“And, now this! Alpha Kwok, suspect in the multimillion-peso diamond smuggling apparently escaped or was set free by the same PASG after it had made a public statement about her arrest.”
by Ducky Paredes
I guess that Undersecretary Antonio Villar must really be a very special person – to Malacanang, How else can we explain that he and his band are still enjoying the trust and confidence of their President after two recent incidents. There must be many, many more of these shenanigans but suffice these two for now.
The first one involved P100 million in equipment that was taken from a Malaysian who was in the business of replicating DVDs and CDs illegally. Thus, after a joint raid by the PASG and the Optical Media Board under Chairman Edu Manzano, the equipment was being guarded by the PASG when it mysteriously disappeared one rainy evening.
According to reports, a side of the house was torn down so that the heavy load could be mounted on a huge truck.
There was an exchange of words between Villar and Manzano. I hear that Edu has since resigned from the OMB, probably in disgust. Could it be because the President favored Villar over Manzano? Malacanang promised after the incident that upon her return from her trip abroad at the time that the equipment disappeared, she would call the two warring camps under the Office of the President to a meeting. She has since gone on several more expensive forays abroad but no meeting has been reported.
And, now this! Alpha Kwok, suspect in the multimillion-peso diamond smuggling apparently escaped or was set free by the same PASG after it had made a public statement about her arrest. She was caught with half a billion pesos in smuggled diamonds.
The story is that, while the PASG were all busy admiring her collection of diamonds and taking the inventory of their loot, Alpha said that she was hungry. After deciding that every single personnel of PASG was too busy to escort and guard her over lunch, whoever was in charge of the PASG team at the time allowed her to go unescorted to get her lunch.
One wonders if the PASG wondered why she never came back from her lunch.
Luckily for us, Kwok was unable to leave the country because, as reported to the public by Immigration Commissioner Marcelino LIbanan told Tribune they already arrested Kwok.
The Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG), just as in the P100 million replicating machine’s disappearance denied that Kwok disappeared while in its custody.
BI Associate Commissioner Roy Almoro, who presented Kwok to newsmen at the BI, said the woman smuggling suspect will be detained at the BI Bicutan Immigration detention center and will be on the immigration watch list to prevent her from leaving the country.
Kwok will be charged with a deportation case for engaging in gainful activity in the country without proper permit and visa.
Almoro denied reports that Kwok had left the country, telling newsmen that Kwok will not be deported yet as she has yet to face criminal prosecution and possible conviction for smuggling before the Philippine court.
When will Malacanang learn that ad hoc task forces do not work – if what one wants is for someone to do the work that should be done by others, in this case, the Bureau of Customs? If anything, ad hoc task forces are only a way fro the task force members to earn a fortune for themselves.
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The Comelec decided in the dispute within the Liberal Party that there should be a convention of the whole party with both camps – the Atienza wing and the Drilon wing – meeting in joint convention to choose the leader of the party and, of course, its candidate for the presidency in 2010.
Drilon handled that the way that Marcos used to run things in this country. Her expelled the other presumptive president of the Liberal Party Lito Atienza. Then, one wonders how this happened without a full convention having been called; Drilon became Chairman (the post to which Atienza had appointed him prior to their break) and Mar Roxas President of the LP and official presidential candidate for 2010.
But, what will the Drilon LP do now that many in the party are for rejecting Mar and opting for Noynoy as the presidential candidate. Drilon, ala Marco, has ruled that Mar is the party’s candidate. Is he saying that he would rather lose all of the new recruits the party may be getting with a Noynoy run for the presidency? Or, is he saying that Noynoy should look for another party to run in if he is interested in the presidency.
The way for the LP to go would be to have a nominating convention to choose all of its national candidates for the 2010 election. There have been no conventions like these since Marcos first took the Nacionalista nomination against Emmanuel Pelaez. It also seems clear that the Drilon LP is not inclined to suddenly become democratic now that 2010 us just around the corner.
In fact, the way it looks to me, Noynoy would be better served – even if he were to run only for vice president and even if he did not run at all in 2010—if he were to go to another party. Clearly, the Drilon group (which has total control of the LP at this time) sees Noynoy as an interloper and a spoiler even as he has not yet even decided what he might do. To them, it is Mar Roxas or no one. How can one have a free convention under that situation?
Clearly, Mar Roxas is not capturing the imagination of anyone. Sure, he is clean and honest but, somehow, he is not connecting. Could it be the very fake but very show biz padyak informercial that is to blame? One wonders; but, clearly, he is not exciting anyone with his presence or his speeches or his advocacies.
In other words, Mar is coming off as a politician in the worst possible way.
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hvp 08.24.09)
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