By Ermin Garcia Jr.

 

THE national brouhaha over the impending impeachment of VP Sara Duterte, has deeply polarized the country on two fronts: For or against impeachment, for or against PBBM!

It has become much too obvious that the allies of Speaker Martin Romualdez, particularly the appointed attack dogs, are bent on seeing their mission accomplished at all costs. On reading details of the three impeachment complaints,  the complainants threw the kitchen sink together with the toilet bowl at VP Sara!

While these complaints would convince those out to see  VP Sara burn at the stake, much of it doesn’t stand a chance in a criminal court. But since impeachment is a political process, her burning at the stake is their fervent prayer.

But, the limited timeline is making the anti-VP Sara groups anxious. If need be, they want the Senate to continue with the trial and to drop any urgent legislative agenda.

On the other hand, the Duterte forces (anti-BBM-Spkr Martin) are already moving their forces in position to vent their rage and opposition to the Marcos-Romualdez tandem for plotting the impeachment. They are planning more mass rallies calling for the ouster of the two whether VP Sara is convicted or not.

Why has it come to this, after calls for UNITY rung so loud, that even VP Sara didn’t dare speak out against it.

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FIRST LADY L LIZA-SPKR MARTIN VS. VP SARA. What could have triggered this brouhaha?

My sense of it? It was triggered by the growing animosity between First Lady Liza and VP Sara months before the Unity call was staged. FL Liza was always caught on camera snubbing the presence of VP Sara in the presence of PBBM!

So she likely thought “And what are we power for if we can’t set her aside,” and it didn’t take long before FL Liza and Spkr Martin secretly shared the same thoughts –  to get VP Sara out of the way, regardless of what PBBM thinks. Or so they thought.

That’s when talks of impeachment began spreading at the House. And the QuadCom was created. The Makabayan bloc volunteered to be the attack dog in making VP Sara accountable for her “misuse” of her P125 confidential funds.

Today, the PBBM administration finds itself in a crisis mode. The Duterte loyalists are mad as hell at PBBM. Most Filipinos, however, think the impeachment issue will go away before the elections, hence, it’s just another ‘exciting’  political entertainment  Will it?

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THE CONFIDENTIAL FUNDS. The Makabayan bloc and its new converts have succeeded in making an issue about VP Sara’s refusal to divulge “how the funds were spent in one week.”

The discussion became ludicrous when the use of the confidential funds (note: of VP Sara only) became an issue on transparency and accountability!

As former Sen. Ping Lacson pointed out: “The disbursement of confidential funds uses code and alisases dahils sa confidential nature ng pagkagastosan. But the same requires an intelligence project where details of expenses are stipulated. Now you know the whos and whys  of Mary Grace Piattos and Kikoy Villamin.”  Then, addressing the attack dogs, he said: “Don’t show your ignorance by asking the true identities of these persons. Otherwise, hindi na yan confidential.”
This secrecy tact is no different from the tact employed by the CPPP-NPA for its cadres. Their true identities are kept confidential. The Makabayan bloc knew this, but it took a sneaky chance to mislead the country that the word ‘confidential’ takes a different meaning in the case of VP Sara.

Haay naku!

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ENOUGH OF LIMS, EPALIFE BARKADA. Voters in Dagupan ought to know by now that voting for the reelection of any of the 7  epaLiFes and voting for the rest of their ka-barkada in 2025 will be the worst thing they can do for the city and for themselves.

They have tried every trick in the book to harm the city by blocking annual and supplemental budgets, and they have not stopped. They succeeded in blocking the 2023 and 2024 budget leaving the city with reenacted budgets for two years but not after serving a P600-M  budget, a budget for people of a third-class municipality to humiliate Dagupeños. Fortunately, the DBM rejected the insulting budget!

Fortunately for the city, their misconduct during their regular sessions caught up with them. The 3 epaLiFe Councilors Red Erfe-Mejia, Alfie Fernandez and Irene Lim-Acosta, were summarily suspended by the court for conduct unbecoming of public officials. This was followed by 3 consecutive rejections by the Regional Trial Court of their petitions calling for the nullification of the passage of the 2024 annual budget without regard to the plight of Dagupeños whose lives can be helped by the annual budget. 

Today, they continue to sabotage the city government’s programs, believing they can obstruct any passage of a funded project by walking out of the regular sessions. They maintain that without their 7 votes, the city council cannot function – again, that’s by their own crafted rules. Also, in their convoluted sense of governance, they want to continue to be entitled to their compensation as councilors each time they walk out.   

So I no longer see any hope of redemption for the 7 epaLiFes after seeing and hearing Councilor Celia Chua-Lim, the barkada’s mayoralty bet, justifying their walkouts.

Pray that the city will never have her and her son,  Brian, back as mayor and vice mayor with an arrogant barkada in tow, lest the city is plunged into a fourth-class type of government out of revenge – to avenge their failed attempts to block the city’s 2024 and 2025 annual budgets.    

Their arrogant mindset is inexplicable as it is unprecedented in the city’s political development history.  They have made themselves believe that they are entitled to do anything, as in anything, to the extent of violating provisions in the Local Government Code. 

This should stop!

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