To this day, knowing that they have the Arroyo-friendly and manipulated media on their side, special chief prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio, along with Chavit Singson, continues to try the case against Erap and convict him via the media and make too many media statements that are not, however, backed up by court records.

Faced with copies of official documents presented by the accused Estrada that show the many cases of Chavit's diversion of the province's tobacco excise tax as early as 1997, when Estrada was not even president, Villa-Ignacio told reporters that Erap's testimony Wednesday was irrelevant to the case, while adding it was an "I don't know anything" testimony.

Anyone who checks on the trial's transcript can see for himself that Villa-Ignacio and his prosecution team failed to prove their charges against Estrada, and would as well see the many perjured testimonies of the prosecution's star witness and his manufactured witnesses.

Predictably, Chavit held a press conference to deny Erap's statements in open court, saying this was being done to destroy his credibility; that those 11 cases against him investigated by the National Bureau of Investigation and Commission on Audit (CoA) were ordered by Erap to pressure him into not testifying against the detained leader in 2000, among other denials, such as the claim that he never said he delivered P130 million to Estrada. It was only P70 million since he alleged that Loi got P20 million. This was said to debunk Erap's testimony that the P130 million, as shown through a reenactment at the central bank, could not have possibly fitted into the four boxes, whose measurements were given by Chavit himself.

In his affidavit, Chavit claimed that he and Charlie Atong Ang delivered the P130 million, giving Loi Estrada P15 million and son Jinggoy P5 million while handing Erap P70 million, who, he said even got mad and questioned why it was only P70 million.

Chavit's math is all shot, since P70 million and P20 million make P90 million, on the basis of P1,000 bills, which the central bank pointed out was already an impossibility, since at that specific time and year, no bank would have in its vault, all P1,000 bills. Still P90 million in P1,000 bills would not fit into these four boxes. It would have to have been a mix of P500 and P1,000 bills, which amount would definitely not fit into the four boxes. And witnesses to this at the central bank premises were the Sandiganbayan justices themselves.

Or is Chavit now saying he gave Erap P50 million and Loi P20 million, in which case, he is still caught lying as his own affidavit says otherwise.

But how does Chavit explain the fact that the CoA audits already showed Chavit's pattern of siphoning off the tobacco tax since 1997? How does his claim of "special ops" for Erap fit into the picture?

And there is too the fact that the CoA provincial auditor, Agustin Chan, whom Chavit asked Erap to be transferred elsewhere and who was then following up on the audit papers of the tobacco tax funds, was ambushed, with his and his driver's bodies riddled with bullets.

It is to be noted that when this murder occurred, Gloria Arroyo never denounced this and never even directed the police — to quote her oft-repeated refrain — to leave no stone unturned. To this day, the cops have yet to "solve" the cases.

Chan's widow, Evelyn, pointed to Chavit as the brains behind her husband's murder. But who is to ensure that Chavit gets jailed? Surely not Gloria and her goons as they must continue to protect Chavit as he may turn against her and spill the beans.

But there was Chavit, whom a US district judge called a "demonstrably corrupt provincial governor" claiming that the murder of Chan benefited Erap. Come again, Chavit? Chan was slated to be one of the major witnesses for the defense in the plunder trial. He was doing an audit on the tobacco excise tax funds as well as the many anomalies in the Ilocos Sur provincial government. Who else would benefit from Chan's death?

As things stand, at least eight cases of well-documented cases of plunder were filed against Chavit before the Ombudsman, then headed by Gloria's lawyer, Simeon Marcelo, who quickly dismissed them, claiming that Chavit has been granted immunity. Hello. Those plunder charges were different from the claimed P130-million tobacco tax Chavit said he delivered to Erap. These were raps culled from his 1997 to 2001 tax fund diversions, amounting to over P1.4 billion.

Is Chavit now immune from any and all charges — whether murder or plunder of public funds?

But there was Chavit and his sidekick Villa-Ignacio claiming before the media that these were all denials and that their case was solid against Erap, not to mention their claims that Chavit Singson's credibility cannot be impeached by the defense.

What credibility are they talking about? It is an oxymoron to equate credibility with a "emonstrably corrupt" official.

Appearing before the graduates of the police academy, Gloria Arroyo was again wooing the police and reminding them that it was under her presidency that she had raised their salaries and also allocated some 400 hectares in San Miguel, Bulacan, for their housing.

At the same time, she reminded the police, in that graduation speech of hers, that while they are to be the officers of the 3,000 police recruits, they have been banned by the Supreme Court (SC) from exercising their right to free speech and expression, as they carry arms and therefore no longer have that right.

Then she says their loyalty to the nation was paramount and that their mandate was to stamp out criminality, terrorism and — that word again — destabilizers.

That seems to always be on her mind, which makes anyone conclude that she continues to be plagued by the nightmare of her being ousted in the same fashion she ousted Joseph Estrada, despite claims by her Palace aides that she is not distracted by destabilizers, whom they have yet to identify.

As she put it, quoting from Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade: "Theirs is not to question, why, theirs is just to do and die.¡±

In other words, what her message to her police, as well as her military, is that they must stay by her and no one else, because she has done much for them, and will do even more for them. And that they have no other choice but to obey her orders and not question them — even when they are patently illegal.

But if she is in control of her Armed Forces, and if, as she claims, the military and police are a professional force, why bother to woo them, and even remind them of their duty and mandate, and even remind them that they have given up their right to free speech and expression?

Obviously, neither she nor her generals are in control of the situation in the entire Armed Forces of the country and up to this time, she still does not know how deep the fissure is and even how "loyal" to her they are.

Still, no matter how much she reminds them of that SC rule saying that, as soldiers bear arms, they lose their right to free speech, it is also a fact that the SC, in 2001, legitimizing her power-grab, also made the withdrawal of support by the military and the police as legal and constitutional, with the ponente even pointing out that this was an exercise of free expression.

Former AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Angelo Reyes and his service commanders then, when they withdrew support from Estrada, were therefore not doing anything illegal or constitutional, so the SC claimed.

Besides, Gloria cannot get away from the fact that even as she tells the military and police graduates that their duty is to be loyal to the Constitution and the ¡°nation¡± and that they should not question her orders but that they should just obey them, she was in the thick of the power grab and staged a coup against Estrada. From where then does she get the moral and legal authority to preach to the police and military about loyalty to the Constitution and fealty to the chain of command, since she herself proved disloyal to the Constitution and worked to have the military chain of command breached?

This will always be a problem with her, made worse by the fact that she is largely seen as having cheated her way to the presidency twice over.

What she and her loyal generals are doing, by way of telling the troops that they must be insulated from politics and that never again should they even think of withdrawing support from their Commander-in-Chief or even breach the chain of command, and for them to become a professional force is to bring to fore their own violation of the Charter and the breach of the command chain.

The truth is, Gloria and her loyal generals cannot be expected to professionalize the military, precisely because they themselves have prostituted the police and the military and engaged them in partisan politics. They who broke the rules cannot now be in any position to direct the insulation of the military from politics. They who destabilized and mounted a coup against a legitimate and constitutional government cannot now point to political foes as being the destabilizers of her government and must be eliminated by the police and military.

In time, even her loyal but prostituted generals will know they can¡¯t stop that which is fated for Gloria and for them.

Notice that there is not one single government agency that is moving to file charges against the infamous Virgilio "Garci" Garcillano. It is the members of the opposition bloc who do.

Yet the crimes committed by Garci are numerous and against different government agencies.

Take the House of Representatives, or even just the five committees that investigated the wiretapped "Hello Garci" tapes.

There is no doubt that Garci lied, and lied big under oath, as did the Palace mouthpiece Ignacio Bunye, as did the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines officials and agents, as did the National Bureau of Investigation chief and others.

Yet not one administration congressman moved to cite them — especially Garci — in contempt — the least of the sanctions that can be applied.

Even as it was evident that the passport Garci submitted to the House committees was a fake, as this was already pointed out by the minority bloc even before the central bank examined it, the administration House allies did nothing, with one of them even claiming that as Garci's passport showed he did not leave the country, then it must be ruled that he never left the country — and this despite the existence of a note verbale from the Singapore government that indeed, Garcillano entered Singapore on board a Subic Air plane, and departed for London, providing even the aircraft and flight number of Garci.

All these five committees stated was that there was little cooperation given by the witnesses and while they did state that there were signs of a cover-up, they also made sure that they included the usual attempts at destabilization through the issuance of the Hello Garci tapes.

Now how did these committees come to this conclusion without any evidence of it, but could not come up with the conclusion that Garci and the others lied through their teeth even as there was clear evidence of this?

Still, having been found to have been lying and faking not just his story, but also his passport, the House never moved to file charges against Garci, and the lapdogs of Gloria only thought was to protect Gloria by saying Malacanang had no hand in it.

Neither did the Department of Foreign Affairs make any move to charge Garci, even when its officials knew that the passport was a fake before the central bank findings. The DFA had in its possession and which it did not quickly provide the House, the note verbale which the DFA officials certainly knew was accurate and specific, by way of the information contained. There was no effort to help get at the truth by the DFA. And it did not even move to file charges against Garci, even as it was the logical entity to sue Garcillano, as the passport act mandates. And when the minority on its individual capacity filed the case, the DFA claimed it was no longer going to sue as a case has already been filed.

As for the Bureau of Immigration, or the Aviation agency, there was also no move to charge Garci and his cohorts when there were enough violations committed. Even the pilot and crew of Subic Air suddenly disappeared into thin air.

And was there ever any probe done by Malacanang when reports were out that Public Works chief Hermogenes Ebdane and the PSG and police kept Garci hidden and spirited him away to Singapore? No such thing. All Malacanang claimed was that Garci was no longer its business as he is no longer connected with the government. So was there a probe on Ebdane and the cops with him who sneaked Garci out of the country? Ebdane is still in government, as his goons are. Why not a probe then?

There was that charge that a Criminal Investigation and Detection Group official, Sr. Supt. Asher Dolina, was in charge of "fixing" the fake passport of Garci and that he was seen by a witness to have handed the faked passport to Garci at his Bicutan hideout while he was scheduled to testify before the House. Was there a move by Malacanang and even the Philippine National Police chief Arturo Lomibao to have him investigated? Absolutely not. Why not? If they go to all the trouble of monitoring what critics in the media of Gloria write, and even deem such as seditious writing, why not probe one of its own, for being pointed to as having faked the passport of Garci and delivering the same to him?

So why isn't Gloria and her government agencies not lifting a finger to bring these violators to justice?

But that is so terribly evident. Not one, especially Gloria, is going to lift a finger because they are all into a massive cover-up job — to this day.

To go all out after Garci and his accomplices in crime will mean his spilling the beans that would have Gloria, her aides and allies jumping out of Malacañang.

There's a worthwhile thought: If Gloria Arroyo and her rubber stamp House believe in the constitutionality of the people's initiative to change the form of government from presidential to parliamentary which would mean three whole Articles being expunged from the existing Charter, then evidently, a genuine people's initiative which would have a simple amendment to the Charter, such as the introduction of snap polls by deeming the presidency and the vice presidency vacant should be constitutional too.

Twelve percent of the total voting population, with each district giving a 3 percent vote on this specific constitutional amendment should be enough for the country to hold a plebiscite and declare these seats vacant. And this amendment won¡¯t expunge from the Charter any Articles — just one additional amendment is needed, which means just a single constitutional proviso in Article Vll would be added — with no subtractions in the Articles.

Snap polls should solve the political instability problem stemming from serious doubts of both Gloria and Noli de Castro's legitimacy.

If they want to run for the same post, hell, let the two run for the post, and we can, as a nation spell finis to these issues that have been plaguing the people.

At the same time, since it is the House of Representatives' stand that it can, on its own, transform itself into a Constituent Assembly (Con-ass) and act independently of the Senate in amending and revising the Charter, then it should be equally legal and constitutional for the 23 member-Senate to act independently of the House in transforming itself into a single chamber to introduce the same amendment calling for the twin vacancies in the presidential and vice presidential posts to effect snap polls within 45-60 days after the declaration of the twin vacancies shall have been ratified by a plebiscite.

If the House can effect a Charter change (Cha-cha) that calls for a total revision in the form of government, then logically, the Senate can effect the same, with the call for snap polls included as an amendment to the Constitution.

