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Subic firms to SC: Save us from this ‘midnight deal’

Subic firms to SC: Save us from this ‘midnight deal’

by | Aug 23, 2023 | Gotcha

Subic Bay Freeport – SBMA photo

GOTCHA

Pioneer locators at Subic Bay Freeport are pleading for survival. They beg the Supreme Court en banc to undo a deal that would kill their businesses.

That deal goes back to 2010. Private Harbour Centre Port Terminal, Inc. is to take over Subic’s seaports and vast real estate.

Even Subic Bay Management Authority (SBMA) shuns the deal. It can’t give up control of freeport management and operation.

SC’s Third Division in 2021 compelled SBMA to grant Harbour Centre the deal. SBMA seeks reconsideration of the 3-2 split decision.

The locators also plead for definitive jurisprudence. They await the Third Division clerk’s referral to the en banc of their June 2023 motion.

 

The locators helped modernize the former base that the US Navy left after Pinatubo’s 1991 eruption. In 1994-1996 Mega Subic Terminal Services launched hi-tech grain unloading plants. Via fertilizer landings, Subic Seaport Terminal, Inc. introduced the freeport to world maritime commerce. Amerasia Terminal Services systematized cargo handling.

In the last 12 years the three pioneers contributed P2.7 billion to SBMA’s income. Subcontractors who installed machineries and shops around them also remit to SBMA.

In November 2009 Harbour Centre unsolicitedly proposed to develop, manage and operate the freeport for P6.4 billion. By February 2010 the outgoing SBMA administrator signed a joint venture – stating only P200-million Harbour Centre investment over three years.

The three-month “evaluation” surprised locators. Negotiations usually take years. The joint venture came ahead of publication and conduct of competitive challenge, a breach of 2008 guidelines.

Besides, it was during an election ban on government contracting. Deadline was set on Apr. 22, 2010 for submission of counter-proposals. SBMA received none, precisely because of the prohibition that insulates projects from political partisanship.

Too there was no clearance from the National Economic and Development Authority. The President chairs the NEDA board that consists of Cabinet secretaries. Technical, financial and legal experts screen major deals for viability.

Succeeding SBMA chairmen and directors refused to push through with the deal. In May 2011 NEDA declared that SBMA’s compliance with laws, rules and regulations “could not be ascertained.” That June, the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel advised to amend the joint venture to suit NEDA guidelines.

In July 2011 NEDA invalidated the deal for procedural breaches. Joint ventures can be signed only after completion of three stages: submission of Swiss challenges, publication of contract and notification of award.

In August 2011 Harbour Centre petitioned the Olongapo City regional trial court to compel SBMA to award and proceed with the deal.

OGCC recommended suspension of notices of award/to proceed. The deal needed review due to NEDA’s invalidation.

Meantime, in September 2012, the RTC of Dinalupihan, Bataan voided the deal as unconstitutional and illegal. Reasons:

• Violating fair competition, it will create a monopoly. Harbour Centre will become exclusive port operator-cargo handler.

• SBMA will delegate to Harbour Centre its legislated function to fix tariff rates. Harbour Centre will have discretion to fix such rates.

• It violated the SBMA Law. SBMA will abdicate power “to operate, administer, manage and develop the ship repair/shipbuilding facility, container port, oil storage and refueling facility … as a free-market policy.”

• SBMA surrendered authority to manage and collect real estate rentals inside the five piers.

• SBMA forfeited duty to fix just and reasonable rates, fare charges and other prices.

In August 2013 the Court of Appeals reversed the Olongapo RTC verdict and dismissed Harbour Centre’s mandamus case. Harbour Centre elevated the issue to the SC Third Division.

In December 2021 the Third Division reversed the CA on three grounds. One, Harbour Centre has right to immediate award since no counter-proposals were submitted. Two, SBMA and Harbour Centre’s signing of the joint venture before project award was a mere “suspensive condition” to the outcome of competitive challenges. Three, NEDA approval is unnecessary.

Subic Seaport Terminals, Inc. now seeks en banc ruling. It argues:

• Harbour Centre has no right to mandamus. A joint venture is discretionary, not compulsory, on SBMA.

