đź“· Sen. Lito Lapid
While Sen. Imee Marcos is loquacious, Sen. Manuel “Lito” Lapid is reserved, hardly opening his mouth, perhaps in strict obedience to the cherished quip by the late Sen. Genaro “Gene” Magsaysay: “No talk, no mistake.” Thus, he did not say a word when the Panagbenga Flower Festival in Baguio City banned him and Imee Marcos from joining the annual parade for barging into the motorcade of 41 floats armed with campaign materials.
The organizers, led by Freddie Alquiros, said Marcos and Lapid committed a mortal sin by sneaking into the parade and making themselves appear to be invited to the annual activity. The ban, which voters should welcome as another reason why they should reject both Marcos and Lapid, should have been won national dissemination for the simple reason that senatorial aspirants who trample the rules and gatecrash local festivities do not deserve to be elected even as a dogcatcher. Both are running under the Malacanang-backed Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas (ABP.)
If he wins in the May 2025 Senate race, Lapid might well be the longest-serving senator of the land. He was elected to the Senate in 2004 and served until 2016, returning for another gig in 2019, and running anew this year, for a total of 18 years. Once reelected, he will have served four terms or 24 years. Lapid was also elected as Pampanga vice governor in 1992 and served until 1995 before being catapulted to the governorship for three terms that started in 1995 and ended in 2004. All told, Lapid has served as an elected official for 30 years, far longer than his humdrum movie career.
Yet, Lapid did not mince words as he denied any involvement with the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGOs) that were established in the country during the administration of the unlamented President Rodrigo Duterte and backed up by a law that had passed muster in both the House of Representatives and the Senate in 2021, with Sen. Pia Cayetano as principal sponsor of Republic Act No. 11590, which taxed the POGOs that had already been operating as soon as Duterte took power. Yet, the question lingers: Wasn’t the good senator aware of the goings-on in his own backyard? How many times have denials been erased by the bloody truth?
Tagged by vloggers, trolls and crones as protector of the Porac, Pampanga POGO hub and alleged to be the owner of the 10-hectare lot where PGO buildings stand, Lapid raised hell in Oct. 2024, vowing to resign from the Senate after challenging his detractors to produce evidence that he owned the property and had been influencing local authorities not to touch the Chinese-owned POGO in Porac, Pampanga, where incriminating pieces of evidence linked a Duterte lawyer to the company owners. These owners were alleged to have ties with the brother of Duterte crony Michael Yang. Worse, the police claimed that the Chinese POGO operators practically operated the hub as a separate country, with erring employees being tortured for infractions.
The whole story about POGO Law or RA 11590 is that that piece of legislation was not supposed to provide a cloak of legality to the gambling operations as it merely taxed them, as the principal author and the main sponsor of the 2021 law, Sen. Pia Cayetano explained. Here is a case of a tax law taxing ventures that are supposed to be of dubious legality. In short, it is like taxing smuggling, which is, ipso facto, illegal. This smacks of having your cake and eating it, too. Those who affixed their John Hancocks on the law are saying the law only taxes the POGOs but does not legitimize them.
Aside from Pia Cayetano and her co-author Imee Marcos, the senatorial bets who voted in favor of the law were Tito Sotto, Manny Pacquaio, Ronald Bato dela Rosa, Bong Go, Bong Revilla, and Camille Villar’s mother, Cynthia. Those who signed the measure but are not running are Sonny Angara, Nancy Binay, Win Gatchalian, Grace Poe, Ralph Recto, Joel Villanueva, Koko Pimentel and Migz Zubiri. Incidentally, Richard Gordon also backed POGO Law. Only Franklin M. Drilon, Risa Hontiveros and Kiko Pangilinan refused to sign it.
“If our legislators have nothing good to legislate, the best gift they can give to the people is not to legislate at all, and follow the track of Senators Lito Lapid and Robinhood Padilla, who remain mysteriously silent in the midst of all the noise and haste of this crazy world. Hence, there are no issues against them because they are always unseen and unheard, except during campaign periods. Now that these same trapos are running again and are asking for the nth time for our votes, are we still going to vote for them? For instance, Pacquiao and Sotto? Why don’t they just focus on entertainment and sports where they are best at?” asked lawyer Josephus Jimenez in his column for The Freeman on Oct. 20, 2024. The question stands: Voters, beware! (DIEGO MORRA)
