Can Atong be doing to Digong what he did to Erap in 2000?

to having nursed bad feelings about that statement. He said he has conveyed those sentiments to certain people close to the president.

“

the least I could expect are words of support and encouragement,” Balutan said during an impromptu audience with some members of the media the day after the Senate hearing. But then a while later, he said “

(the President made clear what he really meant).”

According to Balutan, what the President meant by that airport statement was that he knew Atong was into illegal gambling and he had better clear himself with the PCSO by way of going legal. The President’s actual words went:

Atong, I was hearing, “ gambler number one PCSO, illegal

“It was himself that the President wanted Atong to clean up, not the PCSO. There is nothing to clean up in the PCSO,” declared Balutan.

But then, isn’t this that is worrisome about Atong’s public prevarications? If he isn’t in the President’s favor, why the gall to presume that he is and not at all worry of any serious reprisals? This should be all the truer when considering that being the big businessman that he claims he is, the last thing that he should be doing is to incur the ire of the President. Such ire necessarily must befall him for compromising the President with his public utterances. Certainly with Atong’s ill-repute as the country’s top jueteng lord, he throws the President in bad light by proclaiming himself in the President’s favor. In brief, he practically tells the nation Digong is within the ambit of his jueteng protection ring.

As the good old adage goes, “Tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are.” And this other one, “Birds of the same feather flock together.” Two all too elementary wisdom to miss in the Atong-Digong relationship, if there is such one.

But then in fairness to the President, the automaticity perceived inherent in the cited associations must not necessarily apply in his case. As head of the nation, he is duty bound to deal with all sorts of elements, good or bad.

On record as the start of Digong association with Atong was when the former was still mayor of Davao City. It appeared Atong applied for a permit to operate an online Jai Alai game, which Digong disapproved, instead reprimanding the former for his illegal gambling ways and advising him to reform to legal gaming. Between Davao City Hall and Malacañang Palace is so much water under the bridge, and to what extent that initial association between Atong and Digong developed is beyond us. It just so happened that in the 2016 elections, the woman who had earned the repute as a whistle blower years back, making sensational exposes on jueteng, suddenly barged into the race for the senate, running in the ticket of President Duterte. She lost the race, of course ( was that bane or boon for the senate?), but gained camaraderie with Digong. That she would eventually be appointed director of the PCSO is nothing unusual; the President is known for rewarding those who supported him in his presidential campaign with positions in the government. It is a prerogative that must be a given for any president.

What became unusual was that the minute she assumed her post at the PCSO, she started making noise. She particularly criticized the “lavish” Christmas party the agency held. Balutan maintains it was no lavish party at all. Citing previous Christmas parties thrown by the PCSO in past administrations whose expenses ran to as high as P14 million, Balutan disclosed that though the Department of Budget Management (DBM) approved a Christmas party budget of P10 million, he saw to it to trim it down further to the barest minimum possible, which was P6 million – the lowest in memory of contemporary expenditures for PCSO Christmas parties.

Why, then, the big fuss Cam raised over the event?

The question stuns us. In one respect, it depicts in the lady just that kind of chutzpa Atong Ang manifests in associating himself - nitely casts both in the same league, whatever that is, but whatever, it is clearly meant for crafting an agenda against which President Duterte really has to closely watch out.

Teddy Benigno was correct in dissecting the events that led to the ouster of Erap in 2000 and in his conclusion that it was Atong Ang’s prevailing upon President Estrada to take jueteng money away from Chavit Singson that triggered the process that ousted him from the presidency. But Teddy also cited the recourse desperately taken by Singson the minute the latter was after his head: to Peping Cojuangco, thence to Boy Saycon,

Now, what was Cardinal Sin at the time? One of two personages (the other one being US Defense Secretary William Cohen, acting in behalf of US President Bill Clinton) desperately imploring President Estrada not to attack Camp Abubakar. Erap flatly turned down the importuning of Cardinal Sin (as well as that of Clinton through Cohen). Not long after, to use Teddy’s terminology, the “Erap Resign” crackled in Metro Manila, spilling into 45 provinces, culminating in President Estrada’s ouster.

In the end, what was an ostensible greed for, as the Liza Minelli ditty in Cabaret went, “money, money, money,” – expressed in the general racket of jueteng – was actually just the spark – ignited by Atong Ang - that started the de maintain some world power’s continued dominance in geopolitics.

Erap stepped down sheepishly in 2000. What would Digong do in his time?

In the case of General Balutan, as of the 1st Marine Battalion Landing Team, he had been actually up against the same behemoth in leading the main effort that successfully captured Camp Abubakar in 2000. He can repeat the feat one more time.