It certainly cannot be constitutional for the House, but unconstitutional for the Senate, a co-equal body to do the same.

If a people's initiative driven by Gloria and her local government units using public funds to secure signatures to change three complete Articles and all their sections in the Charter is deemed legal and constitutional, then all the more a privately funded and genuine people's initiative must be deemed legal and constitutional.

After all, if Gloria and her aides claim this is a democratic means to feel the pulse of the people, then surely, a different amendment that would open the door for snap polls, would also be the same democratic means for people's pulse gathering. Gloria did say her unpopularity does not faze her. And if the people want her to leave, then she would know for sure the pulse of the people.

It is also to be noted that there is a legal precedent through a Supreme Court (SC) ruling of both a "conditional resignation" of the presidency as declared in 1986 in the case of Ferdinand Marcos and a "constructive resignation" in 2001 in the case of Joseph Estrada.

And this was done by the high court without even the need of an amendment to the Constitution on the proviso of the constitutional means on constitutional successions.

It should be enough for the high court, on the basis of the signatures of 12 percent of the Filipino electorate, to rule that Gloria and Noli are deemed to have constructively resigned. It should be pointed out that, on the basis of the mob at Edsa II, there were at the most generous estimate, half a million elitistas forming the mob and definitely, a withdrawal of support from Gen. Danny Lim and others would not be a crime. After all, if that SC ruling was applied at the time of a constitutional challenge from Estrada against Gloria and her elite mob, then the same ruling stemming from the constitutional challenge of a genuine people's initiative demanding snap polls should be equally applied by the high court against Gloria. Surely, as claimed over and over again, the law applies to all, as the same rules must apply to all.

A people's initiative calling for snap polls as an amendment to the Charter is certainly more credible than Gloria's Cha-cha intiative.

A snap election is definitely not an impossibility.

Like we said, don't get mad at all the constitutional short-cuts Gloria is taking to keep herself in power. Get even — throw her and Noli de Castro out through snap polls!

With Virgilio "Garci" Garcillano's passport shown up officially as a fake, Gloria's House allies were quick to protect Gloria, saying Gloria should be spared from being accused of having her hand in the faking of Garci's passport.

These congressmen who call themselves representatives of the people are bringing great shame, not only to the House as an institution but also to themselves.

Instead of feeling the insult brought about by Garci having perjured and falsified public documents, apart from treating them and the House itself with contempt, these same congressmen thought not of defending the integrity of the House, but of protecting their benefactress, Gloria.

Not one belonging to the majority even bothered to express outrage at this insult heaped upon them by Garci. Hell, they were even reluctant to bring any charges against Garcillano, whom they have protected all this time, fearing that Garci might spill the beans on Gloria if they as much as gave him a slap on the wrist.

They now say Gloria should be spared from this controversy as she could not have had a hand in it.

They must be joking. Everything points to Gloria and her aides, as well as those prostitutes in the House as the culprit. Every move made by Malacanang was done to cover up the crime — and her House allies know it. Worse, not only did they know it, but they also covered up for her crime too many times.

They knew it was she on the phone with Garci speaking about rigging the polls in her favor. They knew Toting Bunye had a lot to answer for by manufacturing "evidence" by way of a Hello Gary tape as he tried to pass this off as the genuine taped conversations. They knew he perjured himself, as did Reynaldo Wycoco as did the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines officers. Yet these same House members didn't even cite any of them in contempt.

Even when the news reports pointed to Garci being in Cagayan de Oro and protected by Hermogenes Ebdane and his goons, and brought to Subic for Garci to sneak out of the country, Gloria's allies knew his whereabouts and knew the reports to be true. They also knew that the Immigration and Customs bureaus, as well as Subic Air, were into the cover-up. Yet they kept on dragging their feet, dragging them even more slowly when requests from the minority to have documents authenticated came. And when it was getting too hot to handle, these same frigging Gloria allies suddenly moved to strip from those who were too nosy their chairmanships in the committees, to ensure a Gloria-friendly committee investigating the "Hello Garci" tapes.

All of Gloria's allies in the House knew she was guilty as sin of having violated too many provisions in the Constitution and was in fact ripe for impeachment. There was nothing wrong with the amended impeachment complaint brought forth by the pro-impeachment group, but despite this, one congressman, Edcel Lagman, tapped by Gloria and her majority to protect Gloria by getting the impeachment complaint killed, came up with his bogus "prejudicial question" to throw out the impeachment complaint.

All that Gloria and her allies succeeded in doing was to keep the Hello Garci issue alive, despite their claim of this being a closed book.

It's one big lie atop another big lie for them, which is why the Hello Garci issue surfaces every time some scam or other pops up. Everything after all, is rooted in the big issue of electoral fraud.

The Marcos millions were found to have been diverted to Gloria and her bets, for their victory at the polls. There is too the P3-billion fertilizer funds scam, which again has a direct bearing on the poll fraud.

And there is today the discovery of a tampered passport of Garcillano. Everyone and his uncle knew that the passport was tampered with, precisely for Garci to prove that he never left the country.

It doesn¡¯t make any sense for someone to apply for a passport if he has no intention to travel abroad. This was in 2002. There is of course no doubt that Garci traveled all over using this passport, but as he was in the center of the controversy, the next best thing was for him to have the pages which would bear the markings of his exit and entry points, as well as visas, these pages were cut off and replaced with blanks. Naturally, stitches showed where there should be none and the pages were not up to standard. But what is clear is that the paper did come from the central bank and therefore, must have come from the Department of Foreign Affairs, which was obviously also into covering up Gloria¡¯s crime. This agency was not cooperative either during the House hearings on the Hello Garci tape.

Could all of these have come about without Gloria barking out these orders to these agencies to cover up her crime?

One day, everything will spill out and there will be hell to pay by all those officials and their agencies along with the congressmen who all proved to betray the public trust.

Gloria and her allies in Congress and in the local government units (LGUs) know that which they do, by way of bamboozling changes in the Constitution, i.e., a one-House Constituent Assembly, or Con-ass, a more apt name for a body of congressional asses, and a prostituted people's initiative (PI), is thoroughly illegal and unconstitutional, but they do it anyway.

Thus, even when it is clear that PI cannot be spearheaded by government as it is an initiative of the people for amendments to the Charter, it is the LGUs that are busy ensuring that the changes Gloria wants will be delivered through the barangay system — and with Malacañang and the local executives allied with Gloria, raining cash for the signatures of some 12 percent of voters from each district.

Under the law, no government money can be spent on a people's initiative.

More to the point, a people's initiative, even if legal and constitutional, cannot possibly vote on a revision of the Constitution, as all that activity is empowered with is to merely suggest amendments to the existing Charter.

But what is being pushed by Gloria and her LGUs is for the bought off PI is a complete revision of the Charter, as the paid signatories are being asked say yes to a change from the presidential system to the parliamentary system, through the abolition of three articles, which is interesting in itself.

Those to be removed are Articles Vl (the legislative department, which has 32 sections). This would bring about a unicameral parliament, which will do away with the Senate.

Its abrogation also erases the term limits of the congressmen and even the party-list system and the whole legislative hog.

Article Vll (the executive department which has 23 sections) does away with the presidential system and along with it banishes the Vice President, as well as the term limits of the incumbent Gloria Arroyo. It's Gloria now and beyond 2010 as President and prime minister forever.

So why is the abolition of Article lX (Constitutional Commissions which includes the sub-sections of the Comelec, the Commission on Audit (CoA) and Civil Service Commission) also being sought?

It is in this section under the Comelec provisions where the military is mandated to be deputized for the exclusive purpose of ensuring free, orderly, honest, peaceful and credible elections, which Gloria's military generals failed to uphold and defend, as they rigged the polls for Gloria. There is also that other section which says "no pardon, amnesty, parole, or suspension of sentence for violation of election laws, rules and regulations shall be granted by the President without the favorable recommendation of the Commission."

This is how Gloria and her crooks want the poll fraud of 2004 closed and for them to have full control of all the offices — including the constitutional offices, including the CoA, which has a lot of dirt on Gloria spilling out of its records.

But given that this is going to be a complete revision of the Charter, not just amendments, why are Gloria and her crooked allies in Congress and the LGUs pushing this, alongside the Con-ass? Is it because they know they control the Supreme Court (SC), which is known, given its track record, to legitimize the illegitimate and the unconstitutional?

It appears to be so, since even the Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, who gets more abrasive and more arrogant as each day of his in power passes, openly declared that Malacanang, i.e., Gloria Arroyo, is going to ignore the Constitution that mandates her to appoint an SC justice to fill the vacancy in the court within 90 days, as there is no deadline in this and that the deadline is what Gloria says it is, not what the Constitution says it is.

The Constitution (Article Vlll, Section 4) says any vacancy in the SC or its divisions shall be filled within 90 days from the occurrence of the vacancy.

Even more telling is the remark made by the SC spokesman who commented on the delay of the appointment with reference to the constitutional mandate.

Ismael Khan, spokesman, said: "Our Constitution requires that the President appoint (a replacement) within 90 days. However, how the Office of the President interprets the 90-day deadline depends on that office."

Ah so. It is now admitted by the SC that it is Gloria who interprets the Constitution, and no longer the high court, which appears to have abdicated its mandate.

It is no wonder then that she and her crooked politicians, awash with cash from the public coffers to buy those signatures, go ahead with their illegitimate and unconstitutional means to revise the Charter.

The SC has spoken: It is Gloria who interprets the Constitution. Her dictatorial powers have been given the green light by the SC itself!

Gloria Arroyo hasn't given up on her devious ways of getting the critical media to toe her line.

She tried berating the media openly for their stories she deemed negative to her that would of course impact on her struggle for political survival. This ploy didn't work as media, doing their job, covered the events of the day anyway, which unfortunately for Gloria and her aides, had as big news, the many probes conducted by the Senate. Unsuccessful in her bid to make media toe her line, Gloria then banned her executives and personnel from attending and testifying before these congressional hearings through her issuance of Executive Order (EO) 464. But as the Senate fought back and continued with its probes, despite the snubbing by the Palace officials of its summons, Gloria and her aides latched on to move of declaring a state of emergency through her Proclamation 1017 and raided The Daily Tribune with an announced takeover by Gloria¡¯s police of the newspaper.

That was a strong message sent to the media for them to behave as Gloria wants them to behave. For the electronic media, yet another powerful message was sent by Gloria and her aides. They would close down these media establishments if guidelines aren't followed.

Permits to rally were ordered recalled by Malacanang and peaceful rallies were broken up, with their leaders arrested without warrant.

Pressure started building up on Malacanang and its undemocratic means to quell legitimate dissent and to curb the freedoms of a people and it was forced to lift Proclamation 1017. But it was merely a paper lifting, since for all intents and purposes, Proclamation 1017 is very much alive and kicking, as shown by the arrest of former Arroyo Secretary Dinky Soliman for promenading in the Baywalk, wearing a black T-shirt as a sign of protest, with the police giving out the message that it is a crime to criticize Gloria and her government.

Meanwhile, the Tribune's publisher and editor-in-chief, as well as two columnists have been slapped with inciting to sedition charges. The Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group filed the charges at the Department of Justice three hours after the announced lifting of Proclamation 1017. Again, the message is that it is a crime for the press to criticize Gloria.

This time around, to choke the media into submission, Gloria comes out with another EO that is clearly intended to ensure that the critical media do not get any government ads, as the EO directs all government agencies, including government finance institutions and government-owned and- controlled corporations, to centralize all their advertising and public affairs information activities under Gloria¡¯s communications group, headed by her press secretary and mouthpiece.

Malacanang claimed the EO has nothing to do with choking the critical media, yet it is on record that when the Tribune, on its anniversary issue, published a spoof that had Gloria's faced superimposed on a sexy starlet's photo, with the spoof banner saying

"Starlet sued for inciting to seduction," Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita made it clear that the government agencies which advertised in the Tribune will be made to explain why they did so, with Ermita even saying they should not have advertised in the Tribune, being, so he claimed, an opposition paper while reminding all and sundry that those advertisements come from public funds and should not be spent on Tribune.

It was after this incident that Malacanang came up with the EO to make media critical of Gloria toe the Palace line.

