There’s really nothing wrong with PNoy appointing his own justices. That is the prerogative of every sitting President. It makes governing easier. It becomes wrong under the following circumstances:

1. When the appointed justices are “midnight appointees.”
2. When the justices favor a person over the Constitution.
3. If PNoy commits a crime and expects the justices to get him off the hook.
4. When the Chief Justice begins carrying an umbrella over a relative (perhaps a wife?) of the President.

Now, PNoy’s detractors are calling him a despot and hungry for power.

A despot? Has he:

1. Dissolved Congress and the Supreme Court?
2. Closed down media establishments?
3. Imprisoned media personalities and his critics?
4. Had people kidnapped or killed?
5. Cheated massively in the elections?
6. Declared martial law?

I’m not a PNoy fan, but he is the President. Thus, as a Filipino I’ll continue to give him the benefit of the doubt and support his governance as best as I can.

If somehow he turns out to be a criminal or despot or both, then he should taste the same medicine as his government is giving Gloria Arroyo and Renato Corona.

Multi-millionaire-guess-where-he-got-his-millions Mikey Arroyo is now officially party-list representative of marginalized security guards.

This even if the Supreme Court said in Banat v. Comelec that "it is not necessary that the party-list organization’s nominee ‘wallow in poverty, destitution and infirmity’ as there is no financial status required in the law. It is enough that the nominee of the sectoral party/organization/coalition belongs to the marginalized and underrepresented sectors, that is, if the nominee represents the fisherfolk, he or she must be a fisherfolk, or if the nominee represents the senior citizens, he or she must be a senior citizen."

So, pray tell me, when was Mikey Arroyo ever a security guard?

Yet, Comelec commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer and four of his ilk chose to disregard the Supreme Court ruling and approved of Mikey Arroyo’s representation. Conclusion: he must have received "millions" of other reasons to be stupid.

When you’re bribed, it’s easy to turn a deaf ear to criticisms. Who cares what people are saying when you can become millions of pesos richer?

Editors, columnists, constitutionalists and the ordinary man in the street have spoken against this irregularity, but Ferrer has turned a deaf ear and is probably laughing all the way to the bank.

Meanwhile, guess who’s pointing a middle finger at the Filipinos?

Yet, Villar’s Nationalista Party is the one that released a bogus report purportedly coming from Ateneo de Manila University attesting that Noynoy has an unstable mind. And Villar kept on harping about it even if the report was proven to be false.

Then there was a rumor –it’s not difficult to quess who started it– that Aquino had an epilepsy attack during one of his campaign rallies.

The latest Villar gimmick was to allow media to interview his ailing 86 year old mother who, in front of cameras, began shedding tears and saying she was hurt by all the bad publicity her son was getting. Then the cameras showed Villar’s siblings angry at all and sundry for what their brother is going through.

Susmaryosep!

The only person the Villar exended family should blame is Manny Villar himself. When you prop up your campaign with lies, you will be found out. This is simply what had happened. Never mind the monicker, “Villaroyo,” that was tagged on Villar. That may have been uncalled for and could have been dismissed easily. But when you fail to face questions from fellow senators about a suspicious transaction, you’re hiding something. When you exploit the death of a brother and now an ailing mother to try to save a campaign, you’re shameless. These smack of desperation.

Now there are reports emerging of other questionable Villar dealings. Villar has denied them. The thing is, when you start the ball rolling with lies, no one is going to believe you anymore even if you’re telling the truth.

So Villar knows he is losing his grip on his dream of becoming the next President of the republic.

The problem is, he’s getting desperate and desperate men can become dangerous.

The point Revillame was trying to make was that the media was not being truthful in its crowd estimates when it came to Villar’s campaign sorties. Later, news clips showed Revillame leaving the rally site surrounded by what appeared to be bodyguards, looking like a big shot who had all the influence in the world.

I didn’t know whether to hate him some more or just laugh.

I decided to laugh.

For one thing, the point he was trying to make was stupid. Who cares how many attend Villar’s rallies? Besides, when you’re as delusive as the master you serve, 1,000 can look like 10,000, 5,000 can look like 50,000, and so on and so forth. The point is, it’s not how many are attending Villar’s rallies but how many are not.

The recent surveys of SWS and Pulse Asia reveal it: Villar’s ratings are plummeting, all due to the fact that Villar’s true colors are showing. He is lying through his teeth when he bandies about that he was born and grew up poor.

If Villar’s campaign is all about lies, what do you think his presidency will be like if he wins? But here’s what makes shivers run up and down my spine. If he wins what role will he give the national sleaze, Willie Revillame, in his government?

Speculate and weep.

So let me make it clear. The conjugal dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, the parents of Bongbong, was responsible for hundreds of people killed or missing during its reign. It is responsible for millions of dollars siphoned off the Philippine treasury, earning for this country the appellation, "Sickman of Asia."

And where was Bongbong during this time? Enjoying the perks and privileges of a virtual prince. Did he go against the corruption of his father? Did he speak out against the human rights abuses of the Marcos tyranny?

No! In fact he fled the country, fearing for his life along with his disgraced family.

