I have had my share of criticism and continue to be pilloried, at times, by the media. When one is on the side of truth, however, one does not need t… - Francis Escudero

• Amendment in the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund and the Pension and Gratuity Fund, requiring the DBM to submit, within the first quarter, to Congress the amounts allocated to the Judicial Branch, Legislative Branch, Constitutional Commissions, and the Ombudsman, and that in no case shall releases to the said offices exceed the amount submitted to Congress also for purposes of utilizing these as savings to augment the budget of these constitutional offices;

The agreement signed by the GRP and the MILF did NOT CHANGE our laws. Terrorists are still terrorists. Law enforcement operations are still law enforcement operations. It is still illegal to shoot a policeman especially if he is unarmed. Nothing has changed, in so far as our laws are concerned. On Mr. Iqbal's comments, I think it is part of their hard ball. They have been calling the shots from day one and our negotiators probably have been infected by Stockholm Syndrome taking the side of the MILF, instead of our side. From my point of view, both the OPAPP and the GRP and the MILF should WIN THE TRUST OF THE PEOPLE first before winning the trust of each other. If they do not have the trust of the majority of Filipinos, any agreement they sign will simply be unacceptable.

My problem here is quite simple. Those who have plundered the national coffers in billions get to stay in Sta. Rosa or any hospital much to their comfort. Those whose crimes pale so much in comparison with Napoles – the cell phone snatchers and the street snatchers – languish in cramped and dingy jails. It’s like teaching our children that if they must steal, steal big so at least you get to be jailed in the comfort of those special cells.