Evidently, the Palace ploy is to ensure that the government ads go the "Gloria-friendly media" as well as those who are now willing to follow what Malacanang says is fit to print and air.

Is this unconstitutional? It will be if it can be proved — as it will eventually be proved — that government ads, taken from public money, will only benefit the Gloria-friendly media and choke the critical media.

Tax money does not come from Gloria's supporters. It is extracted from every citizen in this country, through direct or indirect taxation. Even the poorest of the poor have to pay tax, such as the expanded value-added tax, whether in oil or food products.

Gloria has already diverted, in the billions, tax money to fund her election campaign, which is a gross violation of the Constitution and is an impeachable offense.

She still wants to commit yet another violation of the Constitution with this all-out control of government ad placements.

So why should tax money intended to be spent on government advertising be given only to the friendly media? That will have to be questioned before the court and the Tribune will make sure it will question this ad choke against the paper, in time.

Ridiculous it was, coming from Chavit Singson, to tell the media after Erap's testimony before the court, that the detained leader's testimony was full of inconsistencies and lies, when it can be proved, as it already has been proved, that it was Chavit who was caught lying under oath.

It can hardly be denied, as this is part of the court records, that Singson's claim of having given Erap in his Polk Street home, P130 million in four boxes whose measurements were provided by Chavit and his accomplices who are also into the perjury game, was an impossibility, given the fact that this was tested in the central bank, with the BSP coming up with the money, in P1,000 bills placed in the measured box and concluded that less than P80 million could have fitted into four boxes. And that's on the supposition that all the bills were of P1,000 denomination, which the BSP pointed out, was not probable at the time, as this should have been a mix of P500 and P1,000 bills, given the big amount of P130 million.

Add to the fact that Chavit's tale of Atong Ang having driven the car they were riding right into the Polk driveway while Chavit watched from a street corner was all shot and full of lies. It has also been proved, during a physical reenactment with the justices present, that it was an impossibility as from that given distance, it was too far for anyone to view the car being driven into the driveway. Besides, being the President and in his home, as pointed out by Erap, the PSG would not allow any visitor¡¯s car to get into that small driveway and block the presidential car.

In brief, there was never any delivery of the P130 million as claimed by Chavit and the Commission on Audit report will show it was Chavit who funneled that money and took it, which was why he flew to San Francisco to ask Erap to transfer CoA auditor Agustin Chan to another area, as Chan was getting to the truth of the tobacco tax money diversion. He paid for this with his life as Chan was peppered with bullets on his way to Ilocos Sur from Baguio, while following up the plunder in billions, as alleged, of Singson and his officials. The pattern of diverting the tax fund was established long before Erap became President. Chavit has been doing this for so long.

This is the reason Chavit turned against Erap, as the detained leader refused to do what Chavit asked.

It is Chavit's testimony that is full of inconsistencies. Still, he knows he will get away with this, since he is being protected by Gloria Arroyo.

But there was too, the special prosecutor, Dennis Villa-Ignacio, saying, with a straight face, that Erap's testimony was nothing new, and didn¡¯t hurt the government's case because it has an "airtight case."

That was of course all done for the media, because Villa Ignacio certainly knows that the prosecution failed to prove its case when it rested. The defense disproved the charges not just through denials, but through witnesses testimony backed up by documentary evidence. Even in that Jose Velarde charge, the prosecution did not introduce the contents of the second envelope because these would prove damaging to its case, since the contents showed that the bank records proved the Jose Velarde account was owned and operated by businessman Jaime Dichaves. But this is not surprising, given the fact that there were many pieces of evidence the Ombudsman had, all clearing Estrada, but which were suppressed by the Ombudsman. In any independent court, the Ombudsman and the prosecution would have been charged with obstruction of justice and suppression of evidence and throw out the case.

The truth is, the Arroyo government's case against Erap can¡¯t hold up in an independent court and Villa-Ignacio knows this. The only reason this case even got to where it is now is that Gloria wields power and influence over the courts. The court records show that the prosecution, despite its 76 or so witnesses presented, failed to prove its case against Estrada in the BW stock commission. Not even those two state witnesses, heads of GSIS and SSS, along with other witnesses, have stated that Estrada ordered them to buy and sell BW stocks or even get the commission. Their testimonies even cleared Erap. In the case of the tobacco excise tax money, that too, has already been disproved. As for the claims of the jueteng payoff deliveries, as claimed by Chavit and his girl Friday, these too, were disproved. The claimed jueteng donations that went into the Muslim Youth Foundation, can't fly, as the money remains intact and clearly did not benefit Erap.

But what takes the cake is Chavit, who a day after and in an interview, bragged that he still has a lot of evidence and witnesses against Estrada. So why didn¡¯t he present them before the prosecution rested its case some two years ago?

Chavit Singson, Villa-Ignacio and the whole lot know that which is going for them and against Erap is the fact that Gloria is still in Malacanang.

Once out, they know they have a lot to answer for their frame-up of Estrada.

Defense chief Avelino "Nonong" Cruz told reporters that the investigation on the alleged conspiracy that includes military officers and men to topple the Gloria government will be fair and firm and will have no sacred cows nor sacrificial lambs. He also stressed that "never again should the soldier be used to advance the self-serving agenda of anyone."

Naturally, he did not bring out the fact that in 2001, his president, along with now Supreme Court justices Antonio Carpio and Renato Corona, as well as himself, as he was a member of the infamous The Firm, worked on various groups, including the military, used the soldiers to advance Gloria's self-serving agenda, and it should be pointed out, is still being used to advance her self-serving agenda. How else can her revolving policy in the military be explained, as well as her many promotions granted to her prostituted generals who served her well in rigging the polls for her victory?

Cruz could well say the probe on those suspected of having allegedly conspired to topple Gloria will have no sacred cows or sacrificial lambs. Of course he can say this, since this probe is for the benefit of Gloria herself, unlike the probe on the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines wiretapping of Gloria's conversations with elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano on the poll-rigging operations, or the probe on the participation of the military officers and their men in the same poll-rigging operations.

There must be some sacred cows in that probe, since it has taken an inordinately long time for the military to conduct that investigation and an even longer time for the report to be given to Gloria, whom everybody knows by now, had been given a copy a long time ago, but wanted this changed — which explains some promotions, as well as the delay and whitewash, owing to the fact that a Mayuga fact-finding report does not have to be routed to several generals and the Defense chief for their comments.

So why should the Defense chief, who is not in the chain of command, have to pore over this report first before presenting this to Gloria? And why should every other general have a copy for their comments?

No whitewash? Hogwash. There was Army chief Hermogenes Esperon already telling the media that he was making the rounds during the polls, because that was his job. That's already his escape hatch. The others will have the same justification.

As for those affidavits issued by the soldiers, one can bet his last peso that all of them have already been pressured to change their stories and were told by their superiors to change their affidavits to clean up the crime.

No sacred cows? Who is Cruz kidding? It will be like the Mayuga report, which is expected to be full of sacred cows, such as the generals mentioned in the "Hello Garci" tapes. Else, how can Cruz, Gloria and the brass justify the promotions of these generals, despite charges leveled against them?

And no doubt there will be sacrificial lambs, among whom are probably Brig. Gen. Francisco Gudani and Lt. Col. Alexander Balutan, along with Capt. Marlon Mendoza and some others, all of whom were whistleblowers of the poll- rigging operations.

There will also be for sure, in this latest "conspiracy" probe, sacred cows and fall guys.

After all, it stands to reason that if Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim went to talk to General Senga of his plan to withdraw his support from Gloria and to march with the people, there must have been prior talks between Senga and Lim on this issue. In which case, Senga should have immediately ordered the arrest of Lim and charged him right then and there. But no, all the service commanders were present and discussed this matter for at least seven hours! They would be as guilty as Lim for toying with the idea of a withdrawal of support from Gloria. After all, what¡¯s the difference in the alleged crime? Besides, as claimed by Angie Reyes in 2001, there was no crime. He even hailed it as a patriotic act.

From reports, Senga said there was no coup attempt, merely an attempt to withdraw support. Why did it take so long for the top brass to decide on Lim's case? Weren't they also thinking of doing the same thing but that somebody finked on this move?

But Esperon himself said Lim was not into a conspiracy with the communists. He should ask Gloria why she should not be probed and charged as she, in 2001, clearly conspired with the military and the communists- the long- time enemy of the state.

And the military brass might as well recommend the filing of charges of coup d'etat against Angie Reyes and their former chief of staff, along with all the others, some of whom are still in active service.

If she could conspire with the military and the communists to topple a legitimate president and all this to serve her self-interests, why bar others from doing the same?

They would have the justification. After all, Gloria's legitimacy is in serious question. As Susan Roces said, Gloria stole the presidency not once, but twice!

Fidel V. Ramos has been trying hard to erase his image as a destroyer of Philippine democracy, a negative image he earned in 2001 when he and his anointed, Gloria Arroyo, encouraged the military to stage a coup d¡¯etat against the constitutional government of Joseph Estrada, rejecting the constitutional process of removal or retention of a President charged with impeachment by the House of Representatives.

Ramos certainly knows that his image as a "savior" of democracy has been totally destroyed by that act of treason against the Constitution.

Earlier, flushed with success at having deposed then sitting President Joseph Estrada through a coup d'etat, he and his retired generals were so proud to have kicked Estrada out of Malacañang that they admitted to the media that they were at the heart of the coup d¡¯etat and pressed for charging Estrada with plunder, through his sidekick in the Ombudsman's office, Aniano Desierto.

Ramos after all, in those first few weeks, rebuilt his image as a strong force that carried a lot of military and political clout. He wasn¡¯t an old soldier who would simply fade away. He wanted to be acclaimed again, as a hero of democracy.

This was the perception Gloria and her elite tried to project: They did what they did in defense of democracy. But something went wrong: The international media, along with the Filipino masses, saw the Edsa II revolt for what it really was: a power grab that moreover weakened democracy in the country.

With his image as a "savior of democracy" destroyed in the domestic and international community, Ramos took every opportunity to cultivate an image of being an adherent of democracy. In 2003, for instance, he called on the renegade military, dubbed as the Magdalo group, to stand down and face the music. Then in July 2005, when senior officials of Gloria Arroyo resigned en masse and called for Gloria's resignation, which nearly caused the collapse of her government, there came Ramos, acting as the white knight to Gloria, saving her and her government from collapse — but with a deal struck: an early exit for her through a constitutional change which would usher in a parliamentary form of government.

Ramos thought that by sticking with her and pushing change through "constitutional means" his negative image as a destroyer of democracy would now be replaced with the old one, savior of democracy.

Unfortunately for him, this didn¡¯t work. He was in fact seen by many as having propped up an unpopular and illegitimate presidency.

Even as he continued to push his old image, by way of junking coups d'etat and admonishing the restive military while claiming to have been a coup destroyer, his claims were negated by facts that showed him to have turned his back on the Constitution and participated in at least three coups d¡¯etat, making him a certified wrecker of democracy.

This time around, Ramos had the gumption to issue a call to Gringo Honasan to surrender and face the music in court even when he knows that there can be no justice in this country under Gloria.

Ironically, Ramos in 1986, was being hunted down by Marcos, which was the only reason he decided, at the 13th hour to join Johnny Ponce-Enrile and the then military rebels. The talk then was that Ramos had come in with a packed suitcase, having made arrangements with the US Embassy people to fly him out of the country in the event the revolt would fail. Wasn¡¯t Ramos then also a fugitive from justice, evading arrest and holing himself up in Camp Crame — not to forget under this screwed- up system where rebellion is a continuing crime — and can in fact be arrested for the crime of rebellion? So what is the difference between him and Gringo Honasan?

He says Gringo is no longer the same Gringo of 1986, no longer having any clout in the military.

Ramos should look at himself in the mirror. Neither does he have any clout in the military nor in the political sphere. Heck, even in international circles, he carries no clout, although he loves to project himself as having a lot of clout and he continues to project himself as one who adheres to the Constitution, defends democracy and upholds the rule of law.

Truth is, Ramos is washed out, both as a political leader and even a claimed elder statesman.

Even that statesman image was destroyed in 2001, when he, pointing a finger at then sitting President Estrada, told him to shape up and do as he tells him to do, or else —

Well hell, no former president has a right to tell a sitting and legitimate president how to run the country. Ramos had his time and screwed up the country.