• The Build-Operate-Transfer Law and 2008 joint venture guidelines do require NEDA approval. Here, NEDA withdrew consent.

• Harbour Centre cannot be entitled to contract award when no Swiss challenges were made in April 2010, during an election ban.

• The joint venture process and contents violate NEDA guidelines, thus invalid.

Two questions: Shall Harbour Centre collect and SBMA lose the P2.7-billion income from the pioneers? Isn’t it grossly and manifestly disadvantageous to government to enforce the deal 13 years after?

* * *

Catch “Sapol” radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., dwIZ (882-AM)

            “Gotcha: An Exposé on the Philippine Government” is available as e-book and paperback. Get a free copy of “Chapter 1: Beijing’s Bullying and Duplicity”. Simply subscribe to my newsletter HERE. Book orders also accepted there.

Speaker Romualdez at center of U.S. bribery rap over Okada

Speaker Romualdez at center of U.S. bribery rap over Okada

by | Aug 18, 2023 | Gotcha

(Complete case file, 91 pages: https://assets.bwbx.io/…/iqjWHBFdfxIU/rl5hOJl.9TYs/v0)

GOTCHA

Speaker Martin Romualdez is being linked in a U.S. bribery case on the Okada family feud. “Heavy luggage” full of “the item” is alleged.

Also mentioned in the July 31, 2023 corporate lawsuit are “the President” and “judges on the … Supreme Court”. No identities.

Multimillion-readership international media headlined it. That government’s three branches are dragged in alarms foreign investors.

The Delaware Chancery Court brief names Romualdez as recipient of “an item” in “heavy luggage”. (See photo of pages 30-31 )

Romualdez didn’t respond since Tuesday to Gotcha’s calls and texts for his side. International media outlets reported similar silence.

“Within three days of the ‘item’ being delivered” Director Hajime Tokuda of Tokyo-listed Universal Entertainment Corp. “met directly with Speaker of the House Martin Romualdez,” the brief states.

It quotes Tokuda as reporting via “top-secret internal emails”: “Romualdez then and there called judges on the Philippines Supreme Court.”

Delaware-based 26 Capital Acquisition Corp. sued UEC over an aborted merger. It recounts how, in July-September 2022, UEC tried to influence Philippine officials in its conflict with units that run Okada Manila casino resort-hotel:

“Parent (UEC) worked on a more direct route to the top of the Philippine government, i.e., the Speaker of the House and the President.

“Parent’s Sato Nobuki traveled to the Philippines ‘with heavy luggage’ to deliver an ‘item’ directly to ‘Martin’.

“These barely disguised buzz words were used in top-secret internal emails and discussed only at the very top of UEC.”

Billionaire Kazuo Okada and son Tomohiro Okada are in tug-o’-war over UEC. Through subsidiary Tiger Resorts in 2007 Kazuo set up $2.6 billion, 40-hectare Okada Manila in Parañaque’s entertainment city.

Tomohiro wrested control of UEC in Tokyo in 2017, upheld by Japan’s High Court 2019. The Philippine Supreme Court reinstated Kazuo to Tiger in April 2022.

In August 2022, 26 Capital’s complaint avers, the SC clarified its ruling: “disruption is never the intent of the [status quo ante order] … as it does not direct the doing or undoing of acts.”

“On September 1-2, 2022, the Philippine DOJ and the Philippine Gaming Corporation issued written opinions adverse to Kazuo Okada’s illegal takeover,” 26 Capital narrates. “The national police and army promptly accompanied management and retook control of the casino.”

Launched by veteran gaming industry analyst Jason Ader, 26 Capital wants the court to compel UEC to honor their $275-million tie-up. With UEC owning 88 percent, they were to list in the New York Stock Exchange as a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). That fell apart due to the father-son dispute.

26 Capital claims that among UEC’s wrongdoings are “potential bribery of governmental officials followed by efforts to run the deal clock out before such activity comes to light.”

UEC accused 26 Capital of fraudulent practices and delays. Ader counters that UEC faltered when he nominated to their common board Ira Raphaelson.
The latter was formerly “with Las Vegas Sands (casino chain) … and the U.S. Department of Justice, and is a leading expert on gaming, Anti-Money Laundering, and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act regulations in both the USA and Asia,” the case file says.

