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Article by Kamau Austin

The year was 2009 and the decade was drawing to a close. The Philippines was once again back to its familiar role as the basket case of Asia, having clinched the ignominious title of being the most corrupt on the continent. In a period of nine years, under the watch of Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, many of the gains excruciatingly obtained through former president and international icon of democracy Corazon Aquino had been wiped out. Institutions were alarmingly weakened or emasculated and their independence, as in the case of the judiciary, nefariously compromised. Scandal after scandal—one seemingly more brazen than the last—was being routinely swept under the rug; whistle-blowers and witnesses were being subjected to harassment, kidnapping, intimidation, and, in some cases, made to disappear altogether. The unwritten policy of the Arroyo regime ostensibly called for a wanton and total disregard of public opinion. Each time it was faced with incontrovertible proof of official wrongdoing, the standard response was to wave it off and dismiss it as mere political intrigue. Marcos, at least, had the sophistication to cloak his decrees with legal niceties. Arroyo simply thumbed her nose at the masses, as if daring them to do something about it, and merrily tap-danced her way through nine years of iniquitous and opportunistic governance. Under Arroyo, Delicadeza went the way of the Calesa.

As early as 2001, when Arroyo had barely warmed her seat, the first in a sustained series of scandals—delivered with the regularity of a metronome—immediately erupted. Correspondence secretary Veronica “Bing” Rodrigo accused first gentleman Mike Arroyo of taking a P50-million bribe in July. The bribery was said to have been for Arroyo to recall her veto on two franchise bills. The first bill involved the Philippine Communication Clearinghouse that sought a franchise to operate a clearinghouse where telecommunications companies were to interconnect for a certain fee. The second bill granted APC Wireless Interface Network a franchise to build a wireless telecommunication system nationwide. Rodrigo was a friend of Gloria Arroyo, having been classmates in grade school and high school. Their parents were also close friends.

Just four days after assuming office, Arroyo awarded a $ 470-million contract to Argentine firm Industrias Metalurgicas Pescarmona Sociedad Anonima (IMPSA) to rehabilitate a power plant in Laguna. A few months later, former Manila Representative Mark Jimenez, the man who brokered the transaction, accused Justice Secretary Hernando Perez of extorting $ 2 million in exchange for a justice department opinion that favoured the deal.

Jimenez disclosed that the entire amount was actually $ 14 million: Perez received $ 2 million, the National Power Corporation “boys” got $ 1 million, Malacañang was given $ 4, and $ 7 million was retained by him. In April 2008, the office of the Ombudsman, headed by Merceditas Gutierrez, filed graft charges against Perez, his wife Rosario, Ernest Escaler, and Ramon Antonio Arceo Jr. By November, however, the Sandiganbayan dismissed the case as the Ombudsman failed to expedite the complaints, rendering Perez immune from the charges, indirectly acquitting him.

In October that year, Roberto Rivero, former consultant of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes (PCSO), accused the first gentleman of utilizing almost $ 5 million of PCSO funds to finance the campaign of some senatorial candidates and to bribe radio commentators. Years later, in May 2007, another former PCSO senior executive, Cirilo Avila, said the funds were made to appear as payment for ad placements but were actually employed to fund the campaign of the People Power Coalition (PPC) of Arroyo.

Eyebrows rose when Gloria Arroyo agreed to stand as the godmother of the son of suspected jueteng boss Bong Pineda. Later events provided a glimpse of the nature of Arroyo’s ties to the Pinedas. In 2005, during the height of the Senate probe on the “Hello Garci” scandal, Army Capt. Marlon Mendoza quoted former COMELEC commissioner Virgillio Garcillano as saying that Pineda supplied P300 million to fund Arroyo’s presidential bid in 2004.

