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Marcos, Jr. officially took oath as the 17th president of the country; yet the masses will never claim a son’s dictator nor welcome an exiled and criminal family back into Malacañang. The people assert resistance against the Marcoses’ desperate hike up to power, laying out no plans but the mere clean-up drive for their well-deserved tarnished family name. 

As he engineers his and the Dutertes’ downfall, he will take his allies and cronies down with him as the people reclaim their decisive power. This is the third part of Budol: Unsubtle Crony Traits. Swipe left (or right), up and down as Marcos’ cabinet proves to be of service — to the Marcose, and their political clan allies  and foreign bosses.

Commission on Audit (COA)

Flagged by the Commission on Audit for “excessive allowances and honoraria,” Duterte crony and Marcos loyalist Jose Calida is chosen by the Marcos II administration to head COA, a constitutionally recognized commission tasked to keep check on government officials and agencies’ transactions and flag anomalous deals and financial flows.

The Commission earlier drew widespread attention following their exposé of massive corruption happening in particular departments such as the DSWD and DOH, flagging them for alleged anomalous handling of funds. This includes the Officer of the Solicitor General (OSG), a post Calida held under the Duterte administration.

Calida also used to serve as Justice undersecretary under the Arroyo regime, known to have had incurred numerous human rights violations and a Tokhang-style crackdown on activists and dissenters. 

Calida had been a long-time friend and the campaign manager of Duterte during his 2016 campaign. He was previously involved in a corruption controversy following suspicions on his family business which has been awarded billions-worth of government contracts in 2018. Duterte immediately defended Calida and praised him for his allegedly excellent work as Solicitor General which should have included pursuing the People’s cases against Marcoses.

Calida’s anomalous track record does not stop here. The OSG is mandated to represent the state in legal matters as an independent entity attached to the Department of Justice (DOJ). The OSG has been flagged countless of times by COA for its use of millions worth of improperly documented expenses since 2018, inclusive of unaccounted cash grants and suspiciously high allowances for lawyers. In fact, in 2021, Calida ranked second to the highest-paid government official with his net worth climbing up to an amount over P70M, despite COA’s warning that allowances should not be more than half of their basic pay.

Additionally, during Calida’s stint as SolGen, the OSG was largely involved in convicting senator Leila de Lima and shutting down both Rappler and media giant ABS-CBN. Duterte admitted that he is behind the ABS-CBN shutdown.

Calida is a rabid Marcos loyalist as well, after having pushed for the state burial of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. He also persisted in mandating the celebration of the late dictator’s birth every September 11, a move heavily lambasted by and a disrespect to Martial Law victims. Calida also assisted Marcos, Jr.’s foul cry of electoral protests when he lost his bid as vice president in 2016. 

Under Calida, the COA is projected to be devoid of its mandate to employ checks and balances on the government based on his history as a Marcos-Duterte lackey. Just like in Marcos Sr.’s term, anomalous transactions, corruption, and misuse of public funds will be enabled, justified, and unflagged. As COA chairperson, Calida will diminish and stumble on the people’s right to transparency, paying his wholehearted service only to his boss Marcos.

Department of National Defense (DND)

Set to expand his military aggression and brutal counter-insurgency, Gen. Jose Faustino, Jr. will serve as Marcos, Jr.’s National Defense secretary, following his brief stint as the Duterte regime’s chief-of-staff for six months from November last 2021. 

His appointment as military chief was tagged “illegal,” in accordance with a law that requires major service chiefs and senior officers to have at least a year left for service prior to their promotion. At the time, Faustino only had 9 months. Hence he was allowed a 104-day period of chiefship and was relinquished right after. 

Then, in June 2021, Faustino would become “among the worst fascist generals” of the AFP as dubbed by CPP spokesperson Marcos Valbuena, especially with the Joint Task Force (JTF) Mindanao established and Faustino as its pioneering commander. 

