Dealing with Amnesia

Columnist Efren Danao writes about how Senators deal with the “forgetfulness” of their respective “resource speakers”…

He writes: “Senator Jinggoy was so exasperated with the testimony of Ligot that he once called the retired military officer “General Limot.” He immediately corrected himself, however, and pronounced the correct family name “Ligot.””

Dealing with Amnesia

Two witnesses of the Senate blue-ribbon committee are not suffering from Alzeihmer’s disease but why are they often forgetful? Could it be because retired M/Gen. Carlos Garcia and retired Lt./Gen Jacinto Ligot are both former comptroller of the Armed Forces of the Philippines? Why, whistleblower George Rabusa, former AFP budget officer, exhibited better memory than them, and he had just suffered from a stroke!

Between Garcia and Ligot, the latter is the more forgetful. Why, Ligot could not even remember how much was his salary when he was AFP comptroller! When Rabusa, spoke about the anomalies in the liquidation of United Nations peacekeeping fund for East Timor by J-6, Ligot said he could not remember these things.

Ligot also said he was not familiar with some names mentioned by Sen. TG Guingona, blue ribbon chairman, as allegedly connected to a forfeiture case filed by the Ombudsman against him. When Guingona reminded Ligot that he was under oath, Ligot suddenly remembered that one was a cousin of his wife and that he knew the two others.

Senate President Pro-Tempore Jinggoy Estrada showed records from the Bureau of Immigration showing that Ligot’s wife, Erlinda Yambao Ligot, travelled 42 times to the United States, Singapore, Hong Kong and Brunei from 1993 to 2004. Well, what do you know! Ligot said he was not aware that his wife had traveled abroad 42 times and that there were times when he did not know that his wife was abroad.

Jinggoy was far from convinced. “Forty-two times umalis ang misis niyo, hindi niyo alam? Kung mga alagang aso’t pusa nga natin, pag nawawala, hinahanap natin!” he said.
Jinggoy also could go nowhere with Ligot on the issue of two US properties titled in the name of Mrs. Erlinda Yambao Ligot. The two properties, both in California, were paid for in cash. One was for $504,000 and the other, $183,868. Ligot said he was surprised when he heard of the two properties being mentioned in the forfeiture case filed by the Office of the Ombudsman.

Ligot said he was not sure but he thought he asked her about this and that he could not remember her reply. He then said that upon advice of his lawyer, he would invoke his right against self-incrimination.

Jinggoy was so exasperated with the testimony of Ligot that he once called the retired military officer “General Limot.” He immediately corrected himself, however, and pronounced the correct family name “Ligot.”

It became apparent that Guingona had already associated forgetfulness with General Limot, I mean General Ligot. Last Monday, when Garcia said he could not remember the thing mentioned by Rabusa, Guingona interjected: “No, no, no. You can’t say that. That is the line of General Ligot!”