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Release of dam waters during typhoon ‘criminal’

Release of dam waters during typhoon ‘criminal’

by | Nov 16, 2020 | Gotcha

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Release of dam waters during typhoon ‘criminal’

Image by Hans Braxmeier from Pixabay

Release of dam waters during typhoon ‘criminal’

Stop this blabber about the Filipino being resilient. It’s becoming an excuse to belittle disaster prevention for, after all, Filipinos readily will bounce back. Not only Filipinos but all races are sturdy, proved in separate rise of civilizations. Only a frog in the well thinks otherwise; for it the sky is as big only as the mouth of the well.

Cagayan Valley folk will have nowhere to go but back up. Still that doesn’t mean those who caused last Thursday night their worst flood in 40 years can be cleared of criminal liability. The culprits ignored science. They defied law and protocol. Pay they must.

Culpability can be gleaned from the alibis. Like, as a disaster agency spokesman said, the mighty Cagayan River, onto which Magat Dam spills, was swollen from weeks of rain before Thursday’s typhoon. Too, that eight inflow rivers from Nueva Vizcaya, Ifugao, and Isabela had filled Magat to the brim. Then as dam managers said, they began releasing water from two sluices two days before typhoon, but had to open all seven sluices as it raged, lest the dam break. And, as the Palace spox said, they were not caught flatfooted because they already had prepositioned typhoon relief. The officials were looking everywhere but the imminent harm to hundreds of thousands of people downstream of Magat.

Typhoon water volume is measurable by Doppler radar and other means. A simple call to the weather bureau would have told dam managers what to expect.

Release of dam waters during typhoon ‘criminal’

           That 2020 is a La Niña year, hence extra rainy, was known since June. On Oct. 2 weathermen said the phenomenon would last not only till February, as earlier forecast, but November 2021. Using past La Niña records, dam managers could thus gradually have released more water earlier. This would have washed out to sea. As noted, Magat was filling up, and Cagayan River rising. They need not have waited for typhoon to soak the land before sluice opening.

The sluices should have been opened as early as three to four days before typhoon landfall, scientists said. After all, that’s the Magat management protocol. Besides, typhoon water volume is measurable by Doppler radar and other means. A simple call to the weather bureau would have told dam managers what to expect.

Now the dam managers are saying they issued enough flood warnings. Valley folk supposedly were alerted by radio, tv, text, and email to move to higher ground. But where, how? They opened the sluices in the dead of night. People were fast asleep when the river torrents smashed their homes.

It’s criminal negligence, the lawyer-governor of Cagayan province said. Magat down-flows have been ruining houses, farms, and shops every year.

There are other culprits: Bureaucrats tasked to preserve forests and clear the waterways. They must be grilled about flood-causing denudation and river clogging by industrial-commercial outfits.

Victims are planning to sue for damages. Their officials must support that, not just pat their backs for resiliency and blame all on nature.

* * *

Giving is infectious. Upon receiving cash aid, typhoon victims in Batangas City at once donated a part to similarly stricken folk in faraway Bicol.

Tzu Chi Foundation Phils. organized relief for 260 poor households in Tierra Verde community. Via cash-for-work, they were to clear their lots and roads of mud and rubble, and be fed for the day. In less than a week, the neighborhood was spic and span. Tzu Chi volunteers announced how much each family was to get: P20,000. Residents wept for joy at the unexpected amount, more than two months’ wage for most of them.

Most readily re-donated P1,000. Some, P500. Others ran home to get their piggy banks.

Returning P1,000, Julia de Villa, 64, said she was touched by the compassion of Tzu Chi founder, Dharma Master Cheng Yen. A devotee of Saint Teresa of Calcutta, Julia sets aside monthly donations for a Catholic charity. She said she will now also regularly give to Tzu Chi.