In Senate hearings on jueteng that began in May 2005, jueteng operators and bagmen averred that the President’s husband, Mike, her son Mikey, and her brother-in-law Ignacio or Iggy were among those who were receiving payoffs from gambling lords. The amounts reportedly ranged from P500,000 to P1 million a month. One of the key witnesses, businesswoman Sandra Cam, testified that in December 2004, she personally delivered the cash to Mikey and Iggy at the House of Representatives with the money coming from retired Chief Supt. Restituto Mosqueda, a former police director for Bicol and alleged protector of jueteng operations in Luzon. Richard Garcia and Demosthenes Abraham Riva also confessed to the Senate that the three Arroyos had been receiving payola from jueteng operations in Bicol. Michaelangelo Zuce, an aide Garcillano and a former staff member of presidential adviser on political affairs Joey Rufino, directly linked the President to jueteng by saying that before the 2004 elections, the President distributed money to several election officials in her house in La Vista, Quezon City, in the presence of Bong Pineda’s wife, Lilia Pineda.

From jueteng to high-finance, the array of anomalies ascribed to the Arroyo regime encompassed the entire spectrum of economic activity. Conceptualized by the Caucus of Development (Code-NGO), the PEACe bonds (Poverty Eradication and Alleviation Certificates) were issued by the government supposedly to help raise funds for the anti-poverty campaigns of its member organizations. But a number of those organizations like the Freedom from Debt Coalition took the Code-NGO to task for using its political connections to profit P1.4 billion from the bond floatation worth P35 billion pesos. They decried the fact the taxpayers had been saddled with an obligation of paying P2.5 billion a year for interest alone. Observers also noted that the government lost P5 billion in tax revenues from that transaction. They also posed a very fundamental question: If the government needed P10 billion so badly, why did it have to issue zero coupon bonds when it could have raised the same amount through regular treasury bills auctions at interest rates 3 to 4 percent lower? Socorro Camacho-Reyes, sister of then Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho chaired the Code-NGO at the time.

Similarly, the Philippine National Construction Corporation (PNCC, formerly Construction Development Corporation of the Philippines or CDCP) and Radstock Securities abruptly announced a compromise agreement obliging the PNCC to pay Radstock P6.2 billion by ceding 19 pieces of real estate properties, 20 percent of the outstanding capital stock of PNCC, and 50 percent of PNCC’s share in the gross toll revenue of the Manila North Tollways Corporation for 27 years.

Senators Sergio Osmena III and Franklin Drilon cried foul because it disposed of almost all the assets of PNCC, a company inherited by the government after Marcos ordered state financial institutions to swap debt owed to them by the company for stocks. The deal, they pointed out, gave Marubeni/Radstock preferential treatment over other bigger creditors, particularly the Philippine government. As of December 2002, the PNCC owed the government through the Assets Privatization Trust P41.39 billion, according to the Commission on Audit, excluding pending liabilities amounting to P6.9 billion.

Issues on mismanaged funds by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) also caught the public eye. PAGCOR had been declaring negative cash flows that bloated to P850 million in 2003. Chairman Efraim Genuino (he had adapted his surname, in lieu of the original Ginogino, without undergoing the requisite court proceedings when he was still an insurance salesman), appointed by Mrs. Arroyo and a trusted point man of first gentleman Mike Arroyo, had entered into contracts with numerous private partners that many industry experts deemed to be onerous. Those “sharing” agreements were starting to cannibalize the profits of the government-owned corporation, which had been the third biggest source of funds, next only to the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs.

At the GSIS, president and general manager Winston Garcia directed his units to stop the processing of claims and loan applications because of financial difficulty while reportedly disbursing millions for the purchase of Juan Luna’s “Parisian Life” painting. In the meantime, Garcia wangled out a salary ofP540,000 a month and had appointed some 130 vice-presidents who made P70,000 a month. There were whispers that GSIS contributed at least P100 million to the campaign kitty of Mrs. Arroyo, who retained Garcia despite petitions from GSIS employees for his removal. Few were surprised by his retention since he belonged to a powerful political clan in Cebu that had been impugned of masterminding a vote-padding operation in the province that vaulted Arroyo over Fernando Poe Jr. in 2004.