The fate of the nation — and perhaps even the republic — will again fall heavily on the Supreme Court (SC), damaged as it is today, as an institution and a claimed "last bulwark of democracy."

In 2001, the high court, then led by Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., destroyed the nation, divided the people and wrought great havoc on the Constitution and the democratic institutions when he, aided by his justices, swore in a power grabber, Gloria Arroyo as President, despite the fact that there was no vacancy in that office, then concocted a doctrine of ¡°constructive resignation¡± using as basis, an unauthenticated diary written by a third person and in newsclip form.

If the high court justices remained faithful to the Constitution and its mandate, and upheld the rule of law instead of legitimizing mob rule, the problems facing the country today would not have occurred. And military adventurism would have come to a stop, as Angelo Reyes and his commanders, as well as all other coup plotters aligned with Gloria then would have to face the courts for the offense they committed.

There was after all, a constitutional way for resolving the problem of a President who stood charged by the House before an impeachment court. If he had been removed through the impeachment process, democracy and constitutionalism would have been strengthened. If he was acquitted, that should have been enough for the people to accept the ways of democracy and get on with the life of the nation.

Today, the nation is on fire, freedoms are once again being placed in chains, and a despot named Gloria Arroyo is on a political survival mode as 65 percent of the Filipino want her out of office, owing to her questioned legitimacy as evidenced by the 'Hello Garci' tapes which show the poll fraud operations she and her cohorts had engaged in, apart from other documentary evidence corroborating the contents of the incriminating tapes.

It is this poll rigging and the public funds diverted to the pockets of congressman-allies to be assured of her victory that she has been trying desperately to cover up, which is why Gloria has made it her business to keep Virgilio Garcillano and Jocelyn "Joc-Joc" Bolante out of sight; why she came up with her Executive Order (EO) 464, gagging all government officials and employees from testifying before Congress; why she came up with her calibrated preemptive response (CPR) that authorizes her police goons to violently disperse even small groups of demonstrators, since she fears the formation of a critical mass that will rise against her and why she came up with her Proclamation 1017 declaring a state of emergency.

This was the same reason Gloria paid off her congressmen when an impeachment complaint was filed against her, as she didn't even want any piece of evidence shown or heard by the House and worse, in a Senate trial.

But it is all these constitutional issues that the SC will have to tackle and soon because the longer the high court takes to rule on these issues, the more it "legitimizes" the illegitimate. As things stand, the high court has sat on the question on the impeachment rules for too long, as it did in the case of the CPR and the EO 464.

Still there are these constitutional questions that cannot be dismissed or ignored for long.

If the tribunal rules in favor of the Filipino people on all these issues, it will cause the opening of a few doors leading to a constitutional path that may provide the people with a way to pursue the search of the truth — whether in the issue of the Isafp wiretap, the Hello Garci tapes, the military officers' involvement in poll rigging for Gloria; the diversion of public funds to fill her campaign coffers and many other issues. All that is needed is for the high court to rule that EO 464 is unconstitutional as this infringes on the right of Congress, in this instance, the Senate, to fulfill its legislative tasks.

If the high court rules as unconstitutional, the abusive acts stemming from 1017 to enable her to chain the people's inalienable rights and freedom, along with the junking of the CPR, then the people can be depended on to freely assemble peacefully and even without military intervention, can peacefully resolve the problem their way, which is really merely getting Gloria and Noli to resign to bring about snap elections within a 45 to 60-day period where both can run again to obtain a clear and legitimate mandate.

But if the high court actively cooperates with Gloria by ruling in her favor, then this same court, this claimed last bulwark of democracy, will be giving its blessings to a dictatorial regime.

All this is up to the high court, but if the tribunal insists on favoring Gloria, it will also have opened wide the door for a people to take the law into their hands — and bring about a civil war.

In 2001, the high court failed the Constitution and the people.

Will it fail the people again this time?

Dinky Soliman's arrest — for promenading at the Manila Baywalk — succeeded in making Gloria Arroyo and her police goons look much too paranoid and ridiculous, and even worse, belied all Palace claims of upholding and protecting democracy, the rule of law and all that frigging pretentious blather they spew out daily of strengthening the system.

Because it certainly is ridiculous for the police to swoop down on Soliman and Vicente Romano, of the Black and White Movement (BWM) for walking along Roxas Boulevard's Baywalk without a permit, or illegal assembly.

The police claimed it was a "lightning rally" with the BWM leaders and members wearing black shirts that had the message of oust Gloria now.

From press accounts, and quotes from the Manila Police District chief, Soliman and her group were at a restaurant clad in different T-shirts and even ordering food, "But when they came out, all of them were already wearing black shirts." They were then asked by the police whether they had a rally permit and arrested them when they failed to produce a rally permit.

And when Soliman questioned her arrest and insisted on her rights, while denying that the message on their T-shirts referred to Gloria, the same police chief said: "We could easily circumvent¡¦but the intentions¡¦the fact that they are known critics of the government and we often see them holding protest rallies against the President (Arroyo), it's clearly a political activity."

Now that is a mouthful, and shows the kind of mindset Gloria's police goons have. Known critics of Gloria are not allowed to hold protest rallies against her, nor be allowed to engage in a "clearly political activity."

Any protest action, big or small, and undoubtedly peaceful, against Gloria and the government is seen by these cops as a crime. So what were the dictator and her goons so afraid of? That Soliman and her group would march to Malacañang and demand Gloria's ouster? That they would be able to convince the people massed at the Baywalk to get behind them in their bid to get Gloria to resign?

And Gloria and her goons claim they are upholding democracy and the rights of the Filipino people? No wonder the US State Department, in its report, tagged the Philippine police as the "worst abuser" of human and civil rights.

It is just so ridiculous for the police to stop Soliman from taking a walk at the Baywalk, which is open to one and all. Just how many of the BWM members were there? Not even 20, that's for sure since the idea was merely to make their protest against Gloria and her regime heard. So they are known critics of Gloria, but so what? It is certainly not unlawful for them to engage in even a political activity.

And surely, there is no need for a permit for one to promenade in the Baywalk area. But what makes the Manila police think that such activity is illegal? What even makes them think that it is illegal for any critic to rally against Gloria?

That arrest of Soliman merely succeeded in cementing the image, here and abroad, of Gloria having turned this country into a police state, with her as the chief dictator, brooking no opposition to her and riding roughshod over the rights of a people. And she has the nerve to claim that she is protecting democracy?

Gloria and her police goons have merely shown themselves up to be extremely paranoid, while living in deathly fear of her being ousted — so much so that even a small group clad in black taking a walk in a public place is enough to put Gloria and her goons in a state of panic to the point of having the two leaders of the group arrested and detained — for illegal assembly.

But that's the way of Gloria and her police. They are so paranoid over the thought of her being toppled the way she and her prostituted military and police toppled Erap in 2001. This is the reason anti-Gloria groups are quickly broken up with their leaders arrested. They fear a massing up of the people against her, which numbers would cause the military to defect to the side of the people.

What they — Gloria particularly — forget is that Gloria and her police and military are getting a big black eye for their dictatorial and abusive ways and worse, they sound so ridiculous when they pass off all these abuses as their way of upholding democracy and strengthening it.

Still, Gloria has reason to fear. Some 65 percent of the Filipino people want her out of Malacanang — and now equating her ouster as beneficial to the national interest.

And she is distrusted by 50 percent of the Filipinos.

It will be just a matter of time. Like all dictators, she will have to go.

Who does Tuting Bunye think he is kidding when he pronounces that the arrest and manhunt of former Sen. Gregorio "Gringo" Honasan proves that "no one is above the law?"

Gloria and her goons in the police and military have been quick to go against Gloria's perceived political foes and even goes to the extent of fabricating evidence and violating more laws and the Constitution, just to get her foes arrested, charged and detained. But when it comes to her and her allies, well, they keep proving, time and time again, that they are above the law.

Consider this: Bunye, with compact disc in each hand, tells the media that Gloria has been wiretapped in a conversation between her and her political leader, one Edgar Ruado as shown in the "original disc" then accused the opposition of manufacturing a "fake" disc containing conversations between Gloria and a Commission on Elections official to destabilize Gloria.

That was certainly a crime of a cover-up and a clear obstruction of justice, apart from the crime of manufacturing evidence.

Has the supercilious Bunye been charged with this crime and ordered arrested? Has he even been investigated for this crime? Absolutely not! Bunye even has the chutzpah to walk out of a congressional hearing insisting that they have no right to question him on this tape issue. Why not? Is Bunye above the law? But didn't he just say no one is above the law?

Or consider the fact that too much evidence has surfaced, whether through the wiretapped "Hello Garci" tapes, or the many fabricated election documents and sworn affidavits pinning down Virgilio "Garci" Garcillano as the poll- rigging operator of Gloria Arroyo.

The Hello Garci tapes were the subject of a congressional hearing but not one government agency under Gloria cooperated in either providing documents or helping in tracking down Garcillano, who had kept himself hidden and was, from official documents from Singapore, spotted in that country on his way to London and he skipped the country with the help of Gloria and her aides.

Not one single government office-from the Office of the President, to the Philippine National Police, to the Justice department, to the Bureau of Immigration, to the National Bureau of Investigation, to the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Central Bank and down the line, bothered to get Garcillano to surface. To this day, he has not been arrested, detained or charged ?not even by the Ombudsman. Why not, if no one is above the law?

The same goes for Jocelyn "Joc-Joc" Bolante, said to be the architect of the P3 billion fertilizer fund scam that was used to fill the election chest of Gloria, part of which went to pay off congressmen and local officials to ensure Gloria's victory. Malacanang certainly did not lift a finger to facilitate his appearance in the Senate probing this scam. And despite the documentary evidence provided by the Commission on Audit and admissions by the Agriculture officials and even the Budget secretary on the fund diversion, no move was made by Gloria and her aides to bring Bolante to justice. Why not, if no one is above the law?

In much the same way, there is evidence of several generals and their officers and men both in the military and the police caught cheating for Gloria in 2004, whether through photographs, audio recordings, video footage and documentary and testimonial evidence of that poll-rigging operations, yet these cheating generals have gone unpunished and were even richly rewarded by Gloria by way of choice promotions for cheating for her as well as protecting her and themselves.

Why, with all her powers as Commander-in-Chief and under the Articles of War, has Gloria not ordered their court-martial, if no one is above the law and if as claimed by these same military cheats, officers and men who violate the law and the Articles of War have to face military trial and be jailed? Are these generals who, moreover have no moral authority to preach to the officers and men about violating the law, above civilian and military law then?

Or take that wiretap controversy which Bunye claimed was a crime by the opposition against national security. Has Malacanang gone after the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines that wiretapped the chats she had with Garci on poll-rigging? There is more than enough evidence of the Isafp having wiretapped these conversations, and one Isafp staff even admitted to having been paid at least P1 million for the tape. Why haven't the Isafp and those who engaged in this "national security" crime been investigated, arrested and charged? They are above the law again?

And what about Gloria herself, who has been found to have cheated her way to the presidency twice over, who has engaged in a massive scheme to cover up her big crime, who has cheated, lied and stolen and who continues to violate the laws and the Constitution to hide her crimes against the people? Is she above the law?

The next time Malacanang talks about the law, these Palace aides should remember their crimes and how they manipulate everything to cover up these crimes.

Gloria, Bunye and her other aides, certainly sound ridiculous when they preach on the ways of the law.

It has been charged by many groups, led by the Senate as an institution, before the Supreme Court (SC), that Gloria Arroyo's Executive Order (EO) 464, or the now infamous presidential gag order is unconstitutional as it bans all government officials and employees from appearing and testifying before Congress to reply to questions posed by legislators.

In justifying the gag order, Malacanang claimed this move had to be made, to prevent officials from the executive department from being insulted by legislators.

This is of course pure manure oozing out of the Palace, as it was clearly done to prevent the Senate from probing the issues that all stem from the poll-rigging operations engaged in by Gloria and her election cheats, among whom are military officers and Commission on Elections officials, as well as the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines that was into illegal wiretapping not only of the "Hello Garci" tapes ? more to monitor then poll commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, to ensure that he does not double-cross Gloria ? but also to spy on the opposition camp.