Melvin Dagli, 41, recently lost his overseas work due to the pandemic. After receiving the cash aid from Tzu Chi, he went home then came back with a plastic container filled with coins. It was his family’s emergency fund. He wished to give it to typhoon victims in Bicol, “or to anyone whom Tzu Chi deems in need of help.”

Nora Abacan, 49, cried on receiving P20,000. Two months ago, her husband Dante, 55, fell ill. Dante refused to see a doctor because of unaffordable diagnostics and medicines. Nora said they will use the money to have him undergo tests. Thankful, Dante feels less of a burden to his family.

Beatrice Pajarito, one of Tzu Chi’s cash recipients, shared with other typhoon victims. Their streets and homes have been cleaned so she said it was time to give back.

Beatrice Pajarito, 24, did not expect the huge amount. Her family shared some with other typhoon victims. Their streets and homes have been cleaned so she said it was time to give back.

Esperanza Javier, 50, will buy new furniture and beddings for her family. But she also promised to share with those in need, starting with her P1,000 donation.

Susan May Calalo, 53, doled P1,000, saying: “Tzu Chi’s sincerity in sharing deeply touched me. From the news I saw the situation of our fellowmen in Bicol. We are more blessed compared to them.”

* * *

Former Fisheries agency head Asis Perez and entrepreneur Norbert Chincuangco would rather remain unnamed. But they wish to publicize the need for repair kits, P2,000-P3,000 apiece, to thousands of Catanduanes fishermen whose bancas were wrecked by typhoon.

The fishermen were hit by triple whammy: typhoons Quinta, Rolly, and Ulysses. The project is called “Mini Ahon Part 2.” If able to set out to sea again, the fishermen can feed themselves and no longer rely on relief.

Donations accepted: Tanggol Kalikasan Inc., Banco de Oro: 004210079580. Please private message or post your support on Norbert’s fb wall for proper accounting.

* * *

Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8 to 10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

My book “Exposés: Investigative Reporting for Clean Government” is available on Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/Amazon-Exposes

Paperback: https://tinyurl.com/Anvil-Exposes or at National Bookstores.

Release of dam waters during typhoon ‘criminal’

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Law lets China gunboats fire at ships in SCS

Law lets China gunboats fire at ships in SCS

by | Nov 11, 2020 | Gotcha

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Law lets China gunboats fire at ships in SCS

Image by Abrão from Pixabay

Law lets China gunboats fire at ships in SCS

A new law is to permit China’s coast guards to fire at vessels within its “jurisdictional waters”. This steps up Beijing’s aggression in the South China Sea.

The law bolsters China’s bullying. “Jurisdictional waters” encroach Southeast Asian states’ exclusive economic zones that China’s communist rulers illegally claim.

The law exposes China’s duplicity as well. Beijing is in talks with ASEAN neighbors for a Code of Conduct in the SCS. Such CoC will not be a pact of equals. By escalating armed aggression, it is telling small neighbors it wants only docility from them.

“This opens the possibility of coast guard ships using more explicit armed force in disputed areas of the SCS,” the think tank Global Security reported last weekend. Beijing’s new legislation would let coast guards use rifles and deck-mounted weapons at will.

The Chinese Communist Party-Central Military Commission, which oversees the armed forces, first proposed the law in late September. A draft was posted on the National People’s Congress website Wednesday, Global Security’s Drake Long wrote. The measure is open for comments until Dec. 3, after which Congress deliberations commence.

The new law was “designed to intimidate,” analyzed Hunter Stires, a fellow with the US Naval War College. “The CCP is telling other claimant governments that China means business. This is a signal not to challenge China Coast Guard operations in waters that are rightfully the exclusive economic zones of Southeast Asian nations.”

There is no concrete definition of ‘jurisdictional waters’. Nor does China explicitly state what areas it considers to be covered under that term.

Global Security

Law lets China gunboats fire at ships in SCS

Ostensibly the law is to use force against arms-smuggling, drugs-smuggling, hiding and abetting criminals, obstructing law enforcement and illegal economic activity by foreign vessels in China’s “jurisdictional waters.”