Meanwhile, activists and journalists had suddenly acquired a nasty habit of falling dead while administration officials paid lip service to democratic ideals. As the latter were extolling the country as rapidly developing and modern, it was locked in a tight race with Iraq as the most dangerous place in the world for journalists. Jonas Burgos, an agriculturist and activist who had been providing technical training to left-wing farmers’ groups, was one of those ruthlessly abducted. He was the son of the late and esteemed opposition publisher Joe Burgos, whom the iconic Cory Aquino credited for “lighting our paths in the dark, long years of martial rule.” In an impassioned statement, she pleaded, “I appeal to the highest authorities of the land to send the clear signal to the field that Jonas Burgos must be surfaced immediately by whoever is holding him, and that no harm must come to him.” According to eyewitnesses, five persons dragged Burgos from a mall in Quezon City and forced him into a van. The license plate of the vehicle was later traced to the 56th Infantry Battalion camp in Bulacan.Commission on Human Rights Chair Purificacion Quisumbing summoned armed forces officials, including General Delfin Bangit, who headed the intelligence service of the AFP at the time, to shed light on Jonas’ disappearance. As of this writing, Burgos is still missing.

The darkness creeping across the land reached a crescendo when the Ampatuans of Maguindanao were implicated in what is widely considered to be the most heinous politically-motivated crime in the history of mankind: the grisly massacre of their rivals along with more than two dozen media people. That monstrous act drew attention to the inordinate special treatment accorded by the palace to its warlords, apparently as a reward for “special services” rendered during election seasons. The streak of oppression and injustice was by no means confined within the last few years of the Arroyo administration. One needed only to look back to 2003 when retired colonel Panfilo Villaruel commandeered an ancillary airport control tower, which was not even essential to normal operations, in protest over how the government was being run. After a brief and cursory negotiation, the aviation security group and the police SWAT team summarily liquidated him and his aide Navy Lt. Ricardo Catchillar, while the two were scuffling to surrender.

On the economic front, the gap between the wealthy few and the multitudes living below the poverty line had become even more abysmal. Arroyo had been boasting that under her leadership, the country was able to weather the global financial crisis and cited the stable foreign exchange rate as a testament to her sound fiscal policies. In truth, the only thing that kept the nation from falling over the precipice of economic ruin was the billions of dollars remitted by the Filipino overseas foreign workers. Multinational companies were shutting down local operations left and right primarily because of their dismay over the unprecedented level of corruption in government. In the new global economy, it is hardly surprising that major companies will seize opportunities to locate in places where doing business will be most cost-effective. As the business competitiveness of the Philippines continued to erode, more and more Filipinos trained their sights on employment abroad. Aside from the obvious brain-drain that this phenomenon fomented, the social cost was heartbreaking—leaving a trail of broken families in its wake. Wives and mothers were compelled to leave their families behind just to put food on the table. In foreign lands, they oftentimes became victims of sexual, physical, and emotional abuses. Philippine embassies and consulates had, time and again, proven to be inutile insofar as providing vital assistance and protection in crisis situations involving Filipino workers.

The Filipino farmer—the rice farmer in particular—was again getting the raw end of the deal. Government subsidies had been discontinued, leaving the growers no choice but to price their produce higher because of costly inputs. Naturally, this situation impelled food officials to import—purportedly to alleviate the plight of consumers— from other Asian countries that owe their efficiency in production to their technical people who were trained at, ironically, the International Rice Research Institute in Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines. In February 2003, 600,000 metric tons of rice imported from India turned out to be rotten and mouldy. Kishore Hemlani, an Indian trader allegedly close to Arroyo, was said to have bagged the P9.5 billion contract for the rice importation.

Some of those behind the drive to import were making a lot of money by circumventing customs duties that, in turn, allowed the imported rice to be sold at a lower price compared to the commodity grown here. As a result, the local farmers were systematically discouraged from pursuing their means of subsistence since they could no longer sell their products at a price that would cover their costs and yield a decent profit. Many succumbed to the enticements of real estate developers and sold their lands for conversion into residential subdivisions.

