DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/6/2012
I wrote column entitled "A Trojan Horse" in the Feb. 7, 2011 the Tribune describing what I saw as the insertion of a virus in the Commission on Audit (CoA) intended for political demolition jobs, done by the lobbyists of the Yellow cabal.
When CoA Commissioner Heid Mendoza testified before the Senate impeachment court that Chief Justice Renato Corona had $28 million in his FCDU (foreign currency deposit) account by totaling transactions of several years as if it were one sum, every Filipino should have realized that they were looking at that virus of an accountant and auditor that the "civil society" or the Yellows canonized. It had to take Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales to restore some credibility to the government's "hidden" dollar account of Corona in admitting that the total deposit was only $2 million is the whopper of an arithmetic of Heidi Mendoza is discounted.
If the whopper of a story of Heidi Mendoza at the Senate impeachment hearings is not enough to convince some Saint Heidi Mendoza worshippers (as there are still a few I encounter who wonder why anyone should doubt her sainthood as the Ateneo School of Government, the Inquirer and the Philippine Star, and ABS-CBN had already anointed her) then they should get to know Arthur Benasa, a 40-year veteran of CoA and retired the past 10 years from the institution he had devoted a lifetime serving.
Mr. Benasa, an impecunious 71 year old, had gotten in touch with me through Linggoy Alcuaz whom he sought out in mid-2011 in a media Kapihan to present his case against the sainthood of Heidi Mendoza. I noted Mr. Benasa's arguments at that time but never had an opportunity to take up his cause after I had written my piece on the matter and moved on to the many other issues that confront the public constantly.
With the recent controversy over the revival of certain settled issues affecting the City of Makati by none other that Saint Heidi Mendoza, I was reminded of Mr. Benasa's criticisms of Saint Heidi Mendoza. It was fortunate I had his cell phone number still and called to invite him to discuss his issues on our Global News Network (GNN) cable TV program. Before finally agreeing to join my show Benasa called to clarify a few things: first, what is my take on the Reproductive Health (RH) bill. This was, of course, not relevant but given the venerable status of the man I believed I understood. I said that I'm against the RH bill for reasons not similar to the Catholic Church's arguments, Benasa felt at ease as he wanted assurance that we are like minded, as he is firmly against the RH bill. Then he explained the next condition for joining the show, "no politics" as he didn't want to "dilute his pure intentions." I assured him that we were likely like-minded in pursuing truth about the real Heidi Mendoza.
I jokingly added that maybe we are alike in that we both have little money, and he laughed and felt comfortable enough to admit that he needed taxi fare to be sure to make it to the station on time. I figured the distance from Sucat to Makati and back would require about P500 and sent this to his bank account. He arrived that afternoon at the studio ahead of me, with a folder of documents he was all prepared to discuss in detail. On the show the first thing I asked was why he was so incensed with Heidi Mendoza as to go to all this trouble crusading in media for and meeting journalists like me to tell his story. He explained that when he heard Heidi Mendoza lie and malign the CoA as an institution and literally everyone with it as corrupt, and the consequence of that slander which he heard and read from the news that the public had taken to stoning CoA shuttle buses: That was the tipping point.
Mr. Benasa declared outright that Heidi Mendoza lied through her teeth in her testimonies to the Senate in the Gen. Garcia plea bargain hearings when she claimed under oath: 1) she headed a special six-member team the CoA to investigate Garcia's transactions; she was only a member of the team and never a team leader (though she tried to arrogate this unto her self); 2) that she submitted an official audit report; as a mere member she could not singularly submit a report; 3) she said the chairman, commissioners and directors did not support her when she was provided a vehicle, office and more than P200,000 as a member of the team to conduct the audit (which she refused to be audited on claiming it was confidential), and Benasa claims he had evidence to show this money was also spent in bars; and due to all these she inflicted to much damage on the CoA as an institution and the countless personalities quietly serving to the best of their capabilities.
In the latter part of the interview Benasa added another important item, the claim of Heidi Mendoza that $5,000 of a UN fund to the PNP was missing, and the UN headquarters had to call Manila to belie that claim and state that there was not such missing fund. Benasa ended with an ominous caution to the government on Heidi Mendoza saying, "You know the illusion of grandeur of this may not be controlled… and illusion is always without limit."
(TNT with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., and Sun 8am on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8: this week ""True up or throw up" power rates; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)