But China is expected to use it against legitimate fishing, exploration and patrol vessels of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. China gunboats escort poachers in the EEZs of those five countries. Its coast guards falsely claim the EEZs to be part of China’s “nine-dash line” sea jurisdiction. They machinegun, water-cannon and ram the unarmed civilian craft.

The Hague international court outlawed Beijing’s “nine-dash line” claim in July 2016. It upheld the Philippine complaint that China violated its sovereign rights in occupying Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal, concreting seven reefs into island-fortresses and driving away Filipino fishermen.

The new Beijing law only formalizes what Chinese gunboats have been doing for years. Chinese maritime law enforcement claim that it is the five countries’ fishermen, operating in their respective EEZs, who trespass Chinese waters.

In 2013 four civilian maritime surveillance and enforcement agencies were placed under the China Coast Guard. Three years later the Coast Guard was subsumed by the People’s Liberation Army-Navy. The latter also organized thousands of fishing trawlers into a maritime militia to support military aggression in the neighbors’ EEZs.

“There is no concrete definition of ‘jurisdictional waters’,” Global Security noted. “Nor does China explicitly state what areas it considers to be covered under that term.”

China illegally occupies or patrols reefs 800 to 1,000 miles from its coast. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea grants littoral states 200-mile EEZs plus, if scientifically proven, additional 150 miles Extended Continental Shelf. China unilaterally claims two dozen reefs within the five neighbors’ EEZs, and well outside its own EEZ.

“The primary target of this move and China’s activity in the SCS are the (neighbors’) more than 3.7 million local civilian mariners who depend on access to the waters for their daily livelihood,” Long quoted Stires. “The Chinese Communist Party knows that it is the behavior and de facto acceptance by this large civilian population that will decide whether the UNCLOS remains in force in the SCS or is usurped by China’s hierarchical and continental vision of maritime sovereignty.”

The US State Department warned Beijing in July against any more sea aggression on its allies Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. It warned of dire consequences should Beijing persist. The US is also strengthening the Quad Alliance with Japan, Australia and India for free access to the Indo-Pacific. The British, French and Canadian navies buttress US freedom-of-navigation patrols in the SCS.

Beijing has built missile pads, airstrips and naval ports in three of the seven concreted reefs.

Law lets China gunboats fire at ships in SCS

Crucial provisions in an SCS Code of Conduct are status quo and non-military aggression. Before it is signed, Beijing intends to expand its control of reefs and waters, then claim that as start-off point for status quo. It feigns civilian Coast Guard patrols but actually is militarizing the region through its armed forces.

Beijing has built missile pads, airstrips and naval ports in three of the seven concreted reefs. It regularly lands fighters, bombers and troop transports on the artificial islands. From there its Navy and affiliated Coast Guard menace Filipino fishermen and patrol in Pagasa Island, Palawan; Recto Bank and Malampaya offshore gas field.

*      *      *

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

My book “Exposés: Investigative Reporting for Clean Government” is available on Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/Amazon-Exposes

Paperback: https://tinyurl.com/Anvil-Exposes or at National Bookstores.

*      *      *

Law lets China gunboats fire at ships in SCS

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If only we can punish government crooks this way

If only we can punish government crooks this way

by | Nov 9, 2020 | Gotcha

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If only we can punish government crooks this way

Image by Pavlofox from Pixabay

If only we can punish government crooks this way

Sisamnes, a Persian judge, took a bribe and rendered an unjust verdict. King Cambyses II, ruler in 530-522 BC, son of Cyrus the Great, found out and decided to make an example of the corruption. Sisamnes was arrested and flayed. His skin was made into a chair for future judges to use, while reminded of the punishment that awaited crookedness.