Consequently, those rural folks, particularly their children—goaded by the promise of an easier way of life, where smarts and cleverness have supplanted hard work as the keys to prosperity—started to descent in greater numbers unto the cities and urban areas, looking for work and searching for the proverbial greener pastures. Unfortunately, meaningful work could hardly be found as companies embarked on programs to down-size their work forces due to global recessionary pressures in general, and their intention to relocate to more investor-friendly countries in particular. With so many schools and universities churning out thousands of graduates every year, prospective employers enjoyed the luxury of cherry-picking the best of the lot, leaving the average graduate dejected and grasping at every opportunity to work abroad. The exodus from the countryside exacerbated the already woeful state of congestion in Metro Manila. Teeming with people, many of whom were unemployed, the metropolis morphed into an urban jungle where drug-addiction and criminality were the norms.

Not surprisingly, the Arroyo administration pounced on the population issue and emphasized it as one of the major hindrances to progress. Hardly anyone pointed out that Japan, which is only slightly larger than the Philippines in terms of land area and considerably less endowed in terms of natural resources, had a population of more than 100 million in the 70’s when its economy lifted off to stratospheric heights. The same thing goes for the juggernaut that is China today; they have been able to parlay their population—the biggest in the world by a mile—into an ultra-potent weapon that has enabled them to climb the cusp of global economic dominance. Obviously, the Arroyo regime was aiming to divert public attention from the flagrant mismanagement that was causing the government to resemble the Cosa Nostra more than a professional service organization. As the late Peter Drucker, the famous management professor was fond of saying, the failure of any group or organization can ultimately be traced as emanating from bad management. Whether the awful governance that was inflicted on the Filipino people for almost a decade was caused by incompetence or by design is subject to debate. The preponderance of evidence, however, indicated a deliberate and devious drive to preserve power and enrich a selected few at the expense of the many.

Clinging to power was accomplished by ensuring that certain favoured generals and senior military officials were kept happy and content through high-level appointments and other emoluments. It became axiomatic that retiring generals who were supportive of the incumbent dispensation would automatically be installed to juicy civilian posts upon retirement, as a matter of course. As they lounged in their mansions, the common foot soldier was struggling to keep muddy water from seeping through the holes on the soles of his beat-up combat boots while negotiating the jungles of Mindanao while the ordinary beat policeman was trying to scrounge enough money to buy a pistol because they could not issue him one for lack of budget. Generals like Angelo Reyes, who never had a single day of combat experience, were strutting around like Patton and Rommel, while quintessential professional soldiers like Danny Lim, a product of the United StatesMilitaryAcademy in West Point, and Ariel Querubin, one of only two living Medal of Valour recipients, languished in the stockade for airing their grievances.

Rear Adm. Guillermo Wong, then Flag Officer in Command of the Philippine Navy, had exposed irregularities in the Philippine Marines’ procurement of equipment worth P3.8 million. This did not sit well with Marine officials. Then Armed Forces chief of staff Angelo Reyes offered Wong another post, chief of the Northern Command, practically demoting him. That drove Wong to resign. When asked to comment, Arroyo insisted that Reyes had done “the right thing.” Upon retirement from military service, she immediately appointed him as defense secretary. Reyes’ alleged involvement in selling arms and ammunitions to rebel and bandit groups moved 300 young officers and enlisted men of the AFP to revolt against the Arroyo regime. Reyes was forced to resign but Arroyo quickly installed him as secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). For the pièce de résistance, General Jovito Palparan, who possessed a villainous reputation as a butcher of dissenters, was served up as an exemplar of a true patriot.

