He spoke correct English!

Well, well! Some people may have been absorbed in the import of the questions and answers during the media interviews that followed the hearing where former president Joseph Estrada testified in his defense, but my own attention was focused on something else. This was because I was truly astounded at the way the former president, famous for his supposedly fractured English, that he had himself underscored in a book titled "Eraptions", was speaking in very straight and very correct English! So it had only been an act, those pretensions of avoiding the King's Language?

***

That was why I almost failed to hear what he said affecting free speech that other media people applauded. Asked whether he would ever agree to a reconciliation meeting with GMA, he firmly replied that he would do so, only after she has lifted her Executive Order 464. Remember 464? That was the presidential command prohibiting government officials from complying with the summons of Congress if they are being called to testify in investigations. Maybe he will also say later that he will do so after the Supreme Court has ruled that Proclamation No. 1017 is unconstitutional?

***

Ah, but one could not concentrate on Erap's woes only yesterday. So many other blockbusters were coming out of the media that one hardly knew which to pounce on in ranking news stories. There was the announcement from the Commission on Human Rights that it is recommending the filing of murder charges against at least three top police officers, or former ones. For the deaths of some 15 inmates at the Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, the CHR said generals Angelo Reyes, Edgar Aglipay and Arturo Lomibao should be charged with murder!

***

One can only gape in admiration for the CHR, headed by Commissioner Wilhelm Soriano. Do they know who are the people they want to accuse of murder? All three are very powerful and influential military officers. What was it that one of their colleagues said recently? That they were the ones holding together the country? Shouldn't Commissioner Soriano and his fellow members be walking around freely after this? The whole country is apprehensive for them.

***

And then there is Chavit Singson - my, that guy's presence seems to be everywhere. I recall that he was also very ubiquitous in Las Vegas when Manny Pacquiao had that bout with Erik Morales, and people said Chavit won more from his bets than Pacquiao for his fight. Yesterday, he was very prominently featured in reports on the Erap hearing, having been the whistle-blower extraordinaire before EDSA II. A few days earlier, his was the name shouted by the hysterical widow of businessman Leonardo Umale who was brutally murdered in plain sight of his family, in front of his own building. It will be some time before his name disappears from the news, you can bet on that.

***

And then there was the new development in the case of the presidential phone pal, the elusive Virgilio Garcillano of Hello Garci notoriety. Yesterday the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, formerly known as the Central Bank of the Philippines, disclosed that it had been discovered that the passport presented by Garci to prove that he had been in the country all along, was not a genuine one. Oho. Who could have manufactured one for him that our eagle-eyed immigration officers never noticed? As shown on TV, the passport was smaller, had different paper, different stitching, color, and so forth. Only Garci's picture looked genuine. More mysteries on the case?

***

Will we be hearing the President coming out and saying "I am sorry" again? This is possible because her spokespeople have announced that she now regrets having met with some infamous characters during the days when they were plotting the overthrow of President Estrada. Some of those people are now being accused of being disloyal, if not outright traitors to their country for allegedly being involved in another plot to throw out another president who happens to be herself. And the baddies are brandishing some photographs with her showing them very close and, well, chummy, with arms linked, too. If Bunye et al are to be believed, she is very sorry that she ever sought their company. Well, let's wait and see.*

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