Shall we stop trusting Wikipedia?

“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”Albert Einstein

By Alex P. Vidal

IF tourism secretary Ramon Jimenez were to be believed, media should stop relying on Wikipedia as a source for any investigative journalism.

As media researchers and deadline writers, we go to Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia and written collaboratively by those who use it, for quick references from time to time.

Wikipedia is designed as a special type of website to make collaboration easy and called a wiki.

Since many people from all over the world are constantly improving Wikipedia, thousands of changes are made every hour.

Thus data change from time to time and not permanent; therefore, unreliable.

Former Iloilo provincial administrator Manuel “Boy M” Mejorada admitted before the Senate blue ribbon committee hearing November 13 that he used Wikipedia as one of his sources in the P700-million Iloilo Convention Center (ICC) project in Iloilo City.

Mejorada claimed the amount of the project rose from P450 million to P700 million.

SPEECH

Senate President Franklin Drilon, according to Mejorada, even mentioned that the project is worth P1 billion in his speech in the opening of the Dinagyang Festival in Iloilo City in January this year.

When pressed by the panel that included committee chair Teopisto Guingona III and fellow senators Antonio Trillanes IV, Nancy Binay to show documents as evidence that the ICC is overpriced, Mejorada said he based his findings from published reports, Wikipedia, whispers from experts who requested anonymity, among other sources.

Jimenez chided Mejorada not to use Wikipedia in formal discussions like the senate inquiry.

Jimenez warned that the problem with relying on Wikipedia is that if 100 people read in the Wikipedia that the apple is square, the same number of people will believe that the apple is really square.

Senator Serge Osmena agreed with Jimenez saying Wikipedia is not like the Britannica Encyclopedia which is more reliable.

Binay said accusers of her father, Vice President Jejomar Binay, had also invoked Wikipedia when they alleged that there was overpricing in the construction of the Makati city hall parking building.

DPWH Secretary Rogelio Singson exhorted investigative journalists to ask them first so his office can provide the information needed in the investigation. 

Short in saying that the information he can give is more reliable than what the Wikipedia can offer.

PROJECT

According to Wikipedia, the Iloilo Convention Center is a P450-million project in the Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao, Iloilo City, Philippines which is expected in to be completed in 2014.

“It will be built on a 1.7-hectare of lot in the district of Mandurriao donated by the Megaworld Corp.

“The Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority will allocate P200 million for the construction of the convention center, while another P250 million will be sourced from the Priority Development Assistance Fund of Senator Franklin Drilon.

“The state-of-the-art convention center designed by architect William Coscoluella will be constructed based on a design inspired by Iloilo’s Dinagyang and Paraw festivals. It will be a two-storey structure with a total floor area of 6,400 square meters.

“The main hall on the ground floor will have a 3,700-seat capacity and 500-seat function rooms on the second floor.”

Drilon, meanwhile, did not actually inhibit himself in the hearing as what he had announced earlier.

He appeared pissed off while answering questions from Binay and Osmena.

REQUEST

Drilon admitted he was the one who requested for funds of the project, partly funded by his Disbursement Allocation Program (DAP) share.

He disclosed a "just in" information that the Megaworld will release the complete papers for the deed of donation before the year ends.

Mejorada, who filed plunder and graft raps against Drilon, Jimenez, Singson and other DPWH officials alleging that “they conspired” to overprice the ICC project, insisted there were violations in the bidding processes, among other building procedures.

Mejorada, Liberal Party Iloilo provincial campaign manager in the 2013 elections, was assisted by lawyer Eduardo Jalbuna.

Beware of Miriam in ICC senate hearing

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Benjamin Franklin

By Alex P. Vidal

NOW that Senator Teopisto Guingona III has set the Senate blue ribbon committee hearing on the alleged overpriced Iloilo Convention Center (ICC) project on November 17, the occasion will serve as a moment of truth for both the accused Senate President Franklin Drilon, et al and their accuser, Manuel “Boy M” Mejorada.

Although the merits of the serious charges Mejorada thrown at Drilon, et al will be tackled in the formal investigation to be initiated by the Office of the Ombudsman, the senate committee hearing is always considered by the public as the primordial barometer to spot the vagabonds, the tearjerkers, and the ninny lobcocks.

Like in the other high profile senate investigations, we expect hearing proponent, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, to again grab public attention and bring those invited to appear in the hearing in the edge of their seats.

It was Santiago who sponsored a resolution calling for the inquiry after Mejorada’s well-publicized filing of plunder and graft raps against Drilon,  Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez, Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson and other Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials in relation to the P700-million project in Iloilo City.