Ader’s lawyer adds: “During this time, SPAC remained engaged, asking questions about the UEC Parties’ efforts while SPAC itself lobbied through the U.S. embassy. Though SPAC was informed about the June 2022 term sheet, SPAC was never told about the July 2022 top-secret ‘heavy luggage’ mission.”

Global news outlets Bloomberg, Japan Times and Bloomberg Law News reported case details. Same with gaming industry sites Casino.org, Focus Gaming News, Asia Gaming Brief, Asia Casino News. Also Bravo News Ph. They expect UEC to deny allegations.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Romualdez’s cousin, has been travelling the globe for foreign investments. During his first six months in office, July-December 2022 he spent P392.3 million on foreign trips, state auditors report.

 

(Complete case file, 91 pages: https://assets.bwbx.io/…/iqjWHBFdfxIU/rl5hOJl.9TYs/v0)

* * *

Catch “Sapol” radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., dwIZ (882-AM)

            “Gotcha: An Exposé on the Philippine Government” is available as e-book and paperback. Get a free copy of “Chapter 1: Beijing’s Bullying and Duplicity”. Simply subscribe to my newsletter HERE. Book orders also accepted there.

Floods worsen as politicos pocket P836-B budget

Floods worsen as politicos pocket P836-B budget

by | Aug 16, 2023 | Gotcha

Google Earth photo

GOTCHA

Government outlaid P836 billion for flood control, 2017-2023.

Deluges only worsened in those seven years. Filipinos lost lives, jobs, homes, farms, shops, schooling, belongings.

Dishonesty and ineptness taint flood control. In 2019 House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya accused then-budget secretary Ben Diokno of inserting P332 billion for such purpose in three years. Of that, P385 million went to a Bicol town that, state engineers said never floods.

The town mayor is stepfather of Diokno’s son-in-law. The mayor is a public works contractor; the son-in-law a former stockholder. Diokno denied knowing the mayor.

In 2020 flood controls reached P90 billion; in 2021, P102 billion; in 2022, P129 billion; in 2023, P183 billion.

Flood controls are political dynasts’ favorite pork barrel. Lawmakers and local kinsmen divvy up the money via three scams:

  • Fake river/lake dredging. Dredgers run only when DPWH officials come to inspect, ex-senator Panfilo Lacson noted. 
  • Flimsy floodwalls – most overflowed during recent Typhoons Egay and Falcon in Luzon precisely due to no desilting, Public Works Sec. Manuel Bonoan reported.
  • Paltry sewers – politicos allow subdivision and irrigation paving without drainage. Ripe palay rot in inundated fields, Bonoan said. Dynasts extract 42-percent kickback, Baguio City Mayor Benjie Magalong bared. They also act as constructors/suppliers, for 15-percent markup.

They defy the 1989 Rainwater Collector and Springs Development Act. The 34-year-old law requires impounding of rainwater in all barangays’ lowest portions for use during dry spells. Flood controls are only for re-election showcase. Unmaintained, water pumps conk out when most needed.

In one island town the mayor abets destructive mining of nickel, chromite, cobalt and iron. Her husband constructed the mining firm’s causeway to the port. Mining execs lodge, wine and dine at the mayor’s seaside hotel.

In Cavite another mayor let a food factory fence off a creek. Motorists blame storm floods on the South Luzon Expressway, not the real wrongdoers.

In Bulacan for three months officials chided dam managers for insufficient farmland water. The other week they attributed floods to dam releases. They also blamed “reclamation” of the New Manila International Airport.

Wrong. NMIA is an island separated from Bulacan mainland by five rivers: Maycapiz, Babangad, Bamban Creek, Malad, Meycauayan (see map below). San Miguel Corp. isn’t reclaiming but restoring foreshores submerged by subsidence and rising Manila Bay levels. River unclogging by Royal Boskalis Westminster NV, The Netherlands’ largest dredger, benefits Bulacan’s flood-prone basins.

 

Officials aggravated Bulacan floods. They opposed 17 years ago the basins’ drain out to Manila Bay under a Japanese masterplan. Then, they permitted fishpens that choked waterways.