During his stint, hundreds of cases of military violence in Mindanao were recorded, including blatant attacks on civilians and IP communities. Since 2017, the AFP had been heavily engaged in a series of aerial bombings, strafing, and shelling, incurring more than 200 reported cases since Mindanao was put on Martial Law.

Faustino had been the mastermind behind several crimes against peasant and Lumad communities in Mindanao, in the guise of allegedly dismantling armed groups in the region. Last November, aerial bombings and strafings were reported in Butuan, Bukidnon to allegedly “finish off the NPA in the area,” resulting to community damage, trauma, and environmental destruction. 

Contrary to conspicuous use of violence against armed groups, among Faustino’s primary plans was to supposedly “address the roots of internal conflict” in the country. However, his track record as JTF commander proves that this will be done only through their use of aggression, intimidation, and blatant murder, in absence of resuming peace talks and resolving the roots of poverty despite their for-show balik-loob programs and cash aid.

Likewise, as DND chief, Faustino will be responsible for ensuring the country’s sovereignty is protected. Yet, with remaining onerous policies between the government and the US, military intervention is ensured to push on and intensify, masked by an alleged counter-insurgency program.  China’s encroachment is also a problem that the military has neglected for long.

This goes hand-in-hand with the Defense department’s desperate attempts to hamper dissent and stifle mass movements. This is manifest in their abrogation of the UP-DND Accord. Former Defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana even affirms Faustino will be able to carry through the Defense department’s agenda in cracking down the administration’s critics. 

Finally, Faustino also vowed to accomplish the AFP Modernization program in 2018, which he reported to now be on its third and final phase, entailing larger fund allocations for state forces at the expense of essential sectors, especially amid a health and economic crisis. 

With Faustino as DND chief, worsened human rights violations and extrajudicial killings are of assurance. Trust that no respect for humanitarian law will be upheld and that Philippine sovereignty will be compromised, especially in the military’s sole mandate to only protect and secure the state — never the people, as long as the military maintains its mercenary tradition. This is a lesson we learn from AFP’s  alliance with dictators like the Marcoses.

Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT)

Ivan John Enrile Uy was assigned to the then-Commission on Information and Communications Technology which was abolished in 2011 during the Aquino administration.  

His term as CICT chief further liberalized the Philippines to numerous foreign corporations as the hotspot for contract-service centers, with his vision to “capitalize on the abundant and globally competitive workforce.” He stated that then-CICT’s goal was to make the country the preferred destination of foreign corporations as its IT-BPO centers.

The same initiatives are seen to be sustained under Uy’s term as DICT secretary, stressed by then-DICT chief Manny Caintic. Under the DICT’s Connect, Harness, Innovate, and Protect (CHIP) program, the department aims to enhance the country’s readiness to expand participation in the global digital economy, mainly through directing foreign corporations to invest in the country’s business processing enclaves.

Under exploitative working conditions, low-pay and heavy-work, despite a projected increase in the labor force, BPO workers will be made to work longer hours in service to foreign corporations, under the guise of “revitalizing the Philippine economy.”

During the term of former Chief Judge Hilario Davide Jr., Uy worked as the Supreme Court’s chief information officer (CIO). Before leading the High Court’s management information system office, he started as a legal researcher at the Supreme Court. He had also performed as a source code reviewer for the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee’s (JCOC) Senate subcommittee on the automated elections for the 2019 and 2022 elections.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology is in charge of planning, developing, and promoting the information and communications technology sector as a major contributor to the nation’s growth. As a known expert on computers and e-commerce, Uy shall lead the country’s ICT services and opportunities which is critical to the overall economic development.

One of DICT’s component commissions, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), is now under fire for directing the suspension of access to the websites for revolutionary organizations, legal people’s organizations, and alternative media like Bulatlat and Pinoy Weekly based on the National Security Council’s false accusations of terrorism.

