PCSO fiasco a battle of perception, not truth – Balutan

“I The words are ironic. They come from a man least expected to say them: Retired Maj. Gen. Alexander F. Balutan, the famed Mandirigma of the Philippine Marines, commander of the main effort in the capture of MILF Camp Abubakar which signaled rebellion in 2000, who went all the way up to being the Vice Commander of the Philippine Navy before joining the civilian government in 2016, and whose many battles gallantly fought are medals, 50 plaques of appreciation and recognition, the PMAAA Incorporated Cavalier Award, and The Outstanding Philippine Soldiers (TOPS) Award.

Yet, it was with candor that the former military legend spoke those words. He virtually admitted feeling helpless against the continuing harassment he suffers from all sides of the illegal gambling world. Sandra Cam, a recently appointed member of the board of directors of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), alleged bagwoman of Atong Ang, stirred up the hornet’s nest when she went on media exposing what she called lavish Christmas party General Balutan threw for the PCSO employees.

Last Thursday, General Balutan organized by the for the paper to get a good view of the controversy. He said nothing was lavish about a party that was meant to boost the morale of 1,500 employees of the PCSO nationwide. For the P6 million spent for the affair, that’s an average of some P4,00 per employee, including food, venue, prizes and giveaways.

General Balutan had earlier disclosed that while expenditures for such an event under past administrations had gone as high as P14 million, this year’s party cost had gone down to even less than half, and while the Commission on Audit had authorized P10 million for spending in last December’s party, he had cut it down further to P6 million.

The defensive stance taken by the general in the face of the Cam exposé was in complete contrast to his aggressive history in the Marines. He didn’t earn that moniker Mandirigma for nothing. The brand actually sprang from his derring-do in many a battle in all noticed, with General Balutan’s of which he displayed brilliance of own battalion staying on the one mind in coming up with unorthosingle highway that ran through dox methods in subduing enemies. the camp, there to push a frontal

For instance, here is a passage attack at any given notice. That nofrom the book tice came when in a synchronized

by Antoni eto D. Ferrer, Commodore AFP: got behind the MILF formation “Back in the seventies, a campaign - by the Philippine Army against the MNLF made a frontal attack vulnerable for General Balutan’s camps to be overrun in order to get successful frontal attack. the main MILF stronghold Camp This example of General BaluAbubakar) and failed miserably.” tan’s bravado in combat relates to In carrying out President Estrada’s the current discussion thus: that directive of all- out war policy against the MILF, General Balutan steeled in combat and tested in drew much from that Philippine - Army failure in devising tactics ing the nation cannot be cowed that ran counter to conventional easily, but that he appears rather timid in the midst of accusations concealed in trenches and bunkers against him by reputed illegal that guarded the only passage to gambling lords is cause enough the objective, from which position for worry. Where has the Mandi rigma in General Balutan gone? forces, who in their position in “Issues are being decided in the turn could not make any counter media,” said the general, a tinge of pain in his tone. take that line. Instead he com - manded two of his battalions to sional hearing on the PCSO by skirt the apparently one single the Senate committee on games passage through Camp Bilal, one and amusement chaired by Sen. battalion advancing unnoticed Panfilo Lacson and the House by the enemy by clinging to the committees on government corravines on one side in making its porations and public enterprises advance, the other scaling the hill and ways and means, General on the other side similarly un- Balutan was visibly caught un- awares by the obviously cleverly framed questions by certain members of the committee which appeared to leave him groping for answers. These questions seemed to be, if it were boxing (Senator Manny Pacquiao sat in the committee anyway), amounting to telling jabs that set him up for the Atong Ang and his “bagwoman” Sandra Cam.

Having known much about the guy, I felt he could have performed better. Anyway, that was a thought engendered in one who had had a dose of Senate inquiry himself. Sometime in the late 1990s, I and Robbie Tan, executive producer of Seiko Films, became respondents as prompted by Priscilla Almeda, who claimed to having been exploited in the films she made “Exploitation,” which I wrote and directed. We got off the hook, Robbie having gotten a high-end trick. That was a revelation to me indeed, and it was in light of that development that I recalled a statement by the late Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago to this effect: “ (If you are a senator and you do not earn one million every day, you are a nobrain senator).” I don’t suppose anyone of the Senate committee members who conducted the hearing on the PCSO would admit to being “

At the roundtable session last Thursday, Mr. Dante Francis A. Ang 2nd, the CEO, asked if General Balutan had any ax to grind with Senator Lacson. General Balutan responded with a benign innocent smile.

I interjected, recalling the Miriam Defensor Santiago quote. For a split second, not a comment emanated from anyone in the session. I, too, would not have the guts to say Senator Lacson is a senator.

Anyway, the day after the joint congressional inquiry, I sent a text message to General Balutan. I told him I was on the way to see him at the PCSO but was informed that the general was in an ongoing Senate investigation, and so I hurried home to catch the session on television.

- eral texted back.

“(you were rather on the losing end),” I replied.

“This has now become a battle of perception rather than of truth,” he said.