In Pampanga, North Luzon Expressway traffic snarled for hours due to a mere 12-meter narrow flood stream in San Simon. Officials squabbled over a proposed 200-hectare damming of Candaba swamp. Some also blamed NMIA even if the Lower Pampanga River empties 22 kilometers farther north. 

Helicoptering over the swamp, SMC chairman Ramon Ang sighted the culprit. Garbage had stuck up beneath San Simon’s Tulaoc Bridge half a kilometer downstream. A DPWH contractor had left undemolished a cement dredger platform. Ang offered to remove the obstruction himself.

Speaking of which, SMC voluntarily cleaned Metro Manila’s Tullahan, San Juan and Pasig Rivers. Removed were millions of tons of silt, sludge and solid waste. Cost: P1 billion a year for three years now. Eleven cities benefited: Quezon City, Caloocan, Valenzuela, Malabon, Navotas, San Juan, Mandaluyong, Pasig, Pateros, Taguig, Manila.

Of government flood controls in 253 congressional districts, 82 provinces and 149 cities, only few work. One is Marikina City’s, where the river was deepened and widened, and tributaries unclogged. Not thin floodwalls but levees were constructed along the banks. Debris were compacted, reinforced with steel, then concreted into a promenade.

Superstorm Ondoy in 2009 and Typhoon Ulysses in 2020 submerged Provident Village rooftops. Dozens perished. But recent heavy rains and two typhoons passed unnoticed, congratulations to Mayor Marcy Teodoro and Reps. Marjorie Teodoro and Stella Quimbo.

But peril remains. Rizal provincial/municipal officials abet encroachers at mountaintop Marikina Watershed. A dozen picnic resorts divert brooks onto swimming pools. Charcoal makers fell trees. A Malacañang-tagged “police narco-general” keeps a mansion-fortress.

Goons maul and drive away Masungi Georeserve park rangers who reforest the slopes against floods. Environment officials forsake Masungi Foundation which predecessors assigned as wildlife protector. Nearby, 15 quarriers led by an ex-DENR chief crush hillsides for gravel.

Pleas of leaders below fall on deaf ears. Cascades threaten Marikina, Rodriguez, San Mateo, Antipolo, Cainta, Pasig, San Juan, Quezon City.

Malacañang budgets P216-billion flood control for 2024. That’ll bring the total to P1.052 trillion in eight years.

Congress will grab the pork. In return, like in 2023, it’ll grant the President P4.56-billion no-audit confidential/intelligence fund. Plus P50-million CIF to the Dept. of Agriculture.

The VP will again get P500-million CIF. Plus P150 million to the Dept. of Education. Even the environment secretary has CIF: P14 million.

* * *

Catch “Sapol” radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., dwIZ (882-AM)

            “Gotcha: An Exposé on the Philippine Government” is available as e-book and paperback. Get a free copy of “Chapter 1: Beijing’s Bullying and Duplicity”. Simply subscribe to my newsletter HERE. Book orders also accepted there.

Infotech experts refute Comelec chief’s claims

Infotech experts refute Comelec chief’s claims

by | Aug 11, 2023 | Gotcha

Comelec’s supposedly complete end-to-end demo on Mar. 22, 2022 did not show actual transmission of results, much more modems with a common private IP address – Comelec photo

GOTCHA

More and more info-technologists are questioning Comelec and Smartmatic’s use of a secret private IP address in the 2022 election count.

Automated election supplier Smartmatic remains mum about that “illegality” exposed by former information-communications technology secretary Eliseo Rio.

Computer engineers and business execs were to confer yesterday with Rio, ex-Comelec commissioner Gus Lagman and former Finance Executives Institute president Franklin Ysaac.

Rio, Lagman and Ysaac comprise TNT (Truth and Transparency) Trio. They want Comelec to disclose transmission logs of the 2022 vote count. Without such logs, the barrage of 20 million-plus votes within the first hour of counting “will remain incredible.”

“Precinct election returns were funneled through private Internet Protocol address 192.168.0.2,” computer expert Lagman told Gotcha on Wednesday.

