OUR DAYS
This day...28 February 2008
Madriaga :
Where will I go for safety?
Like a lost and
confused child, Madriaga grabbed and held tight the arms of Sandra
Cam, a former Senate witness who testified in 2005 that Pampanga
Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo, a son of the President, and his
uncle, Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo, had received
money from operators of jueteng, an illegal numbers game.
Madriaga asked
her, “Sandra, where will I go now?” Cam said it was only then that Madriaga’s security arrangement was raised and attended to.
A staff of Sen.
Alan Peter Cayetano, chair of the blue ribbon committee, said the
OSAA was already “overstretched” providing security to another
witness, Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr.
Please
pass Cayetano’s staff passed the burden of securing Madriaga to Sen. Panfilo Lacson, according to Cam.
As a former
Senate witness herself, Cam said she was slighted by the statement
of the female staff of Cayetano, who said: “He is not our witness.”
“The Senate
should protect him. He should not be left to his own devices because
he could be easily killed for talking against the President and the
First Gentleman,” Cam said.
Nuns to
the rescue
It was at this
moment of confusion that the nuns of Daughters of Charity and of St.
Scholastica’s College came to the rescue of the new witness. The
nuns surrounded Madriaga but there was still no decision where he
would be taken.
Then a certain
Sister Manansala talked to Cayetano, who decided to allow Madriaga
to stay in the Senate holding room. Sister Manansala raised the safety of Madriaga’s family, according to Cam.
“His family also
needs protection? Their lives are also in danger,” Cam quoted Sister
Manansala as saying.
Convoy
to get Madriaga family
It was at this
point that Cam and the nuns decided to rush to Parañaque City to
fetch Madriaga’s family.
“We went on a
convoy and the sisters volunteered to use their L-300 (van) to fetch
Madriaga’s wife and children. We pitied the family when we saw the
house,” Cam said. The Madriaga house is modest without a trace that the family was once affluent, according to Cam.
When the group
arrived at almost 10 in the evening, the house was totally dark and
the gate was locked, Cam said.
Madriaga’s wife
Aileen came out of the house after Cam texted her that she along
with the sisters were already outside of the house. Lights switched on
Cam said
Madriaga’s wife apologized to the sisters and explained that it was
for security reasons that the lights had been turned off.
Cam said she
asked Aileen to bring clothes for her husband, who was staying in
the Senate, at least for that night.
Aileen, in her
rush to pack, grabbed an old golf bag and stuffed clothing and other
necessities inside for her husband. “Flip-flops and toiletries were
put into the bag. She was not really prepared for it,” Cam said.
From Parañaque,
the family of the new witness was taken somewhere in Manila while
Cam called it a night at 12:30 a.m.
Walk-in
witness
How Madriaga
became a walk-in witness in the Senate shows that he is a man who
was moved to tell the truth about the broadband deal scandal,
according to Cam.
Cam said she had
heard about Madriaga but did not know him from Adam.
It was Cam who
accompanied Madriaga to the Senate on Tuesday but she said it was
not because Madriaga was a witness of the opposition, particularly
Lacson.
Cam noted that
before Madriaga’s surprise appearance in the Senate, Lacson had
cautioned the media about Madriaga’s intentions and said that he
could be a paid witness.
Cam said it was
this statement by Lacson that made Madriaga decide to go straight to
the Senate and volunteer all the information he knew about the
broadband deal.
Madriaga’s only
request to Cam was to see Lacson first to clear his name.
“He told me,
‘Senator Lacson destroyed my name in media by saying that I am a
paid witness. But the senator could help to clear my name by letting
me speak in the Senate on his own volition,”’ Cam said.
Gauging
credibility
It was
only on Monday that Cam received a go-signal from Lacson to
meet with Madriaga with the sole purpose of gauging his
intentions and credibility.
The meeting
between Cam and Madriaga was arranged by a female columnist from a
daily newspaper, not the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and took place
at a restaurant in Greenbelt 1 in Makati City. Cam told the Inquirer that as a former witness against alleged irregularities in government, she was curious to know what Madriaga had to say.
She said he also
asked Madriaga why it was only now that he was coming out.
Madriaga said he
had been afraid because his name had been floated on the Internet
and because he feared for the safety of his family and his seven
children, according to Cam.
From the
beginning
In his Senate
testimony, Madriaga said he knew from the very beginning that the
President and her husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, were part of the
“Greedy Group plus plus” that included Leo San Miguel (former owner
of Home Cable), retired police official Quirino “Torch” de la Torre,
Ruben Reyes and former Commission on Elections Chair Banjamin Abalos
Sr. After meeting with Madriaga, Cam told Lacson of her initial impression and assessment. Then Lacson agreed to meet Madriaga.
After the
meeting with Lacson and the interview with the TV network, Cam
offered to bring Madriaga to his home but Madriaga insisted that she
just drop him off in a place where he could take a passenger jeepney. No food for the kids
Before she dropped off Madriaga on Leveriza Street in Malate, Manila, Cam said he appealed to her not to forget about his testimony the following day.
The next day,
Madriaga informed Cam, via a text message, that he was ready to go
to the Senate as early as 6:30 a.m. Coffee shop
“He waited for
me at a coffee shop in a hotel,” Cam said.
When they
finally reached the Senate shortly after a late breakfast, Cam said
she discreetly told the Senate guards not to ask for an ID from her
companion because he may be a surprise witness.
During lunch
break, Cam said she decided to take Madriaga to the Senate lounge
along with other whistle-blowers and former Senate witnesses.
As a former
witness, Cam said she was committed to support Madriaga even if the
OSAA or the Senate blue ribbon committee would not provide him any
security.
“This man is
telling the truth. That is my belief and as a former witness myself,
I hope that the office of Senator Cayetano will eventually take full
responsibility for the security of Madriaga. Like Lozada, his life
is in real danger,” Cam said.
Sen. Joker
Arroyo questioned why the Senate had to provide lodging for Madriaga. “I didn’t know there is a sanctuary here. I didn’t know that this is the Notre Dame Senate,” Arroyo said with a laugh. “There’s a lot of drama, just drama and opinions.”
From : www.inquirer.net, 28 February 2008
OUR JOURNEY
Struggle Against Evil
- 2 Evil of Violence
From
the days of John the Baptist
until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence,
A Dead Man Walking
By naming President
Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband as part of the “Greedy
Group plus plus” that allegedly advanced $41 million in
kickbacks from the $329-million broadband deal with China’s
ZTE Corp.
Dante Madriaga is virtually a dead man walking...Like a lost and
confused child, Madriaga grabbed and held tight the arms of Sandra
Cam, a former Senate witness who testified in 2005 that Pampanga
Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo, a son of the President, and his
uncle, Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo, had received
money from operators of jueteng, an illegal numbers game...“Sandra,
where will I go now?”
(www.inquirer.net).
________________________________________________________________________________
OUR TRIBUTE
"Practice wearing the patience and compassion of Christ today when you are around someone who usually tests the grace of God in you. Try to be with that person in the way Jesus would be if he were in your place."
als
02/28/08 |