INHIBIT

Now that Drilon has announced he was willing to inhibit himself, we expect him to skip the hearing and monitor the event on TV somewhere else.

Of course, people would love to see Drilon’s presence so he can dispute the allegations leveled against him by his former Twitter accountant handler and media consultant for Iloilo.

But based on all indications this early, it looks like the senate inquiry will unravel without the presence of the senate president.

Mejorada, the most excited person in the entire imbroglio, has expressed willingness to appear in the hearing even before Guingona announced the November 17 date.

Mejorada’s face to face encounter with the fire-spewing Santiago, a fellow Iloilo resident, is now inevitable, barring unforeseen circumstances.

As she is wont to do, Santiago, 69, a former trial court judge, usually starts her spiel with a fierce lecture, or a cross-examination-like juggernaut that usually leaves the invited guests immobile, confused and flabbergasted, especially if they are imbeciles and intellectually inept.

There is a popular saying in the gallery that if there are rats inside your stomach and you can easily be intimidated by a staccato of words and high tones, you better stay away from the senate committee hearing lorded over by Santiago.

GUEST

To an ordinary invited guest, Santiago always sounds intimidating even if she asks the most basic questions such as “can you state your complete name and other personal circumstances?” and “Why you are here and what is your role in this committee investigation?”

Mejorada should not expect a joy ride once Santiago starts to open her laser-laced mouth during the hearing.

It’s always better to be prepared ahead of time than to be zapped with shockwaves of unexpected questions that will catch a person flat-footed.

He should anticipate harsh and even gruesome questions especially about his background as a media practitioner and as a government official.

Mejorada’s past and present links with politicians—winners and losers in the previous elections—are also expected to be brought up.

Battle-scarred and intrepid, Mejorada knows where he is heading to.

We all know that Santiago is deadly when it comes to marital and extra-marital affairs.

MERCILESS

She is merciless even the way she describes innocent individuals caught in between the scandals.

Her sharp tongue has tormented a lot of prominent and little-known individuals who found themselves like being thrown into the lion’s den or like being mauled black and blue by the spinach-eating Popeye after the hearing.

Look what she did to Senator Juan Ponce Enrile and his concubines (plural).

Drilon’s co-accused will also suffer from emotional and intellectual discombobulation if they go to war unmanned and unprepared.

For sure, the hearing will be a battle of not only credibility, but also of documents.  

There are allegations of overprice in the ICC project, financed partly by Drilon’s Disbursement Allocation Program (DAP), and Mejorada insists he is determined and ready to prove it.

Drilon claimed there was no any anomaly in his pet project for Iloilo City.

Let’s proceed with the senate committee hearing.

Why Drilon should accept Syjuco’s challenge to a debate

“A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don't have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.” Nelson Mandela

By Alex P. Vidal

If we were Senate President Franklin Drilon, we would accept the challenge of former Tesda director general Augusto “Buboy” Syjuco to a debate.

The debate with Syjuco would be a perfect venue for the Ilonggo senate president to prove his critics wrong about so many issues that have bedeviled him these past months.

This would give Drilon the chance to disabuse the minds of the Doubting Thomases that he and his selected minions benefited from the P479-million Iloilo Convention Center (ICC) project in Iloilo City.

The debate would be a perfect opportunity for Drilon to dispel or refute allegations that he misappropriated his multi-million pesos Disbursement Allocation Program (DAP) or pork barrel share.

Since it appears that nobody in the senate today has the guts to engage him in a debate over so many controversial issues, Drilon should accept Syjuco’s dare.

But immediately after Syjuco made the challenge last September 16, Drilon rejected it.

He called Syjuco a "discredited" politician.

The senate big man said he is willing to face Syjuco in a debate if the latter is already a senator.

But Syjuco is very much qualified to debate with the third highest official of the country.

Aside from being a former congressman for three terms, Syjuco was a member of the 1973 Constitutional Assembly where he was the constitution principal author and sponsor of accountability of public officers, Sandiganbayan, and Ombudsman; and the law on dual citizenship and absentee voting.

CHALLENGE

Syjuco’s challenge went this way: “Drilon, be a man. Kakasa ka ba, or kakaba-kaba?

“Mr. Drilon: ‘I am for truth, no matter who tells it. I am for justice, no matter who its for

or against.’ – Malcom X

“Some time ago, I challenged you to a public debate. You merely made excuses and crawled away.