It is unclear from the accounts of historian Herodotus if Sisamnes’ throat was slit first before he was skinned. But the 1498 painting of Gerard David depicted the gruesome punishment. With Sisamnes tied down to a table, expert flayers knifed away at his chest and legs.

(David’s “The Arrest of Sisamnes” and “Flaying of Sisamnes”, which together make up “The Judgment of Cambyses” diptych, hang in the Alderman’s Room of the Bruges City Hall, Belgium. More horrifying, Dirck Vellert’s stained glasswork “The Judgment of Cambyses”, 1542, is on display at the Rijsmuseum, Amsterdam.)

After the flaying, leather tanners proceeded to sew together the strips of skin into a chair. The king had decreed that all of Sisamnes’ successors were to sit in judgment on The Skin Chair with only fairness in mind.

Sisamnes’ immediate replacement as judge was none other than his son Otanes.

Justice was swift and brutal in ancient Persia. It was crucial for social cohesion of the empire. Thieves and traitors immediately were tied to a tree and left for birds, insects and wild animals to feast on to the bone. Slow excruciating death was meted to those who lied, cheated or stole. (Our Malay ancestors were said to be as rigid.)

Corruption is the cause of our people’s continuing poverty. We are ruled by politicos who cheat their way into elective and appointive positions.

If only we can punish government crooks this way

Many of us wish we can punish government crooks the same way. Corruption is the cause of our people’s continuing poverty. We are ruled by politicos who cheat their way into elective and appointive positions. In office they plunder with impunity, knowing they can get away with it by paying off equally crooked investigators, prosecutors, magistrates. People lose hope in the system which their parents and grandparents endured too. They end up selling their votes to the politicos for a quick buck every election year. And so it goes, in vicious cycle.

Occasionally a corrupt official would be exposed for momentary public scorn. But the culprits just wait out the media furor, then steal again when the coast is clear. They resume being called “Honorable”.

Corruption causes hunger and death. Often we witness people suffering not from natural disasters per se but from the aftermath of manmade neglect and theft of public coffers.

Modern justice balances retribution with rehabilitation. Mercy is sought more than penalty. The Constitution forbids cruel and brutal punishment.

The greedy take advantage and steal by the billions of pesos.

Sharing from a social media chat group:

Who invented the three rules to protect us from Covid-19 — do you know?

(1) Social distancing

(2) Wash your hands

(3) Use masks

We find these in the Bible — 3500 years ago the people of Israel were told:

  • Exodus 30:18-21. Wash your hands frequently.
  • Leviticus 13:4-5, 46. Keep your distance, cover the lower half of your face, and avoid all contact.
  • Leviticus 13:4-5. Anyone infected was to be isolated from seven to 14 days.

Meditating on the Good Book and its contexts, we begin to understand the universality of God’s Word.

* * *

Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8 to 10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

My book “Exposés: Investigative Reporting for Clean Government” is available on Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/Amazon-Exposes

Paperback: https://tinyurl.com/Anvil-Exposes or at National Bookstores.

* * *

Gotcha archives: https://tinyurl.com/Gotcha-Archives

If only we can punish government crooks this way

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Dubious power, airport deals brought to graft super body

Dubious power, airport deals brought to graft super body

by | Nov 6, 2020 | Gotcha

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Dubious power, airport deals brought to graft super body

Dubious power, airport deals brought to graft super body

Two questionable multibillion-peso government deals with under-financed firms have been brought to the anti-corruption mega task force.

First is the grant of collection rights of over P1.2 billion yearly electricity market fees to a company with only P7,000 paid-up capital. IEMOP (Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines) began collecting more than P100 million a month from electricity users in October 2018. Incorporators and directors include spouses of high Energy officials.

Second is the negotiated contracting of the P107-billion Manila International Airport expansion to an outfit worth only a third of MIA. In return Megawide Corp. will have the right to run the airport and raise terminal and other fees from passengers and users. It can replace all 14,000 MIA regular and contractual workers. That was bared in last month’s Congress deliberation on the Transport department’s 2021 budget. With assets of P17.9 billion, Megawide will take over operations from the P47-billion MIA Authority. Allegedly that breaches the required 70-percent capital or P32 billion.