The politicization of the armed forces and the police scaled the apex when several generals were accused to have taken an active part in a vast conspiracy that rigged the 2004 presidential elections. The “Hello, Garci” episode plumbed a new low in the annals of Philippine politics. The enormous popularity of Fernando Poe, Jr. was poised to swamp Arroyo under an avalanche of votes. Instead, Filipinos slumped with jaws dropped in disbelief, as congress, behaving like fawning parasites, proclaimed Arroyo as the winner—literally under cover of darkness. It was, after all, perpetrated around midnight. As respected columnist Conrado de Quiros tersely put it, that unholy ritual bore all the hallmarks of the murder of the king, or more aptly, Da King. A year after the election, a recording of a telephone conversation between Arroyo and election commissioner Virgilio “Garci” Garcillano found its way to the media. During the conversation, Arroyo directed him to make sure that she would win by at least one million votes. In the twelfth century, William of Malmesbury quoted that the voice of the people was the voice of God (vox populi, vox Dei).For those who subscribe to that principle, cheating in an election is indeed a crime of the highest order. In thwarting the will of the Creator, a scoundrel not only puts himself of herself in a position to plunder material wealth from a country but, more profoundly, he or she extinguishes the hopes and dreams of an entire people.

In March 2004, Senator Panfilo Lacson accused Arroyo of vote-buying by authorizing the release of 728 million pesos purportedly for the purchase of fertilizers that would be distributed to local officials. Farmers later insisted that they did not receive fertilizers from the funds released by the Department of Agriculture. A Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) special report made public that billions of farm funds were diverted to fund the presidential campaign of Arroyo. Jocelyn “Joc-Joc” Bolante was the Agriculture Undersecretary when the fertilizer fund scam blew up. Bolante fled to the US and sought asylum, but the US courts denied his petition and he was eventually deported. Lacson also charged First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo of siphoning off at least P321 million in campaign funds and contributions and depositing the money in a secret bank account under the name Jose Pidal.

Six weeks before the May 2004 elections, two lawyers filed a disqualification case against Arroyo, saying she was behind the enhanced Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office’s Greater Medicare Access or GMA program. Public funds were allegedly spent to enrol families in PhilHealth. The program charged the premium cost of P1,200 for each family to PhilHealth and the PCSO. The ID cards, bearing Arroyo’s picture and name, were coincidentally distributed during the start of the election campaign.

The ensuing song-and-dance routine, staged by the Arroyo regime—that of commanding government investigative agencies to probe the election-related irregularities—only deepened the despair of many Filipinos. Invariably, report after report dismissed the allegations of election fraud and manipulation as baseless. Those findings were not totally unexpected coming as they were from commissions and bureaus whose leaders were beholden to the one who appointed them and who also happened to be the subject of the investigation. Nevertheless, the court of public opinion had already convicted Arroyo of stealing the vote and the people, from that point on, had to endure the depressing realization that they were being ruled by an illegitimate president.

As the political charade persisted and escalated over the next six years, shady deals involving billions of pesos in government projects were being hammered out in hotel lobbies, fancy restaurants, golf courses, nightclubs, and myriad other places frequented by the well-heeled. Somehow, the name of first gentleman Mike Arroyo and—in many instances that of presidential son Mikey Arroyo, who was reportedly in the process of importing 32 thoroughbred horses from Melbourne, Australia worth P384 million (at P12 million per horse)—would find a way to surface in the context of those transactions as movers whose imprimatur was de rigueur for the consummation of any “arrangement.” The influence-peddling industry became so cutthroat that even hard-nosed government suppliers and contractors, used to the S.O.P. way of doing things (a euphemism for kickbacks) were lamenting that what used to be a 20 percent standard cut for approving authorities had ballooned up to as high as 60 percent, depending on the nature of the project being laid on the table. Needless to say, corruption of this magnitude would inevitably impact the quality of the output. A bridge built out of sub-standards materials would be more prone to collapse, putting lives at grave risk. Contractors were being induced to cut corners since a large chunk of the proceeds had to be allotted “for the boys”. Unfettered greed was endangering the lives of common men and women. The GSIS-funded 5.1-kilometer President Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard in the ManilaBay reclamation area was a case in point. Described by many as “the most expensive highway in the world,” its contracts were approved during the Estrada administration and were awarded to three companies: Shoemart Inc., DM Wenceslao, and Jesusito D. Legaspi Construction (JDLC). The SM group of companies constructed its part of the boulevard for only P54,000 per lineal meter, while JDLC built its section, under the Arroyo administration, at a price of P302,000 per lineal meter.