“For the second (2nd) time now, I am again challenging you to a public debate, in Plaza Miranda. Let us together, you and I, bring back the revered tradition of taking public issues to our people, in Plaza Miranda.

1. Choose your date & time.

2. You and I will share the physical costs of the debate.

3. My subjects are your Iloilo Convention Center pet project, and other projects you have overpriced.

4. You can choose your own subject(s) to hurl at me.

“Take this now my 2nd challenge. Running away shows you to be guilty. Be a man. Clear your name and reputation.

“Show us all that you are right, and that I am wrong. Let our people decide.”

If Drilon has nothing to hide and if he believes that he can prove his critics wrong, why not accept the challenge?

-o0o-

Anomalous appointment.

This was how Ilonggo lawyer-philosopher Ernesto Justiniani Dayot viewed the recent appointment by President Benigno S. Aquino III of fellow Ilonggo lawyer Francis Jardeleza to the Supreme Court.

While he was also proud and happy that another Ilonggo jurist has made it to the higher court, Dayot, 81, said Jardeleza virtually became a tuta (puppy) of the president because of his being a former solicitor general.

“A solicitor general works under the president,” Dayot pointed out. “There would have been no controversy if Jardeleza came all the way from the lower courts or in other agencies not directly under the president. It’s pure and simple delicadeza.”

MESSAGE

Dayot said Mr. Aquino wanted to send a curt message to Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno who did not support him in the DAP or pork barrel tumult.

As for Sereno, who was accused by Associate Justice Arturo Brion of manipulating the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) to make sure that Jardeleza would not make it to the shortlist of the nominees, she should not only resign as suggested by many legal luminaries in the country, he said.

“She should be impeached,” stressed Dayot of Dingle, Iloilo.

Not yet a thief

“It's not fair that the accused is not protected from adverse publicity whilst the accuser is guaranteed anonymity, whatever the verdict.” Jonathan King

By Alex P. Vidal

We can’t call Bayan Muna partylist Rep. Neri Colmenares a thief yet unless proven otherwise.

It’s too premature to conclude that he benefited from the alleged anomalous construction of the two-classroom building in Barangay Dela Peña Primary School, Barotac Viejo, Iloilo worth P1.8 million.

The project was reportedly funded by the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), recently declared as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

A case filed in court against any individual—government official or ordinary civilian--does not make that individual outright criminal.

In our justice system, the accused has to undergo a trial where he is given the chance to answer the raps against him and clear his name.

The accuser, on the other hand, has to present evidence or evidences to support the charges and help convict the accused.

REASONABLE

If the court finds him guilty beyond reasonable doubt in a criminal case, he goes to jail and becomes a convicted criminal.

The graft case filed against Colmenares by the Movement for People Empowerment (MPE) at the Office of the Ombudsman here last August 5, immediately caught fire and brimstone, so to speak, among both the defenders of President Benigno S. Aquino III and the leftist organization represented by the Ilonggo partylist congressman.

Colmenares has been a consistent critic of Malacanang. He and his colleagues in Bayan Muna dismissed MPE’s charges as “harassment.”

Pro-administration allies, including some elected public officials connected with the ruling Liberal Party (LP) immediately “shared” the news about Colmenares’ case in social media, especially in Facebook.

CAPTION

“So the whole world may know,” screamed the caption under an article from Panay News dated August 5, 2014: “Bayan Muna’s Colmenares and company ‘GRAFTBUSTER’ FACES GRAFT CHARGES” posted in the Facebook page of Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog. “Don’t only comment…please also SHARE.”

Colmenares swore he “never stole a single centavo from public funds” explaining that his office only endorsed the project requested by the office of Barotac Viejo Mayor Niel Tupas III to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

The Ilonggo solon stressed that “based on the reports sent to my office, it was completed last February and like in other projects, not a single centavo was given or passed through me.”

Colmenares said he was willing to undergo a lifestyle check to prove that he is not a crook, a challenge belittled by MPE coordinator Tomas Calderon in a Panay News article dated August 6, 2014 as “alibi.”

Calderon said the same “strategy” was used by jailed and suspended senators Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., Jinggoy Estrada and even former president and now Manila mayor Joseph Estrada.

It’s too early to say that the graft case was an act of vendetta on the part of the administration since it was not yet established if Malacanang was behind the MPE.

DOUBTS

If it hopes to erase doubts in the mind of the public

that it was only picking on critics of President Aquino like Colmenares, MPE should also run after other lawmakers, including senators, regardless of party affiliations, who also clearly and scandalously benefited from the pork barrel fund via the locally implemented infrastructure projects, where the biggest robbery through kickbacks and under the table transactions occurred; where scalawags and thieves really made a giant killing.

