When Amnesia Becomes an Excuse

Listening and watching to the live stream of the Senate hearing on alleged corruption in the Armed Forces of the Philippines is like sitting in a law school lecture. There, senators interrogates-- and sometimes in showing off-- the AFP officials on how come they amassed such amounts of wealth from their meager (relatively speaking) salaries as a soldier. There, we could see Miriam Defensor Santiago hurls fiery and wittingly funny statements hence serving her another set of death threats for her breakfast. There, we saw how Antonio Trillanes misaligned his choice of words that would (indirectly) yield to Angie Reyes's dramatic suicide a cote de his mother's grave. And there, annoyingly, we could see how these crocodilius generals, especially Carlos Garcia, resort to their safest excuse not to "incriminate" themselves by resorting to a peculiar situation involving selective amnesia.

"Nakalimutan ko po. (I have forgotten)" "Hindi ko po alam" (I do not know). "Wala po akong matandaan na binigyan ako ng 50 million pesos". (I could not remember that I was given 50 million pesos). That is all we can here from these gahamans when confronted with questions pertaining to properties and bank accounts which are allegedly coming from their intricate corruption through the AFP funds.

Today in the senate, Ret. Gen Jacinto Ligot, the then AFP comptroller during Angie's time, was on cross fire. Senator Drilon presented the deed of sale of a certain property in Essenza Towers in Bonifacio Global City which was sold to Limot este Ligot's brother-in-law by Ligot himself. When asked to confirm whether it was Ligot's signature on the document, the bucktoothed replied "It seems to be my signature", implying that someone used his name and forged his signature to close that 25 million peso sale. Also presented in the hearing was the 135 million withdrawals of Ligot and his family and his not filing of income tax return for years, (which he reasoned out that he hasn't any income for those years. No income your face Ligot!)

How annoyingly they can get when answering these question. I agree with Sen. Estrada's remark. These people are already caught red-handed with these evidences yet they could still sit upright in the senate hearing and lie with their ugly faces in front of the public. Yes they are technically still innocent but you can see through their aura's that they are trying as hard as they can to confuse the public even more. What is irritating more than hearing Garcia saying "I invoke my rights against self-incrimination"? By God, ang kakapal ng mukha.

The public knows that the evidences and testimonies presented in the probe are sufficiently strong enough to convict these generals, contrary to the prosecutors arguments. The only question here is that, will the senate do something about this after the investigations. The public do really need some action going and wants these faces behind bars the soonest the possible. I just hope that there is a way for these general for them to remember the things they have done so that justice may be served. However, I could not deny that it is entertaining to see these generals' faces when confronted with a fact. They never failed to give me a good laugh.


PS. Could I just commend the senators, especially, Sen Drilon for doing his homework. Cheers to you Big Man!