|
“ |
Go to EDSA. Rally going on…”
Or (during the days leading to the
trial): “Rally going on. Go down and be counted.”
These and similar
text messages (as Filipinos call them) beeped from one cellphone to another.
Hundreds, then thousands, would find themselves receiving and sending the same
message through their hand-held phones.
Like on cue,
thousands converge at EDSA Shrine (site of what had been called People
Power—but would now be referred to as People
Power 1—that sent Ferdinand Marcos flying out—via helicopter—of Malacañang
in 1986) within minutes of the Senate’s voting against opening of the second
envelope.
Once more, the
‘Erap Resign’ trumpet blared. It was not as if, in weeks just past, the noise
had dropped to yawning levels; rather it was that this time, vocal motors were
revving up.
For 4 days—from
17 to 20 January 2001—street protests in Metro Manila and major cities around
the country ended Erap’s reign as President of the country.
On the night of
16 January 2001, tens of thousands had massed at the EDSA Shrine, site of
People Power 1. The next day, the protesters swelled to half a million at any
given time. On the third day, 19 January 2001, close to a million protesters
erupted in approval as the police and military brass, led by Ping Lacson and
Angelo Reyes, respectively, joined them at EDSA and expressed their withdrawal
of support for the Estrada government. On January 20, 2001, then Vice President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) was sworn in by Supreme Court Chief Justice
Hilarion Davide as the new President of the Philippines, replacing Erap. A few
hours earlier, the Supreme Court had ruled that the Office of the President was
vacant. Hours later, Erap left Malacañang.
The
EDSA 2 The believers
Aside
from those who pressed Erap to resign via street protests (they could have
numbered to a few million people, those in other major cities outside of Metro
Manila included), there were analysts of note who found merit in People Power 2
(or EDSA 2) and the events that led to it.
In
one of his Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) column, Randy David, who is also a
University of the Philippines sociology professor, said that the Erap
impeachment trial was “one great education” for the country. He made a point
about witnesses like Clarissa Ocampo (who testified that she witnessed Erap
signing as Jose Velarde his bank accounts with PCI Equitable Bank), Emma Lim
and former Finance Secretary Edgardo Espiritu, among many others, who “gave the
concept of citizenship and patriotism, which have long eluded Filipinos.”
Risking their careers and even lives, these prosecution witnesses went on
record as having been prompted to testify in the trial for love of country and
fellow Filipinos.
David
thought that through People Power 2, Filipinos had asserted their belief in the
highest ideals of justice and integrity. “It was a moral revolution,” he said.
Conrado
de Quiros, another PDI columnist, wrote that “People Power 2 was no ordinary
event that brought Arroyo to power, this was people power in the truest,
purest, sense of the word, a people discovering and recovering through
education and action their power to right wrongs and build new worlds.”
In
a speech (the full text of which was published by the Manila Bulletin on 22
February 2001), delivered on receiving a “Tanglaw ng Bayan” award from the
Society of Jesus, former President Cory Aquino explained, among other things,
that EDSA 2 was about democracy correcting itself. Excerpts of that speech:
“Fifteen
years after bloodlessly booting out a president who turned into a dictator, the
Filipino people ousted a popularly elected president who succumbed to
insatiable greed.
“We
call this people power and see it as the activation of the sovereign clause of
a democratic Constitution, which says that sovereignty resides in the people
and all power comes from them.
“Once
in a while, in compelling circumstances, the people feel like taking back this
power. It happens when the institutions of democracy fail to deliver democratic
government or when the law defeat rather than achieves its proper aim of
justice.”
Recalling
the impeachment trial that led to Erap’s ouster, she said:
“It
was like taking a course in political science, with a major in political
responsibility. Let me say that the people graduated with top honors. They
threw out the President when his allies in the Senate voted to suppress the
evidence.
“As
if on a given signal, an outraged citizenry in the middle of the night
converged at the Shrine of Our Lady of EDSA. They went to show their anger at
the treachery of the eleven senators. They went to show their conviction of the
President's guilt. Above all, they came to pray together for a just resolution
of the crisis of government.”
Cory
acknowledged that EDSA 2 had been criticized for the process it went through.
And to them she suggested a re-evaluation was in order:
“They
called it ‘mob rule,’ a ‘virtual coup d’etat,’ ‘undemocratic’ and
‘unconstitutional.’
“Was
it mob rule? Did we preempt the Constitution?
“We
gave the Constitution every chance to work; we gave the President every chance
to defend himself.
“In
a constitution providing for a single term for the president, the way to change
him is not by waiting for him to step down at the end of his term. That is not
changing; that is waiting.
“The
Constitution provides for ways to remove him before the end of his term: by
resignation, by leave of absence, and by impeachment. The first two depend on
his sense of propriety and do not work when he has none. The third depends on
the integrity of the legislature.
“Not
surprisingly, the President himself recommended his own impeachment. But when
he was impeached, he did everything to undermine the impeachment process by
blocking the evidence.
“What
then were the people to do?
“To
sit back and wait for the next elections made nonsense of the constitutional
provision for the removal of a president guilty of impeachable offenses. The
only recourse was to enforce the impeachment in the streets after its failure
in the Senate. That is what the people did.”
On
portrayals of a typical conflict that pitted the rich (representing “the mob”)
against the poor (representing Erap’s supporters), De Quiros dismissed the
notion that EDSA 2 was devoid of analytical underpinning. He said: “The
multitude that massed at EDSA--and who will continue to mass there for as long
as injustice runs rife--is not possessed of an uncritical mind that can be
impressed by a slogan or two, a promise or two, a trick or two.”
Erap miscalculated twice
The foregoing
narrative supports the notion that Erap’s displacement happened not only
because people awoke one day to find out there was a need to reclaim power from
those they elected to office, but also because the guy seemed stupid from the
very start, which quite simply was a candid way of saying Erap helped depose
Erap.
One could tell
that Erap blundered in at least two occasions. First, he appeared to have
thought that a fallout with Chavit was the least risky among all possible
threats to whatever stability his administration still enjoyed up to that
point. And second (a word of caution here: just where he stood on the issue
could solely be a reflection of the advice he got from allies he trusted), the
misreading of possible reactions to the decision by majority senators to vote
against the opening of the second envelope.
The straw that
broke the camel’s back, as the saying goes, was, from Chavit’s perspective,
Erap’s favoring Atong Ang on the Bingo 2 Balls fiasco. Aides tried to show to
Erap the gravity of Chavit’s grievances and his threat to expose the president.
They did not succeed; Erap, perhaps confronted with difficult choices, forgot
that his now former friend had survived not only the Crisologos and Marcos, but
also multiple attempts on his life, as the succeeding chapters will show.
Erap’s dumping of Chavit was like dismissal of how the past predicted the
future: that Chavit won over adversities then, he was likely to win a fight
even against a president now.
In the middle of
the night of 3 October 2000, an attempt on his life that Chavit said was an
offshoot of his fallout with Erap changed the course of Philippine history in a
way that nobody could have expected.
Ernesto Maceda,
former Senator and serving as Philippine Ambassador at the time of the Senate
trial, reflected on what happened through his Manila Bulletin column on 13
February 2001:
“When
political analysts gather, the most popular question is what brought Erap down?
Asked to name 3 major reasons, the consensus shows the following:
“1.
Atong Ang—After being told to lie low at the start, why did he suddenly
resurface as Jai-Alai owner and Pagcor consultant? His arrogance ignited the
Chavit problem.
“2.
The lavish mansions—Whose fault is it? The ladies? It was the talk of the
cocktail circuit.
“3.
Picking a fight with FVR—Who convinced Erap this was a good thing to do? The
State of the Nation salvo was a declaration of war, FVR had no choice but to
fight back.”
Postmortem
analysts could add at least three stinging blows that knocked Erap out of
Malacañang, viz:
1) Erap being Erap;
2) The “mob;” and
3) Text messaging.
Randy
David described Erap and his leadership as incompetent, stupid, ignorant,
boozing, womanizing, corrupt, and fool.[1] That
Erap was therefore bound to self-destruct was not a question of why, but rather
a matter of when.
The
government became easy target for plotters.
The Washington Post
quoted retired Air Force General Ed Abenina as saying: “The Filipino people
like to call it ‘people power,’ but in fact it was a coup. It was the overthrow
of the government.”