Special Assistant to the President (SAP)

Antonio ‘Anton’ Lagdameo is known as one of Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s childhood friends and has served for three terms as a Davao del Norte congressman. He is also the nephew of Antonio “Tony Boy” Floirendo Jr., a local landlord and crony of President Rodrigo Duterte while his grandfather, Antonio Floirendo Sr. had also been subject to criticism for being one of the cronies of the president-elect’s father during the time of martial law.�

The special assistant to the president post was first created by President Rodrigo Duterte which was under his first executive order as president. As Special Assistant to the President, Lagdameo and his staff will handle the President’s activities, security, protocol, and media assigned to cover him. Basically, every detail, open- and closed-door, about the President.

Lagdameo’s family has encroached on Davao del Norte as their home court, having passed government positions down to family members. Likewise, their family has been involved in anomalous activities. 

For instance, Duterte ally Tony Boy was previously convicted of graft in 2020. This is because of his alleged “indirect financial interest” in  land lease agreement between private firms Tagum Agricultural Development Company (TADECO) and Bureau of Corrections (BuCor). Having entered into a joint venture agreement in 2003 whereby inmates were made to work in banana plantations developed in some areas of the Davao Prison and Penal Farm, Tony Boy owns around 75,000 worth of shares in TADECO. 

Known as banana plantation moguls and a political dynasty in Davao, Lagdameo’s political clan is projected to expand further political influence and power, especially under a Marcos II regime and a vice presidency which hails from also the Davao region.

Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG)

Hailing from a political dynasty, Benjamin ‘Benhur’ Abalos Jr. served as a mayor of Mandaluyong (from 2007 to 2016) and representative of Mandaluyong during the 13th Congress. He has been a member of the ruling party PDP-Laban since 2017, and he has also resigned as the MMDA Chairman last February 2022 to become Marcos’s national campaign manager. 

The DILG is tasked with enforcing peace, order, and public safety, and empowering local government units (LGUs). The interior secretary would also have supervisory powers over the Philippine National Police, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, Bureau of Fire Protection, and the National Police Commission.

Abalos has been a key figure in maintaining the Abalos dynasty in Mandaluyong City, with his wife, Menchie Abalos, winning as vice mayor in the recent 2022 national elections after having served in 2016-2022, and his father winning the recent mayoralty position.

The Abalos dynasty has sustained political power in Mandaluyong City for almost three decades, from 1995 up to present. His father, Benjamin Abalos Sr., has been re-elected as mayor for 2022-2025, his second term following his pioneering stint in 1995-1998. Abalos Jr. took hold of the mayoral position from 1998-2004, only switching with counterpart Neptali Gonzales II, from one of the city’s dynasties as well, in 2004-2007. 

In 2007, Abalos, Sr. was involved in a corruption scandal, following an alleged anomalous deal with a Chinese firm during his stint as Commission on Elections (COMELEC) chairman. He resigned immediately prior to an impeachment. Abalos, Sr. was jailed on two counts of electoral sabotage, and was consequently released in 2012. 

Abalos Jr. was re-elected again as mayor in 2007, serving up to three terms until 2016, with his wife switching to be the city mayor until 2022.

Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO)

Trixie Cruz-Angeles is a suspended Filipino lawyer, radio commentator, and vlogger with almost 410,000 followers on her page, Luminous by Trixie Cruz-Angeles & Ahmed Paglinawan. She also served in the PCOO as a social media strategist from July 2017 to July 2018 under President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration. 

In 2016, the Supreme Court suspended her for three years for violating the lawyers’ code of conduct by failing to uphold her duties and obligations to a client. Cruz-Angeles is also a former commissioner of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) for cultural heritage and a former spokesperson of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines. She also hosts her own radio program, the Karambola show on DWIZ.

As the Secretary of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO), she is tasked to manage the whole agency by conducting regular press briefings to journalists and other media personnel covering Malacañang. The press secretary is also responsible for bridging information and policies between the Executive and the media. 

