Arroyo the most corrupt president

By Ramon Tulfo
Philippine Daily Inquirer

A total of P2.5 billion in behest agricultural loans to friends and associates of the former first couple, Mike and Gloria Arroyo has been made public.

Sen. Frank Drilon, who made the exposé, says it’s impossible to recover the loans since most of the borrowers are not identified, do not want to pay or have been reported as dead.

The Arroyos were allegedly into all kinds of money-making ventures: From telecommunications (NBN-ZTE); railroad (North and South rails); selling second-hand choppers and passing them off as new; intelligence funds of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office; fertilizer and all kinds of products that government distributed supposedly to help the citizenry; real estate (Alpha Land, a real estate development company, is reportedly Mike’s but under a dummy’s name); taking over closed banks; smuggling.

They didn’t even spare “jueteng,” a poor man’s numbers game, which is illegal.

Gloria Macapagal “Makapal” Arroyo is apparently more corrupt than Ferdinand Marcos since the latter didn’t touch jueteng.

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There have been reports of ammunition made by Armscor, a local gun and ammunition manufacturer, misfiring during shooting practice.

I found out the reports were accurate when most of the Armscor .22 caliber ammunition I used in a target practice recently did not fire.

One piece of ammo was so overloaded with gunpowder that it blew up in my face.

It destroyed the German-made .22 caliber pistol I recently bought at the last gun show.

I was lucky I was wearing protective shooting glasses when I fired the Armscor .22 caliber ammo because my eyes would have been hit by the gunpowder residue.

Isn’t there a government agency that watches over the quality control of products that come out of local gun and ammo factories?

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Armscor is owned by the Tuasons who are related to former first gentleman Mike Arroyo.

It was able to sell many pistols and 9 mm ammo to the Philippine National Police (PNP) without passing the required test on all guns and ammo because of Mike Arroyo.

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I hate to write about Armscor’s defective guns and ammo since one of its owners, the late Butch Tuason, was a hunting buddy many years ago.

Butch, who died of cancer, was a regular guy and very particular about the quality of Armscor ammo that we used for hunting.

It was only after his death, I’ve observed, that the quality of guns and ammo at Armscor deteriorated.

Most of my friends in the practical shooting community don’t advise using Armscor ammunition for target practice or carry them because of their poor quality.

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A few days after I wrote about the lousy service Globe Telecom gives to its customers, I received a promo letter from the company asking that I upgrade my subscription plan.

The nerve!

My subscription plan is platinum, the highest Globe can give, so I expect excellent service from the phone company.

But what do I get for my platinum plan?

My calls almost always get disconnected or cut off in the middle of a conversation.

The “dropped” calls are charged to my monthly bills.

If a platinum holder like me gets lousy service, I can imagine what kind of service subscribers with lesser plans get.

There was a time Globe gave excellent service.

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What’s gone wrong with Globe?

Over-subscription, meaning it has accepted customers more than it can handle.

The result is clogged lines that cut off your calls in the middle of a conversation.

There’s a term for it: Greed.