The
Los Angeles Times also quoted another military man, former Defense Secretary
Fortunato Abat, who reportedly admitted that “he (Abat) has been plotting the
coup for months,” long before Chavit came out with his exposē.
In
other words, rumors at that time about nooses having been wrapped around Erap’s
neck were, in fact, true; that Chavit was the knife that cut the rope,
tightening their grip; and that the rest of the mob was the sink stone that
ensured Erap would be buried deep into his political grave.
The
mob in this context would best be taken to mean as an ad hoc process of destabilizing existing political order, with a
view of changing leadership in national government, and under conditions that
undermined established constitutional and legal procedures. Movers behind this
mob, according to observers, would include the Makati businessmen, a partisan
public, the young, the rich and the restless—all supporting the military and
the forces of then Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
And
let not this heretofore unknown political player be forgotten—text messaging.
Revolt of the middle class
In
2001, cellphones were already popular and must-have luxuries in the
Philippines. Unlike today (2017), however, only the relatively well-off among a
population of roughly 77 million could afford to buy a cell phone. That is why
EDSA2 (also called People Power 2) is sometimes referred to as revolt of the
middle class. The typical profile of a protester would be that of a young
career person, wearing t-shirts and jeans, pounding on the keyboards of a
cellphone.
Pundits
at the time joked about how revolutionaries kept themselves up to the task.
Then, the advice was “keep your powder dry.” Now, they exhorted to “keep your
cellphones charged.”
Writing
for The Independent London, Richard Parry wrote in a 20 January 2001 article:
“The demonstrators at the Edsa Shrine had
all the traditional accoutrements of protesters throughout history--flags,
banners bearing wittily offensive slogans, whistles and klaxons. But the most
characteristic image of People Power 2 was that of a young Filipino in T-shirt
and jeans, frowning down—not speaking—into a phone.
“‘This is my second revolution, and it's
been so much better than the first,’ said one middle-aged lady on Saturday,
just after the jubilant announcement that Mr Estrada was leaving the Malacañang
presidential palace. ‘Faster, more spontaneous, and a younger crowd. And it
wouldn't have happened without those things.’
“For hours at a time, the networks were
overloaded with the text traffic. The television stations reported the latest
messages as news. Early yesterday morning, Mr Estrada's respected vice-president,
Gloria Macapagal, arrived at the palace for her first working day as his
successor.”
Even
before that fateful night of 16 January 2001, text messaging had been an
x-factor for the anti-Erap campaign.
An
article by Michael Zielenziger on 10 December 2000 (or 3 days since the
impeachment trial began), titled “Cell phones play key role in Estrada
impeachment,” for the Knight Ridder Newspapers/Tribune News Service, is
re-printed below:
“MANILA, Philippines—While famous
Filipinos delivered fiery verbal assaults last week against embattled President
Joseph Estrada at a giant bay-front rally, Ellen Santiago had no hands free to
applaud. Her thumbs were too busy ‘texting.’
“Like thousands of others in the crowd,
Santiago glanced up only occasionally as former President Corazon Aquino and
the city's powerful Roman Catholic archbishop, Jaime Cardinal Sin, demanded
Estrada's resignation. Instead of cheering, she stared down at her cell phone
and jammed away with her thumbs as she received and sent tiny electronic
messages— ‘texting,’ as Filipinos call it.
“‘It's a little embarrassing that I'm
texting so much,’ admitted Santiago, who works for a real estate investment
company. Then her phone beeped again to signal the arrival of yet another mini
mailgram. ‘I have friends somewhere in this rally, and we're trying to find
each other.’
“While Americans might be glued to cable
news channels to watch the latest developments in the presidential vote,
Filipinos are staring at their phones. Lounging in coffee houses and hotel
lobbies or marching against Estrada, Manila's young middle-class has made
wireless text-messaging the cutting-edge way to trade political gossip, debate
strategy or tell jokes as the movement to oust Estrada gains momentum.
“This new technology is having a huge
impact. The speed and ‘cycle-time’ that text messaging brings to political
discussion has accelerated political debate and exacerbated the crisis of
legitimacy Estrada now faces, analysts said.
“‘Text messaging explains the swiftness
with which consensus formed within the mobile phone possessing classes against
the president,’ said Alex Magno, a political analyst and a professor of
sociology at the University of the Philippines. ‘Before it took us eight weeks
just to set up and coordinate a single national protest action. This Estrada
corruption scandal broke just eight weeks ago, and already he’s been impeached
and put on trial.’
“‘The information just moves very quickly
now,’ Magno added. ‘The text messages telescope the time needed to create a
middle-class consensus.’
“The Philippines, home to both the ‘Love
Bug’ computer virus and its antidote, is an English-speaking nation that has
been captured by the information technology craze.
“Some Filipinos use cell phones merely to
set up social meetings. But savvy organizers trade investigative tips as they
fan out around the city trying to collect more evidence against Estrada, who is
charged with siphoning off gambling proceeds and raking in nearly $12 million
from a government tax on tobacco. His corruption trial—the first impeachment
case ever launched against an Asian head of state—began last Thursday.
“‘Messaging has become a very important
tool in organizing people and planning marches,’ said Arnel Galgo, a labor
organizer who uses the text-messaging system to help plan anti-Estrada
demonstrations and set up strategy sessions. ‘It has a real multiplier effect
when you want to spread the word, and it’s much cheaper than using the phone,’
he said.
“‘I don't think Estrada realizes the
brigades are actually the e-groups,’ Magno said.
Text messaging allows a cell-phone user to
paw at the tiny keypad on the phone to type in a short message and dispatch it
to one or dozens of other cell phone users. Though typing is usually done with
the thumbs, the generation of 20-year-olds that grew up with video games seems
to have little difficulty generating three or four messages in a minute by
pounding furiously on their keyboards.
“While a cell phone call can cost as much
as 8 pesos (1.6 cents) per minute, sending a text message often costs only 1
peso. Some phone providers offer text messaging for free as an incentive to
sign up for phone service, although no one seemed to anticipate its potentially
subversive uses.
Pollster Felipe Miranda said the text
messaging revolution also demonstrates how a serious digital divide has emerged
in the Philippines—and says the pro-Estrada's forces have failed to appreciate
the rising potency of those who wield cell phones.
“‘Right now, it's the most important
organizing tool, and the Malacañang (presidential) Palace doesn't appreciate
how powerful it has become,’ Miranda said. ‘The opposition is much more wired,
much more connected, and this makes them much more formidable at recruiting
supporters and organizing protests. It allows them to pursue their causes much
more effectively’ in a poor country where a home computer is still a rare
luxury.
“The Estrada forces, by contrast, haven't
crossed the digital divide. ‘You won't find e-mail used effectively by the Erap
camp,’ Miranda said. ‘They don’t have interesting Web sites. I don’t think they
understand it.’
“‘This digital divide along class
lines—the cell phone is not for the poor man, Miranda said—also explains why
Estrada remains popular among the nation’s peasants while the middle and upper
classes have decided he must go. Miranda’s Asia Pulse poll, released just
before the trial started, found that while nearly 50 percent of those with a
college degree want to oust the president, only 20 percent of those with only
an elementary school education want him to quit.
“The gusher of information that bombards
cell phone users such as Santiago is one reason for the gap. A junior manager
who doesn’t consider herself a political activist, the 34-year-old said she
receives about 80 text-messages per day, many of them greetings or invitations
to meet with friends.
“Tito Osias, however, uses the cell phone
as his chief political weapon. An anti-Estrada activist, he uses his phone to
help gather dirt on the embattled president.
“‘Here, let me show you the message I just
got,’ Osias said, handing over his slim, silver Nokia phone. The message reads:
‘Erap gets kickbacks each time the government releases money to Veterans Bank
through director Pilarcia Ejercito, Erap’s sister.’
“Osias then sends a text-message to a
friend familiar with Manila's banking industry, asking his source to confirm
that the president’s sister is a director of Veterans Bank. Within 45 minutes a
terse reply comes back: ‘Pilarcia director of PVB confirmed.’