Both deals fall within criterion of the new anti-sleaze super body, led by the Justice department, to investigate cases involving at least P1 billion. Administration Rep. Jericho Nograles (Puwersa ng Bayaning Atleta) referred them to Justice Sec. Menardo Guevarra last Wednesday.

The IEMOP is collecting fees from every electricity consumer without any authority from the Energy Regulatory Commission.

Rep. Jericho Nograles

Dubious power, airport deals brought to graft super body

President Duterte’s anti-graft task force consists of the Dept. of Justice, Office of the Ombudsman, Commission on Audit, Civil Service Commission, Office of the President, Office of the Executive Secretary and Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission. Formed last week, the team is to go after government crooks till the end of Duterte’s term in 2022.

Writing to Guevarra, Nograles referred “two issues that Congress has discussed and continues to discuss, namely the IEMOP scandal and the Megawide unsolicited proposal for MIA enhancement scandal.”

Nograles expounded: “The IEMOP scandal is theft of the highest order. IEMOP is collecting fees from every electricity consumer without any authority from the Energy Regulatory Commission. To this date, the ERC does not recognize the existence of IEMOP and there is no legislative or executive action to give IEMOP any legal authority to collect billions of pesos from consumers. The continued collection of IEMOP suggests that certain officials are complicit in this scandal, and therefore in violation of R.A. 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act).”

Nograles went on: “The Megawide scandal has been questioned in plenary sessions of the House of Representatives as to why the company continues to enjoy Original Proponent Status from MIAA when the National Economic and Development Authority has already determined the proposal to be insufficient as of August 2020. The continued enjoyment of OPS, among other questionable actions, is a clear violation of R.A. 3019.”

IEMOP’s takeover of the government’s collection of electricity wholesale fees was first questioned in late 2009 by Rep. Rosanna Vergara (Nueva Ecija), the majority coalition’s expert on the power industry. Nograles uncovered in January 2020 the transfer of government equipment and other assets to the private firm, whose executives earn million-peso monthly remuneration. Energy officials denied any dubiousness then.

Nograles exposed the Megawide negotiated deal in August. A super-consortium of seven conglomerates had backed out of the MIA expansion because transport officials suddenly changed the contract terms. The officials then offered Megawide softer terms, Nograles noted. Fellow-administration Rep. Jesus Suntay elicited during transport budget debates Megawide’s privilege to fire 14,000 MIA employees. The company later said it would rehire or retain those who opt to stay.

“My office is ready and willing to assist your Department and task force for any and all information regarding these scandals,” Nograles assured Guevarra.

 *      *      *

Twenty-seven million lost their jobs from the pandemic economic slump. All the while, high officials are politicking.

No homes, no livelihoods, no aid. That’s what victims of Sunday’s super typhoon are suffering. As well, those of recent earthquakes, floods, landslides. Twenty-seven million lost their jobs from the pandemic economic slump.

All the while, high officials are politicking. They’re working on the Supreme Court to declare failure of the 2016 election – to unseat the Vice President and install a loser. Yet in tedious vote recounts by the electoral tribunal, that loser has failed to prove fraud in the very provinces he claims to have been cheated. The officials want to shortcut the process while people are distracted by hunger and hardship.

Crass neglect of people’s needs is unjust. Injustice can divide the nation and incite civil discontent. The military will be left to quell unrest – till conscience tells it to withdraw support from unjust political rulers.

Let’s learn from the 1986 People Power Revolution. That loser was on the wrong side of history then.

*      *      *

Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8 to 10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

My book “Exposés: Investigative Reporting for Clean Government” is available on Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/Amazon-Exposes

Paperback: https://tinyurl.com/Anvil-Exposes or at National Bookstores.

