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Aquino finds self no longer shocked by anomalies


With the spate of anomalies from past administrations being revealed almost on a weekly basis, President Benigno Aquino III has reached his saturation point that even the testimony of former state auditor Heidi Mendoza, who testified before lawmakers Tuesday a detailed account of corruption in the military, was no longer a shock to him anymore. “Sa dami ng nadidiskubre natin na walang tigil, maski papaano, naabot ko na rin ‘yung saturation point— ‘yung nagulat — parang nahirapan na kong magulat (Somehow, with the spate of what we’ve been discovering non-stop, I’ve finally reached my saturation point — like shocked — it’s as if it’s hard for me now to get shocked)," the President told reporters Wednesday during the first cityhood anniversary of Biñan, Laguna. Since he assumed the presidency on June 30, not a week had passed when no anomaly or two in government during past administrations had been discovered or revealed, Aquino, the Philippines’ 15th president, said. As a result, the son of former President Corazon C. Aquino told reporters he asked the Presidential Management Staff to consolidate and “prepare a briefer of what we have discovered already." His administration will then determine which agency shall be tasked to address a particular issue. “At the end of the day, the Department of Justice will be the primary unit that will be tasked to extract justice to all people," the President said. On the matter of former Armed Forces chiefs of staff supposedly receiving P10 million each as “start-up fund" from the military coffers, Aquino said he has yet to talk about it with Ambassador Roy Cimatu, head of the Presidential Middle East Preparedness Committee. Now tasked to oversee the situation of Filipinos in violence-stricken Egypt, Cimatu was implicated by former military budget officer Lt. Col. George Rabusa as one of those who allegedly got P10 million when he assumed military leadership. Aquino he would like to talk to Cimatu “as soon as possible." But that as things stand now, “I just want him to finish his task there [in Egypt]. “Medyo malayo sa atin ang Egypt at ang population dun, kalahati e estudyante. Tutukan muna yun para hindi mapabayaan itong mga kababayan natin (Egypt is kind of far from us and the population there, half are students. Let’s focus first on that so that we don’t neglect our compatriots)," he said, referring to the Filipinos in the North African country. — VS, GMANews.TV

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