First Love Letter for President-elect Aquino: Please Order the Prosecution of
Mike Arroyo on the Anomalous Purchase of Cargo-screening Devices
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His Excellency,
President-elect Benigno S. Aquino, III
Quezon City, Philippines
Through the His Excellency Willy C. Gaa
Philippine Embassy,
Washington, DC
Through Channel via
The Honorable Consul General Mary Jo Bernardo Aragon
Philippine Consulate General
Los Angeles, California
Your Excellency:
If Your Excellency wants to fight graft and corruption in the Philippine government, I wish to
suggest most-respectfully that a criminal case on the purchase of overpriced cargo-screening
devices by the Philippine Ports Authority be filed. The whole purchase was orchestrated by
the First Gentleman, Atty. Jose Miguel Arroyo.
The details of the overprice amounting of a minimum of Dollars: Seventy-million (US$70-
million) are described in this July 23, 2008, article that is still published in the www.
mabuhayradio.com, to wit:
The Arroyo Administration’s “Incredible Bulk”
This editor will gladly turn over the dossiers in his possession to a Special Prosecutor that
Your Excellency may appoint to prosecute First Gentleman Mike Arroyo over the said scandal.
We send to Your Excellency the assurances of our highest esteem and deepest appreciation
of your favorable action,
Very respectfully yours,
Roberto “Bobby” M. Reyes
Editor
www.mabuhayradio.com
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The Arroyo Administration’s “Incredible Bulk”
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President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (PGMA) has a relative by affinity, who some Overseas-Filipino leaders
call by the monstrous moniker, “Incredible Bulk.” For he is not only huge and fat but he has also cornered
incredibly the bulk, if not the greater part, of government contracts, loans, purchases of equipment, etceteras,
etc. Name any contract entered into by the Arroyo Dispensation and Mr. Incredible Bulk has his or his
lawyers’ and/or his cronies’ fingers dipped into it.
This presidential kin and his lawyers and cronies have been reported by foreign and Filipino-American
investors to have asked a minimum of twenty-percent up-front fee for any project or investment proposed for
the country as their share, pay off or what not. And many of these foreign capitalists and entrepreneurs are
pissed off and they back off. These investors often go to a neighboring Asian country, where they know that
the rate of corruption is much lower and where the political leaders and their kin are not that greedy.
A case in point is the recent purchase by the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) of ten units of cargo-screening
devices that come equipped with Gamma and X-ray features. A group of Filipino-American traders contacted
Mr. Incredible Bulk for the supply of the said devices priced at $3.0-million per unit. He wanted the unit priced
at $10.0-million each. The sellers backed off, as they said that they would not want to violate the Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) of the United States, where their company was based. Mr. Incredible Bulk and
Company went straight to the Chinese manufacturer of the cargo-screening devices and made the deal. The
PPA bought 10 of these units for $100-million and Mr. Incredible Bulk made a gross profit of $70-million,
minimum, aside from the normal commission that is given to the marketing company (that could have been
the Filipino-American traders).
There is more to the story of the cargo-screening devices. Mr. Incredible Bulk wanted also to arrange for the
supply of smaller X-ray devices for Philippine airports. Each device was priced at $20,000 but he wanted the
invoice to show a price of $75,000. Again the group of Filipino-American traders backed off, as it refused to
violate the U.S. FCPA and Mr. Incredible Bulk went direct likewise to the Chinese manufacturer.
This writer gave an unsolicited advice to the officers of the Filipino-American trading company to wait until
there is a new President installed in the Philippines before presenting the dossiers in their possession. No
investigation now will prosper as PGMA has complete control of the criminal-justice system of the
homeland. Perhaps the process of dealing with Mr. Incredible Bulk and his gang may become a hot topic
during the coming 2010 presidential debates. The presidential candidates have to be pressured to adopt a
common stand of bringing to justice Mr. Incredible Bulk and Company, so that they could go to jail for
economic plunder and all their assets confiscated.
In the meantime, this writer wishes to advise the PPA officials to protect themselves by securing
authenticated copies of the documents involved in the above-described anomalous transactions. They can
become whistle blowers after PGMA is no longer in office. Perhaps, the PPA officials and their staff can avoid
jail time by becoming state witnesses and even pocketing part of the reward given to whistle blowers. This
unsolicited advice is given to all Philippine-government officials and functionaries who have evidence of the
corrupt practices of the present Dispensation. Protect yourselves by gathering the evidence, hiding them in a
secure place and turning them over to special prosecutors when the day of reckoning comes. For as the
Tagalog idiom says, “Pag may umpisa, may katapusan” (If there is a beginning, there is an end).
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