A graft case shouldn’t be used as a weapon to harass and intimidate critics of the Aquino administration. Pro or anti administration, the law should be fair to everyone. In the crusade against graft and corruption, there should be no holy cow; no special treatment; no palakasan.

But if evidence shows that Colmenares, et al really

benefited from the Barotac Viejo, Iloilo school building project, they must pay the price and go to jail. No ifs. No buts.

Tell us who are your friends

“Neutral men are the devil's allies.”

Edwin Hubbel Chapin

By Alex P. Vidal

The front pages of all the newspapers, headline news of all TV and radio networks yesterday said it all!

The judiciary is hell-bent not to genuflect before the executive branch, its co-equal in government, as manifested by the gallant stand of the majority of the judges, prosecutors, and other hall of justice employees all over the country who wore black last Monday to assert judicial independence.

The move was precipitated by President Benigno Aquino III’s astonishing brickbats against the Supreme Court, which had torpedoed the Palace’s Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) or pork barrel.

Mr. Aquino’s unprecedented tirades against the higher court initially failed to catch fire among lawmakers and local government executives.

They, too, were caught by surprise by the President’s boldness and, to some extent, stubbornness. Many mayors and governors were made to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea.

SUPPORT

But lately, some tong-gressmen, city and municipal mayors and governors started to voice their support for their embattled chief executive in Malacanang.

They were even undaunted and willing to engage in a slugfest the church’s top prelates who denounced the DAP in the pulpits.

These tong-gressmen and some local chief executives must have realized they would be accused by Malacanang as “ingrates” for abandoning the cause that benefited their districts, cities, municipalities and provinces if they did not take a stand and come to the President’s defense at this crucial moment.

A common cause that benefited their favorite contractors and, what else, their own pockets!

DAP funded most local infrastructure and public works projects through the tong-gressmen and sin-nators bribed by Malacanang to impeach Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona.

UNITY

In unity there is strength. United we stand, united we fall.

This must be the battlecry of the local chief executives, tong-gressmen and sin-nators who are now singing hallelujah to President Aquino.

In Negros and Iloilo, many mayors and governors have started to show their true colors by joining the Palace in justifying why DAP should not have been shot down by the Supreme Court like the Malaysian Airlines jet.

They knew that if they abandoned the king, they would be isolated politically and made to face the Commission on Audit’s wrath like condemned and captured enemies facing the firing squad.

The Supreme Court has ordered those who had feasted on the P137.3 billion worth of DAP to return the people’s money. Unable to do so would be tantamount to stealing and the act is punishable by law.

Hence, local chief executives, tong-gressmen and sin-nators are frantically moving heaven and earth in the propaganda and publicity department to reverse the storm by coming out in public and risk their reelection to defend the “good side” of DAP.

MONDAY

The court’s black Monday onslaught was a curt message to the executive branch: we are co-equal and, therefore, will not succumb to any dictatorial fulmination and display of absolute power and attempt to force us on our knees.

We will know if President Aquino’s rah-rah boys and girls in the local government units are really determined to swim and sink with their king if the League of Provinces and League of Cities and Municipalities will pass resolutions defending the president and the DAP.

Tell us who your friends are and we will tell you who you are!

Mario, Glenda, Benigno

“Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.” John F. Kennedy

By Alex P. Vidal

During moments of euphoria, sadness, tragedy, defeat and victory, we remember not only events but names.

We remember three names that are currently synonymous to heroism, destruction and stubbornness: Mario, Glenda, and Benigno.

Mario is now the toast of the soccer community when he sank that lone goal for Germany’s fourth FIFA World Cup in the recent championship match against Argentina at the Estadio Maracana in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil last July 14.

Because of that come-from-behind date with fame in Rio, a mere mention of Mario Gotze’s name evokes sweet moments of heroism and victory.

The 2014 FIFA World Cup produced not only a soccer hero, but also a new inspiration for Filipinos pinning their football hopes only on the overfed and over fancied Azkals XI, a team not even rated among the top 100 in the world and can never represent the Philippines in the next FIFA World Cup in 2018.
If he were a Filipino, Mario would be a shoo-in for senator under the pork barrel’s Liberal Party.

Filipinos love sports superstars like they love their childhood super heroes. And they won’t hesitate to elect them into public office like what they did to former senators Ambrosio Padilla, Freddie Webb, and Robert Jaworski. Two years from now, a boxing champion will also be called as “Senator Manny Pacquiao.”