Gotcha archives: https://tinyurl.com/Gotcha-Archives

Dubious power, airport deals brought to graft super body

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4 M aliens in ‘pastillas’ scam stealing jobs from Filipinos

4 M aliens in ‘pastillas’ scam stealing jobs from Filipinos

by | Nov 4, 2020 | Gotcha

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4 M aliens in ‘pastillas’ scam stealing jobs from Filipinos

4 M aliens in ‘pastillas’ scam stealing jobs from Filipinos

Four million young aliens who bribed their way into the country since 2017 are a menace. Mostly Chinese, they are stealing as many Filipino jobs. Some have taken Filipino spouses, to acquire land. They enjoy privileges reserved for Filipinos, like extracting natural resources, and owning utilities and firearms. Having entered fraudulently, they could be into crime, like narco- and human trafficking. The spies among them are embedded in Filipino communities, industries, academe, institutions and associations.

Being illegals, they pay no taxes. Yet many of them do business exclusively for each other: restaurants, delis, travel agencies, apparel, home and office supplies and services like translation, escort and security. They are a drain on scarce Philippine resources: food, water, housing, transport, telecoms gadgetry, WiFi connectivity, capital goods. Twenty seven-million Filipinos lost their livelihoods during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

Every one of them must be arrested and deported, Sen. Francis Pangilinan said. He called the sneak-in of four million Chinese a “soft invasion.”

The Chinese illegals are a national security threat. Since 1988 China has been grabbing Philippine territorial sea features and maritime jurisdictions. Beijing’s communist rulers are an enemy feigning as economic friends. In 2014 Beijing concreted seven Philippine reefs into island fortresses from where warships harass Filipino patrol, exploration and fishing vessels.

3,000 Chinese army spies are on “immersion mission” in the Philippines

Sen. Panfilo Lacson

4 M aliens in ‘pastillas’ scam stealing jobs from Filipinos

Citing intelligence sources, Sen. Panfilo Lacson revealed last year that 3,000 Chinese army spies are on “immersion mission” in the Philippines. It is like the Japanese imperial forces deploying operatives as gardeners, shopkeepers and ambulant vendors prior to 1941 Philippine Occupation. It is unclear what the government has done about the exposé of Lacson, a former Philippine National Police chief.

China intends to seize the Philippines in case of war with the US over Taiwan, former Armed Forces chief Emmanuel Bautista warned last week. China will take control of strategic sea passages to the Pacific in Batanes, Mindoro, Palawan, Samar and Surigao. China’s People’s Liberation Army-Navy includes the Philippines in its “First Island Chain of Defense” since 2009, when it illegally enforced a “nine-dash” boundary in the South China Sea. Among the foremost Filipino military strategists, Bautista headed the National Task Force on the West Philippine Sea after serving as chief of staff in 2013-2014.

The four million Chinese illegals entered the country through the “pastillas” scheme of each paying off crooked Immigration men P10,000. The bribees themselves named it after the native milk candy in white wrapper because the bribes came in rolled envelopes.

The scam has raked in P40 billion since 2017, divvied up among Immigration bigwigs, airport staff and protectors in the National Bureau of Investigation and the Office of the Ombudsman.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros uncovered the racket in the course of an inquiry into white slavery in Chinese-run online gambling in Manila. Taking P10,000 under the table from four million illegal aliens became possible by discarding checks and balances, Hontiveros concluded. Father and son Maynardo Mariñas and Marc Red Mariñas were appointed chiefs of Immigration Special Operations and of Port Operations Divisions, respectively. That enabled them to hatch up the scam, according to Immigration whistleblowers Allison Chiong and Jeffrey Dale Ignacio. The NBI also arrested its Legal Assistance Division lawyer Joshua Capiral in an entrapment in September, taking grease money to not implicate “pastillas” collectors.

