Earlier this month, Paulino Emano, mayor of Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental, claimed in a television interview with GMA-7 that the South Korean firm Hanjin Heavy Industries Construction Company, Ltd. offered him $400 worth of contract in exchange for the diversion of a part of river in his town where Hanjin is constructing a shipyard.
Emano had ordered Hanjin to stop the construction for lack of required documents such as environmental compliance certificate and municipal building permit. When Mrs. Arroyo visited his province, Emano said he told Arroyo about the offer, but she said nothing about it. She even reportedly scolded him for stopping the project.
On the night that Emano’s interview was shown on TV, Malacanang — in an apparent attempt to prevent another ZTE bribery scandal — issued a statement saying that Arroyo would never violate any law. The next day, the secretary of interior appeared on TV, saying the Palace has received reports that Emano attempted to extort money from Hanjin, and he will face investigation.
Emano, an Arroyo ally, has since recanted his claim.
“If I were Archbishop Cruz I’d run for president, let’s see if he’ll win. Many priests are running in politics anyway, and one of them became Pampanga governor. Perhaps Cruz would like to run for president.”
This was what Justice Secretary Raul M. Gonzalez reportedly said in reaction to Archbishop Oscar Cruz’s statement that the Arroyo government suffers from “shortages in honesty and integrity plus consequent shortages in credibility and acceptability.”
The archbishop reacted by saying minding him is not good for Gonzalez’ health.
In the past, Gonzalez had also verbally attacked other critics of President Arroyo such the two widows of the anti-Arroyo movement: Susan Roces-Poe and President Corazon Aquino.
How much public money has been spent in the past scams under the Arroyo administration?
Senator Pia Cayetano, reacting to reports that President Arroyo wants to allocate P43.7 billion pesos for food security, computed the total amount of money involved in recent scams:
“We’re talking about P43 billion that the President wants to allocate. I computed the figures involved in the past scams: P750 million for the fertilizer scam, P2.25 [billion] for the swine fund, P3.1 billion for the irrigation fund, that’s already P6 billion that’s questionable. Then the administration will refuse to explain, will refuse to attend hearings, will go to court and have a case that says they will not go to the Senate?” (Senate.gov.ph)
Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz recently said that public sinners should not be given the Holy communion. News reports said he was referring to Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo — the Philippines’ de facto president who is accused of election fraud and corruption. But the maverick archbishop denied he called Arroyo a public sinner who should not be given communion.
He told CBCPNews that all he stated was, according to the teachings of the Church, a public sinner should not be given communion.
“This is why as a matter of doctrinal principle and moral norm, someone known to the public as reasonably perceived or actually known guilty not simply of one, neither only three nor merely five but more grave or mortal sins of such as gross stealing, flagrant graft and corrupt practices, and other glaring big moral misdeeds with extensive and intensive adverse effects to society, fits the reality of a public sinner. To conclude otherwise, i.e., that the person concerned is holy or saintly, is not only irrational but also futile. And to give the Most Sacred Body and Blood of Christ to the same, is not simply highly offensive to the sensitivity of the simple Christian faithful in general but also—and primarily so—means a big contempt of inherent divinity and intrinsic sanctity of Christ Himself. That is why giving Holy Communion in public to a public sinner is a public scandal.
Romulo Macalintal, Arroyo’s election lawyer, said the archbishop’s statement was judgmental. He said a lay minister does not have the right to refuse the Holy Communion to anyone.
That is why it is disappointing to hear its possible standard bearer in 2010, Mar Roxas, say that they are “open to talking with everyone” when asked about former president and convicted plunderer Joseph Estrada’s multi-party opposition nomination process.