There has been no closure to these issues, and there won't be one, since Gloria insists on blocking the search for the truth of the election fraud, where all questions on her legitimacy rest, using her gag order as her defense.

But this time around, the gag order has been elevated to new illegal and unconstitutional heights.

Asked to produce the Mayuga report before the House of Representatives, the Defense department, through an undersecretary, informed the House members that this was not possible, as he invoked EO 464.

This is utterly ridiculous, considering the fact that the EO, even if the Palace justification is used, has no bearing on the submission of documents to the legislature, as the gag rule specifically pertains to the barring of officials in the executive department from attending legislative proceedings.

It is no longer a case of officials being protected by Gloria. Clearly, the EO has become a tool of Gloria and her prostituted military generals to obstruct justice, which is criminal.

If the SC needs more evidence to prove that Gloria's malevolent EO is intended to tighten the cover-up of her criminal act of thwarting the true will of the Filipino electorate, there it is, with the Defense department refusing to submit a copy of the Mayuga report to the House committee on public information.

But it also must be asked, on the one hand, why, if everything in that report is aboveboard and if the same report contains the acquittal of the various military and police generals mentioned in the Hello Garci tapes, such as now Army chief and de facto military chief but soon to be the official AFP chief of staff, Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Southern Command chief Gen. Gabriel Habacon and his men, now retired Gen. Roy Kyamko and other colonels said to have been engaged in poll-rigging activities in 2004, there is too much resistance on the part of the Defense department and Malacanang, to release the Mayuga report. It stands to reason that, if nothing is being covered up by Gloria, her aides and her prostituted military generals, the release of this report would be beneficial to Gloria and her military.

It also stands to reason that if the Mayuga report absolves the military generals of these criminal acts, their promotions can be justified without question.

On the other hand, if the report is too damaging to Esperon et. al and shows that the military officials and their men did participate in the poll-rigging operations, the question that should be asked is why this report is being suppressed by the Arroyo administration when the correct thing for Gloria, as Commander-in-Chief, and her generals to do is to charge these military officers for the crime they committed during the polls in 2004. After all, the military can't possibly charge those who complain about the poll rigging by the military generals and their officers while protecting those who committed the crime of rigging the polls.

By continuing to protect them by not releasing the Mayuga report, Gloria and her military can never hope to resolve the restlessness in the military.

And as long as these criminally liable generals mentioned in the Hello Garci tapes continue to block the truth, they can never earn the respect of the military that calls for reforms.

Something will have to give sometime. And if the high court continues to dawdle over these important constitutional questions, it will be equally guilty of irreparably destroying the democratic system and its institutions.

Gloria Arroyo insists she is the legitimately elected President of the republic and did not cheat to win, yet more and more evidence of her cheating ways are surfacing ? through the "Hello Garci" tapes, the election documents that are being opened and examined by the Presidential Electoral Tribunal composed of the Supreme Court justices, have been found to be fakes and prepared beforehand by hired golden arms, and the video footage of the break-in in the House where the ballot boxes were spirited away.

Malacanang dismisses all these pieces of evidence as the handiwork of the political opposition and other destabilizers who want to topple the petticoat dictatorr's regime.

As the lying Ignacio Bunye says, these videotapes caught in a disc, are fabricated to "fool the people."

He forgets that it was he and his principals who fabricated the Hello Gary (Ruado) tapes to fool the people into believing that Gloria did not talk to a poll commissioner to massively cheat for her.

And he was found out in covering up Gloria's crime. Surely he can't forget the fact that it was he who appeared before the media with two discs, one in each hand, claiming that the opposition not only wiretapped Gloria, but also fabricated the conversations between Gloria and her political officer and dubbing in the voice of the poll commissioner. And he held up the Palace manufactured tape as the "original" conversations.

That Malacanang ploy to fool the people was torn apart quickly, as the Malacanang fabrication was exposed for what it really was: a cover-up job for Gloria's criminal act.

Her prostituted military officers also claim that they are loyal to the chain of command, and loyal to the "duly-constituted authority" which they say is Gloria, yet they are hard-pressed to explain to the restive military that knows of the election fraud she and her generals had engaged in for her to win the presidency. They know she cheated her way through. They know she lied and continues to lie, because they were not just witnesses to the cheating, but were also active participants.

Gloria's loyal commanders say those who tried to withdraw support from Gloria and her regime are to be punished. But they are once again hard-pressed to explain why a withdrawal of support has to be penalized, when in 2001, the top brass and their treasonous officers were rewarded, and continue to be rewarded.

Or have they forgotten this fact? Senga shouldn't. He was, after all then the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesman for the treasonous Angie Reyes.

Can Senga and Esperon say it was right for Angie Reyes and his commanders to withdraw support from Joseph Estrada, the legitimate and constitutional President but wrong today for those who wish to withdraw support?

Can they deny the fact that their Commander-in-Chief, along with Reyes and his treacherous brass, were engaged in a leftist-rightist conspiracy to topple Estrada?

Reyes claimed that he had to do what he did because the leftists were ready to take over government and the very democracy enjoyed by the Filipino people. Hello, it was the leftists who were allied with Gloria and her elite. As for the death of democracy and the move to unite the AFP, hell, what Angie, Gloria and the elite did was to totally destroy not only democracy and the rule of law, but also destroyed the military as an institution.

But in the course of staying loyal to a clearly illegitimate President who moreover has violated the Constitution many times over, curtailing the rights of a people, these generals from 2001 up to today have to resort to continuous lying and cheating, also to cover up their crimes.

There is AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Generoso Senga and Army chief Hermogenes Esperon who now say if the coup (which incidentally was a Palace coup) orchestrated by them, had succeeded, there would be today in place a junta composed of leftist-rightists elements.

But they should ask themselves just what kind of government they are serving today, if not a virtual dictatorship that has destroyed all democratic institutions so much so that there is no longer a democracy to speak of.

So just what were Senga et. al protecting? Democracy or Gloria's dictatorial rule? And what rule of law do they talk about when the law is being blatantly disregarded?

Today, the police do not honor and respect the civilian courts' release orders. They crush anybody and everybody who dares exercise their freedoms.

They summarily execute dissenters. They arrest elected congressmen without the proper warrants and even raid newspaper offices.

And they claim to be upholding the rule of law and democracy?

Tell that to the Marines ? and really tell them that!

There was cheating during the presidential campaign and polls every step of the way, and the members of Congress knew it, which was why they, through sheer numbers, prevented the examination of election documents, and stopping all protests from the opposition lawyers by simply saying their objections were "noted."

But even after the railroaded proclamation, more cheating was resorted to by Gloria and her allies in Congress, and obviously the police and House security.

As Fernando Poe Jr., and his camp decided to elevate the protest to the high court, there was clearly a need to switch the ballot boxes that were already in the House premises and exchange the documents with election returns and statement of votes that would then show the vote going to Gloria.

There are enough pictures to substantiate these claims, incidentally.

Not surprisingly, this was quickly denied by the House officials, claiming that this switch could not have come about because there was a 24-hour security posted in the ballot boxes area plus a 24-hour surveillance camera recording the comings and goings in that area.

But it must also be asked why, when this was first brought up by the House minority months ago, the same House leadership and the same security officials claimed that the tapes from the surveillance camera were all erased, for use again, on grounds of austerity.

No tapes could be produced, as these were already erased, for recycling purposes, so it was claimed.

One wonders then what need there is of surveillance cameras when these serve no purpose, since no one can check on these tapes after the fact.

Still, these tape erasures are damning in themselves and obviously have been erased to cover up yet another crime, this time in the House.

Had the House security kept the tape, whatever is written up in the media on this ballot-switching could easily have been debunked, with the showing of the tape.

Now comes a CD that contains images of ballot boxes in House being carted off and switched, and all the House allies can do is to deny these as "mere fabrications."

But with their credibility now on a sub-zero level, who is to believe them, even if they abide by the gospel of Goebbels that repeating a lie will make it true?

Gloria has been repeating the lie of her not having cheated, even pointing to the SC's Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) recount as proof that she had not cheated at all, since the vote count then and the count from the revision panel match. Of course it does. But what doesn't compute is the fact that the opening of the ballot boxes shows very clearly that the election documents are fake, as some 80 percent of those opened in Cebu, for instance, have no watermarks which are proof of whether the documents are fake or genuine.

But if nobody believes her claims to a legitimate victory, it is also because she has done nothing but to prevent the truth of the electoral fraud from coming out. Not only has she issued a gag order, but she even made sure that her prostituted police and Isafp raid, again without warrant, a room of a documents expert hired by the opposition camp, carting away boxes and boxes of election documents, obviously to switch the copies of the opposition's election documents with fakes, to make sure that the documents tally at the PET.

The thing was, Gloria had the poll cheating down all pat-except that she didn't count on the tapped telephone calls between her and Virgilio Garcillano on the poll-rigging operations. It was this that she can't quite get out of, since this serves as grade A evidence of her cheating. She has tried too many times to cover up, and cover up some more, but all these efforts are futile, because more and more evidence has been cropping up.

Her allies, in covering up for her insist that the Hello Garci tapes are not admissible in court. But so what? That does not mean that there was never those 15 telephone calls to and from Garcillano and Gloria on the poll-rigging operations. That inadmissiblity factor does not prove that cheating did not take place.

Everything is collapsing around Gloria and her allies.

It won't take long when the truth, in all its splendor, as well as its ugliness, will have to surface. And that would signal her end.

Malacanang's planned dialogues with the "restive" military officers will hardly resolve anything, given the fact that Gloria and her aides are already making clear their position that she won the elections "fair and square," that there was no cheating in the polls and that her legitimacy cannot be questioned, as all pre-election surveys, exit polls and even the Presidential Electoral Tribunal review of votes in Cebu already shows the poll documents and the vote count tally.

Gloria's nino bonito, Mike Defensor, took it one step farther, daring any one soldier to come forward and say he cheated for Gloria during the polls because there is none.

Defensor conveniently forgets that publicly, two officers testified before the Senate that indeed, there was cheating, with one general being relieved for those 10 crucial days and with a colonel being told by his superior to ensure that the security stays lax, for the cheating to push through.

Besides, as the photo the Tribune published yesterday shows, there was proof that the soldiers were inside the precinct and even filling up the election returns.

But Gloria's chief of staff also seems to forget the "Hello Garci" tapes, and even the Palace-manufactured one, on which it should be pointed out, the female voice on the tape was pronounced by Toting Bunye as that of Gloria. What was stressed then was that the male voice in the tape was not that of poll commissioner Virgilio "Garci" Garcillano but one Edgar "Gary" Ruado, Gloria’s political operator.

But of course Defensor is not going to bring this out, since the Gloria-Ruado manufactured tape was clearly a cover-up job of Gloria and her spouse, Mike, to hide the crime of poll rigging.

Do Gloria and Defensor really believe that a dialogue will change the situation any? And does Gloria think that the restiveness in the military will subside simply because there is now a crackdown in the military and her explanation to the military that she won fair and square will stop the officers and men from grumbling?

Not even a pledge from her of instituting reforms in the military will likely change the equation. There really is no way for her to stop prostituting the military institution, for the simple reason that she and her corrupt generals are today in a worse bind.

She can't afford not to promote her cheating generals to higher positions because she won't be able to trust professional and meritorious officers to do her criminal bidding. Besides, if she cuts off these dishonest generals, they will certainly get back at her, as they know just what they did to make her win the polls.

The military crackdown that has been reported won't solve the problem either, because, as claimed even by the military brass, what occurred was an attempted withdrawal of support from Gloria. There is no way Malacanang can get back at the officers and men who attempted to withdraw support because there is that precedent staged in 2001, where the treasonous Angie Reyes marched to the Edsa Shrine with his equally treasonous service commanders, after forging a deal with Gloria, who withdrew support from a constitutional and legitimate President.

The irony of it all, given subsequent events, is that of a chief of staff and his commanders withdrawing support from a legitimate and constitutional President in 2001, yet today, under a clearly illegitimate and even criminal President, the 2006 military brass insist that the chain of command cannot be breached, even when clearly, the orders coming from this illegitimate President are illegal, such as getting generals to cheat for her and lie for her and even engage in criminal cover-up for her crimes.

