Speech at the Senate Flag-Raising Ceremony

Let me first thank Senate Secretary Oscar Yabes for his very kind invitation. He must have liked my maiden privilege speech last Monday to invite me to deliver my maiden flag-raising speech today. 

To all of you, I want now to convey my gratitude for all your kind thoughts and words. I need all of them.
Last week is not going to be less. Not even the weeks still to come. Brace yourself.

I am not asking you to brace yourself against more rabid accusations by a soldier who dishonored his oath by becoming an NPA.

I am not asking you to brace yourself against more dangerous venom by an NPA who killed our soldiers and police officers without any bout of guilt.

I am not asking you to brace yourself against the ultimate national security threat by a congenital and incurable moron who, by the mystery of all mysteries, remains the head of the military intelligence community.

You know his name – Mr. Gullible.

I am asking you, instead, to brace against the incoming storms to sink our economy. Mr. Gullible may have succeeded in making some people temporarily forget the honorable First Gentleman. But no amount of gullibility by Victor will make people forget their misery and hunger.

The country is politically unstable today, thanks to Mr. Gullible and his patroness in Malacañang. We are fast becoming the most gullible population in the world. Our military intelligence reports have lost any value whatsoever. When the military establishment loses its intelligence, a nation is lost. We are lost.

In early July – in a speech before the Rotarians of Metro Cebu – I warned President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of predators inside her administration. This is what and how I said it:

Beware of your own people. You may yet become their hostage. Rubbish information from people who can not be trusted can only lead you to great peril.

I was then referring to Colonel Victor Corpus of ISAFP and Senior Superintendent Reynaldo Berroya of PNP Intelligence Group, including their spooks. The President somehow listened and relived Berroya. It was too difficult for her – however and for whatever reason – to act on Corpus.

Today, the subversive is right under her slip. And she has nobody to blame but herself.

The economy is choking to death. Japanese businessmen are not about to stay for as long as we want them. They are thinking of investing in less politically unstable countries. Unemployment, for the first time that I can remember, has become a source of crippling fear to many.

It is not only the Japanese who see our country as a non-investment area. There are some others. Read the country assessment of Goldman Sachs. This investment house has given up on the Arroyo administration. So have the others.

President Arroyo’s ship is like a fish floundering on dry land. She can put up a bold front as often as she wants.
But – like Corpus – she will have nobody to roll and fool but herself.

Victor Corpus believed that he could demolish me by means of the court he knows only too well – the kangaroo court. He goes to the Philippine Daily Inquirer and explodes his bombshell – which is a dud. Then he sharpens his tongue, accuses me and convicts me of crimes he deliberately fails to substantiate. He says he has the goods and shows nothing but hot air. The more he talks the more nonsense there is.

Had not President Gloria ever looked into the background of this ISAFP cretin whose greatest ambition in life is to most likely replace Rigoberto Tiglao? I am only thinking aloud.

Madame President, replace Corpus now and victory may yet be yours. You hedge and your government goes aground. You do not have to dig deeply. The AFP is not without the best intelligence officers. Corpus is the lone exception – and hopefully the last.

This Corpus indicts me of a heinous crime impossible to commit in the United States. I deny the charge and here he comes demanding me to take a polygraph test. Since when did an accused – by law or other means – start his defense by means of a polygraph test? As a crime investigator, I know that it is the unreliable witness to a crime who takes the polygraph test. This happened to Ador because government found his story incredible. It is incredible, indeed.

This Corpus is certainly off his rocker. He wants me to be a witness against myself for a crime only his stupid mind has imagined. His worst is yet to come. Brace yourself.

Corpus believes I have hidden a dollar chest in US banks. I am giving him the benefit to hallucinate. I am even helping him now with a Special Power of Attorney. But he rejects the SPA. What does he want? A torrens title?

My fellow Senate workers, all I ask from you is to withhold judgment until after the presentation of evidence. It is easy for people with congenital insanity to demonize me. Suspend your conclusions. Let us reason out together for the sake of truth.

The kangaroo court – and its sinister trial by publicity – has no place in this society. There is madness in the court of Corpus and I do not know that madness has its own method. When people get mad, they get destroyed. Victor’s madness must end where it began – with Corpus.

Some detractors of mine argue that my denial in the form of a privilege speech is not enough. What more do they want? I challenge them to go to court so I can confront them. Is not that enough? If that is not enough, what gives?

As I said, this week will continue not to be less interesting than the last. The weeks to come will be equally interesting, too. I just want to leave a message to all of you:

I become a Senator to serve you according to my best lights.

And if you accord me with at least that one right, then I know we have met. I am sure things will get better before they get worse.

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