He explained the process: The Election Automation Law requires direct transmission from precinct vote counting machines to Comelec. Each VCM has a modem for such direct transmission – ladderized to municipal, provincial and national canvassing servers.

“But what happened was that many precinct results first passed through that private IP address 192.168.0.2 before the Transparency Server,” said Lagman, immediate past chairman of election watchdog Namfrel (National Citizens Movement for Free Elections).

“The Transparency Server is not in the law, but a Comelec creation,” he added. “As the server in public view, it can be used for mind conditioning.”

US-based Filipino software specialist Oscar Santos unearthed 192.168.0.2 from “raw files” uploaded on Comelec’s website. The Transparency Server received from that private IP address most of Metro Manila, Cavite and Batangas’ precinct VCMs within the first hour of counting. Santos is with Rio’s team of computer forensics examiners.

Comelec Chairman George Garcia has claimed that 20,300 modems they bought for as many new and rundown VCMs in 2022 had a common private IP address. Neither he nor the agency spokesman mentioned the modem supplier and price, for info-technologists to confirm. They didn’t say if that common private IP address is 192.168.0.2.

“Each precinct VCM has a SIM of the assigned telco, PLDT/Smart, Globe or DITO. The Transparency Server’s transmission and reception logs should reflect the telcos’ public IP addresses, not a private one,“ Rio also told Gotcha.

“So how can precinct results be received in Comelec servers from a single private IP address?” he said. “A secret device 192.168.0.2 was used to send all those results and not directly from VCMs. Fraudulent.”

 

Rio added: “Telcos may use non-routable private IP addresses, but only within own networks, not shared to their subscribers. That’s why we’ve been asking for the transmission logs since July 2022, which Chairman Garcia promised on Oct. 18 to do but didn’t.

“Comelec could’ve easily cleared up this matter by showing the telco transmission logs that VCMs transmitted in the first hour to account for that unbelievable 20 million-plus votes by 8:02 p.m. Telcos confided to me that very few transmissions passed through their networks from 7 to 8 p.m.”

Info-technologist Alfredo Sumague, also US-based, researched 192.168.0.2: “Internet Assigned Numbers Authority registered in 1994 private IP addresses 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255. Updated 2013.

“Comment: These addresses are in use by many millions of independently operated networks, which might be as small as a single computer connected to a home gateway, and are automatically configured in hundreds of millions of devices. They are only intended for use within a private context and traffic that needs to cross the internet will need to use a different, unique address.

“Comment: These addresses can be used by anyone without any need to coordinate with IANA or an internet registry. The traffic from these addresses does not come from IANA or Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. We are not the source of activity you may see on logs or in e-mail records. Please refer to  http://www.iana.org/abuse/answers.”

Sumague concluded: “Comelec used a private IP address because owners of public ones are identifiable. Private IP address users aren’t registered so it’s very hard to find ownership.”

“No sour grapes here,” presidential bet Panfilo Lacson texted. “Now I know why last year’s results in my vote-rich Cavite home-province defied historical data since I first ran for the Senate in 2001:

“Save for ‘class-act’ Noli de Castro, who beat me in that midterm poll by 30,000 votes, I was consistently my province-mates’ top choice in all succeeding elections in which I participated.

“That includes the 2004 presidential election in which I beat powerful incumbent Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the very popular Fernando Poe Jr. Not to forget my 2007 and 2016 senatorial wins.

“Last year I got only a measly 91,000 out of 2.3 million votes.”

A Philippine Computer Society officer said Smartmatic, not Comelec lawyer-commissioners or spokesmen, must explain 192.168.0.2: “Licensed electronic communications engineers of the National Telecoms Commission must speak out. Also DICT cybercrime/cybersecurity men.

“Was balloting kept secure when precinct inspector-teachers weren’t made to use DICT-supplied digital signatures/passwords? What more the use of a sole private IP address?”

* * *

Catch “Sapol” radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., dwIZ (882-AM)

            “Gotcha: An Exposé on the Philippine Government” is available as e-book and paperback. Get a free copy of “Chapter 1: Beijing’s Bullying and Duplicity”. Simply subscribe to my newsletter HERE. Book orders also accepted there.