Sen. Richard Gordon unearthed last week what seemed a parallel scheme. Philippine Retirement Authority officials were granting special retiree visas to thousands of Chinese as young as 35. PRA general manager-CEO Bienvenido Chy claimed to be merely following long-standing rules. Gordon threatened to have the agency’s 2021 budget slashed if it persists in the sham.

In seeking the arrest and deportation of the Chinese illegals, Pangilinan cited Commonwealth Act 613 and amending Republic Act 503. Those require such action against law-breaking aliens. “Foreign nationals who circumvent immigration laws in connivance with corrupt Immigration employees forfeit their right to stay in the country,” he said.

4 M aliens in ‘pastillas’ scam stealing jobs from Filipinos

The “pastillas” racketeers are deemed to have sold the country to a foreign aggressor, short of treason during war.

Aliens here legally may work in the Philippines by securing employment or investor visas. The latter requires $75,000 deposit to the Land Bank or Development Bank of the Philippines. Foreign spies face lifetime imprisonment.

The “pastillas” racketeers are deemed to have sold the country to a foreign aggressor, short of treason during war. They need reminding of the fate that befell such Quislings right after Philippine Liberation of 1945. Atrocity victims and kin decapitated or disemboweled collaborators and informers of the cruel Japanese Kempeitai police. Those whose lives were spared ended up with noses, ears and hands chopped off.

*      *      *

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

My book “Exposés: Investigative Reporting for Clean Government” is available on Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/Amazon-Exposes

Paperback: https://tinyurl.com/Anvil-Exposes or at National Bookstores.

*      *      *

Gotcha archives: https://tinyurl.com/Gotcha-Archives

 

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Who says the rich don’t steal? Read this

Who says the rich don’t steal? Read this

by | Nov 2, 2020 | Gotcha

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Who says the rich don’t steal? Read this

Image by klimkin from Pixabay

Who says the rich don’t steal? Read this

Whoever says the rich don’t steal must bone up on current events.

Foremost example of rich persons who continued to amass dirty money was Pablo Escobar. For seven straight years Forbes magazine ranked the Colombian drug boss among the world’s richest. Seventh in fact in 1989, when his personal fortune was estimated at $25 billion. Eyeing political entry then, he offered to pay the $10-billion national debt. He enriched himself smuggling cocaine to America.

Escobar is often compared to Al Capone. The Chicago Mafia capo is said to have hauled in by 1939 1.3 billion in today’s dollars from illegal alcohol, gambling, prostitution, and vice. His bookmaking and extortion syndicate employed 600.

Other wealthy persons lived lives of crime. Frank Lucas earned $1 million a day sneaking heroin from Vietnam to America inside coffins. Griselda “The Black Widow” Blanco netted $2.5 billion heading the Medellin Cartel for Escobar. Amado Carillo Fuentes took over Mexico’s Juarez Cartel after killing his gang boss, and became the world’s second richest drug lord. He was called “Lord of the Skies” for his collection of aircraft, including 22 Boeing-727s, used to smuggle cocaine to the US.

In the Philippines are the rich who loot the economy. Oligarchs control utilities: water, power, fuel, telecoms, transport.

Who says the rich don’t steal? Read this

Swindler Dawood Ibrahim’s wealth was estimated at $6.7 billion when he funded the 1993 Mumbai terror attacks. Economics graduate Semion Mogilevich became Russia’s richest Mafia chief, $10 billion, via counterfeiting, securities and mail fraud, contract murders, money laundering, arms trafficking, and white slavery. By controlling the entry of drugs to Puerto Rico onto the US, Jose Figueroa Agosto amassed $1 billion. A tenth of that, $100 million, he spent bribing public officials. Despite a 200-year prison term he was able to walk out with fake release orders. All those gangsters thrived by paying off law enforcers and judges, notes investopedia.com.