“‘We now have 4 million cell phones in the
country, and each one is a receiver and a transmitter of information,’ said
Magno, the sociologist. ‘That’s why there is such a disparity in attitudes
between the digitally enabled and the digitally disabled. The consensus against
the president was first formed in multimedia’ and by the middle class, he
added. ‘Eventually, the normal people and the mainstream media will catch up.’
“The only problem with the new technology,
organizers said, is that text messaging can also circulate bad rumors, a
development that would not surprise any Internet user. ‘It’s definitely
helpful,’ says Risa Hontiveros, who helps organize anti-Estrada protests for an
umbrella movement of social causes. ‘But sometimes you spend a lot of time
telling people the texts they’re getting just aren’t true.’
Rajiv
Chandrasekaran’s article on the same date for Washington Post, titled
“Philippine Activism, At Push of a Button; Technology Used to Spur Political
Change,” brought more of the same sight to the fore, portions of which are
re-printed below:
“At 11 a.m. on a recent workday, Christina
Bautista picked up her sleek, gray Nokia mobile telephone to help organize a
protest calling for the resignation of Philippine President Joseph Estrada. But
instead of making calls, she composed a short text message on the tiny rubber
keypad.
“‘Rally
at noon,’ she wrote. ‘Go down and be counted.’
“Then,
by pecking a few buttons, Bautista zapped her exhortation to dozens of friends
who work in nearby high-rise office buildings. Within minutes, almost all of
the recipients were punching keys on their phones to forward the note to their
friends, who in turn passed it on to hundreds more people.
“An
hour later, Manila’s financial district was packed with thousands of
phone-toting professionals urging Estrada to step down over allegations that he
pocketed almost $12 million in bribes.
“For
the past two months, opposition groups have been raising the political pressure
on Estrada with a combination of old-fashioned activism and new technology,
using text messages sent on mobile phones to organize what people here call
‘instant protests.’
“Accelerating
to Internet time something that used to take organizers weeks to plan,
often-boisterous demonstrations can jell here in less than a few hours as word
goes out over an informal phone tree to office workers, housewives and
students.
“‘It's
like pizza delivery,’ said Alex Magno. ‘You can get a rally in 30
minutes—delivered to you.’
“‘It’s
an incredibly powerful tool,’ Bautista said of her phone. ‘Without it, there’s
no way we could have gotten so many people together so quickly.’
“Today,
Filipinos send an estimated 45 million text messages a day, more than double
the entire combined volume of such messages in every other country in the
world. The country of 76 million people has more mobile phones (about 4
million) than fixed-line units (about 3 million).
“Political
analysts say the fast pace of demonstrations—coupled with an incessant
electronic barrage of news blurbs, gossip and jokes about Estrada, all composed
in 160 characters or less--has been instrumental in galvanizing broad
legislative support for the president's ouster. Estrada was impeached by the
House of Representatives last month, and his trial in the Senate began last
Thursday.
“The
protests, analysts say, have helped to speed up the impeachment process: The
trial is beginning just two months after Estrada was accused of bribery. In the
1980s, Marcos was able to hang on to power for almost three years after he
became widely suspected of ordering the assassination of opposition leader
Benigno Aquino, the event that sparked a popular revolt against his rule. At
that time, opposition leaders had to rely on mimeographed fliers and low-power
ham radio transmitters clandestinely installed in cars.
“Bautista,
32, an associate in a large accounting firm who joined the opposition movement
a few weeks ago, said the messaging technology has given rise not just to a new
type of protest, but also to a new breed of protester.
“‘It’s
a great way to get people who are in offices involved,’ she said. ‘They don’t
have to spend all day protesting. They just get a message telling them when
it’s starting, and then they take the elevator down to the street. They can be
seen, scream a little and then go back to work.’”
Gloria and the mob
Despite
what amounted to consent by the Supreme Court, the manner by which national
leadership changed from Erap to GMA was assailed by some quarters, especially
foreign media.
Syth
Mydans of New York Times, in a 5 February 2001 article titled “‘People Power 2’
Doesn't Give Filipinos the Same Glow” in part wrote:
“Fifteen
years ago, Filipinos braved tanks and threats in a “people power” revolution to
bring down a dictator who had stolen an election, and to restore democracy
after two decades of martial law.
“Last
month, in what Filipinos are calling People Power II, huge crowds again forced
a president from office. As before, it was an emotional outpouring, with songs
and raised fists.
“But
there were crucial differences that have cast doubt on the dedication of
Filipinos to democratic processes, and to their chagrin, Filipinos have drawn
not praise but censure from abroad.
“Filipinos
were thrilled at the peaceful ouster of a president who had become an
embarrassment—a lazy, hard-drinking womanizer who had allowed the economy to
collapse and had, according to testimony in the Senate, engaged in systematic
corruption.
“But
if they expected cheers once again from around the world, they were instead
hurt and infuriated when People Power II was met with doubt and criticism,
described by foreign commentators as ‘a defeat for due process,’ as ‘mob rule,’
as ‘a de facto coup’.”
The
Associated Press quoted Singapore Senior Leader Lee Kuan Yew as saying: “I
don't think it was a plus for the democratic system.”
William
H. Overholt, writing for International Herald Tribune, felt equally
disappointed. His article on 24 January 2001 titled “It's ‘People Power’ Again,
but This Time without the People,” essayed how one differed from the other:
“One of the things missing in the
so-called People Power 2 movement that forced the removal of President Joseph
Estrada last weekend is people power. Right up until the overthrow, the polls
showed that the majority of Filipinos opposed Mr. Estrada's impeachment trial
for corruption and abuse of power. People Power 1, which forced President
Ferdinand Marcos to step down in 1986, was different.
“Filipinos had voted against Mr. Marcos in
an election. They were angry when he fiddled the numbers and got caught. People
Power 1 validated an election. People Power 2 invalidated an election.
“Mr. Estrada was elected president in 1998
with the largest vote total in Philippine history. The decisive moment 15 years
ago came when demonstrations in the streets of Manila blocked the tanks and
rendered the military impotent. The decisive moment in People Power 2 came when
the armed forces chief of staff, General Angelo Reyes, an open supporter of
Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, defected with key commanders to join
the opposition.
“There were a lot of demonstrations, just
as in People Power 1, but this was a de facto military coup, with only broad
upper- and middle-class support. The difference between what happened in the
Philippines the other day and what occurred in 1986 will be a problem for Mrs.
Arroyo, who was sworn in as the new president by the Supreme Court.
“The fact that Mr. Estrada did not flee
into exile, as Mr. Marcos did, foreshadows difficulties to come. Mr. Marcos had
to flee because he had no support. Mr. Estrada has a broad base of support.
Even if he is tried for ordinary crimes and jailed, he will retain lots of
support, especially among the poor masses who believe that he is being
victimized by the rich and powerful because he came from their ranks and stood
on their side.
“Already young military officers are
expressing discontent with their chief. Already lawyers are asking questions
about the way the Supreme Court was stampeded into seating the new president.
The left is saying that it was right for Mr. Estrada to be forced out but
unconstitutional for the new president to be installed this way.
“Such questions did not arise after the
ouster of Mr. Marcos. Nobody can doubt the degree to which the evidence
presented at his trial discredited Mr. Estrada. Nor can anybody doubt the moral
and political culpability of the 11 senators who voted last week not to examine
crucial evidence against him.
“But the legitimacy of the Philippine
system rests on support for democracy. If the views of a majority don't count,
then democracy doesn't count. Filipinos take their elections very seriously the
poor just as much as the rich. In their eyes, rejection of Mr. Estrada's
proposal for an early presidential election in May in which he would not run,
however self-serving it may have been, confirmed rejection of the democratic
mechanism by politicians who had equally self-serving reasons in wanting to
grab the presidency without facing voters who had shown strong support for the
incumbent.
“The euphoria in Manila will last for a
while. But democracy and the rule of law have been weakened in the Philippines,
and class struggle has been sharpened…”
And
so it happened that, while GMA’s ascent to power was swift and easy--like
delivering a child on the seventh month minus the labor pains--her government
had to go through all sorts of strife. Like many premature babies, her reign
had inborn defects.
She
faced a dilemma on what to do with Erap. On the one hand, a big chunk of “the
mob” demanded his punishment. On the other hand, the military brass that gave
her the silver platter, so to speak, could be assumed to remain indebted to
Erap. Reports at the time came out that Angelo Reyes, appointed by Erap as
Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and went on to seamlessly
join GMA’s cabinet as Secretary of the Department of National Defense, wanted
no less than clemency for the former boss.
