THE banter among some Manila journalists these days, a Bzzzzz source says, is whether one is being spied upon by Malacañang. It’s “some badge of honor, an affirmation” that a journalist is critical and important enough to deserve surveillance: “Are you
bugged? No? Then you don’t deserve their attention.”
The conversation item has spread since the news broke that Malacañang bought P139
million worth of equipment for ISAFP, its intelligence arm.
A Palace spokeswoman has admitted the existence of the equipment. What she has denied is that they’re being used to spy on opposition personalities and media critics of the administration.
Under the wire-tapping law, private conversations cannot be bugged without a court order and only when national security is involved. With new technology, eavesdropping has expanded to include recording of video images.
Suspension automatic when warrant is issued
Petitions are circulating in the Internet calling for the resignation of three senators charged with plunder in connection with the pork barrel anomaly.
Of the three, it’s Sen. Jinggoy Estrada who has come out to reject the suggestion.
He’ll serve until the last day of his term (June 30, 2016), he said, so as not to
disappoint 18 million Filipinos who voted for him.
But if a warrant of arrest is issued against him, his suspension from the Senate shall be automatic, a colleague of Jinggoy says. But that may not come soon enough to many people angered by the senators’ role in the pork barrel fraud.
Special treatment, special arrangement
WHAAAT, SAY THAT AGAIN?
-- “There was no special treatment for Globe Asiatique, only a special arrangement.”
Noli de Castro, an ABS-CBN news anchorperson, former vice president and the time chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council and Pag-ibig, which gave Delfin Lee’s GA P2 billion worth of loans for its home buyers in 2008. GA was also the only developer allowed to buy back from Pag-ibig foreclosed properties in five years, instead of two years granted other developers. De Castro testified Tuesday before the Senate committee looking into GA projects.
-- “We can strengthen what we (Kris Aquino and Herbert Bautista) have by allowing ourselves to have a chance at forever by keeping quiet and private about what we have here and now.”
-- Kris Aquino, billed as “Star of All Media,” herself has been the one stoking the rumor that she and Herbert Bautista, Quezon City mayor, are into it. She promised though that this would be the first and last time she’d talk about their love affair.
[bzzzzz@sunstar.com.ph or paseares@gmail.com]