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’t distinguish between night and day, lake and sea, and failing to remember addresses. Marcoleta, despite his grandiose claim of being super-intelligent, couldn’t 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.
Apart from engaging in *hypophora to guide his “witnesses,” 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.
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 “accepting maletas loaded with cash.” It was Sara who tagged all her critics as the “enemies of the state,” perhaps thinking that she is the reincarnation of the French King Louis XIV, who purportedly said “l’etat c’est moi” or “I am the state.” 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’s plunder of public funds.
Following the Sara doctrine, Marcoleta’s ex-Marines engaged in firing shotgun blasts at the Senate “hearing,” repeating the nauseating narratives that Palawan Rep. Pepito Alvarez demolished right in Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano’s face. Marcoleta conveniently avoided a confrontation with Alvarez, who apparently was included in the rogue’s list of “beneficiaries” 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 “tanong ko, sagot ko” scheme.
What transpired during the June 4, 2026 hearing reminds us of what the late Tom Clancy said: “The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.” 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 or 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 “receiving” 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 “commitment” when she was not yet a member of the Lower House.
Novelist Philip K. Dick said “reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” 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 “heroes,” 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.
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: “Liars, damned liars, and statisticians.” Even as Marcoleta purportedly apologized for branding newsmen as “paid hacks,” grizzled journalists said he could always apologize through the nose and commit the same disastrous error again and again 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.
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) “peace rally” were branded as “paid hacks.” 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’t deaf, it can hear, and it isn’t blind to see the good lawmaker putting his foot in his big mouth. For journalists, Marcoleta’s apology isn’t acceptable. Prove his case that journalists are paid hacks. The press can reply in kind. Why bother covering Marcoleta at all? He is a news desert, anyway. #
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WORDS OF THE DAY
Hypophora – A rhetorical device where a speaker or writer poses a question and immediately answers it themselves.
Bunco artists – con artists who use deception, psychological manipulation, and false promises to steal money or valuables.
