Tightening the noose on Sen. Grace Poe's neck
The other day the Philippine Star came up with this headline, "Grace Still on Top; Mar surges to No. 2 - SWS. If you ask me… the spin masters are now busy propping up the ratings of former Department of Interior & Local Government Sec. Manuel Roxas whose ratings never went up. Again, we would like to ask the folks at Social Weather Station how were the questions of this survey prepared that it suddenly showed the ratings of Mar Roxas surging even if the latter did not do anything to prop up his image?
If we know how these spin masters operate, it would be foolhardy for them to put Mar Roxas on top, but this is how this game is played and we saw this way back in the presidential elections of 2010 when just a month before the elections, Jejomar Binay suddenly was even with Mar Roxas on the SWS/Pulse Asia survey. Two weeks before the elections, Binay was already leading Mar Roxas. Then the final hammer blow came when the spin masters used the Precinct Count Optical Scan to let Jejomar Binay beat Mar Roxas in the vice presidential race.
We have long uncovered this sinister plot to cheat the elections but the Filipino people took the bait, hook, line, and sinker. This is due to the fact that it was the first time we had an electronic vote counting machine and the Information Technology members of the Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) merely validated the election results and legitimized the Aquino presidency despite so many errors in the vote counting. I'll bet that a month before the elections, Mar Roxas would be the leading candidate for the 2016 presidential elections.
Meanwhile, the same spin masters who want Mar Roxas to replace Pres. Aquino may have rejoiced when Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, who is the chairman of the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET), announced that Sen. Poe is not a natural-born citizen, but a naturalized citizen, unless she proves that her biological parents are Filipinos.
I don't know what kind of stunt Justice Carpio is playing here. In my little knowledge of law, a naturalized citizen is one who applies for a citizenship to a country. In my book, when Grace Poe was a foundling, allegedly left on the front door of a church, we can only suspect that her parents were Filipinos because this is a practice done usually by poor mothers who can't feed their newborn babe. I have yet to come across a foundling whose parents were US or European citizens. Now that she has thrown her hat into this presidential race, the Yellow propagandists are now hell-bent on disqualifying Sen. Grace Poe so that we'd be left with only Mar Roxas and VP Binay.
* * *
Yesterday we wrote about how former Land Transportation Office chief Virginia Torres was rushed as head of the LTO by Pres. Benigno Aquino III because she was his "Kabarilan" from Tarlac, even if she was a low LTO functionary, not even a regional director. It makes you wonder how demoralizing her appointment was to the rank and file of the LTO, which has now resulted in delayed plastic licenses and poorly made plate numbers.
Well, I didn't know that last Sunday, she was headlined in the Philippine Daily Inquirer literally name dropping the president's name in the Bureau of Customs Intelligence Group trying to negotiate the release of 64 containers of smuggled sugar. As the PDI story goes, these shipping containers were misdeclared as general merchandise. Worse, she dropped the president's name and even suggested that the smuggled items be sold and the proceeds be used in the up and coming presidential elections.
While Virginia Torres is no longer Assistant Secretary of the Department of Transportation & Communications, which is the highest post she got from PNoy, this incident only gives us an idea of the people surrounding PNoy. Remember the old Mexican proverb, which goes, "Tell me who your friends are and I'll tell you who you are!" And yet you still meet people who say that Pres. Aquino is honest? Just look at the people he goes with or shoots with.
If I recall, when Virginia Torres was head of the LTO someone took a photo of her playing a slot machine, a clear violation of government rules and ethical standards. Yet she wasn't charged of anything because this is life under Daang Matuwid, where the rule is to protect the allies of the president and condemn those who are not his friends.
If you ask me, this is the litmus test of Daang Matuwid if the Department of Justice would throw the book at a person so close to the president as they are not only kababayans from Tarlac, they are also kabarilans and therefore kabarkadas. But then, we have become numb to the misdoings of the DoJ.
* * *
For email responses to this article, write to [email protected] or [email protected]. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.
- Latest