So how do Gloria and her prostituted generals expect to institute reforms in the military when they have no choice but to continue covering up for each other for the many crimes they committed against the Filipino people?

Where do these military officers who want to punish the rebels for wanting to breach the chain of command expect to get their moral authority, knowing that the restive soldiers know their superiors have committed worse crimes and were rewarded for it by an illegitimate President twice over?

These generals can't even begin to explain to the juniors that a withdrawal of support is crime for which those who do, or attempt to do, will have to be punished. To do so would put into question the withdrawal of support done in 1986 and in 2001.

There may have been justification then in 1986, as the perception then, rightly or wrongly, was that Marcos had cheated at the polls but it must be stressed, he never used the military to do the cheating for him.

There was no justification for Angie Reyes and his commanders to withdraw support from Estrada, a legitimate and constitutional President, and this Defensor should know: It was not the entire AFP that withdrew support. It was just Angie and his commanders.

As for today, there are more cogent reasons for a military to withdraw support from Gloria. She is an illegitimate President who morever is charged with lying, cheating and stealing.

A military crackdown is said to be in the works, with several junior officers and men relieved and targeted for questioning over the alleged failed coup.

So why are the small fry and not the big fish that these generals, specifically Army chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, are hauling in? Esperon also intimated that Lim wanted to march with the anti-Gloria protesters and withdraw his support, which the Army chief pointed out would have him falling into the communist trap.

But as Esperon is targeting the officers and men under Lim as those who were into the coup plot, is he then saying the Scout Rangers were acting independently of their superior, who is well respected by his men, as his name and record has not been tainted with corruption? There was no coup, and no evidence that a coup was pulled off. Therefore, it will be next to impossible for Gloria and her corrupt military generals make charges of a coup, or article of war violations stick.

Still, even if the military hierarchy does come up with charges that there was an attempt on the part of Lim to withdraw support from Gloria, can this be deemed a crime, especially when this was not only attempted in 2001, but successfully executed by then Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff, the treacherous Gen. Angelo Reyes, who with his treasonous act, single handedly destroyed whatever professionalism the military had left then.

And this officer, who brought shame and dishonor to the uniform, even had the nerve to invoke the name of the AFP in withdrawing support from the constitutional President and Commander-in-Chief, Joseph Estrada. The junior officers and their men were certainly not restive, nor were they even consulted by Reyes and his treasonous group of this plan to withdraw support. The point is, if Gloria's generals slap charges of attempts to withdraw support from her against Lim and Col. Ariel Querubin, along with their men, how do they justify this before the soldiery, given the historical past of the military in the time of Angie Reyes, where exactly the same thing was done?

To slap them with charges will be seen by the soldiery as an unjust measure and will merely create more restiveness. After all, in today's case involving Gloria, there are legitimate issues at stake, such as her illegitimacy, which is difficult for soldiers to accept, the poll rigging that military generals, their officers and men had engaged in, the corruption that eats up the military's honor and pride and the blatant prostitution of their institution.

There certainly were no justifiable reasons in 2001 for Angie Reyes and his service commanders to withdraw support from Estrada. For one, he was unquestionably, a legitimate and constitutional President. For another, he did not bribe anyone in the House to kill the impeachment complaint. And he was undergoing a constitutional process-facing an impeachment trial before the Senate. So he was charged by the House prosecutors and was demonized by the elite and the bishops simply because they did not like him, even when the economy was doing well. And so, on sheer allegations, that to this day cannot be substantiated with evidence, Gloria and her cabal of elitists along with Angie Reyes, staged a coup against Estrada.

And they were all rewarded. All of Reyes' service commanders became the chiefs of staff, on a revolving-door policy, just as all her loyal generals who showed canine devotion to her and expressed personal loyalty to her instead of country, people and flag, also made it to the top. As for those out of the military, well, there were civilian positions to be filled by them.

At this time, when their superiors are known to have prostituted themselves; who no longer hold the values of honor, of not cheating, stealing and lying, nor tolerate anyone who brings dishonor to the uniform by doing such acts, the military brass cannot expect to punish those who try to bring back honor to the soldiery.

They can try, but in time, will be swallowed up by those who dare to bring change about.

She maintained silence then, which didn't help ease the situation. And when she finally broke her silence, it was just as bad for her. The political instability has not gone away since then.

If Malacanang and Gloria Arroyo are getting bad press here and abroad, they only have themselves to blame for it.

In the free world, and the Philippines is claimed to be part of it, such unconstitutional and undemocratic means that the Arroyo regime resorts to, even to this day, in suppressing people's rights are unacceptable-so unacceptable that even the government's lawyer, the solicitor general was hard pressed to justify the raid by the police on The Daily Tribune plus the posting of the military at television stations, along with the push of media guidelines by the National Telecommunications Commission under 1017. And not to forget the capricious arrests by the police of several congressmen, the latest victim being party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel, who was, while being "invited", manhandled by Gloria's police goons.

The Solgen conceded such acts were wrong, but distanced Gloria from the abuses stemming from 1017's general orders.

Yet why should Gloria suddenly be absolved from these charges of abuses, when in fact, in her proclamation she took full responsibility when she called out the Armed Forces, as Commander-in-Chief, to quell whatever she imagined there was to quell, whether insurrection, rebellion or lawlessness.

Or is she, through her state lawyers, now saying she has no control over her Armed Forces and her police that they are to do as they please?

Is Gloria also saying she has no control over her so-called Cabinet security cluster that met at 3 a.m. and decided then and there to raid the offices of the Tribune and take over the premises?

As demonstrators marched to the Edsa Shrine to celebrate the Edsa revolt, the police quickly dispersed the rallyists and arrested a UP professor and a host of others, without an arrest warrant. Other congressmen known for their leftist bent, were arrested and then charged with rebellion, even as there is that admission from the Solgen that there was no rebellion. Why then are they being arrested and charged with rebellion?

What is clear is that Gloria and her goons were - and still are - in a state of panic. She wants the rallyists dispersed because she fears the formation of a critical mass. She wants to stop all media criticisms of her, which was why The Daily Tribune was targeted for a raid and takeover - which was meant to send a strong message to the media that the same fate would befall them. She, who claims to be the legitimately elected President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), is so scared to step into the military fray that she even says she leaves it to the military brass to take action against an alleged coup plotter, Gen. Danny Lim and Marine Col. Ariel Querubin - and this as the AFP and Malacanang itself come up with this stupid concocted tale of a leftist-rightist conspiracy with the assistance of the media, which they say has become a national security concern ?so important a concern that she had to proclaim emergency rule, calling on her powers as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

So why is she not ordering the AFP to charge those alleged coup plotters in the military?

More to the point, why does she set the conditions for a dialogue with the "restive" military that would ban these officers from discussing the massive 2004 presidential poll fraud, along with questions on the fertilizer funds scam, as well as the impeachment issues and Executive Order 464, or the gag rule?

Malacanang said a dialogue is possible, as long as this won't be used for " propaganda purposes" and "grandstanding," but hey, anything that touches on these issues is branded by Gloria and her aides as black propaganda and grandstanding.

She has tried to do everything to suppress the truth of the poll fraud, the massive corruption in her government, the payoffs she made to the congressmen for them to kill the impeachment complaint, the public funds she utilized to ensure her win in the polls, the protection she provides her crooked cronies, and through all these, she continues to prostitute government agencies for her political survival.

But in the course of her ways of prostituting the very institutions that are there precisely to strengthen democracy, she has painted for herself a picture of a tyrant and dictator, which does not go well in the free world.

As for the country's Armed Forces as well as the Philippine National Police, Gloria has succeeded in picturing them, not as the protectors of the republic and defenders of the Filipino people, but as the corrupt protector of the illegitimate Gloria Arroyo, who is not the state. She has also painted them as the enemy of the Filipino people.

The days of rage and disquiet are back again.

Too much fuss is being made by Gloria and her aides over some P8 million detained President Joseph Estrada donated to various soldiers' groups But evidently, it is being done in their bid to link Estrada to, and pin him on, the claimed destabilization moves against Gloria.

In the first place, the donations come from a bona-fide foundation which was started when Estrada was President and are above-board and well-documented, substantiated by solicitation letters from these military groups and the amounts given by the foundation. In the second place, it is private money, not public funds. In the third place - and this is really most ridiculous-that P8 million is peanuts, if the intent was to finance a coup. Surely, one needs more than just P8 million to finance a coup. Moreover, considering the fact that it is not just one soldier that benefits from these donations, dividing the donated amount would be much too small.

Donations by the Estrada foundation to soldiers have been questioned by Malacanang and some other sectors, with questions ranging from why the soldiers, and why the military thought it alright to solicit and accept donations from Estrada, along with the question on why the government just found out about Estrada's foundation for the soldiers.

It is not a crime for people to donate money, either personally or through foundations, to anyone they choose to donate the funds. And as it involves private money, not public funds, there is more reason not to question this.

And since it is private money, the donor certainly has every right to choose to give it to anybody or any establishment. It is he who donates, and it will have to be he who has a say on who he will want to give it too.

To the question of why the soldiers, the answer is why not?

There exists a foundation called Alay sa Kawal which has as its beneficiaries soldiers, or their families. Why is this not being questioned then, if they insist on questioning Estrada's foundation?

Estrada has been known to have helped the poor, in his personal capacity, as well as in his official capacity, whether as an actor, a mayor, senator, Vice President and President.

When he was an actor, he put up the Mowelfund foundation, to help stuntmen and others in the industry to improve themselves. Scholars have even been sent to school on film-making. As mayor, he put up a foundation called Erap para sa Mahirap, where to date, the foundation has already financed at least 600 scholars for their college education. The foundation where the soldiers are beneficiaries was founded while Estrada was in the presidential office. Why question it then, especially when Estrada is known for his care and attention to the soldiery?

It was he who thought of providing the troops in Mindanao with a sack of rice for each soldier monthly. The lowly soldier was at least ensured that he and his family would not go hungry. It was Gloria and her corrupt military officials who took this benefit away from the soldiers.

If the Estrada foundation wanted to give the Magdalo families money for Christmas, or for any other occasion, what is wrong with that? The soldiers have been denied their salaries, with others having their salaries cut. And if Estrada feels he can help them in such way, then it is no business of anyone to question this, since, it must be stressed, the funds are private, and the donations are aboveboard.

The Estrada foundations are certainly aboveboard, with the money going to those whom the foundations want to be benefitted, and they certainly are not of the Gloria foundation types, such as the Lualhati and Bigkis Pinoy foundations, among many others identified with Gloria that are clearly being used as a money-laundering front. In the case of the Lualhati foundation, it couldn't even produce receipts for the donations. Worse, no entries of such donations and the amounts donated to recipients were ever recorded. That should be questioned. Yet this was not questioned.

But all this is being done because Gloria and her aides have failed, time and again, to get any evidence to back up their allegations of Estrada's link to their claimed destabilization plots.

Obviously, to this day, Estrada poses a threat to Gloria.

Yet Gloria and her aides are going about it the wrong way as they are merely succeeding in getting even more of the military sore at her, as they even put malice in the loans, arising from the donations, in effect saying they shouldn't have that money because it comes from Estrada.

Take a guess at whom they will be mad at instead.

Gloria Arroyo and her military haven't stopped talking about the alleged coup plot conspiracy that has the left and right elements joining forces with politicians to topple her and her government.

A video presentation of the alleged plot called Oplan Hackle, plus the Final Talk 2, along with claims of these having been discovered in flash disks found after renegade officer Lawrence San Juan was captured somewhere in Batangas, has been shown to the media and has even been broadcast in the government station.

And as this is being done, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) hierarchy also comes up with reports fed to the media that yet another Scout Ranger officer has been sacked and arrested for being part of the coup plot and makes a big deal out of the solicited donations from an Estrada-identified foundation for the benefit of soldiers. The beneficiaries have been questioned on how the funds have been spent, but always, there is that message from the AFP chiefs that the donations could have been used to fund the coup.

At the same time, a study made by a Jesuit, Fr. Archie Intengan, who is a true-blue Socdem like his fascist colleague National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, both of whom, in the past, belonged to an armed group against the government, was also made public in the Arroyo-friendly media which pointed to state funds, through the congressional "pork barrel," went into the funding of the communist groups that are out to topple the Gloria government.

