Last week’s Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) mobilization along Edsa, later moved to Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila, has invited comparison with the two great People Power uprisings that changed Philippine history. The comparison, while absurd, is understandable. The gatherings occupied the same symbolic space. They involved large crowds. They attracted national attention. But beyond these superficial...
Tag: Rodante Marcoleta
Post
Ombudsman files plunder and bribery charges against Marcoleta and 3 others
Saying it cannot just look away, the Office of the Ombudsman on Friday filed a nonbailable plunder case against Sen. Rodante Marcoleta at the Sandiganbayan over the ₱75 million in undeclared campaign contributions he received for the 2025 senatorial elections. Marcoleta was also charged with three counts of violating Presidential Decree No. 46, which prohibits...
Post
The INC mobilization is a test of Philippine institutions
Public demonstrations often become defining moments not because of the number of people in the streets but because of the constitutional questions they raise. The unannounced mobilization on June 30 involving members of the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) following the Ombudsman’s announced plan to charge Sen. Rodante Marcoleta, an INC member, with plunder is one...
Post
Tenderness and ‘heroes’ at the Cayetano bloc’s blue ribbon committee hearing
There was tenderness galore on Thursday at the blue ribbon committee hearing of the bloc led by Alan Peter Cayetano, by his own declaration “the legitimate, legal and moral Senate President.” Ignoring the changes made on Wednesday in the chamber’s power structure by the 12-member majority led by Senate President Pro Tempore Sherwin Gatchalian, Cayetano...
Post
Sotto: Any Senate leadership change should occur before Congress adjourns next week
Any change in the two-week-old, controversy-plagued Senate presidency of Alan Peter Cayetano should happen in the last three session days next week, before Congress goes into sine die adjournment on June 6. And with Congress out, the Senate leadership becomes even more crucial as the chamber is set to embark on one of its important roles:...
Post
To demand the facts and make correct sense of the corruption scandal
So much stuff to process, so little time before the next explosive detail erupts. Filipinos are called upon to make correct sense of the corruption scandal now approaching crisis proportions. That means educating themselves in how the plunder of taxpayer money was pulled off in flood control and other infra projects, and by whom, and...