Concerns
over stability of the Arroyo administration were not, as Overholt noted,
without basis. From Day One, her government had to parry destabilization plots
one after another. Her rule got so rocky that, in an attempt to placate her
partisan detractors, she vowed on national TV that she would not run in the
2004 presidential elections. She however eventually did run, and won—aided, not
a few charged, by massive cheating.
Rappler’s
Maria Ressa chimed in with a relatively new piece, titled “#EDSA30: The Parody
of People Power,” dated 26 February 2017, which brought back glimpses of what
happened during those history-altering events. She said, in part:
“People Power 2 was tainted by a key difference from the first:
the protests that brought Mrs. Arroyo to power deposed a duly elected
president, not a dictator. That would haunt the first few months of her
presidency as Estrada’s supporters tried to launch people power 3 against her
on May 1, 2001, blurring the lines further between people power and mob rule.
Filipino society split on economic lines: Estrada’s supporters came from the
bottom rung, while Mrs Arroyo was backed by the middle and elite classes. She
survived the split, but the damage was done, and she said she was forced to
compromise in order to hold her unwieldy coalition together.
“Although she won her own mandate in the May 2004 elections, even
that was questioned after wiretapped telephone conversations were released to
the media, raising charges of election cheating, charges Mrs Arroyo denies. But
those tapes triggered impeachment processes which have kept her constantly
battling. This is a presidency under relentless siege.”
Erap’s mess and Gloria’s
woes
Aside from the legal, political and economic issues
that GMA had to resolve moving forward, Erap left the seat of power with
high-profile unsolved cases. These included the Dacer -Corbito murder case and
the Rizal Day bombings.
We
recall that Former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman Perfecto
Yasay, Jr., when he testified during the Erap impeachment trial, linked the
Dacer abduction to the to the stock manipulation scandal involving the gaming
firm Best World (BW) Resources.
Replying
to Sen. Loren Legarda-Leviste’s questions, Yasay said Dacer was about to
testify before the Senate tribunal when still-unidentified armed men abducted
Dacer and his driver, Manuel Corbito, along the South Superhighway in Manila on
Nov. 24.
Yasay
said Dante Tan, BW owner and one of Erap’s friends, tried to pressure him to
clear Tan of stock manipulation charges. Yasay also disclosed that Erap offered
to support him in the event Yasay would decide to run for Congress as
representative of the first district of Davao City in the coming May 14, 2001
elections.
To refresh the reader’s memory on
the Dacer-Corbito case, re-printed below is a timeline consolidated
by www.abs-cbnnews.com:
October
1997: Eduardo
"Moonie" Lim, Jr. is president of BW Resource Corp. with 1,000
shares.
5
March 1998: Best World
Construction Corp. applies for SEC registration. No exact mailing address was
specified in their document.
9
March 1998: Francis A.
Ablan is treasurer of BW Resource Corp. with 10,000 shares. Owen Carsi Cruz is
Director of BW Resource Corp with 10,000.
8
April 1998: Dante Tan is
elected by share subscribers of BW Cons. Corp. as treasurer of the corporation.
Eswaran
signs affidavit that he is an alien who subscribed 40,625 shares worth P40,625.
24
April 1998: Tan deposits
P61,719.00 to Bank of the Philippine Islands in behalf of Best World Cons.
Corp., which is in the process of incorporation.
30
April 1998: Best World
Cons. Corp.'s corporate name is certified by SEC. In the records, it says that
BESTWORLD RESOURCE CORP. is the closest name.
June
1998: Joseph Ejercito
Estrada takes his oath of office as President of the Philippines. Tan tells
friends that he was one of the first Chinese Filipinos to have bet on Estrada's
presidential bid and had been delivering funds long before May 1998. He was
listed as a contributor to Estrada's presidential campaign. As soon as
Estrada took his oath of office in June 1998, Pagcor signed an agreement with
BW, promising to transfer its corporate offices and three casinos to Sheraton
Manila, BW's planned entertainment and gaming complex in Manila.
7
July 1998: Best World
Construction Corp. is registered with the SEC.
SEC
verifies the name BW Gaming and Entertainment (BWGE) Corp. unused. BWGE's name,
the document says, appears to be similar to BW Resource Corp.
16
July 1998: Incorporators
are Dato' Ketheeswaran (Kenneth Eswaran), Dante Tan, Joseph Victor Ejercito,
Jose Salvador M. Rivera, Jr. and Francis Ablan.
Ketheeswaran,
who is a Malaysian, has 40,625 shares. Tan has 40,623 shares. Rivera and Ablan
have one share. JV Ejercito is the largest shareholder with 43,750 shares.
Eswanar
signs affidavit that he is a foreigner with P50,000 worth shares in BWGE
Teresita
Tan is treasurer of BWGE. She deposits P100,000 to Allied Bank as their
corporation's paid-up capital stock.
In
the document, “Foreign equity is 32.5%, with affidavit of non-registration.”
11
August 1998: BWGE
Corporation is registered with SEC under the name BW Gaming and Entertainment
Corp.
Dante
Tan and his wife Teresita subscribed 50,000 shares, Agnes Maranan has 25,000
shares, Jose Salvador Rivera, Jr. is the largest shareholder with 75,000 and
Malaysian Dato' K. Ketheeswaran (Kenneth Eswaran) with 50,000 shares are listed
as incorporators and directors of BWGE.
4
November 1998:
P132,861,890 worth of shares has been paid for the subscription of P150 million
worth of shares.
17
November 1998: BWGE wants
to add P499 million worth of capital stock to their P1 million capital stock.
17
November 1998: Breakdown
of Cash Account of BWGE: 2 from Metrobank with C/A 7073504836 worth P5,000 and
S/A 3076504830 worth P61,038,444.00. Also, a dollar account (2073007288)
US$5,000.00, P202,500.00.
23
November 1998: BWGE's
proposes the increase of their authorized capital stock by P499 million, to
total P500 million, the increase in capital stock by P150 million, to total
P150.25 million and a total paid-up capital is P133,111,890, an increase of
P132,861,890 from the previous paid-up capital of P250,000.
December
1998: BW Gaming wins the
exclusive contract to operate on-line bingo as well as to introduce Quick
Pick-2, which is very similar to jueteng. Alice Reyes, chair of the
Philippine Games and Amusement Corporation (PAGCOR), later told a congressional
hearing that BW Gaming got the on-line bingo license because “it had the
endorsement of the Office of the President.”
15
April 1999: Gerdado
Garcia is Director of BW Resource Corp. with 250,000 shares.
18
June 1999: Dante Tan owns
10% of BW Resource Corp.
30
June 1999: BW Resources
signs a memorandum of agreement with PAGCOR. PAGCOR agrees to be the “anchor
tenant” at the Sheraton Marina.
BW
and Best World Gaming co-borrow P600 million from the Philippine National Bank.
The government, at this time, was still a major shareholder of PNB.
July
1999: The Office of the
President, through PAGCOR, gave BWGE a nationwide online bingo franchise. Under
the constitution, only the congress can grant franchise to operate any gambling
activity. Any gambling activity not franchised by the congress is illegal.
SEC
and Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) began investigations, uncovering heavy
share-buying by Tan. Investigations by the SEC, PSE, and by the Philippine
Senate reveals that, to jack up the price of stocks, Tan sold his shares to
friends and clients at discounted rates. The transactions are reported to the
PSE board which appeared to be twice the amount actually paid. This is done so
stock of BW Resources will appear active. PSE and SEC found out that BW’s daily
turnover circulated around 10 brokerage firms.
1
September 1999: 1,000,000
shares added to Tan's 75 million shares in BW Resoure Corp., at the same time,
Garcia's shares reduced to 150,000.
8
October 1999: Stanley Ho
is chairman of BW Resources with 10,000 shares.
11
October 1999: BW
Resource’s stock price rose to P107 from P2, a 5,250% when news broke out that
Ho is new chairman of BW Resource Corp. A week after Ho's visit to Manila, the
company's share prices drop to below P30.