Question: Why, after claiming that they had nipped the alleged coup in the bud, and with the admission that the threat to the national security has abated, are the Palace aides and their allies continuously churning out these coup stories?

Answer: The whole thing is being done to get the high court justices the excuse to uphold Gloria's unconstitutional acts stemming from her Proclamation 1017. That way too, she does not have to explain, through her Solicitor General, what brought this proclamation about, just as she would have had to do if she as much as formally declared martial law.

But who believes in their propaganda and their documentary cum evidence of a coup plot, especially as Gloria and her aides are too well-known for their style of fabricating evidence, such as the Palace-fabricated "Hello Gary" tapes, where the voice of poll commissioner Virgilio Garcillano was replaced with the voice of one Edgar "Gary" Ruado, and all done to cover up their crime of poll- rigging?

Who buys that stupid tale of the Oplan Hackle coup document, and even found in the locker of San Juan, after he escaped?

So sorry, but Filipinos are a lot smarter than these Palace aides think. Look at it this way: San Juan, along with other Magdalo officers, were in detention. Why should they even put such document in San Juan's locker, since the military holds the keys and can at anytime, do a search on whatever the detainees keep?

For another, there was also the claim by the police and military that found during the arrest of San Juan were flash discs that held Final Talk 2, also another stage of the coup.

But as the Magdalo lawyer, Roel Pulido pointed out, upon learning of the arrest of his client, he rushed to Batangas and was able to get hold of the affidavits issued by the police from the arresting team and what do you know, there was no mention at all of the recovery of the claimed flash discs. There went planting evidence season once again for the police and the military.

So why the communist-rightist conspiracy, the businessmen's funding activities and the media clampdown?

The left-right conspiracy tale is intended for the AFP soldiers and men, to get them to go against those officers and men - especially the juniors represented by the Magdalo group - who are said to enjoy widespread support in the military.

The focus on the businessmen's funding, along with the hype over the Estrada foundation's donations to deserving soldiers, is yet another message beamed at the business sector that has also given up on Gloria. And the message is: Gloria is going to run after businessmen, if they continue to work against her by withdrawing support.

As for the media clampdown, the answer is just as simple. Control the media and she survives 2010 and beyond.

Still, things have gone too far. She may not even make it to the end of 2007.

For too long, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) brass have been under great pressure from both the restive troops and the Filipino people to investigate the poll-rigging charges as well as the wiretapping by the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (Isafp) of the telephone conversations between Gloria Arroyo and then Commission on Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano and between the poll officials and several other election officers on the poll-rigging operations in Gloria's favor. They had been claiming for months that the probes were ongoing.

Today, they say the Mayuga report has been submitted to the AFP chief of staff, who then submitted it to the Defense chief (who is, it should be stressed, not in the command chain line) who then says he will be submitting this report to Mrs. Arroyo.

So what does this long-delayed Mayuga report state?

If earlier statements from then Inspector General Mayuga are to be the guide, his investigation did not focus on the main issue, which is the participation of several top generals, among whom are now Army chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Gen. Roy Kyamko, (retired) Gen. Gabriel Habacon and Gen. Francisco Gudani, among others mentioned in the "Hello Garci" tapes.

Instead, as Mayuga then claimed, the focus of his investigation was on the conduct of the military during the 2004 polls.

Translated, this means that the roles played by these generals mentioned in the tapped conversations were not touched on, and obviously studiously avoided.

It is possible of course that the probe also touched on the roles played by these generals in the poll-rigging operations, but if this was so, then the focus changed drastically after Mayuga was dangled the carrot of being appointed Navy commander.

It was noted for instance that the Mayuga report at the time of his appointment, was claimed to still be on the probe process, as pressure was on to investigate all the generals involved in poll rigging.

Some months back, Mayuga told reporters he had already submitted to Chief of Staff Gen. Generoso Senga the report. Senga, for his part, admitted he had received the report but that he had no time to go through it as he was out for the weekend. That was at least a month ago.

Now the Defense chief says he has the report from Senga, and that he will be writing his own report and submit all these to Gloria.

So why should this report take an inordinately long time for submission? Moreover, why should this not be made public, especially when not only the troops want answers which they hope to find in the Mayuga report, but also the Filipino people?

To point out another major flaw which shows yet another cover-up job by the military brass and Malacanang: To this day, despite the fact that a Hello Garci tape exists, and that the wiretapping job was done by the Isafp, there has not been a proper investigation nor has even the Isafp agent, T/Sgt, Vidal Doble, been penalized.

Why was there no probe on this? The answer is clear. Neither Gloria nor her generals wanted this probed, because the results will have been damaging to Gloria.

Is this not playing partisan politics, apart from the fact that they are all obstructing justice by covering up for their illegitimate Commander-in-Chief?

It is useless to have the report sanitized because the military officers and their men know just what happened during the polls, and know too, that they were used by Gloria and her loyal generals to cheat for her. If the report is not going to show the true picture, then this would create an even bigger problem for the military.

If it does show the true picture, and chances are it doesn't, this will be a problem for Gloria, because such report will show that there was indeed cheating and for her. This would spell finish for her, too.

Gloria - and even Mayuga, certainly knew what went on during the polls. The fact that she promoted all those military officers who were mentioned in the Hello Garci tapes to top positions in the military was a clear indication that she, in protecting herself, had to protect her cheating generals and proceed to clear them, in order to clear and protect herself.

But the truth will have to surface and the military brass, if they want to resolve the serious problem besetting the military, will have to go back to the principle of honor and true service to the Filipino people and the Constitution, which they claim to swear by.

The Philipine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) was reported to have filed a case of inciting to sedition against the Tribune publisher and editor, along with two other columnists before the Department of Justice (DoJ) shortly after the presidential paper lifting of emergency rule, with Gloria even having the gall to state that, under emergency rule, she succeeded in protecting the rights and liberties of the Filipino people with her state of emergency.

Gall it was on her part, since it was the rights and liberties of a people that she tried to abridge through her unconstitutional act.

So why should a police criminal intelligence and detection group be filing these charges against the daily newspaper's editor and columnists? Is the CIDG now the agency that is mandated to determine what is seditious writing and whose offer of evidence to buttress its case against the newspaper are newspaper clippings on news items and commentaries?

Is it now the police that evaluate what constitutes seditious writing or broadcasting, in the case of radio and television? But isn't this stupid and thoroughly out of line?

But there were Gloria's aides, claiming too, that the monitoring of the media has come to a stop because, as they said, they noticed that after 1017 was imposed, the media have become irresponsible.?

So it is now the Gloria, her goons in the police force and Malacanang, who judge whether media reporting is responsible or not. Who vested them with that right to determine what is irresponsible reporting or responsible reporting, or even what is legitimate information, or disinformation or seditious writing especially when the Charter says freedom of the press cannot be abridged?

Even more stupid is the fact that the same intelligence police agency lodged the case against the Tribune before the DoJ, whose chief, Raul Gonzalez has already clearly prejudged the case.

After all, there is no denying that the PNP chief, Arturo Lomibao, and Gonzalez, presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor and others in the so-called security cluster, decided in a 3 a.m. meeting in Malacanang, to raid the offices of the Tribune and temporarily take over the newspaper, with a declared intent from Lomibao that they will be taking over the operations of the Tribune.

It is the police and Malacanang with its DoJ that violated the law and the Constitution, 1017 or no, and yet the PNP-CIDG, the very violators of the law becomes the agency that would press charges against the Tribune's editor and writers?

And then it will be the DoJ that will be conducting a preliminary investigation to determine whether there is probable cause for elevation to the courts when it is the DoJ that itself said the Tribune is inciting to sedition?

So what is all that if not what is known as lutong macao?

How credible will this investigation be, do Malacanang and its goons, think it will be?

The DoJ is hardly known for its probity or independence - and for that matter, its style of meting justice, especially as it is known to engage in obstructing justice too many times.

It is also known - especially with that arrogant Gonzalez - for ensuring that cases against Gloria's political foes and critics, even when clearly baseless and without an iota of evidence presented by complainant, flourish in court, especially when the complainants are Gloria's relatives and cronies.

That the mockery of this DoJ prelimary investigation against the Tribune will result in the elevation of the case before a court is a sure thing. After all, the idea is not to ensure that justice will be done, but for Malacanang and its prostituted agencies continue to harass the Tribune and all their critics to keep on intimidating and silencing them. This is of great importance to Gloria and her stooges, since there are just too many scams they have been trying for months on end to keep the lid on.

But Malacanang's stupidity knows no bounds. If it is into harassing and intimidating the media into silence and threatening the anti-Gloria groups that call for her ouster, to prevent them from staging rallies, for her political survival, Gloria and her stooges should have known that these scare tactics wouldn't work because the media and the anti-Gloria groups were not intimidated. As for those scams, they continue, with the Senate even more determined to continue conducting investigations on these matters.

If Gloria thought that her 1071 proclamation convinced people that, with such martial law powers she arrogated unto herself, she is the legitimate President, having won "fair and square" as she constantly claims, she should have another think coming.

If anything, Proclamation 1017 proved that not even her Armed Forces believe her to be the legitimately-elected President in 2004. That was what the Marines standoff was all about, and the reason Gen. Danny Lim and his troops were ready to withdraw support from Gloria.

This being the case, an illegitimate government has no right to rule, and absolutely bereft of the right to abridge the rights and freedoms of a people and all because to a lying, cheating and thieving regime, truth is anathema.

There wasn't a national emergency and Gloria and her aides knew it, but she declared it anyway with the clear intent to vest herself with additional but clearly unconstitutional powers, for one sole purpose: To abridge all the inalienable freedoms guaranteed the citizens by the Constitution, as enshrined in the Bill of Rights.

When she announced her issuance of Proclamation 1017, she claimed that, under the powers vested in her by the Constitution under an emergency, the state can take over temporarily, private business vested with public interest. Yet the first private business she, who it must be stressed, is not the state, ordered the midnight raid, without any search warrant, on, padlocked the printing press and physically took over The Daily Tribune, a newspaper critical of her presidency and administration. No other broadsheet was taken over by her police goons.

Hours earlier, she ordered the revocation of all rally permits and banned all rallies and demonstrations, while getting her police to violently disperse the demonstrators marching toward the Edsa Shrine to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Edsa 1 revolt, with her unconstitutional calibrated preemptive response order and arresting, without warrant, rally leaders such as Randy David and a host of others.

Bishops who were at Edsa to celebrate Mass, were also banned from doing so.

Still on the same day, the police arrested, again without the right warrant aging leftist leader Crispin Beltran, with the cops claiming to hold a standing arrest warrant, some 25 years old, on charges of rebellion, which for the record, had already been dismissed when the Edsa revolt caused the change in government. They also barged into a media forum, ready to arrest Left-leaning party-list congressmen, among them, Satur Ocampo and Liza Maza. Another party-list congressman, Joel Virador, was arrested in Davao.

Ironically, even as Malacanang claimed the existence of a clear and present danger of a coup and a takeover of her government, and in spite of a Marines standoff as well as Gen. Danilo Lim's desire to march, unarmed, with the people and withdraw support from Gloria, she, who believes that she is the state; that she is vested with the additional powers under a time of emergency, failed to order the arrest of Lim or of Col. Ariel Querubin and others. Neither did her arrogant and intolerable Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, who, along with Gloria, prostitutes the law, charge any of them with coup d'tat. Instead, she kept on saying the military will resolve the problems on its own. Why so, when she is as she says, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and can call on the same Armed Forces to quell rebellion and lawlessness? Why not, when she believes herself to be the state?

It is to be noted that all throughout the state of emergency, which lasted a week, Gloria did not take over any private business vested with public interest, save for the Tribune. And yet the claimed justification of her power to take over businesses was cited. She could therefore have taken over temporarily the oil industry, or the transportation businesses, or even the telecommunications businesses or any other big business in times of economic emergency, assuming of course that she, not the state, is constitutionally vested with such powers.

But they were obviously not the targets at all. What was Gloria's target was the media, represented by the critical Tribune. With its takeover, the message Gloria and her aides with the gangster mentality, sent was for the media to shape up, or else, they too, face the same fate of the Tribune.