So, how dare he opens his mouth and speak as if he was Mr. Clean. He was even quoted as saying that People Power 1 failed. If it indeed failed, its failure was its inability to bring Bongbong and his ilk to prison.

Bongbong should be thankful. And he should show his thankfulness by letting the Filipinos know that he is sorry for what his family did when they were in power, desist from running for public office and just disappear into the night.

One less Marcos is one less possible dictator and thief.

I stated in a previous post that a good number of the Philippine electorate is comprised of idiots, but not all. Villar, however, seems to believe he can fool everyone.

In another news item, Villar and his team (including Loren Legarda who does nothing but pose for the cameras) campaigned inside a military camp by conducting a walk of unity, which again violates election laws. Villar said cockily it wasn’t a campaign and added that he would campaign where there were a lot of people.

Yet he was walking hand-in-hand with his party’s election bets. Sure, they were not shouting, "vote for us," but you do not have to say anything to make a campaign statement. Again Villar trying to hoodwink Filipinos.

Apparently, because Villar got away with the C5 anomaly, he thinks he can get away with anything. Such is the man.

Villar the most trusted presidential candidate?

That’s not what Filipinos are saying. That’s what Villar’s money is saying.

Personally, the man’s personality stinks!

No wonder why. There are two reasons for this.

One, Villar’s over-spending is now causing a dent in the other candidates’ numbers, especially that of his closest rival, Noynoy Aquino.

The other reason is that a good percentage of the Philippine electorate is comprised of idiots who tend to be bedazzled by Villar’s sleek ads instead of looking deeply into his character.

Villar’s millions has garnered endorsers in the likes of masa-appealing celebrities such as Dolphy, Michael V and Sarah Geronimo, who probably don’t care much about what’s coming out of their mouths than what’s coming into their pockets.

Villar’s ads about helping the poor are helping his candidacy tremendously. He claims that the poor, like he once was, should be given a chance to become President. Yet, the core of his hypocrisy lies in the fact that he’s not running as a poor man, but as a filthy-rich individual who’s already spent more than a billion pesos in his campaign.

We ask again, why is he so desperate to become President?

In one of his ads, he claims that if he wanted to become rich he would have remained in business. Yet, Marcos, GMA and her family have proved that it is more lucrative to be in power. The only people Villar is fooling are fools.

Villar’s campaign is made up of smokescreen, lies and illusion. He’ll be better off as a magician than President of the Republic of the Philippines.

Take the current strategy of GMA, whose cabal of liars are perpetuating the lie that GMA did much better governance than her predecessors. And then there’s the brazen lie that GMA can appoint the next Supreme Court Chief even when constitutionalists say otherwise.

Now we have Manny Villar who apparently has his own cabal of liars. This cabal not only is perpetuating the lie that Villar is innocent of the C5 controversy, they attack and they run circles around the truth.

If Villar can use his cabal of liars now, he’ll use them even more if he’s elected President. If Villar was able to use his powers as congressman and now senator to make shady deals that benefited himself and his company, how much more if he sits in Malacañang Palace?

Apparently Villar’s shady dealings are not confined in Luzon. He also has questionable dealings in Ilo-ilo (read this). So what is he going to do amid this latest charge? I’m betting he’ll do 2 things: 1) ignore it and hope it goes away; 2) send in his cabal of liars – born-again Christian Alan Peter Cayetano to twist the truth around (I wonder if reads his Bible); Nene Pimentel to insult the accusers; and Joker Arroyo to make it seem Villar is the righteous one.

Do you really want Manny Villar –with his cabal of liars– as the next President of our already benighted Republic of the Philippines?

His defiance gives a preview of an attitude that Villar is above censure and accountability for his actions connected to his companies’ activities to push the C-5 project.

The project is covered by appropriations in which he intervened during its budgetary hearings as member of Congress.

There’s no way that he will step down or suspend his campaign for the presidency while a boycott of his allies is preventing the Senate from voting to censure him.

He remains untouchable in this regard. In stonewalling on the committee report, Villar is a law unto himself and above the rules of the Senate on disciplinary action for breach of the rules.

There are no party sanctions to bar him from election activity until he is cleared by the Senate, simply because he is president of the Nacionalista Party.

If Manny "Wysiwyg" Villar believes he is above the law in his current position, how do you think he’ll treat the presidency if he’s elected?

He presents himself as the underdog by claiming he’s not a haciendero or he doesn’t have famous parents and that he was born poor. He claims, "what you see is what you get." Yet, this is not entirely true. What we don’t see is a sinister personality who used his position to benefit from a road construction and uses lapdogs, the media and reasons and excuses to evade sanction.

Don’t believe in his sleek ads. All they show is a person who’s spending obscene amounts of money, desperate to become President of the Philippines.

We wonder why. To alleviate our country from poverty? If you believe in that, you probably also believe the moon is made of cheese.

But is he really? In a previous post I expressed wariness over Gibo (you can read that here). After the Ampatuan massacre, my wariness turned to outright distrust.

Instead of me writing about why I now distrust Gibo, here’s a column written by Patricia Evangelista of the Inquirer that best reflects my sentiments.

Read it here: http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20100206-251687/The-guns-of-Gibo.