Ang Galing ni Mikey
REP. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo of the second district of Pampanga gave up his re-election bid in favor of his mother, President Gloria Arroyo, who has made an unprecedented move of an outgoing president running for a congressional seat.
But it doesn’t mean Mikey will be out of the House of Representatives.
It has been reported that Mikey is the first nominee of ” Ang Galing Pinoy,” the party-list group registered as representing the marginalized tricycle drivers and security guards.
Tonette Orejas, Pampanga correspondent of The Philippine Daily Inquirer, sent us this photo with a note: “The name of ‘Ang Galing Pinoy’ has been on the tarpaulin of the Lakas-Kampi in Pampanga long before Mikey told reporters he was ‘invited’ as a nominee of various party list groups.”
Si Juan Tamad, ang diablo at ang 5 milyong boto
A REVIEW of the PETA play on voter education by Ateneo’s Marc Peter Baluyan. Baluyan is a student of VERA Files trustee Luz Rimban.
Two wounded in Abra ambush
By ARTHA KIRA PAREDES
TWO people were wounded in an ambush in Abra early morning yesterday, one of them a political supporter of Bangued Mayor Dominic Valera.
Robert Villastique, 38, and his live-in partner, Ofelia Garcia, 40, were on board a motorcycle when they were shot at in Sitio Sukib, Barangay Lubong in Bangued around 8:30 a.m.
Villastique sustained gunshot wounds in his shoulder and abdomen and Garcia in the back, according to Abra Provincial Director Police Senior Superintendent Ernesto Gaab. Garcia remains in critical condition.
Ampatuans will miss Pacquiao-Clottey match
By ELLEN TORDESILLAS
WHEN Filipino boxing hero Manny Pacquiao faces Joshua Clottey of Ghana in the ring on Sunday (Saturday in the U.S.) in Texas to defend his welterweight crown, the Ampatuan clan won’t be in the audience at the Dallas Cowboys stadium to cheer him like in his past fights.
Twelve prominent members of the powerful family, which counts among Pacquiao’s biggest patrons and fans, and 16 of their relatives have been implicated in the Nov. 23 massacre in Maguindanao and are either detained or at large.
Of the 12, Andal Ampatuan Jr., mayor of Datu Unsay town, is being held at the National Bureau of Investigation in Manila on charges of masterminding the multiple murders. The patriarch, former Maguindanao governor Andal Sr., is confined in a military hospital in Davao City, while his sons Zaldy, Anwar and Sajid, and brother-in-law Akmad “Tato” Ampatuan Sr. are detained at the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in General Santos City on charges of rebellion and multiple murder.
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The long arm of the Ampatuans
By ELLEN TORDESILLAS
EVEN in detention, Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. of Datu Unsay town in Maguindanao continues to issue orders to kill those he suspects would expose his role in the Nov. 23 massacre, a former hitman of the Ampatuans revealed Tuesday.
In an interview with reporters, “Jesse” (not his real name) said around four days after Andal Jr., also known as “Datu Unsay,” was taken into custody by the National Bureau of Investigation in Manila, his cousin and best friend, Datu Kanor, received a call from him ordering that his driver, Tanto, be killed for being “careless.”
Jesse heard Andal Jr. mention his name to do the hit. (Read “Confessions of a Hitman” in First Person.)
Jesse said reports had reached Andal Jr. that Tanto, who had witnessed the massacre but did not participate in the killing, would not stay put in their designated hiding place.
Confessions of a hitman
Jesse (not his real name), a trusted henchman of the Ampatuans, narrates his role in the Nov. 23 massacre and subsequent coverup in the following account:
I DID not have any opportunity to study. My family was poor and my father farmed land that was not his. I only reached grade one. I could neither read nor write.
But I grew up in a town where guns were a fact of life. Guns were prized highly in the community. I learned to use a gun at an early age. For the most part, and because I could not have any gainful employment for being unschooled, I hung around in the neighborhood or played basketball.
But I was tough. People told me that. Perhaps, it was this quality that caught Datu Unsay Ampatuan’s attention.
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Mikey fixes Foster City problem–but not quite
By ELLEN TORDESILLAS, AVIGAIL OLARTE, YVONNE CHUA and LUZ RIMBAN
THE controversial $1.32-million house at 1655 Beach Park Blvd in Foster City, California is no longer listed in the name of presidential daughter-in-law Angela Arroyo Montenegro, wife of First Son and Pampanga representative Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo.
Arroyo lawyers and associates quietly reported the transfer of the property to the name of Beachway LLC on Sept. 18, 2009, nearly three weeks after VERA Files reported Arroyo’s failure to declare the property in his 2007 and 2008 Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Networth (SALN).
But in their attempt to cure the problems in the property’s ownership records, the lawyers and associates overlooked the fact that they were reporting a transaction two years late, and inadvertently also drawing attention to Arroyo’s failure to report the property in his July 2007 SALN.
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Gibo surges in survey by poll firm owned by Arroyo allies
By RAISSA ROBLES
CLOSE allies of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo are behind the new polling firm StratPOLLS Inc., which recently showed administration candidate Gilberto Teodoro surging dramatically in its recent survey of presidential candidates.
Aware of the power of surveys to sway voters come election day, Congress enacted the Fair Election Act in 2001 to require polling firms to be more transparent. Last week, however, the Commission on Elections issued new rules that appear to weaken and in effect amend that section of the Fair Election Act on surveys (see Comelec makes surveys less transparent).
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