Ban Smartmatic from any more contracts in Phl – Col. Odoño

Ban Smartmatic from any more contracts in Phl – Col. Odoño

by | Aug 9, 2023 | Gotcha

Col. Odoño, second from left, with TNT Trio ex-commissioner Gus Lagman, Atty. Jose Manguera Jose, Kapatiran Party head Norman Cabrera, ex-DICT chief Eliseo Rio, former FINEX president Franklin Ysaac

GOTCHA

Retired colonel Leonardo Odoño will have five of seven Comelec commissioners impeached. He won’t stop there. He will get Venezuelan automated election system supplier Smartmatic removed.

Smartmatic supplied AES hard and software for the 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 and 2022 elections. Comelec paid nearly P45 billion to lease-purchase, warehouse and accessorize precinct count optical scanners (PCOS). Controversy marred all balloting, Odoño recalls:

• In 2010 Filipino info-technologists were unable to review PCOS source codes, in breach of the 2008 AES Law. Days before election day, Smartmatic replaced 76,000 secure-digital and as many backup cards, programs also unreviewed.

• In 2013 Ateneo University Mathematics Prof. Felix Muga, PhD, questioned the improbable 60-30-10 senatorial trend. From start to finish, administration bets consistently got 60 percent of votes; opposition, 30 percent; independents, 10 percent.

• In 2016 defeated VP bet Ferdinand Marcos Jr. alleged fraudulent Smartmatic count. AES Law author Sen. Richard Gordon had to ask the Supreme Court to compel Comelec-Smartmatic to issue voter receipts.

• In 2019 Smartmatic project manager Marlon Garcia tampered with the candidates’ names on the Transparency Server. All opposition senatorial candidates lost.

• In 2022 computer expert Nelson Celis (now commissioner) denounced six AES law violations. Digital signatures of precinct inspectors-teachers were used only in Metro Manila, Cebu City and Davao City. Comelec released required legal certifications two days after E-Day instead of 90 days prior.

Unexplained was the 20 million-plus vote barrage within the first hour of counting. Also the 68:32 presidential trend from start to finish. As well, the VP getting more votes than the president, and each getting more votes than the top senatorial winners. All unprecedented.

Former information-communications technology secretary Eliseo Rio has discovered proofs of fraud. One, the receipt by the Transparency Server of votes from a secret private IP address 192.168.0.2. Two, receipt of precinct results ahead of printing, which should come first.

Comelec Chairman George Garcia hails that balloting as the best ever. Yet for 2025 he is shifting to direct recording electronic (DRE) or touchscreen system.

Describing DRE to be “as opaque as PCOS vote counting machines,” info-technologists prefer hybrid of manual precinct counting and electronic transmission to canvassing.

DRE was Smartmatic’s original product which it used in the 2008 election in half of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao. Smartmatic warned then that PCOS counts were unreliable so could spark civil unrest.

But in Comelec’s 2009 AES bidding, Smartmatic sold the PCOS. It won despite its battery burning during product demo and failure to prove ownership of hard/software. Weeks before the 2013 election, a Delaware court case revealed that Dominion of Canada owned PCOS’s software that Smartmatic was selling.

Excerpted is the last part of Odoño’s July 23 presentation to the Global Transparency and Transformation Advocates Network:

“I foresee delay in Congress processing our impeachment complaint. Congress has to take up the Executive’s budget proposal as priority legislative agenda.

“Kawatans in Congress could delay proceedings. Tongressmen will examine the budget in detail – not on need and reasonableness of projects, but from which they can get the most commissions.

“My personal mission is not quite done with the impeachment complaint in process. On my table are tasks to complement GTTAN’s mission to prevent subversion of Filipino’s electoral will.

“These include a knowledgeable friend’s info of ‘what Smartmatic and incoming First Lady did last summer’ – to ensure Mr. Marcos’ victory, their celebration less than two hours from close of voting on May 9, 2022, and to secure Smartmatic’s contract for the 2025 election.

“My agenda. I will:

“(a) Petition Comelec, supplemental to TNT Trio’s initiative, to disqualify Smartmatic from any contract in this country. I’ll provide proof that Comelec’s Terms of Reference for the 2025 automated election system make Smartmatic the only qualified bidder.

