Hypocrisy

Hypocrisy.
(Blog December 27, 2015; Sunday)

              This is a true story if simple story of Philippine media hypocrisy and corruption that represents the general media environment, narrated many years ago by Linggoy Alcuaz to me personally.

              The story concerns Linggoy Alcuaz’s attempt to expose the corruption at the PCSO (Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office) under the sister of the icon of Edsa Dos Chavit Singson, Honeygirl Singson who was named chairman of the PCSO after Edsa Dos (clearly as part of the many rewards to Chavit Singson for helping bring down President Estada).

              LInggoy Alcuaz, also an idol of Edsa Dos due to his initiative with the “Exclamation Point” sticker campaign that was made a focal symbol of the anti-Estrada movement by the true forces behind the systematic coup effort against the president elected in 1998 which we will have a paragraph on later. Alcuaz also got rewarded with a position, as director, of the PCSO.

              Whatever Linggoy Alcuaz’s motivation for attempting to expose Honeygirl Singson’s “railroading of a P 60-Million instant sweepstakes ticket printing” contract is anybody’s guess, but try he did. One of the first effort Alcuaz, a keen political and propaganda player, was to talk to Letty Jimenez Magsanoc of the Philippine Daily Inquirer about his expose and obtained a promise for it to be published.

              Alcuaz dutifully furnished documents as proof and evidence of the scam and followed up patiently for weeks. Each time Magsanoc promised its publication. Alcuaz waited, and waited. During that period of waiting Alcuaz noticed a series of PCSO full page ads in the Inquirer. Eventually, Alcuaz gave up following up Magsanoc and accepted the oblivion that his expose found itself in.

              I watched the saga of Alcuaz’s effort to expose Honeygirl Singson’s  corruption at the PCSO, this was in the early 2000’s when the euphoria of Edsa Dos was already wearing off and the clean image of the Edsa Dos  “Yellow” gang was being eaten up by internal rivalries for power and loot. For a long time the Inquirer and its editor-in-chief continued to protect the Arroyo administration until the signal from the U.S. State Dept. as reflected also in the Hyatt 10’s sudden turnaround against Arroyo.

              This is just one small story in the compendium of corruption cover up cases ranging from the acquisition of the Mile Long property that the Inquirer’s owners finagled from the Philippine government with the help of then Executive Secretary Joker Arroyo to the cover up of tax cases of a subsidiary company amounting to billions which its media clout muffles the good commissioners of the COA and the BIR as a former BIR tax examiner has exposed. ###