{"id":6165,"date":"2026-06-06T07:37:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T06:37:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/balitangklik.com\/?p=6165"},"modified":"2026-06-06T07:37:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T06:37:51","slug":"marcoletism-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/balitangklik.com\/?p=6165","title":{"rendered":"Marcoletism (2)\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Diego Morra<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Consider the purported earth-shaking testimonies of the purported cash delivery squads of ex-Marines as a dismal serving of pap that even babies would reject, and Senator Rodante Marcoleta, in case he has his feet planted on the ground, should bear responsibility for presenting perjured witnesses who couldn\u2019t distinguish between night and day, lake and sea, and failing to remember addresses. Marcoleta, despite his grandiose claim of being super-intelligent, couldn\u2019t cut the mustard. His Senate hearing was a disaster and he, former Rep. Mike Defensor, the counsel Levito Baligod and the sponsors of the witnesses should be disciplined for the pulp fiction they dished out.<\/p>\n

Apart from engaging in hypophora to guide his \u201cwitnesses,\u201d Marcoleta did his worst when he accused reporters of being on the take and acting as paid hacks. Sensible journalists would have found his insult as the story of the day, not the testimonies of ex-Marines who merely repeated the disjointed theory about distributing P805-billion to lawmakers, journalists, government officials and, as usual, the Makabayan bloc, which is the nemesis of sheminit Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio, who egregiously promoted the doctrine that honesty, sincerity and credibility are not needed in politics.<\/p>\n

Former Reps. France Castro of ACT Teachers, Arlene Brosas of Gabriela and Raoul Manuel of Kabataan dismissed the strained narratives at the Senate as wild rantings. The trio said Sara is the main beneficiary of the scurrilous tall tale about their \u201caccepting maletas loaded with cash.\u201d It was Sara who tagged all her critics as the \u201cenemies of the state,\u201d perhaps thinking that she is the reincarnation of the French King Louis XIV, who purportedly said \u201cl\u2019etat c\u2019est moi\u201d or \u201cI am the state.\u201d The former lawmakers said they have been mysteriously included in the list for having worked assiduously to secure the documents from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the Commission on Audit (COA) and Malacanang itself that provide proof of Sara\u2019s plunder of public funds.<\/p>\n

Following the Sara doctrine, Marcoleta\u2019s ex-Marines engaged in firing shotgun blasts at the Senate \u201chearing,\u201d repeating the nauseating narratives that Palawan Rep. Pepito Alvarez demolished right in Sen. Alan Peter Cayteano\u2019s face. Marcoleta conveniently avoided a confrontation with Alvarez, who apparently was included in the rogue\u2019s list of \u201cbeneficiaries\u201d of flood control payoffs for supporting the impeachment of Sara. With the witnesses not remembering dates, addresses, names and circumstances, it became evident that what Marcoleta has are teka-teka affidavits that are full of holes like Swiss cheese. With 16 testimonies that cannot provide corroboration, it was necessary for Marcoleta to guide and lead his witnesses. Thus, the hypophora or the \u201ctanong ko, sagot ko\u201d scheme.<\/p>\n

What transpired during the June 4, 2026 hearing reminds us of what the late Tom Clancy said: \u201cThe difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.\u201d For the revelations of the 18 ex-Marines to look logical and true, they should make sense and withstand grueling assaults from skeptics, the doubting Thomases ort even cynics in the tradition of Diogenes. The witnesses may be talking but they are merely reiterating badly-written stories. This is where abuse of parliamentary process lies. Marcoleta is not gathering facts to prove a legal theory; he is creating testimonies to suit a tall tale. So, how can his witnesses now be credible, with Senator Tito Sotto \u201creceiving\u201d blood money when he was still not a senator, and the supposed recipient from his office getting cash in 2024, when the poor fellow died in 2015! Similarly, Mamamayang Liberal ng Pilipinas (MLP) Rep. Leila de Lima got her \u201ccommitment\u201d when she was not yet a member of the Lower House.<\/p>\n

Novelist Philip K. Dick said \u201creality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.\u201d Yet, fabrications exist rent-free in the minds of the CEOs of witness manufacturing outfits, and the witnesses showed it to all and sundry on June 4, 2024. These witnesses also claimed Sen. Loren Legarda received two suitcases brimming with cash. Curiously, Legarda described the witnesses as \u201cheroes,\u201d like Ador Mawanay? Will the Filipino people countenance these bunco artists, the latter-day versions of snake oil salesmen selling decorated lies as truth, like the California gold rush swindlers who victimized Mark Twain. Figures don’t lie, but liars figure, he added. And the figures like P805-billion delivered using vans, jets and whatever mode of transport were so huge that stripping the market of such cash would impact the money supply.<\/p>\n

Apart from producing such a silly show, Marcoleta, Defensor, Baligod and their henchmen should be haled to court and chastised for crafting a horrible vaudeville act. Should they refuse, the Filipino people should condemn them to be among the people that Mark Twain consigned to the muck as the three kinds of liars: \u201cLiars, damned liars, and statisticians.\u201d Even as Marcoleta purportedly apologized for branding newsmen as \u201cpaid hacks,\u201d grizzled journalists said he could always apologize through the nose and commit the same disastrous error again and afgain and again. Force him to buttress his claim that journalists are paid hacks and proceed to the Senate ethics committee to charge him with slandering the press.<\/p>\n

There is little chance that Marcoleta would even dare to change his ugly manners and his media-hogging ways. Newsmen who failed to include his name when they wrote about the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) \u201cpeace rally\u201d were branded as \u201cpaid hacks,\u201d So, not mentioning his name and setting it at 36 points is equivalent to being on the take? There is neither fact nor logic to justify his claim. But there are facts that warrant his being charged with plunder for taking P75 million in donations while still sitting at the Lower House and not reporting it. For someone used to baselessly accuse his colleagues of improprieties, Marcoleta also apparently loses his garrulous self when he is behind the mind. He announced his own guilt on the plunder case right at Net 25, his favorite broadcast outfit. The law isn\u2019t deaf, it can hear, and it isn\u2019t blind to see the good lawmaker putting his foot in his big mouth. For journalists, Marcoleta\u2019s apology isn\u2019t acceptable. Prove his case that journalists are paid hacks. The oppress can reply in kind. Why bother covering Marcoleta at all? He is a news desert, anyway.#<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Diego Morra   Consider the purported earth-shaking testimonies of the purported cash delivery squads of ex-Marines as a dismal serving of pap that even babies would reject, and Senator Rodante Marcoleta, in case he has his feet planted on the ground, should bear responsibility for presenting perjured witnesses who couldn\u2019t distinguish between night and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4885,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editoryal"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t