“Evidence: 2016 video of Mr. Marcos, after losing to VP Robredo, saying ‘Smartmatic isn’t selling election but dayaan systems.’

“(b) Petition our Bureau of Immigration to declare Smartmatic officials persona non grata and ban them from the country.

“(c) Announce to the world that Smartmatic is banned from doing business in the Philippines, for other countries to follow suit.

“(d) Reiterate to Senators Hontiveros and Pimentel to initiate a Senate investigation of 2022 election anomalies.

“I’m 80; General Rio, 78. Hindi po ba naaantig ang damdamin ng bayan na kaming dalawang matatanda na, na hindi na sana nakikilahok sa political issues at maglagi na lang sa aming comfort zones sa konting panahon naming natitira, ay nakikibaka at nangunguna pa?

“Nasaan ang ating kabataan na sana’y nasa frontline ng laban para sa bayan at kanilang kinabukasan?

“VP Leni, nasaan po kayo? Kayo ang nakikita naming makakatulong nang malaki sa laban na ito. Hinihintay namin kayo, matagal na.

“Kayo sa Oposisyon, mga talunan dahil dinaya, bakit ayaw niyo kami samahan sa laban para sa katotohanan at katarungan?

“Mga kababayan, mag-People Power tayo kung sakaling ayaw bumitaw sa kapangyarihan ang mga hindi naman natin ibinoto. Magpakatatag tayo; huwag mangamba.

“People power is more powerful than people in power.

“At sa mga Pilipinong naninirahan sa ibang bansa pero patuloy ang masidhing pagmamahal sa ating bayan, na kapiling natin sa forum na ito in spirit if not in person at handang tumulong sa ating laban sa subversion of Filipinos’ electoral will, tulad nu’ng 2022: maraming salamat at pagpalain kayo ng Maykapal.”

More than 125 retired generals and colonels, including former AFP chiefs and service commanders, signed last March a “Statement of Support for Colonel Odoño”:

• Initial signatories: https://tinyurl.com/Gotcha-March-29-2023

• Excerpts: https://tinyurl.com/Gotcha-March-31-2023

* * *

Catch “Sapol” radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., dwIZ (882-AM)

            “Gotcha: An Exposé on the Philippine Government” is available as e-book and paperback. Get a free copy of “Chapter 1: Beijing’s Bullying and Duplicity”. Simply subscribe to my newsletter HERE. Book orders also accepted there.

Retired colonel preparing to remove Comelec brass

Retired colonel preparing to remove Comelec brass

by | Aug 4, 2023 | Gotcha

Odoño at GTTAN

GOTCHA

Old soldiers don’t fade away. Not Col. Leonardo O. Odoño.

After decades combating communist rebels, Moro separatists and bandits, the PMA ’64 grad longed for quiet retirement with family. That was not to be. Squalor of slums and official corruption bothered him. This wasn’t the peace and prosperity he risked life for countless times.

In November 2022 Odoño, 80, decided to help fellow-retiree Gen. Eliseo Rio exact electoral justice. Rio, ex-Comelec commissioner Gus Lagman and former Finance Executives Institute president Franklin Ysaac had just petitioned the Supreme Court to compel the poll body to release the vote counting machines’ transmission logs.

Odoño believes that voters have a right to such logs as proof of accurate ballot count, and that the Truth and Transparency petitioners, TNT Trio, were doing right.

More than 125 PMA retirees, among them former AFP chiefs-of-staff and service commanders, backed Odoño’s pleas for the transmission logs. Comelec instead gave “worthless reception logs,” Odoño reported.

Last July 23 Odoño spoke before the Global Transparency and Transformation Advocates Network. Excerpts:

“After a yearlong search for truth about the anomalous 2022 elections, Gen. Eliseo Rio found direct evidence that Smartmatic, not the Filipino people, ‘elected’ Mr. Marcos, in conspiracy with Comelec. Given that, I say Mr. Marcos is an illegitimate ‘president’. No legal authority nor moral ascendancy to govern.

“In the one year Mr. Marcos was in Malacañang, what happened?