Along with her plan to accredit vloggers, who have been crucial in the Marcos disinformation campaign, to attend press interviews, Angeles also plans to propose a formal discussion of what constitutes misinformation. “Free speech is the rule. Discourse determines what is disinformation, misinformation,” she said. She claims that history’s conclusions are not as valuable as discourse, implying the need to question facts.  Countering the press secretary, Karmina Constantino, ANC News Anchor, clarifies that “Facts are immovable…Our nation’s history should never be vulnerable to revisionism. Otherwise, that home that we speak of will be nothing but a house of cards.”

Vloggers, who were heavily funded and aligned with Marcos Jr. as he admitted, are a litmus test for Philippine media. Angeles reinforces a false narrative of critical reportage and blatantly proposes to malign facts and truths through her proposal to upscale the credibility of vloggers in peddling information tantamount to that of journalists. However, unlike journalists, vloggers only produce content attuned to their target audience and in favor of the Marcoses.  Observers said that this is a crucial aspect of the Marcos presidential campaign.

What wonders vloggers have brought to the Marcos-Duterte tandem during and after their campaign season has incurred greater damage, contributing largely to disinformation and historical distortion. They consistently provide up-to-date information on what Marcos, Jr. is currently up to, conducting livestreams in their YouTube channels, ensuring that Marcos, Jr. is put in a good light. In the absence of livestreams, to sustain content production, vloggers resort to peddling historical information which some of them have admitted to be unverified information just to receive their share of the pie and prop up Marcos Jr. to the presidency.

With Angeles’ plan to permit one-sided and content-oriented vloggers, like Sangkay Janjan, to be on the same par as journalists is a huge disservice to the masses who deserve to be informed of the objective conditions, especially under a Marcos II administration. Likewise, putting facts to debate, as Angeles asserts information on Martial Law may be discussed, maligns truths that bind and prove facts conclusive and non-negotiable, especially concerning thousands of human rights violations, forced disappearances, and killings. 

Despite a lackluster track record as a lawyer-turned-vlogger, Angeles vows to commit herself in solving issues within the PCOO and linked agencies. Among these would be to improve the state mouthpiece PTV-4.  With Angeles as PCOO chief, it would upscale the Marcos II’s disinformation machinery, blurring boundaries between facts and blatant distortion, manipulating narratives, peddling future anti-people pronouncements in favor of the Marcos-Duterte tandem – a tactic which Marcos Sr. heavily used to silence dissent.

National Security Adviser (NAS)

Clarita Carlos was a former professor at the University of the Philippines – Diliman. 

She earned her Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service at the same institution where she later earned her master’s and doctorate in Political Science. She then completed postdoctoral studies in Political Psychology at Cornell University and Comparative Foreign Policy Analysis at the University of California. 

From 1998 until October 2001, Carlos served as the first female President of the National Defense College of the Philippines. She also lectured at the National Defense University in the United States and the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats in Asia. 

Carlos is known to be suportive of the Marcoses even before her stint as one of the panel of the right-wing media SMNI’s presidential debate and her appointment to the cabinet. In an interview with PTV, she claimed that “Duterte is the next best president after Marcos.”  The NSA provides general guidance to the president regarding all security issues. During her term, she will also serve as the vice-chairman of the anti-terror council. 

Upon her acceptance to the post, she promised to review the policies of NTF-ELCAC, further claiming that red-tagging is rather a “lazy” venture of labeling individuals. However, in a public statement, she said that there is no need for peace negotiations.

Carlos previously gained widespread criticism after she dubbed the faculty of UP Department of Political Science as  “cretins” for opposing her viewpoints. Backing Duterte’s decision, she also recently advised the administration to take a neutral stance in the Russia vs. Ukraine war amidst the oil price hike and crashing stock market, affecting the Philippine economy. 

PART 2: https://bit.ly/3a3LjKz