24
January 2000: Sen. Raul
Roco, chairman of the committee on banks, financial institutions and currencies
writes to Jose Yulo, Jr., President of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) that
he should submit to the committee the following documents: Printouts of broker
to broker transactions on BW shares from June-October 1999, Identity of
beneficial owners of BW shares in the matched transactions and exchange of
letters between PSE and SEC as regards to the monitoring or investigation of BW
shares.
February
2000: At a Senate
investigation on the alleged insider trading in BW Resources stocks, SEC
chairman Perfecto Yasay reveals that Estrada called him five times and asked to
clear Dante Tan of any wrongdoing in an insider-trading scandal involving Tan’s
Best World (BW) Resources. Estrada denies that he interfered.
November
2000: Estrada is
impeached by the House of Representatives. Among others, he stood accused of
intervening with the duties of a public servant when he called up Yasay in
relation to the BW scandal.
21
November 2000: As Estrada
faced impeachment trial before the Senate and amid mounting calls for Estrada's
resignation, his close friend, Caloocan Rep. “Baby” Asistio, asks publicist to
politicians Salvador “Bubby” Dacer to help boost Estrada’s image.
Dacer
meets with President Estada Malacañang regarding a media campaign to help his
reputation.
26
November 2000: Two
farmers, Alex Diloy and Jimmy Lopez, come out as eyewitnesses to the
Dacer-Corbito murder case. Dacer was reportedly abducted and killed November
24. Both tell reporters that Dacer and his driver were strangled by
policemen using electric cords before their corpses were set on fire.
The
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) prepared to indict Police Supt. Teofilo
Viña, former aide of Panfilo Lacson, then PAOCTF head and Philippine National
Police (PNP) chief. Viña is reported as mastermind in the double murder
and kidnapping case.
NBI
chief Reynaldo Wycoco says that they have recovered bones and teeth in a creek
in Cavite. The NBI was set to examine the remains to see whether they belong to
Dacer and Corbito.
Diloy
and Lopez identify four Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF)
members to be among more than 10 individuals who took part in the killing.
Lopez is also reportedly a civilian agent of PAOCTF.
Both
“eyewitnesses” are arrested by the NBI. Diloy was wearing Dacer’s white shoes
when he was presented to the NBI. Lopez admits to helping build a pyre of wood
and tires to set the victims on fire. Viña, head of PAOCTF Visayas, signed the
permit of the seized .45 caliber pistol Lopez is carrying when seen by the NBI.
11
January 2001: Former
Finance Secretary Edgardo Espiritu tells the impeachment court that Estrada
owned shares in BW Resources Corp. and made a huge profit selling his shares
when prices skyrocketed. Espiritu also narrates how he tried to patch up
the differences between Tan and Mark Jimenez, also a close friend of Estrada,
as to who would control the company.
15
January 2001: During
Estrada’s impeachment trial, Yasay says the BW scandal is connected with the
disappearance of Dacer, who, he claims, has knowledge of the gaming firm’s
activities.
26
March 2001: Digo de
Pedro, a suspect in the Dacer-Corbito murder case, is abducted from his home in
Indang, Cavite by armed men. De Pedro allegedly strangled Corbito before his
corpse was set on fire along with Dacer.
31
March 2001: Former
President Fidel V. Ramos presents himself to Justice Secretary Hernando Perez
and volunteers to disclose any information he had on the killing of PR man
Dacer.
Ramos
accuses Estrada of being involved in the “tragic and murderous kidnapping.”
Estrada denies the charge and says he is willing to accept invitations from the
justice department to be able to help in the case.
4
April 2001: Wycoco
announces that the following suspects in the Dacer-Corbito murder case are
missing: 1) Jovencio Malabanan, 2) Renato Malabanan, 3) Margarito Cueno
4) William Lopez 5) Rommel Rollan.
All
suspects are from Indang, Cavite and are assets of the PAOCTF during Estrada’s
administration.
11
April 2001: Forensic
pathologists from University of the Philippines confirm the death of Dacer. Dr.
Raquel del Rosario-Fortun, leader of the forensics team, says that the remains
found from the creek in Indang, Cavite were Dacer’s dental plates and Corbito’s
family ring.
Viña
fails to report to his new assignment, Camp Crame. He is absent without
official leave.
16
April 2001: Four suspects
in the Dacer-Corbito case claims that Estrada ordered to kill Dacer through
Chief Inspector Glenn Dumlao of the PAOCTF. They are saying that Estrada
ordered seize of Dacer through Dumlao, bypassing Viña. The four usually receive
orders from Viña, their immediate superior, not Dumlao. Viña, who was
previously accused of being the brains behind the Dacer double murder case,
turns over seven suspects to Philippine National Police Director General
Leandro Mendoza during Lenten season.
11
May 2001: The panel of
prosecutors with the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) charged the following
with the double muder of Dacer and Corbito: 1) Jimmy Lopez (detained), 2) Alex
Diloy (detained), 3) William Lopez (detained), 4) SPO4 Marino Soberano.
Under
custody of PNP-CIDG Camp Crame: 5) SPO3 Mauro Torres, 6) SPO3 Jose Escalante,
7) Crisostomo M. Purificacion, 8) Digo de Pedro, 9) Renato Malabanan, 10)
Margarito Cueno, 11) Rommel Rollan.
The
following are at large: 12) P/Supt. Glen Dumlao, 13) P/C Insp. Vicente Arnado,
14) P/Insp. Roberto Langcauon, 15) SPO4 Benjamin Taladua, 16) SPO1 Rolando
Lacasandile, 17) SPO1 Mario Sarmiento, 18) SPO1 William Reed, 19) PO2 Thomas J.
Sarmiento, 20) SPO1 Ruperto A. Nemeno;
21)
John Does and James Does
14
May 2001: Lacson wins a
seat in the Senate.
14
June 2001:
a. Dumlao submits an
affidavit, through his lawyer Atty. Rogelio Agoot. Agoot says that Dumlao
is “ready and willing to testify on it in any proceeding regardless of whoever
will be implicated.”
Contents of the affidavit recall the
incident on November 24, 2000:
“Dumlao described Aquino directing a
‘Special Operation’against Dacer. Aquino, Dumlao and Mancao discussed the
special operation directed at Dacer in Aquino’s office. In November 2000,
Mancao and Dumlao were together when Dumlao notified by text message from
Aquino that “Delta (Dacer) had been taken. Conduct the T.I. (tactical
interrogation), coordinate with 19. Do not bring along any one from Bicol.’
(Bicol was Dacer’s home region). When told about the text message from Aquino,
Mancao told Dumlao, ‘Alright, go there. Update me of results of your T.I.’
b. Acting upon Aquino’s
and Mancao’s orders, Dumlao met with the officers who had abducted Dacer and
Corbito. Dumlao then saw the two blindfolded men inside a van. Dumlao asked the
man’s name, and the latter gave his name as ‘Mr. Bubby Dacer.’ After asking a
series of question that Aquino had given him, Dumlao called Aquino who told him
to ‘go back to base but secure any documents and give it to him (referring to
Aquino).’ When told about the instruction of Aquino, Arnado told Dumlao, ‘Okay,
Sir, I will take care of things here.’
c. When Dacer’s vehicle
was recovered at Maragondon, Cavite, Aquino called Dumlao about the matter and
gave instruction to secure documents. Dumlao, however, later on, burned the
documents upon being told by Mancao to dispose [of] the documents as it is too
dangerous keeping them.”
21
June 2001: More is
revealed in Dumlao's sworn statement. He narrates that he was given an order by
then chief of Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) Panfilo
Lacson through Aquino to place Dacer under surveillance in January 1999. The
affidavit states that Dumlao was given P20,000 to rent a room at the Manila
Hotel so he could break in Dacer’s office, also in the building. Dumlao reveals
that he was instructed to steal or destroy whatever documents he could find in
the office. His superiors, according to the statement, were after
documents pertaining to BW Resources, now under investigation for insider
trading and stock manipulation at the PSE. Dacer reportedly got hold of the
documents when Tan engaged in his services at the height of the probe being conducted
by PSE and SEC.
18
June 2001: Villanueva,
one of the accused, filed a Motion for Reinvestigation asserting that he was
mistakenly identified as a participant in the murder. He says that a certain
SPO3 Allan Cadenilla Villanueva is the participant.
