Philippine Daily Inquirer

Gayspeak at the top

- Ramon Tulfo

THE GAYSPEAK exchange between the spokespers­ons of President Noynoy and Vice President Jojo Binay shows just to what level national politics has gone.

Presidenti­al spokesman Edwin Lacierda and Binay mouthpiece Joey Salgado probably had nothing substantia­l to say.

Words from the gay vocabulary—for example, “charot” for joke, “tralalu” for truth and “spluk” for spoke—were used in public by Lacierda and Salgado, who are supposedly straight guys.

Lacierda has described as “charot” Binay’s “true state of the nation address” or Tsona.

Salgado shot back: Imbey ang fez ni secretarus­h dahil trulalu and spluk ni VP. Pero ang Sona ng Pangulo, chaka ever sa madlang pipol dahil trulalu (The secretary is mad because the Vice President spoke the truth. But the President’s Sona has no appeal because the people know it’s not true).

Lacierda and Salgado should live in San Francisco, California, a gay haven, where they can freely use gayspeak.

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, who was included in the third batch of lawmakers accused of taking kickbacks in the P10-billion pork barrel scam, is protesting his inclusion. He said his signatures were forged. Rodriguez said he had asked the National Bureau of Investigat­ion to go through his signatures in the documents of the Priority Developmen­t Assistance Fund to determine its authentici­ty.

“I wasn’t given due process by the NBI,” said the congressma­n, an ally of President Noynoy.

To be fair to the NBI, its Questioned Documents Division found that the signatures of Rodriguez and other congressme­n, who requested the authentica­tion of their supposed signatures, found that the “signatures did not match the specimen signatures of lawmakers.”

But if the NBI found that these were forged, how come it still filed the malversati­on cases in the Office of the Ombudsman?

*** If his stint at the Bureau of Immigratio­n is to be any basis at all, it is doubtful if Rodriguez would dip his finger into the pork barrel scam.

Rodriguez left the immigratio­n bureau as commission­er with a clean record.

“Malinis siya, Mon (He was clean),” said an immigratio­n officer during Rodriguez’s watch who is now retired.

According to the immigratio­n old-timer, the P2.99 million Rodriguez supposedly earned as kickback in the pork barrel scam is a drop in the bucket compared to what he would have earned if he was a corrupt immigratio­n chief.

***

A Chinese Filipino businessma­n who has not paid back P500 million in loans from friends and business partners has sought protection from the NBI and the Philippine National Police.

He fears for his life after his lenders threatened to harm him. This Chinoy is reportedly one of those involved in several scams in government.

If the NBI and PNP provide him security they’re protecting a scam artist and swindler.

*** Lawyer Fernando Rueda Perito of Manila has volunteere­d to become a member of the defense counsel of retired SPO1 Cristobal Manrique and his wife, Josie, who have been charged with robbery-extortion in a court in Naval, Biliran province.

Retired Insp. James Bunda, a former finance officer at the Biliran police office, filed the countercha­rge of robbery-extortion after Manrique and another policeman had accused him of filching from their salaries more than 20 years ago.

Perito’s has offered his services to the Manriques for free.

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