The proclamation of a state of emergency by Gloria was obviously to put in bondage the freedoms and rights of a people. Immediately struck down by her and her goons were the freedom of the press and of expression; the freedom to peaceably assemble for redress of grievances and the freedom of religious worship, all of which cannot be abridged by any law, much less a presidential proclamation or a General Order 5, 6, 7 and ad infinitum.

The rights that were also put in chains were the people's right against unreasonable arrests, and warrantless searches and seizures, among other guaranteed rights of a citizen against the abuses of a government and in this instance, a thoroughly tyrannical administration.

But with pressure heaped on her on all sides, Gloria backed off formally, by announcing that there was no more state of emergency. But what difference did that make, since she continues to order the continued crackdown on the very same freedoms that she tried to curtail during the emergency period?

Her lift of the emergency rule does not mean anything, because to this day, the crackdown on the freedoms of the people continues.

A few hours after announcing the lift, Gloria, through her goons, filed charges of inciting to sedition, not surprisingly, against the Tribune publisher and editor-in-chief, along with two other columnists critical of her and her government. Rallies, staged by the lawyers protesting Proclamation 1017 were also being dispersed and threats to pick up the congressmen once they step out of the halls of Congress continue. Soldiers stationed at television networks, such as ABS-CBN, refuse to vacate the place.

So what difference did her lifting of emergency rule do except to consolidate the forces against her and earn for her an unflattering image of a pettitcoat dictator?

She has made her dictatorial bed. She will have to sleep on it and face the dire consequences.

For months, Gloria was dodging the issue of the P3 billion fertilizer funds that was diverted to her election campaign chest, used by her to obtain political support as well as to buy her way to victory at the polls.

With the Senate panel probing this farmers'fund anomaly, Gloria's fear of the Senate, through its power to summon anyone before the body, either as a witness or resource person to respond to any and all questions asked by senators, caused her to issue a gag order, known as Executive Order 464, deliberately done to ensure that none of her executives and government personnel would come before the Senate to testify on anything-especially on her poll-rigging ways that were caught on tape now known as the infamous "Hello Garci" tapes.

But the Senate pursued the case, succeeding in getting other officials who do not belong to the executive department to appear before the body and testify on the scam, as well as bring along with them documents. These were officers from the Commission on Audit and former Cabinet members of Gloria. And there was a whistleblower who was in on the distribution of the fertilizer funds to local officials during the polls.

It is also to be noted that the Senate, while deliberating on the budget of each department, was able to squeeze from current Department of Agriculture (DA) officials the information the Senate panel needed, by way of admission that Gloria's known frontman and bagman, former DA undersecretary Jocelyn "Joc-Joc" Bolante, was in charge of the distribution of the farmers funds, which everyone now knows never went to the farmers. Apart from this, there was also the information extracted from these officials that the Marcos Swiss Deposits, over $600 million worth, have been depleted and used for Gloria's presidential campaign.

In all that time, Gloria and her officials refused to assist the Senate probers in getting Bolante to testify. Every avenue was blocked. The Immigration bureau while pledging to put Bolante on the watchlist, made sure that Bolante would be able to exit and enter the country without being arrested and made sure too that the Senate would not be notified of his entries and exits. The excuses were much too lame. Bolante could not be detained because he was not on a hold-order list. The Foreign Affairs department refused to cancel Bolante's passport, claiming the need for a court order. As for Gloria, she said Bolante was no longer a government official and that she could do nothing to get him to testify before the Senate.

Despite all the stumbling blocks Malacanang put up against the Senate, the probers were still able to come up with a report that pointed to the gross diversion of the fertilizer funds and found officials, including Gloria, culpable. For the officials, the charge recommended was plunder. In the case of Gloria, it was pointed out that her culpability extended to impeachable offenses.

Suddenly, there was Malacanang, blasting away at the Senate report, saying this was the height of political grandstanding and yet another means to degrade the presidency.

But all too suddenly, Malacanang says the DA officials will be probed on the scam by Gloria's toothless and inutile Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC), to "validate" the findings of the Senate, with the PAGC even claiming that Gloria wanted this probe much earlier and with Bolante too, but that it was by then impossible, since Bolante was no longer undersecretary.

That is pure crap. If Gloria truly wanted to have these officials probed, she could have easily had the case brought to the Ombudsman and she could just as easily have called Bolante to come before any investigating body to tell all he knows about the scam, if she wasn't protecting him, to protect herself.

And would the PAGC have the guts to probe Gloria herself or even get the DA officials to blow the whistle on Gloria?

After all, if Gloria were not involved in the scam, why should she even bother to stop the Senate from probing these officials? Why even come up with a gag order on her executives, if she wasn't in on the scam?

All these, whether the fertilizer scam or the Hello Garci tapes, lead to the illegal ways and means she resorted to, in ensuring her fraudulent victory. She is not about to have the truth of her illegitimacy bared publicly.

Still, nothing that she does by way of covering up for her crimes against the Filipino people can be kept hidden forever and time is running out on her.

Leave the military alone and don't involve the Armed Forces in politics, goes the line of the Palace and the Defense and AFP chiefs.

That's a pretty good line, as lines go, but coming from them, can this be deemed credible to the men in uniform, when they certainly know it is Gloria Arroyo and her cabal of cheats, thieves and liars in Malacanang whom the military knows have been in the forefront of politicking, to the point of her having prostituted the AFP, involving the officers and men, both in the military and the police, to rig the presidential vote and ensure her fraudulent victory?

Not only did Gloria and her corrupt gang use the AFP and police to cheat for her at the polls. Gloria even rewarded those in the military and the police officials who cheated for her by promoting them to higher and sensitive positions, which is why the morale of the military is at an all-time low, and why the military continues to be wracked by division.

Some of those AFP officials in position today are now the very same officers who have been identified in the "Hello Garci" tapes as having been tapped to cheat for Gloria. With the military aware of this criminal and politically partisan activity engaged in by their superiors and even directed by their Commander-in-Chief and her political operators, how can these officers even expect to earn the respect of their men, and even their claimed Commander-in-Chief?

Malacanang naturally points to unnamed political opposition groups as those who continue to inject politics in the military, and brands them as destabilizers and enemies of the state. But there can be no denying that, as early as January 2000, Gloria was engaged in coup plotting against the legitimate President Joseph Estrada and she was certainly encouraging her group of treasonous military officers - including the aide of then chief of staff Angelo Reyes - to engage, not only in highly political partisanship, but worse, she was in a conspiracy with the military, the left, the businessmen, the bishops and the so-called civil society groups, to forcibly remove a duly-elected and constitutional President through a coup d'etat.

Gloria, to put it bluntly, was - to use her word - the certified destabilizer and coup plotter, who deliberately had the military leadership break the chain of command and withdraw support and commit high treason. She committed the same crime of which she now accuses her foes.

Yet today, she has the unmitigated gall to call her political foes destabilizers and enemies of the state, and even to call on the military not to engage in politics, and to stick to the chain of command.

And those officers in the military who had themselves withdraw support for then sitting President Joseph Estrada, who staged a mutiny and a coup d'tat against a legitimate and constitutional government; who engaged in criminal activities such as poll rigging, who steal public funds and are rewarded for engaging in these acts, believe they have the moral ascendancy to tell the lower ranking officers and their men to become professional soldiers, to adhere to the chain of command, not engage in partisan politics, or even reject the idea of a move by the soldiers, unarmed, to join the people in an anti-government demonstration and even withdraw support from Gloria?

How can they, who did the very same thing, and worse, justified their act as legal and constitutional; who were rewarded and were not charged under the Articles of War, now say to those who intend to do the same that this is wrong, when they themselves did it then?

No matter how many times Malacanang and its prostituted military keep claiming that the AFP is solidly behind Gloria and the chain of command; that the military is a professional force and an apolitical one, or that a program geared at professionalizing the military is underway, the problem within the military along with the problem of the democratic institutions collapsing after having been thoroughly prostituted by Gloria and her band of lying, cheating thieves, cannot be resolved - and certainly not when Gloria and her cheating military officers are still there.

One cannot justify the arrest, detention and court charges - whether in the civilian or the military tribunals- against those who are merely doing that which their superiors did - and done against a clearly legitimate President and Commander-in-Chief who moreover encouraged professionalism in the military, believing in the principle of one flag, one country and one AFP and making the AFP doubly proud to have on its own, battled against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and retook those camps which belong to the Republic of the Philippines and refused to cede to the rebels and secessionists, one inch of that which is owned by the sovereign Filipino people.

Can the AFP say the same of their dubious Commander-in-Chief today?

All eyes are again focused on the Supreme Court (SC) and the thought that runs through everyone's mind is whether the high court justices will again betray the very people and their inalienable rights and liberties with yet another ruling on the constitutional issue of Proclamation 1017, declaring a state of emergency, favoring Gloria Arroyo.

The ruling favoring the constitutional rights of a people is important because if the SC rules in favor of Gloria, it would be giving her the green light to establish a dictatorship.

The issue is not that she has declared her dubious right, being a dubious Commander-in-Chief, to call on the Armed Forces in times of emergency, to quell rebellion, insurrection and whatever else. The issue is whether she, under her 1017 decree, can order the takeover of the media, close them down or even temporarily take over their operations, supervise and censor editorial content, recall permits for rallies and even order the violent dispersal of demonstrators who are peaceably assembled for redress of grievances.

This is an important constitutional issue, because if the high court upholds Gloria Arroyo's unconstitutional acts stemming from her proclamation, it would be, as we said, giving her the go-signal for the establishment of her authoritarian rule that will moreover vest her with the "authority" to suspend, if not blatantly curtail, anytime she pleases, the basic freedoms of a people.

The way government, immediately after 1017 was proclaimed, trampled upon the freedoms of a people by banning rallies and revoking rally permits and arresting people left and right just because they were marching toward Edsa, and later branding those ordered arrested without warrant, as charged with inciting to sedition, and in the case of Rep. Crispin Beltran, arrested with a 23-year-old arrest warrant for rebellion because as claimed by these police goons of Gloria, rebellion is a continuing crime.

Hello. Even if rebellion is a continuing crime, in what context was the rebellion against committed decades ago, if not the Marcos regime? How can that be deemed a continuing crime against the Gloria regime?

In the case of the raid on The Daily Tribune, there was clearly a trampling of the constitutional freedom of the press, with even police chief Arturo Lomibao proudly stating that the Tribune will be taken over, and with the government running the operations, along with having complete control over the editorial content. Now that is really going out of bounds.

But it looks like the SC will again hide behind the "moot and academic" line instead of finally ruling on this constitutional issue, if only to stop a would-be dictator, now and in the future, in his tracks.

The indications are there. Instead of immediately acting on the petitions for, at the very least, a quick and temporary relief being sought, the SC scheduled oral arguments for next week.

Not surprisingly, Malacanang has been giving out the word that the emergency rule proclamation may be lifted by Saturday, which would now open the door for the SC to claim that the issue is now moot and academic since the state of emergency no longer exists.

This is just about the same thing the SC treated the issue of Gloria's Executive Order (EO) 464, where petitioners asked for a temporary restraining order, but which the SC sat on, then quickly claimed, after Gloria allowed her Cabinet officials to attend a budget hearing, that the issue was moot.

Yet it is important for the high court to issue a ruling on this very important constitutional issue, even if Gloria lifts her state of emergency, because if the court does not do as it should, what is to stop Gloria, and any other future dictator, from doing the same thing again, and in an even worse way?

Gloria Arroyo wouldn't have had the gumption to do anything unconstitutional, and worse emerge as a dictator and destroy democracy, if from the start, the high court struck down as unconstitutional all those dictatorial acts of hers-beginning with the power grab, graduating to the declaration of a state of rebellion which the SC also failed to check, to the many other unconstitutional acts, such as the EO 464, the calibrated preemptive response, the many instances of her violations of civil and human rights and now this clampdown on the press.

For that matter, if the SC ruled that the power grab in 2001 was unconstitutional; that President Estrada did not resign and that the impeachment trial must go on; that the military chiefs at Edsa committed the high crime of treason by withdrawing support from Estrada, a duly elected President and constitutional government, the military would today be a professional force, and would not be thinking of withdrawing support from Gloria, having been taught a painful, constitutional lesson.

FRONTLINE Source