“(a) Independent news reporting has it that we have a criminal syndicate masquerading as government.

“(b) Pork barrels, illegalized by the Supreme Court, are back. Congressmen take up to 50-percent cut from infrastructure projects.

“(c) The illegitimate president and his Cabinet secretaries had hundred million-peso audit-free, unneeded intelligence funds.

“(d) Smuggling and illegal drugs returned. The Speaker stopped the House hearing on onion smuggling and hoarding that brought the price to P150 per kilo, when the First Lady’s brother was named in the first and only hearing as partner of the Chinese smuggler.

“(e) Our national debt reached P13.7 trillion at end-January 2023. Inflation hit 6.1 percent.

“(f) Rice, which Mr. Marcos budol-budoled Filipinos with P20 a kilo, was at P50.

“(g) This uncaring ‘commander-in-chief’ announced huge cuts in military pension, including General Eli’s and mine, to avert ‘looming fiscal crisis’.

“Tanong ni General Magalong, PMA ‘82, Baguio City mayor who will lead our anti-corruption campaign with PMA grads at the fore: ‘Tayong sundalo handang mamatay para sa bayan. Bakit yung Tongressmen at ibang kawatan ayaw bitawan ang bilyon-bilyong pork barrel at intel funds?

 

“Why have our people come to this misery?

“Our corrupted system and Comelec make difficult the election of deserving, competent Filipinos – those with moral compass to do good for our people, not themselves; those with vision and capacity to bring peace, growth and prosperity; those with courage, conviction and will to reform our decadent society, politics and economy.

“They can’t be elected; they have no money to buy votes.

“Winners have resources to buy votes and pay off Smartmatic-Comelec. They steal to recover election expenses and prepare bigger election war chests. Down with political dynasties! Down with the political elite that controls elections, government, economy!

“Four months of waiting was futile. TNT Trio couldn’t obtain from Comelec any proof of transmission of questionable 20 million-plus votes in only one hour from precinct VCMs to Comelec’s Transparency Server.

“TNT Trio petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus to prevent telcos from disposing of 2022 election data. ‘Let me take on the Comelec myself,’ I suggested to General Eli, so they can focus on their Supreme Court case.

“On Nov. 28, 2022, I requested Comelec for the same proof of transmission of the 20 million-plus votes. I invoked my constitutional right of access to information of public concern from an agency. I reminded Comelec that failure to act within 15 days, as provided by law, would violate my right. I warned Commissioners that I’d file an impeachment complaint in Congress if they disrespect my right.

“Thrice in follow-up requests I reiterated my right, and impeachment if they violate it. Commissioners ignored those letters.

“In March 2023, four months after I sent my letters, all without Comelec response, I said enough is enough. I sent a final demand.

“On March 20 Chairman George Garcia asked me to take delivery of transmission logs on March 23. On March 23 morning he announced releasing of transmission logs to me that afternoon. Transmission logs are vital evidence for us. General Eli, who came with me, noticed right away that the documents were reception logs.

“Deception logs, I call them. Comelec deceived the public and me. What it released were reception logs that we don’t need in our case buildup and which we didn’t ask for.

“Comelec didn’t give us any transmission log for the 20 million-plus votes because, as General Eli showed, no transmissions were made by precinct VCMs. Fake votes were pre-programmed by Smartmatic-Comelec and transmitted illegally through a private network.

“I’m writing the Articles of Impeachment against the commissioners – for culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust. They violated their constitutional mandate to ensure honest, fair, transparent elections.

“A lawyer edited my draft, pro bono, for sufficiency of form and substance. We finalized the Articles mid-May. I then searched for a congressman to endorse my complaint.

“With Congress co-opted by the ruling party, and only three Makabayan party-list congressmen considering themselves the Opposition, I knew it won’t be a walk in the park. My friend Father Flavie referred me to Makabayan leader ex-congressman Neri Colmenares.

“TNT Trio have joined me as co-complainants. We see the endorsement happening after the illegitimate president’s State of the Nation, then the filing a week later. Earliest would be mid-August.

“My personal mission is not done though ….”

(To be continued on Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023)

* * *

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