In 2008 was uncovered the world’s biggest Ponzi or pyramiding scam and America’s worst financial crime. No one suspected Bernie Madoff pulling it off for years because he was the wealthy non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock market. In his bank account were $64.8 billion of 4,800 investment clients of Madoff Associates.

To say that the rich don’t steal is to cover up crime.

In the Philippines are the rich who loot the economy. Oligarchs control utilities: water, power, fuel, telecoms, transport. Although but a few families, they own industries like banks, food, retail, and land development. Deplorable is that they cheat taxes and bribe to wangle state concessions. Many books have exposed their decades-long greed.

Controlling politics are dynasties. Again, only a few families corner national and local government positions — against the Constitution. Alternating or simultaneously sitting are spouses, siblings, parents and offspring. Public service is their family business. They take kickbacks from the government contracts they concoct.

In 2013 was exposed the collusion of oligarchs and political dynasts in plundering multibillion-peso pork barrels. Eight senators, more than 150 congressmen, and dozens of local officials were implicated. They were listed as sponsors of the fixers’ fake projects. Those fixers came from well-to-do families.

Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely. Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos and cronies were the worst oligarchs and political dynasts. The Marcoses ensconced themselves in power for life. They used aliases William Saunders, Jane Ryan, and more to squirrel away the national wealth into Swiss banks. They amassed companies, buildings, lands, mansions, artworks, jewelry, antique, and signature watches. Total loot: $30 billion.

Due to the Marcoses and cronies, the economy collapsed in the 1980s. Due to the restored oligarchs and political dynasts the economy still cannot revive.

Who says the rich don’t steal? Read this

Could the Marcoses have inspired Prime Minister Najib Razak and wife Rosmah?

 For lack of checks and balances, dictators are able to amass ill-gotten wealth. Seven recent ones are:

  • Muammar Gaddafi, Libya, $35.1 billion seized in 2011 in the US, Austria, Canada, and Britain;
  • Bashar al-Assad, Syria, $1.5 billion;
  • Hosni Mubarak, Egypt, $70 billion over 30 years;
  • Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen, $32 billion to $60 billion over 33 years;
  • Zine al Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia, $17 billion when overthrown, but his wife escaped with $60 million in gold bullion;
  • Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe, $1 billion;
  • Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, Equatorial Guinea. $600 million, including a $35-million estate in Malibu and two $1.7-million Bugatti Veyrons.

Invariably their people wallowed in poverty, investopedia.com reports.

Could the Marcoses have inspired Prime Minister Najib Razak and wife Rosmah? The son of Malaysia’s second PM, Najib is said to have stolen $385 million (1.6 billion ringgit) from one state bank alone. Earlier as defense minister, he took kickbacks from the purchase of two French submarines. If Imelda had a collection of 3,000 pairs of shoes and handbags, Rosmah amassed from frequent shopping sprees abroad 300 designer handbags. Police raiders found cash in various denominations and jewelry stashed in the bags.

* * *

Ten things money can’t buy: (1) Manners, (2) Morals, (3) Respect, (4) Character, (5) Commonsense, (6) Trust, (7) Patience, (8) Class, (9) Integrity, (10) Love.

* * *

Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8 to 10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

My book “Exposés: Investigative Reporting for Clean Government” is available on Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/Amazon-Exposes

Paperback: https://tinyurl.com/Anvil-Exposes or at National Bookstores.

* * *

Gotcha archives: https://tinyurl.com/Gotcha-Archives

 

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8.1 This Agreement has been made in and shall be construed and enforced in accordance with the Republic of the Philippines law. Any action to enforce this agreement shall be brought in the courts located in Manila, Philippines.

 

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8.4 You agree to report any copyright violations of the Terms of Service to jariusbondoc.com as soon as you become aware of them. In the event you have a claim of copyright infringement with respect to material that is contained in the jariusbondoc.com service, please notify jariusbondoconline.com. This Terms of Service was last updated on November 7, 2020.