1
July 2001: Members of
PAOCTF Cezar Mancao II and Michael Ray Aquino flee to Hong Kong and then to
America.
2
August 2001: The NBI
files a new complaint with the Department of Justice (DOJ) against a new
suspect by name of P/Supt. Teofilo Viña, also a member of the PAOCTF.
17
September 2001: A
Manifestation and Motion to Admit Amended Information was filed by the
prosecution to discharge the following from accused to state
witness: Jimmy and William Lopez, Alex Diloy and Glen Dumlao. The accused
SPO3 Allan Villanueva will be replaced by P/Insp. Danilo Villanueva.
The
following would be charged as additional suspects: P/Supt. Michael Ray
Aquino, P/Supt. Cezar Mancao II and P/Sr. Supt. Teofilo Viña.
28
September 2001: The
discharge of accused Dumlao, Diloy and Lopez brothers is denied by the Supreme
Court.
1
October 2001: The Manila
RTC denies the Motion to Admit Amended Information.
14
January 2002: The Senate
Committee on Ethics and Privileges recommends the dismissal of the request
letter submitted by Atty. Jesus Crispin Remulla and Ronald Lumbao, spokesperson
of the People's Movement Against Poverty (PMAP) for an investigation into the
alleged involvement of Senator Renato Cayetano in the trading and manipulation
of shares of stocks of BW Resource Corp.
7
January 2003: Teofilo
Viña, one of the suspects, is gunned down in Tanza, Cavite by Medar Cruz.
Motive of killing is not established. Cruz is a balikbayan from Virginia,
United States.
3
May 2003: Dumlao issues
an affidavit that states the government is pressuring him to pin down members
of the opposition, noting Lacson, in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case.
Dumlao then flees to America.
4
June 2003: Dante Tan
flees to Australia.
6
June 2003: Australia’s
Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock is saying that Australian police does not
have the authority to stop Tan from leaving the Australia for they did not
receive any extradition request from the Philippines. Australia’s Labor Party
is questioning Ruddock’s intervention in the renewal of Tan’s visa in 2001 was
linked to a A$10,000 donation he made to Ruddock’s election campaign previous
month.
7
March 2005: Aquino is
arrested for overstaying his tourist visa.
5
October 2005: The Supreme
Court discharges Dumlao as accused.
13
March 2006: The Court of
Appeals affirms DOJ’s filing of criminal charges against Dante Tan.
28
April 2006: The Manila
Regional Trial court issues arrest warrants against Mancao and Aquino.
Mancao
is arrested as a material witness against Aquino in an espionage case filed
against the latter by the US government, but he is released on bail. Leandro
Aragoncillo, former US Marine who was military aide to US vice presidents Dick
Cheney and Al Gore, reportedly gave Aquino documents downloaded from FBI
computers concerning observations on the political situation in Philippines.
20
December 2006: The Court
of Appeals junks the petition for certiorari filed by the accused Aquino due to
a technicality. The CA dismisses Aquino’s petition because it carries only the
signature of Bayani Loste, his counsel.
17
July 2007: Aquino pleads
guilty to unauthorized possession of US Department of Defense documents. These
documents are to be allegedly transmitted to opposition leaders in the
Philippines.
November
2007: Manila judge issues
arrest warrant against Dumlao.
21
November 2007: The Pasig
RTC absolves Dante Tan, Frederico Galang, Eduardo Lim Jr., Hermogenes Laddaran,
Raul de Castro, Emmanuel Edward Co, Mario Juan and Jimmy Juan from criminal
prosecution in relation to the BW Scandal in 1999.
3
April 2008: The Manila
Regional Trial court accuses the following for the Dacer-Corbito double murder
case: 1) PSSupt. Michael Ray B. Aquino, 2) PSSupt. Cezar O. Mancao II, 3)
Teofilo Viña,, 4) SPO2 Allan Cadenillo Villanueva, 5) SPO4 Marino Soberano, 6)
SPO3 Mauro Torres, 7) SPO3 Jose Escalante, 8) Crisostomo M. Purificacion, 9)
Digo de Pedro, 10) Renato Malabanan, 11) Jovencio Malabanan, 12) Margarito
Cueno, 13) Rommel Rollan, 14) PC/Insp. Vicente Arnado, 15) P/Insp. Roberto
Langcauon, 16) SPO4 Benjamin Taladlua, 17) SPO1 Rolando Lacasandile, 18) SPO1
Mario Sarmiento, 19) SPO1 William Reed, 20) PO2 Thomas J. Sarmiento, Jr., 21)
SPO1 Ruperto A. Nemenio.
23
April 2008: An electronic
copy of the memo Dacer was supposed to give to Ramos in the night of his
abduction surfaces under the name of F. Pancho Villaraza, a lawyer known to be
a close adviser of President Arroyo. The memo contains proof of Tan
transferring 300,000 shares of stocks to Sen. Lacson and three other parties.
14
July 2008: Presidential
Management Staff Chief Cerge Remonde told Sen. Lacson that his position in
public office does not guarantee him immunity from any criminal suit.
August
2008: Prosecutors of the
Dacer-Corbito case wrap up presenting their evidence along with testimonies of
12 witnesses. Ten accused and in custody begin to give their defense.
11
August 2008: Lacson says
that the Office of the Ombudsman is investigating him. It started as a
lifestyle check and slowly turned into a drive linking him to the murder of
Dacer.
24
September 2008:
Philippine Government files extradition for Mancao.
Assistant
United States Attorney Jennifer Keene and Lurana S. Snow, a United States
Magistrate Judge signed extradition complaint against Mancao.
20
November 2008: The US
immigration agents arrest Dumlao outside his New York apartment. Mancao is
arrested in Pembroke Pines, Florida.
Justice
Secretary Raul Gonzalez says that the Philippines requested for the extradition
of Mancao and Dumlao.
US
authorities, according to Gonzalez, have to determine whether Mancao and Dumlao
have pending arrest warrants in the US. They will not be deported to the
Philippines if they do.
22
November 2008: The US
Department of Justice approves Philippine government’s request to extradite
Aquino, Dumlao and Mancao to be tried for the murder of Dacer and Corbito.
24
November 2008: Schedule
for Dumlao arraignment on December 5 is set.
Anti-crime
advocates plead, “Don’t let the Bubby Dacer case go the way of the
Aquino-Galman double murder case,” during a prayer vigil marking the eighth
anniversary of the disappearance of Dacer and Corbito.
1
December 2008: The US
Department of Justice announces the extradition of Aquino, Dumlao and Mancao
back to the Philippines.
5
December 2008: Dumlao’s
arraignment reset for December 8.
8
December 2008: Dumlao’s
arraignment reset for December 9.
9
December 2008: District
Court Judge Katherine Tomlinson in New York rules to grant Philippine
government’s request of extradition against Dumlao.
10
December 2008: United
States Magistrate Judge Tomlinson signs Dumlao's Certification of
Extraditability and Order of Commitment.
11
December 2008: Dumlao
weighs his options: whether he will appeal or not for his extradition to the
Philippines.
27
December 2008: Justice
Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor announces that a special task force formed by
NBI agents will pick up Dumlao and Mancao once they are extradited. Blancaflor
says that both might be back on March 2009.
3
February 2009: Roberto
Nardoza, Spokesman of US Attorney’s Office in New York, announces Dumlao’s move
to the Southern District of Florida to testify in Mancao’s extradition hearing.
10
February 2009: Snow sets
a new extradition hearing date for Mancao originally scheduled February 12 to
March 11, 11 a.m.
14
February 2009: Mancao
signs an affidavit containing details about the abduction and murder of Dacer
and Corbito in Broward County, Florida.
3
March 2009: Snow signs
Mancao's Certification of Extraditability and Order of Commitment.
4
March 2009: Atty.
Demetrio Custodio, lawyer of the Dacer family, says that Mancao is willing to
tell all he knows about the Dacer and Corbito killings.
Carina
Dacer meets with Mancao at his extradition hearing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Mancao agrees to reveal key suspects, including the mastermind, in her father’s
murder.