The NBN/ZTE scandal, though, emerged as the centrepiece among the degradations attributed to the Arroyo regime. It involved allegations of corruption at the highest levels in the awarding of a US$ 329 million construction contract to Chinese telecommunications firm ZTE for the proposed government-managed National Broadband Network (NBN).

In April 2007, Philippine Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Secretary Leandro Mendoza and ZTE Vice President Yu Yong hatched a multi-million dollar agreement for a National Broadband Network (NBN) that would purportedly improve government communications capabilities. On August 29, Nueva Vizcaya Congressman Carlos Padilla hinted in a privilege speech that Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Chairman Benjamin Abalos went to China to broker a deal for the NBN project. The following day, Abalos denied lobbying for the NBN project, although he did admit travelling to China four times. On September 5, Senator Aquilino Pimentel called for a Senate investigation. Consequently, three committees held joint hearings to scrutinize the issue: the Accountability of Public Officers & Investigations (a.k.a. the Blue Ribbon Committee) headed by Alan Peter Cayetano, the National Defense and Security committee led by Rodolfo Biazon and the Trade and Commerce committee spearheaded by Mar Roxas.

Jose “Joey” de Venecia III, son of House Speaker Jose de Venecia, Jr., testified on September 10 that he was with Abalos in China and that he heard Abalos “demand money” from ZTE officials. The younger de Venecia was president of Amsterdam Holdings, the company that lost its bid to ZTE for the NBN project. On September 11, the Supreme Court of the Philippines promulgated a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the NBN contract based on separate certiorari suits filed by Iloilo Vice-Governor and former Representative Rolex Suplico and Joey de Venecia III. Under political pressure from the opposition group, the court gave ZTE fifteen days to comment on the injunction. Suplico, a former opposition congressman, alleged that the agreement was sealed without public bidding and violated the Telecoms Policy Act, which required privatization of all telecommunications facilities. Congressman Padilla sued DOTC and ZTE officials of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, the Telecommunications Policy Act, the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) Act and the Government Procurement Act at the Office of the Ombudsman. AHI also petitioned the Court to direct the DOTC to provide copies of the contract. The younger de Venecia testified on September 18 that Mike Arroyo personally warned him to “back off” from pursuing the project.

National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Chairman Romulo Neri and Abalos finally faced each other on the September 26 Senate hearing; Neri testified that Abalos told him “Sec, may 200 ka dito (You have 200M pesos in this deal)” while playing golf at the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club; they had been discussing the ZTE deal at that time. Neri later invoked executive privilege in response to some Senators’ questions and shunned succeeding Senate hearings. Abalos announced his resignation as COMELEC chairman on October 1. Arroyo on her October 2 trip to China, informed Chinese President Hu Jintao of her “difficult decision” to cancel the deal.

On January 30, 2008, the Senate produced warrants of arrest for Neri and Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada, Jr., former chief executive officer of the government-run Philippine Forest Corporation and a consultant of the NEDA. Neri went into hiding while Lozada skipped the Senate hearing and absconded to Hong Kong.

On February 5, as the Senate arresting team staked out the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) awaiting Lozada’s arrival, unidentified people whisked him “out of town”, inciting his kin to cry for help. On February 7, Lozada finally surfaced as police deposited him to La Salle Green Hills, MandaluyongCity. Shortly thereafter, Lozada incriminated Mike Arroyo and Abalos in the ZTE scandal. The next day, in the Senate hearing, Lozada confirmed his NEDA boss Romulo Neri’s testimony that Commission on Elections (COMELEC) chairman Benjamin Abalos and Arroyo’s husband Mike were behind the kickbacks. Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) secretary Lito Atienza, Neri, former Presidential Management Staff head Michael Defensor, Secretary for Special Concerns Remedios Poblador and Deputy Executive Secretary Manuel Gaite, reportedly conspired to facilitate the abduction of Lozada. Dante Madriaga, a ZTE-employed engineer, divulged that Arroyo’s group sought $ 41 million as “advances”. ZTE however refused to shell out more money unless they saw Gloria Arroyo’s face at the signing of the contract.

