. In fact, he is leaving today for China again. He is flying to Nanning in Guangxi Province where he will deliver the keynote address and participate in the 6th Pan-Beibu Gulf Economic Cooperation Forum. Ramos does these travels “at no expense to the government” as he is invited to join these gatherings and speaking engagements abroad as chairman of his own RPDEV and as member of the governing and advisory boards of various international fora.

Understandably, it has been frustrating for Ramos to see his personal efforts to help bring investors to the country are being marginalized by politics-instigated investigations in Congress and elsewhere.

The former president did not specify which investigations are tarnishing the country’s image. He also declined to comment on ongoing congressional investigations.

But it’s not hard to find examples of such never-ending politics-instigated investigations of the present dispensation and its allies in Congress. The investigation of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee into the alleged anomalous purchase of “second-hand” helicopters by the Philippine National Police (PNP) will resume next week with a new chapter into the alleged involvement of Mike Arroyo in this questioned government deal.

This developed after the younger brother of the First Gentleman, Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo Jr., issued a statement last Monday to clarify that it was him, as head of their family-owned LTA Inc., who entered in 2004 into this questioned lease agreement. Iggy claimed that LTA Inc. only leased, not bought, five Robinson helicopters from Lionair Inc. owned by businessman Archibald Po.

This was not the first time Rep. Arroyo took the cudgels for his brother. When Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson tried but failed to pin down in 2003 the President’s husband on alleged money laundering in a secret bank account under the name “Jose Pidal,” Iggy, then a private businessman, testified under oath and admitted that it was his account. In the new controversy, Lacson accused the First Gentleman of being behind the sale to the PNP of these helicopters that he bought from Po and used in the May 2004 presidential campaign of his wife and later passed them off as brand new.

But in last week’s Senate hearing, Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada and Senate Majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III caught Po lying through his teeth in his affidavit applying for the Senate immunity. Po made the costly mistake of claiming that the late actor Fernando Poe Jr. (FPJ) already leased all helicopters for his presidential campaign in the May 2004 elections. Sotto and Estrada who were actively involved in FPJ’s presidential campaign naturally belied Po’s claims, knowing they could not afford to do so.

Po was caught in his own web of lies in trying to pin down the First Gentleman for his own wheeling and dealing with the PNP. Blinded by political vendettas, pro-administration senators played deaf to the screaming lies of Po and let these pass just like that.

 With such conduct of investigations, it should be worth listening to Ramos even if his advice is unsolicited.