5
March 2009: Carina Dacer
accuses Lacson of obstruction of justice for keeping Mancao’s whereabouts
hidden from the authorities. Carina says that Lacson talked to Mancao September
2008. Lacson says that his talk with Mancao in September 2008 was to only tell
him to stick to the truth. Lacson adds that Major Gen. Romeo Prestoza made a
phone call to Mancao offering to reinstate and promote Mancao in the PNP in
exchange of implicating the senator in the Dacer-Corbito killings.
Custodio
says that Mancao will no longer appeal his extradition.
Justice
Secretary Gonzalez says that Mancao can be state witness as long as he
volunteers information about the mastermind in the Dacer-Corbito killings.
Executive
Secretary Eduardo Ermita says that Philippine authorities will provide security
for Mancao. Ermita denies Lacson’s claim that Malacañang has been pressuring
Mancao since 2008 to implicate Lacson since he is a part of the opposition.
6
March 2009: Lacson
insists that he and Mancao were not involved in the Dacer-Cobito muder.
Former
president Estrada says he has nothing to do with the killings, recalling their
friendship and strong ties.
Cabinet
Secretary Silvestre Bello III tells media to stop speculating contents of
Mancao’s affidavit.
Custodio
says that Mancao will be extradited to the Philippines in less than three
weeks. Mancao says that he wanted to shorten extradition process because he’s
itching to authenticate his affidavit.
9
March 2009: Gonzalez says
that Mancao’s affidavit mentioned names of government officials involved in the
Dacer-Corbito double murder case. Gonzalez does not specify whether the
named government officials are incumbent or not.
Secretary
Gonzalez says that Mancao’s affidavit is now kept in a bank vault because he is
worried his office might get ransacked. He says that it contains information
that will unmask the mastermind of Dacer’s murder. Gonzalez says that Mancao is
linking a lot of high-stature, powerful officials.
13
March 2009: Sec. Gonzalez
says that two civilians came forward claiming knowledge of the Dacer-Corbito
double murder case.
Department
of Transportation and Communication Undersecretary Reynaldo Berroya, also PNP
Intelligence Group at the time of Dacer’s murder, tells inquirer.net that Sen.
Lacson’s camp was scared that Dacer would expose documents Lacson earning
billions from stock market manipulation.
Berroya
says that Dumlao told him before that the killing could not have taken place
without the knowledge of Lacson. Berroya is saying that Estrada was not
mentioned in the killings, and he does not think it is in his character to
order a hit.
Berroya
says that Dumlao told him that the former was also a target of an assassination
plot in Capitol Golf Club in Quezon City last 2000; this information is
confirmed by Sec. Gonzalez. Gonzalez claims this is in the affidavit of Mancao.
15
March 2009: Contents of
Mancao’s affidavit are leaked by anonymous sources to Philippine Star columnist
Tony Calvento. Mancao names Sen. Lacson as the mastermind of the
Dacer-Corbito double murder case, Calvento says. The sources, according to
Calvento, reveal that Mancao was present when then-chief of PNP and
concurrently PAOCTF head Lacson gave hit order on Dacer to Aquino. Lacson,
according to the sources, was looking for US properties of first gentleman Jose
Miguel Arroyo in hopes to discredit the administration.
Sec.
Gonzalez says there is nothing in the affidavit of Mancao that will strongly
point former president Estrada as the mastermind of the Dacer-Corbito murder
case.
16
March 2009: Gonzalez
disputes the news report leaking the “contents” of Mancao's affidavit, “the
affidavit of Mancao is with me and I know the contents and I can assure you
that these statements about the order of Lacson to dig dirt on the First
Gentleman never appear in the affidavit.” Gonzales says the reporter may be
referring to a former affidavit issued by Mancao, not the one signed February
14.
Dumlao
claims that Berroya and former military intelligence officer Victor Corpuz
forced him to write his 2003 affidavit linking Sen. Lacson to the double murder
case.
17
March 2009: Gonzalez
announces that Dumlao is scheduled to be extradited to the Philippines on or
before March 19, 2009.
Calvento
says he will resign if his report is proven wrong. Dacer's daughter Carina is
saying that the report on Mancao's affidavit is accurate.
18
March 2009: Mancao urges
the government to declare him state witness and ensure his protection. His
attorney refuses to reveal the contents of his affidavit as Mancao wants the
public to wait for his statement.
Dacer
family lawyer Atty. Demetrio Custodio, who claims to have seen Mancao's
affidavit, tells the press that it jibes with the contents of Dumlao's
affidavit. Custodio says the Dacer family is studying their options whether to
reopen the case or file an entirely new case.
Department
of Justice State Prosecutor Phillip Kimpo clarifies that Dumlao issued three
affidavits: 1) Linking Aquino, Mancao and other high officials with the name
"71" to the double murder case, 2) In 2003, claimed that he was
forced to link Sen. Lacson to the murder case, and 3) the latest one, which was
executed while his extradition was already being processed, affirms the
authenticity of his first affidavit.
19
March 2009: Dumlao
cancels his flight back to Manila. NBI agents in the Los Angeles airport
assigned to bring him back report to Sec. Gonzalez that Dumlao will petition
for his right to the writ of habeas corpus and the writ of injunction. Gonzalez
suspects a conspiracy behind Dumlao's petition against his extradition. “I will
be forced to release Mancao's statement if this continues,” Gonzalez said.
20
March 2009: Dumlao's
lawyer Felix Vinluan says in a radio interview with Ted Failon that the reason
for Dumlao's petition against his extradition was that he was tortured to
implicate Sen. Lacson and former president Estrada
Philippine
Daily Inquirer releases contents of Mancao's affidavit signed February 14, 2009
from a government official who does not want to be named. In another article, a
letter was found in Dacer’s office, written on Malacañang letterhead and
addressed to Tan, demanding Tan to turnover Estrada's BW stocks amounting to P500 million.
Mancao
states in his affidavit that in the early part of 2000, he found out that
Aquino was utilizing some of his personnel in PAOCTF task force Luzon for
Aquino’s “special operations,” pertaining to operations that do not follow
normal channels of command, without his knowledge. Dacer, whom they referred to
as “DELTA,” was the target of the special operations.
Mancao
says Aquino told him that the special operations were “approved and cleared by
Lacson and Malacañang itself.” He claims in the affidavit that Lacson gave him
direct orders to cover up the murder immediate after Dacer and Corbito were
killed.
Senator
Lacson maintains that he does not have anything to do with the Dacer-Corbito
double murder case. He says it was Malacañang frame-up.
Other
contents of Mancao’s affidavit:
“After
winning the election as senator of the Republic of the Philippines in the May
2001 elections, LACSON called AQUINO and myself to a meeting in a house
somewhere in Greenhills, San Juan, Metro Manila. In that meeting, LACSON
instructed both of us to leave the country since the new administration would
surely go after us and link us in the DACER-CORBITO double murder case, among
others, in order to destroy his reputation and presidential ambition. He
assured us that he will take care of both of us and will continue to give us
our monthly allowance. I can vividly remember LACSON’S words: ‘Kailangang
umalis na kayo sa bansa dahil si Glenn nagbigay na ng statement, and
Kuratong Baleleng case ay binuhay, at posibleng gagawa yan ng iba pang mga
kaso. Huwag kayong mag-alala, ako ang bahala sa inyo.’ (You need to leave
the country because Glenn already gave a statement, and the Kuratong Baleleng
case is revived, and it is possible that they will file more cases. Don’t
worry, I will have you covered.) At that time, the burnt remains and belongings
of DACER and CORBITO had been recovered from a creek somewhere in Indang,
Cavite; some of the perpetrators had even confessed to the killing; and the
case was already being investigated by the Department of Justice.”
“On
July 1, 2001, I followed LACSON’s instructions for me to leave the country for
the United States. I rendezvous with AQUINO in Hong Kong and from there we
proceeded to the United States via San Francisco. LACSON made arrangements for
our stay at Harrold Hicks’ friend’s house in Daly City; Hicks is a former
enlisted man who worked under LACSON. However, before I left the country, I was
made to sign a Counter-Affidavit in the then pending preliminary investigation
concerning the abduction and death of DACER and CORBITO before the Department
of Justice. The Counter-Affidavit contained for the most part, strong denials
of my supposed knowledge or participation in the DACER-CORBITO operations as
narrated by DUMLAO in a handwritten affidavit. I was constrained to sign the
same despite knowing that some of the allegations were actually true, in order
to save my neck and in the hope that I will be exonerated therefrom.”
