GOING to jail is the least of Sen. Johnny Ponce Enrile's worries. His things are packed and he is ready to go, he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Enrile even wants to be arrested in the Senate. Of course, there would be media mileage and drama when an octogenarian is arrested and brought to jail by cops.
Sens. Enrile, Bong Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada are charged with plunder and 42 cases of graft with the Sandiganbayan on the Janet Lim-Napoles P10 billion pork barrel scam.
The three senators showed the public their wry grin in a photo op after Revilla's privilege speech. It was like they are telling the public that they are happy at the thought of being jailed.
Graft cases are bailable but there is no bail for plunder. With the plunder cases filed against them, they might languish in jail pending trial.
In what could be his last privilege speech before he is arrested, Revilla called on President Noynoy Aquino to stop persecuting the opposition.
He somehow twisted the facts and made it appear that the graft and plunder charges he is facing is all about politics. He wanted to get the sympathy of the people.
The three senators should stop politicizing the issue. Their cases have nothing to do with politics. It’s all about their profligacy.
Estrada also planned to deliver a privilege speech today. Whatever he would say is passe. It’s consumatum est (everything's done).
Of course, Napoles is one of the principals. The chiefs of staff of the three senators have also been indicted for the same crime because they received the money from Napoles for their bosses.
Everyone is monitoring the cases against the three senators. Sandiganbayan justices, to whom these cases may be raffled off, should be circumspect in handling them.
This is the irony with our politics. The few and influential, some of whom are elected officials, are the ones who have taken advantage of much needed government resources to the detriment of public service.
Yet these elected officials still have the gall to crow and present to the public a clean image. How disgusting! Even more gut-wrenching is the attempt of Revilla to use President Aquino as scapegoat.
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Dissension among the directors of one of the biggest hospitals in Cebu City is growing due to unfair business practice and conflict of interest. A director allegedly cornered all the juicy businesses there.
A petition letter calling for the investigation of alleged anomalies committed by this director and seeking the director’s resignation is being passed around. However, it has not gathered many signatures because of the fear of retribution.
The present hospital management has been in place for a decade. It controls the supply of everything, from laboratory needs to pillows, said a source. Worse, used equipment are passed on to a private laboratory.
Rumors say that the hospital is being used in the purchase of an expensive car to hide the transaction from the prying eyes of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR). But the real owner of the car already paid for it.
The services in this hospital, however, have gotten more expensive and its patients are now limited to the rich and famous.
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