Glenda, the name of a mysterious college student who borrowed from me P3,000 cash and disappeared like a comet several years ago, is now remembered as a storm that terrorized Luzon last July 15 and 16.

RAMPAGE

Glenda’s murderous rampage left scores of deaths and sent some 200,000 families packing to evacuation centers.

Glenda lashed at Metro Manila and flooded the main highways and avenues. She brought only monsoon rains in Iloilo, but most parts of the region were also affected in one way or the other.

Hell hath no fury like a typhoon named after a woman. Glenda came, saw and conquered.

Like Yolanda, Glenda represented sadness, mayhem and death. Weather forecasters coined the names of incoming typhoons based on alphabetical order, so let’s not feel bad if Glenda happens to be the name of our mother, sister, wife, girlfriend, or debtor. 

Benigno is the leader of the 90 million Filipinos now up in arms against the “pork barrel” fund deodorized as Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

The Supreme Court has declared DAP as unconstitutional and asked Benigno’s lawmaker allies who have availed of the controversial appropriations, to return the taxpayers money worth P137.3 billion to the national treasury.

But the funds are reportedly nowhere to be found now. All of a sudden, no one has come forward to defend Bengino except himself. No one has volunteered to make a gallant sacrifice for the king. When the going gets tough, it’s only Benigno now by his lonesome self defending the port in the attic.

Lawmakers and their local government partners claimed they spent the money “wisely” to finance infrastructure and public works projects in their respective cities and provinces. 

SUSPICIOUS

But people were suspicious that a bulk of the funds may have gone to the pockets of corrupt politicians allied with Benigno in the form of kickbacks via fake non-government organizations, the same trick that sent P10-billion pork barrel scam accused Janet Lim-Napoles to the calaboose.

Benigno’s popularity suffered a sharp decline since 2010 according to the recent Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia surveys.

The negative impact on Benigno’s popularity must have something to do with his refusal to let go of Harvard-educated budget secretary Butch Abad, DAP’s chief collaborator, and for defending the DAP and engaging the Supreme Court in a power play that could provoke a constitutional crisis.

Because of this, the once supremely popular president and son of the late former President Cory and the late brave Marcos opposition leader Ninoy, has earned the reputation as a “stubborn” president.

World Cup of corruption

“Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.” Thomas Jefferson

By Alex P. Vidal

The next World Cup after the FIFA soccer conclave in Brazil that Filipinos should seriously get involved with is the dismantling of the triangle of graft and corruption in the country.

It’s no longer a Germany versus Argentina finale. It’s the People of the Philippines against the Kingdom of Pork Barrel.

If the reported P137.3 billion worth of taxpayers money released for the doomed Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) of lawmakers and cabinet officials can’t be accounted for; and, worse, can’t be returned to the national treasury as ordered by the Supreme Court, we really need a Mario Gotze to nail our own World Cup goal against the mammoth plunderers led by President Benigno Aquino III and his ilk who control our government today.

The amount is disturbing and sickening: a whooping P137.3 billion!

If its release is unconstitutional, therefore it’s illegal.

THIEF

In our country, a small-time thief who steals a penny will rot in jail if he can’t afford a top-notch lawyer to defend him in court.

If the thief who steals hundreds of millions of pesos is an elected public official, he can dilly dally his case and gets away if he or she is an administration ally. A clear case of double standard of justice.

Since the Supreme Court ruling, we haven’t heard our local officials – city and town mayors, provincial governors and other elected officials down to the barangay level—demand from our corrupt legislators to refund the DAP or pork barrel share they had siphoned from the national treasury. Some of them claimed that DAP funds were spent by lawmakers to finance public works and infrastructure projects in their cities and provinces, thus the money benefited their constituents. Birds of the same feather.

If the funds were sourced from a poisonous tree, they don’t have the moral grounds to stand on. The end does not justify the means.

SITUATION

We are in a situation where at stake is our national pride, reputation and future as a nation. Election by election or year by year, we are being taken for a ride by politicians who promised to end our miseries and give us a good life.

Once they are in power, they connive to plunder the nation and further impoverish the people. Stealing continues to be the favorite passion of our government officials.

We have not graduated from this moral malady ever since we kicked out Marcos in the EDSA revolution. Corruption has eaten up our vast resources and demoralized the people who continue to wallow in abject poverty and live miserably below the survival level.

We badly need a World Cup finale against massive graft and corruption and exorcise this country of demonic and rapacious leaders before they could permanently spell our doomsday.