With the deal in the eye of the storm for being allegedly overpriced by an estimated $ 130 million, Mrs. Arroyo deserted her husband, who was lying on a hospital bed fighting for his life, and flew to Boao, China to witness the signing of the contract. The official government press release proclaimed that Ms. Arroyo “came and went like a thief in the night” because she arrived in “in the wee hours of Saturday,” April 21, and “left at 3:30 p.m. of the same day.

As the public hungered for justice, restively yearning for retribution against the wicked, Arroyo one-upped all and sundry by springing Executive Order 464 on September 26, 2005. It prevented cabinet members, police and military generals, senior national security officials, and “such other officers as may be determined by the President” to attend congressional hearings without her permission. The attendance of two officers from the military before the Senate Committee on National Defense in connection with the “Hello Garci” scandal and the appearance of National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales in a Senate hearing regarding a controversial contract between the Philippine government and the Washington-based law firm Venable LLP triggered the edict. From that point on, E.O. 464 dissolutely shielded Arroyo’s people from all scrutiny and enquiries.

Filipinos seethed with anger and indignation as the Arroyo administration unleashed one affront after another against decency. They repeatedly took to the streets to mount public protests but failed to achieve critical mass as policemen hosed down marchers with water cannons and beat them up with truncheons. The military routinely blocked major roads and highways to prevent folks from the provinces from participating in demonstrations. Not even former vice president Teofisto Guingonga and two bishops were spared from getting drenched and being treated abusively by dispersal units.

A group of lawyers filed a petition with the Supreme Court questioning the constitutionality of the so-called “calibrated pre-emptive response (CPR)” and the “no permit, no rally” policy enforced against law-abiding citizens. The Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) picked up the cudgels on behalf of over two dozen protesters who were arrested and injured in two peaceful mass actions that the police violently dispersed.

“It’s tangible, it’s solid, it’s beautiful.
It’s artistic from my standpoint.
I just love real estate.”
Donald Trump

Building relationships with Real Estate agents is vital to any real estate investor’s success. Why?

They bring you buyers.  They bring you sellers.  They bring you leads before they hit the market.  They present you to other realtors for offers.  They teach you how to get your offers accepted.  They are one of the most important members of your “power team”.

Important to work with “Winning Agents”

The old 80/20 rule applies. 20% of Agents will be handling 80% of the best whole sale properties. It’s important that you get out there and meet them! Here are some ideas to get to know who the movers and shakers are in your area:

1.       Join Local Realtor Association

2.       Call  local associations and ask who their REO specialists are

3.       Scan The Internet to see who is putting up the best listings. Examples:

www.Realtor.comwww.zillow.comwww.ziprealty.com
Google  “MLS online”  in your city to see all properties online

4.       Drive the area you are interested investing in. Look for agents who have signs posted in the areas you want to invest in.

What do you need to say when you meet them?

Most importantly do not make the about what they can do for you, make it about what you can do for them!

Get Them On Your Team By Meeting Their Needs.

Ask them questions.

Get to know them.

If you are not comfortable with approaching new contacts, you might think about buying the book by Dale Carnegie, ‘ How to Win Friends and Influence People’.  This is the best book on the logistics of how to do just what the title says.

I am going to focus on 2 specific strategies you can work with Realtors to grow both your businesses.

Realtor Partnership Strategy 1: EXPIRING LISTINGS: This one consists of Realtors Contacting agents holding listings that are about to expire.

This marketing is an easy way to discover untapped discount properties.  Do you agree that Realtors and sellers might be much more motivated to accept discounted offers when their listing is about to expire. As you know the Realtor will make no money for all their efforts if this happens. Plus the seller wants to sell the property and it won’t be sold.