“In
September 2001, I decided to settle in the state of Florida, while AQUINO
settled in the state of New Jersey. I have lived in Florida since then and
never went back to the Philippines. In the meanwhile, LACSON repeatedly
traveled to the U.S. from October 2001 up to September 2003 and met with us in
all of these occasions; he also did not fail to reimburse our plane fares and
other expenses.”
Former
president Estrada, referred to as “BIGOTE” in Mancao’s affidavit and was
“irked” by Dacer, says that Mancao’s statement is really an attempt to
discredit him. In an interview on ANC’s On the Scene, Estrada says “The
government is afraid of my continued popularity. Hindi pa nga ako
nagdi-deklara na tatakbo ako para sa pagkapresidente sa 2010, takot na sila.
(I have not yet declared if I am running for president in 2010, they are
already afraid.)”
24
March 2009: Carina Dacer,
daughter of Dacer, says that Lacson sent her a text message saying he is not
involved in the murder of Bubby Dacer. “A text message is not a signed
affidavit,” she says. Carina tells government officials to stop making the
death of his father about the presidential race in 2010.
Dumlao’s
lawyer Vinluan says that the DOJ had misinterpreted the SC decision on October
5, 2005 that excluded Dumlao as an accused.
Press
Secretary Cerge Remonde says that it was intriguing how Dumlao managed to post
a $100,000 when he had no means to raise the money on his own.
The
Dacer family files a formal complaint against Sen. Lacson for the murders of
Dacer and Corbito. Dacer’s four daughters execute an affidavit directly
accusing Lacson of masterminding the killings. Sen. Lacson reiterates that he
had nothing to do with the killings of Dacer and Corbito.
31
March 2009: Vicente
Arnado, former police chief inspector of the defunct PAOCTF and also a suspect
in the Dacer-Corbito murder case, is still hiding in the US and has yet to be
arrested, unlike Mancao, Dumlao and Aquino. DOJ will soon move for the arrest
and extradition of Arnado.
13
April 2009: The Court of
Appeals orders the criminal prosecution of Dante Tan, Frederico Galang, Eduardo
Lim Jr., Hermogenes Laddaran, Raul de Castro, Emmanuel Edward Co, Mario Juan
and Jimmy Juan for the insider trading and stock price manipulation of BW
Resources Corp. in 1999.
22
April 2009: The Supreme
Court rules that the BW criminal charge against Tan to proceed. Justice Minita
V. Chico-Nazario penned the decision to uphold the CA ruling to reinstate
criminal case no. 119830 against Tan.
3
June 2009: Mancao is
turned over to NBI officials at the Los Angeles International Airport. Mancao
flies back to Manila via Philippine Airlines flight number PR 103.
4
June 2009: Mancao is back
in Manila.
The Rizal Day bombings rocked Metro Manila on 30 December 2000. Bombs exploded in
five separate places almost simultaneously, claiming lives of at least 22
persons and injuring more than a hundred.
The
Erap impeachment trial was on an 11-day Christmas break and would resume in 3
days. When it adjourned on 22 December 2000, the Senate Tribunal heard the
testimony of Equitable-PCI Bank Senior Vice President Clarissa Ocampo. She told
the court that Erap on February 9, 1999, signed as “Jose Velarde” on documents
related to the opening of a trust account with her bank in her presence.
This
book has deemed it important to mention the Dacer-Corbito murders and the Rizal
Day bombings because madness of this kind, claiming even more innocent lives,
would continue to rock the GMA government.
Some
of the publicized cases included the 4 March 2003 Davao Airport bombing that
killed 21 people and injured more than a hundred more people; the 2 April 2003
Sasa Wharf, also in Davao City, bombing, killing 16 and injuring 46 people; the
19 October 2007 Glorietta 2 in Makati City bombing, killing 11 and injuring
more than a hundred people; the 13 November 2007 Batasan Pambansa bombing that
killed 6 and injured 12 people.
While
government had been quick to tag Muslim radicals as suspects in these and many
other atrocities, others believed, as discussed earlier, that these seemingly
false-flag incidents were carried out to divert media and public attention from
controversies in which government officials were involved.
The
GMA government had proven itself to be as scandal-ridden as the one it
succeeded; it hobbled under the weight of--to name a few examples--the
fertilizer fund scam, the “Hello Garci” scandal, the NBN-ZTE bribery scandal,
among other controversies.
Attempts
to impeach GMA became a hobby and Malacañang, when facing really serious
threats, variably responded with either bribe offers of out-sized congressional
pork barrel funds, if not outright cash, or counter threats.
In
October 2007, then Pampanga Governor Ed Panlilio said he received a bag
containing P500,000 after he attended a
meeting in Malacañang.
On
August 18, 2003, Ping Lacson, who was now Senator of the Philippines, accused
in a privilege speech then First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo “of money
laundering for supposedly siphoning off at least P321 million in campaign funds and contributions to a secret bank
account under the fictitious name Jose Pidal and three other accounts using the
names of his aides.”
Lacson
went into hiding in January 2010 before an arrest warrant--having been charged
as mastermind of the Dacer-Corbito murders--could be issued to him. All
throughout, the senator had insisted he was innocent of the charge and
maintained that political harassment by the GMA government was his main reason for
hiding.
To
be fair, crime and corruption have not been a monopoly of the Erap and GMA
governments.[2]
If an evolution of government dysfunctions could be traced, one would probably
see them in times as old as the Magdalo and Katipunan
conflicts. Walden Bello, in a February
2001 essay that broke down what was in store of the GMA presidency, took note
of the creeping corruption that debased government’s capacity for checking
crime. Excerpts:
“Also
volatile in its consequences was the massive expansion of the security forces
amid economic stagnation. The result was the proliferation of thousands of
low-paid condottieri who hired themselves out to local and national
politicians. By the end of the Marcos regime, not a few officers had discovered
that their command over men and firepower could be translated into successful
entrepreneurship in the form of kidnapping the rich--especially rich
Chinese--for ransom. Why, they reasoned, should this extremely profitable
business be left to petty gangsters? Indeed, when regular gangsters sought to
organize independently of the military and police, they found out the hard way
that the men in uniform would brook no competition. Some observers contend that
this was the significance of the total liquidation of a Jesse James-like
outfit, the Kuratong Baleleng Gang, while under government custody in 1995, an
operation carried out by security elites closely associated with then-Vice
President Estrada.
“From
a sociological point of view, the most interesting item to come out of the
revelations of Singson is that the main project of the Estrada administration
was to centralize crime under the presidency. Under Estrada, the most
profitable criminal activities, like jueteng, were to be rationalized,
with a bureaucracy stretching from the president to the smallest jueteng
collector, paralleling and intertwining at key points with the formal hierarchy
of government. What was exposed in the jueteng scandal was probably only
the tip of the iceberg. Many Filipinos are convinced that the worlds of
prostitution, drugs and kidnapping were on their way to becoming equally
centralized. Had the Estrada project not been disrupted, the president would
have become the apex of both the state and the underworld. This was the real
“Erap Revolution” –and Filipinos, particularly the middle class, had thought
the man was stupid!
“The
state-mafia nexus is the reason that many people in this country who felt
Estrada should go expressed hesitations when it came to the question of
succession. At the onset of the current crisis, Vice President Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo left the president's Cabinet and called for Estrada's resignation. She
did not, however, meet with enthusiastic support. The biggest apprehension
stemmed from her political and personal ties to Bong Pineda, one of the
country's top gambling lords, from whom Singson collected jueteng proceeds
meant for Estrada. In fact, she was the main sponsor at the wedding of one of
Pineda's children, and such ritual kinship in this country bespeaks close
personal ties. Arroyo was also accused, like Estrada, of concealing her net
worth by not declaring her ownership of property in San Francisco worth $4.6
million. So, not surprisingly, many feared that the country would be getting
rid of Estrada only to deliver the presidency to somebody who might be equally
compromised with crime.”
[1] Source: https://youtu.be/PQdHzhseX0o
[2] For example, the administration that
succeeded GMA’s, under the leadership of President Benigno Aquino III, was also
graft and scandal ridden, but any reference to it, unless related to the main
issue which Chavit brought up against Erap, should be out of this book’s reach.
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