MOST of the taipans and heads of business conglomerates I know have left or are preparing to leave the country this week. As one of them intimated to me: “It will be very expensive for me to wait for Election Day.”
The reason is obvious. As Election Day approaches, whether the May 9 polls will be postponed or not, those vying for president, vice president, senators or local offices will surely be lining up for the usual financial assistance. And Santa Banana, it could cost them millions of pesos.
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The worst result of BS Aquino’s efforts to avoid landing in jail the moment he steps down from Malacañang is the fall of the Supreme Court. The high court is that institution mandated to interpret the Constitution.
Actually, most of the gods of Mount Olympus on Padre Faura do not need Aquino to make the Supreme Court fall from its pedestal. With Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, and her cabal of six other justices, most of the justices did it by themselves. They did so when they ruled that Mr. Aquino’s Manchurian Candidate was indeed qualified to run for president.
Santa Banana, I have never seen a bunch of justices interpreting the Constitution, not according to its letter and intent, but according to their whims and caprices.
Mrs. Mary Grace Natividad Kelly Poe Llamanzares is neither a natural-born Filipino nor has been a resident of the country for at least 10 years.
As a journalist, I have had my own battles with the Supreme Court. I have been cited twice for contempt, perhaps a record for any journalist.
The Supreme Court, through its decision in the Poe case, was obviously trying to please BS Aquino.
The Sereno court not only amended the Constitution but rendered another constitutional body like the Comelec useless in its role to qualify or disqualify candidates for election.
It was truly a sad day for us who believe in democracy and the rule of law. The Constitution has been reduced to a mere scrap of paper.
With the Sereno court having fallen beyond repair, my gulay, what is there to hope for?As for Sereno and her cabal, my gulay, history will judge them harshly. And that’s for sure.
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I listened to the Senate inquiry into the suspected money laundering of $81 million from the Bangladesh Bank to the Jupiter branch of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.
I had hoped some questions would be answered, but they were not. The RCBC bank manager refused to answer them lest she incriminate herself because she was already charged by the Anti-Money Laundering Council.
Why didn’t the branch manager issue an alert order when such a mind-boggling amount was remitted to her bank branch? Did she also alert the bank management? I ask these questions since I know that a big amount of foreign exchange or even pesos should be referred to the management. If the remittance came from Henry Sy Sr. or Bill Gates there would be no problem. But, Santa Banana, from Bangladesh?
The other big question is why the manager wants to answer questions only in an executive session. My gulay, Senate investigations or inquiries are supposed to be in aid of legislation. Thus, to have a Senate executive session would be useless. It would deprive the people of knowing the truth. As Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile told the Senate, people might think “we are hiding the truth.”
Didn’t the management know about the remittance, and why not? There’s a caveat imposed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas on management and the board of directors of a bank that in cases of anomalies committed by bank branches, the management and members of the board are jointly and severally responsible, unless they can show that they had no part in it.
The biggest question in this kind of anomaly is: Since there was already a stop payment from the Bangladesh Central Bank, why didn’t branch manager Maia Deguito comply? To me, that is the most damaging aspect of this case. The manager could not have acted alone, and since other names have cropped up, there’s no question about an act of conspiracy.
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I had been wondering how a P350-million Wellness Center would look like. Thus, I went to the City Club at Makati Place where international businessman Roberto “Bobby” Ongpin put up the world-class “Aegle Wellness Center,” the first of its kind in the country.
Many wellness centers claim to be the best. They boast they can make you look younger and even prevent you from ageing. Others like Vicky Belo’s wellness center can make an ugly woman beautiful, and not-so-handsome men look like George Clooney or even look like Superman.
Thus, with no less than Dr. Ben Valdecanas as my tour guide, I went to both City Club and Balesin Island Club. I was convinced that this was really a magnum opus by my former student Bobby Ongpin.
Aegle Wellness Center is a cut above the rest. It has a complete medical diagnostic room with the latest in diagnostic facilities.
It did not make sense that a world-class center should not have a real wellness treatment done on patients without a thorough diagnosis of one’s body.
The second element of a world-class wellness center is that it should be staffed with the best medical doctors, nutritionists, and physical therapists.
Bobby really would not settle for second best. He brought Dr. Claude Chauchard, known worldwide as a truly outstanding wellness professional, on board.
Ongpin also took in Valdecanas, who is undoubtedly of the best and most highly acclaimed Filipino medical wellness doctors.
He even assured me that I could live to a hundred years if I undergo the treatment of the Aegle Wellness Center. Live to a hundred years? And burden my family with that possibility?