The Juetenggate 2 & Gloriagate Scandals - a Who's Who....

Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

14th President of the Republic of the Philippines. Twice elected Senator in 1992 and 1995, elected Vice-President in 1998. Assumed the Presidency in 2001 after former President Joseph Estrada was forced to step down in a popular revolt sparked by allegations of profiting from an illegal numbers game known as jueteng. That controversy has since been known as Juetenggate and resulted in the first ever instance of a President being impeached. As Vice-President, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took over when the position was declared vacant in the midst of a second People Power revolution before the impeachment trial was able to run its course.

Arroyo ran for reelection in 2004, beating closest rival popular action star Fernando Poe Jr. by approximately a million votes. She is currently embroiled in two "-gate" scandals of her own, Juentenggate 2 and Gloriagate. The first involves allegations that her son and brother-in-law, both members of the House of Representatives, have been receiving kickbacks from jueteng, ironically the same allegations against former Pres. Estrada. The second involves the existence of allegedly wiretapped recordings of phone conversations supposedly between Pres. Arroyo and Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano. These recording are said to provide irrefutable evidence that Pres. Arroyo indeed cheated in last year's elections, though the recordings' authenticity are still in dispute.


First Gentleman Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo

Husband of Pres. Arroyo, father of Rep. Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo, and older brother of Rep. Ignacio "Iggy" Arroyo. Implicated into the juetenggate controversy as an alleged recipient of jueteng payoffs by Richard Garcia and Demosthenes Abraham Riva, both self-confessed jueteng bagmen.


Rep. Ignacio "Iggy" Arroyo

Younger brother of First Gentleman Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo. He has acknowledged ownership of the controversial "Jose Pidal" accounts, which Sen. Panfilo Lacson claims Pres. Arroyo used in laundering millions of pesos in campaign contributions when she was still a Senator. He was later elected as Representative of the fifth distict of Negros Occidental to the House of Representatives. He has been accused by Richard Garcia and Sandra Cam as a recipient of jueteng payola.


Rep. Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo

Eldest son of Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo. Former Pampanga Vice-Governor, aspiring actor, and Representative of the second district of Pampanga to the House of Representatives. Accused by Wilfredo Mayor, self-confessed former jueteng operator, Sandra Cam, and a slew of other witnesses to be receiving jueteng protection money under the alias "Lion King." Currently on leave from Congress.


Sec. Ignacio "Toting" Bunye

Former Muntinlupa Congressman, and current Presidential Spokesman. He has supposedly received under mysterious circumstances a sealed brown envelope containing two CDs of a recording of an alleged wiretapped phone conversation between an unidentified woman and supposedly an unidentified election officer. Made a faux pas by playing the CD for Palace reporters and initially admitting that the female voice on the recording was that of Pres. Arroyo. He claimed that one of the CDs is the "original recording" and the other one, "spliced." Since then he has reversed himself and claims to be "unsure" of whether the voice in the recording really belongs to the President or not.


Sandra Cam

Information on her background is sketchy at this time, and fiercely being contested by various parties in the ongoing Senate hearings investigating allegations that members of the First Family have been recepients of jueteng payola. She supposedly has had a shady past, being allegedly embroiled in various estafa cases and illegal recruitment. She has also been said to have run in a number of local elections, and lost in every one, an insinuation which she denies. She has claimed to be the person who actually delivered huge sums of money representing jueteng payoffs to the offices of Representatives Ignacio "Iggy" and Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo. The two solons have denied these allegations, and have promptly filed libel charges against her.


Archbishop Oscar Cruz

Anti-jueteng advocate and Archbishop of Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan. He was the one who presented Wilfredo Mayor, Richard Garcia and Demosthenes Abraham Riva to the Senate juetenginvestigation. In a possible attempt to discredit him, he was subsequently accused by 37-year old James Aquino, a former sacristan, of sexually molesting him 18 years ago. Aquino also claims to be his bagman in illegal drugs and jueteng deals. He also alleges that Archbishop has fathered two children with a woman in Dagupan.

T/Sgt. Vidal Doble

Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) member claimed by Atty. Samuel Ong to be the source of the alleged wiretapped tapes. Sgt. Vidal has belied those claims, instead accusing Ong of threatening his safety and that of his family in order to go along with the supposed ruse. Doble also claims that Laarni Enriquez, former actress said to be a mistress of former Pres. Estrada, of paying him through Ong two million pesos just for him to admit that he is the operative responsible for actually performing the alleged wiretap on the supposed phone conversations of Pres. Arroyo and COMELEC Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano. It was also reported that Doble used to be a member of the wiretapping unit of the defunct Philippine Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) that used to be headed by now Senator Panfilo Lacson.


Richard Garcia

Former member of the defunct Philippine Constabulary and self-confessed jueteng bagman who implicated First Gentleman Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo and Pampanga Representative Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo (whom he refers to with the code name "Lion King") as beneficiaries of jueteng payoffs.


Virgilio Garcillano

Former COMELEC Commissioner said to be the other voice in the controversial Gloriagate tapes. First appointed to the post on February 10, 2004, along with Commissioner Manuel Barcelona Jr. Not long after his appointment, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel had already suspected that his appointment to the Commission was intended to facilitate Pres. Arroyo's victory in the 2004 elections. Garcillano was also embroiled in a controversy involving his supposed role in the dagdag-bawas scheme supposedly implemented in the 1995 elections (He was COMELEC Regional Director of Northern Mindanao at the time). His appointment as Commissioner lapsed on June 10, 2005, and because of the controversy, Malacañang has opted not to reappointment him. His current whereabouts are unknown. His wife has claimed in an interview that Garcillano is still in the Philippines, though there are reports that he had already fled to Malaysia.


Wilfredo "Boy" Mayor

A self-confessed jueteng operator who alleges that Rep. Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo was a recipient of jueteng proceeds when he was still Vice-Mayor of Pampanga. He also implicated Representatives Krisel Lagman Luistro (first district of Bicol), Carlos Imperial (second district of Bicol), Joey Salceda (third district of Bicol) as well as the media as beneficiaries of jueteng payola.


Chief Supt. Restituto Mosqueda (Ret.)

Retired Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Superintendent also accused by Sandra Cam of receiving huge jueteng payoffs as "protector" of the illegal numbers game in the Bicol region during his posting there. Incidentally, he was also the chief of the PNP Police Laboratory which certified that the "Jose Pidal" signature matches the handwriting of Ignacio "Iggy" Arroyo, not that of First Gentleman Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo.


Atty. Samuel Ong

Former Deputy Director of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). He was bypassed for the NBI's top post in favor of retired Gen. Reynaldo Wycoco. He claimed in a press conference at the Metropolitan Club in Makati City to have in his possession four tapes of allegedly wiretapped phone conversations, including the "mother of all tapes" which supposedly provides irrefutable evidence that Pres. Arroyo had indeed cheated in the last elections. He also adds that the tapes come from volunteers in the ISAFP. He later seeks refuge at the San Carlos Seminary, but leaves two days later. He is currently in hiding, and he may not testify in the ongoing congressional inquiry into the Gloriagate scandal due to fears that his life may be in danger. As a result of his actions, the NBI has charged him with the crime of inciting to sedition.

Compiled from various sources on the internet. Please inform me of any errors, or of any other personality I should have included.

Quaere Verum.

Links:

INQ7.net
Philstar.com
PJI Journal Group
Sun.Star Network Online
The Manila Times