Smartmatic employing ZTE-type snow job

The cheap competition Inquirer is at it again. In a sneak attack last Mar. 7, when I was recuperating from medical op, it called me an “ally of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.” An obvious smear on my objectivity and independence.

It came in one of those sensationalized news for which Inquirer has earned the tag of tabloid masquerading as a broadsheet. Byline was by one Tina Santos. The item took off from a confession of theft and tampering of 2013 election ballots. One Worthy N. Acosta, claiming to be ex-chief aide of Tingting Cojuangco, aunt but critic of President Noynoy Aquino, admitted to the non-bailable, life-term crimes. He committed the theft supposedly on orders of Baguio City ex-Rep. Bernardo Vergara and Tarlac province ex-Gov. Cojuangco. He altered the stolen ballots on the say-so purportedly of Biliran province ex-Rep. Glenn Chong.

Notably the three pols lost in the 2013 election. Notably too they are now critics of the fraudulent precinct count optical scanners (PCOS) supplied by the shady Venezuelan Smartmatic. Most notably, though not in the Inquirer item, Acosta is presently under the care of ex-Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes, unabashed promoter of Smartmatic-PCOS. But I shall get to that later.

Inquirer lumped me with GMA’s ex-defense secretary Norberto Gonzales and ex-AFP chief Hermogenes Esperon. The drift was that I am critical of the Comelec-Smartmatic machines supposedly as member of the National Transformation Council (NTC).

Phooey! Only illiterates would say I am an ally of GMA, who ruled for a long sleazy 2001-2010. My exposés speak for themselves, like:

• 2002 - smuggling of garlic, onion, and selected vegetables from China via recycled import permits of the Bureau of Plant Industry;

• 2003 - bribery by Fraport, the German dummier at NAIA-3, via two British Virgin Islands accounts, Jetstream Pacific (Jose Pidal?) and Mainland Global (Macapagal Gloria?);

• 2004 - P302-million plunder of military funds by GMA generals via comptroller Carlos Garcia;

• 2006 - smuggling of deceased pork from China by high Customs officials;

• 2007 - $330-million (P17-billion) NBN-ZTE scam, overpriced by $200 million (P10 billion) for then-first gentleman Mike Arroyo and the admin party;

• 2008 - Memorandum of Agreement-Ancestral Domain granting territory to Moro separatists;

• 2009 - attempt by GMA’s gofer-Ombudsman to free General Garcia on a “plea bargain” in which he was to return a third of his loot;

• 2010 - “chopper scam,” in which Arroyo sold to the PNP two used personal aircraft billed as brand-new police models; and

• 2011 - GMA’s distribution, during her tenure, of luxury SUVs to at least five Catholic bishops.

Rattling off such works makes me sound immodest. But I need to defend myself against maligners. Garcia et al have been convicted; GMA, Arroyo, and cohorts are on trial; billions of pesos have been saved. And Inquirer several times had laid claim to them by awarding its reporters for the “scoops,” when all they did were follow-ups. Oh well....

I do not associate with Gonzales. Why should I when, at the height of the NBN-ZTE exposé, he and a lunatic priest spread leaflets practically calling for my assassination. The ex-general who had signed with GMA the NBN-ZTE contract wanted to release for one night a death-row convict to do me in.

I do not mix with Esperon either, for I don’t know him. I do know that he had tried to stop the Navy from inviting me into its civilian Board of Advisers on his narrow notion that I was anti-government for being a critic of GMA’s admin.

I do not support Gonzales’s coup d’etat plot or the NTC’s call for withdrawal of support from P-Noy. I do not believe in supplanting the four highest officials of the land, even if elected via PCOS, with a “transition council” of so-called eminent citizens. I wrote so in my Pilipino Star Ngayon column (Sapol, 20 Feb. 2015), entitled (translated) “Coup to fail even if people are disgruntled”; and said so in my radio show (Sapol, DWIZ, 882-AM).

Where did this “GMA ally” crap come from? This much I gathered. Acosta and Brillantes at noon last Mar. 6 executed separate affidavits. Both vilified not only Cojuangco and Chong, but also known original critics of the PCOS since 2009, when the Comelec was still rigging the bid for Smartmatic. Among them were AES (Automated Election Systems) Watch founders Corazon Akol, Evita Jimenez, Angel Averia, and Gus Lagman, later to become Comelec commissioner. Badmouthed too was Atty. Melchor Magdamo, exposer of the Comelec’s P800-million “ballot-secrecy folder” scam.

Acosta and Brillantes also lumped the PCOS critics with Gonzales, Esperon, and NTC, although they have different causes. The aim was to paint them all as enemies of P-Noy.

Contrary to the Inquirer item, Acosta did not link me to the GMA allies, etc. He mentioned me along with three other columnists and two broadcasters as supposed persons who Cojuangco and Chong met or wanted to meet with. Curiously, Inquirer did not name two of the media persons. Selective vilification? Brillantes never mentioned me.

As soon as the Acosta-Brillantes affidavits were signed, the PR of Smartmatic distributed a “news feed” to selected reporters. That offensive feed was the source of my supposed being a “GMA ally.”          

If Inquirer has some dignity at all, it should examine its users of that Smartmatic feed. That Venezuelan corruptor had attempted to bribe the outstanding investigative journalist Ellen Tordesillas. She exposed the “name-your-price” offer in her column. Appalled, the equally sterling Raissa Robles amplified the crookedness in her widely read news blog.

I am used to being called names and harassed for my exposés. For unearthing in 1998-2000 then-President Joseph Estrada’s excesses, I – with the late Teddy Benigno, Alex Magno, and Conrad de Quiros – was branded a “destabilizer.” For the Garcia plunder, I was first labeled a CIA agent, then a communist rabble-rouser. For exposing the NBN-ZTE scam, I was accused of stealing the contract right after its signing by GMA in Boao, Hainan, China, where I have never been. ZTE threatened to sue me for allegedly disclosing its confidential proprietary info. Recently one of MRT-3’s sloppy maintenance contractors threatened to do the same. Months ago the NBI wanted to probe me for baring the contents of a memo for P-Noy by a Cabinet member.

I expect more of the same from this latest caper by Smartmatic. Let it be warned: the more lies it spreads about me, the more truths I will expose about it.

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