Steps for working with realtors to contact listings about to expire:
Contact Realtors looking for those who you can work to support each other’s businesses.  I follow a script when looking to build these most vital contacts.

When you meet Realtors excited to support you, set up a system to do the following:

Realtor e-mails you list of all listings expiring in 30 days on a weekly basis. Excel format is best. You just need basic info – address, beds/baths/ sq feet/ notes from MLS.  Most important info is the listing Realtors name and e-mail address

You go through and chose those you would like to make offers on. Make an offer that is sure to include all your costs after buying and make a profit for you.  To be sure your offer is where you need it to be, you would want to run the numbers through The Bottom Line Calculator.  Either your Realtor OR You will e-mail your purchase agreement to the sellers agent along with a cover letter, proof of funds, and copy of your earnest money check.  (Who does it will be up to you both. It’s a lot of work so it would be best if you would encourage your Realtor to allow you to do this tedious task.)

This system is a great free and easy way to reach out to motivated sellers.

Here is a Sample email content/cover letter for your Realtor to send on your behalf to Realtor who has expiring listing:

Hello,

My client has asked me to forward the attached purchase agreement (offer).  Thank you for discussing with your clients their consideration of it. In making this offer, I represent serious investors who have access to cash that will allow them to close on your seller’s property quickly if necessary.   Feel free to call me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Your Realtors Signature and Contact Info

Realtor Partnering Strategy 2 – SHORT SALE LEADS – The Second way to Partner with a Realtor to help them make double their commissions is handling Short Sales for both your “buys”  and your “sales”.

This strategy works great with open-minded Realtors who understand the law and see that this is a creative, but perfectly legal strategy that does not break anything inside the Realtors Code of Ethics. You will occasionally hear from unknowing, negative, close-minded people that when a Realtor is representing a seller, they cannot also represent you, the buyer, and also seller for after you buy it. They may say this is not “legal”.  However, as of the time of this writing, as long as proper paperwork is filed and all is disclosed and agreed to by all parties involved, nothing about this strategy is illegal. However, due to new laws coming out every day, be sure and run this strategy by a qualified attorney prior to using it.  Keep in mind, they do not have to represent you to find buyers, however if they would like, it is just another way they can profit 3 ways with 1 property. If they are not comfortable helping you to find a buyer for a property not yet closed, you will find buyers in other ways. Have you looked at this incredible online system….www.cashbuyers4flips.com ?

SIDE NOTE: Whenever anyone tells you something is illegal or legal, ask if they can tell you where to find that information in writing.  You will run across many nay-sayers in your walk as a real estate investor.  It’s important you are swayed only by the facts and the law, not by well-meaning, yet unknowing, concerned individuals.

You would want to provide Realtors very easy instructions and explanations to read for how you would want to partner with them on your short sale deals. This information is on my own Easy I Buy Houses Website. (See http://www.tamerabuyshouses.com/ibuyhouses/realtors.php )BTW! This  17 page website can be customized and used by you too. If you do not have a web presence, go here to get this ready made real estate investors website. (very cheap, hosted and ready to go in minutes). I highly recommend you take a look!  (target=”_blank”www.EasyIBuyHousesWebsites.com)

Here’s How We Work Together to Create A Win/Win/Win/Win/Win/Win Situation!

1. A WIN for the Seller: Relieve over–leveraged homeowners from the pain of foreclosure and having their credit report badly damaged. They can now start a new chapter in their life.

2. A WIN for the Lender: When I handle the short sale with the bank, our packets go to the lender in perfect order so that they can process and negotiate the short sale in the most streamlined way possible. A successful short sale brings them greater financial return than the alternatives of an auction or REO.

3. A WIN for the Realtor: Collect a FULL commission and do what you do best–buying and selling real estate. By using our services you will not get bogged down with the paperwork, phone calls and interactions coming from overwhelmed loss mitigation departments. Plus – If you bring a new buyer to us, you then receive commissions on both the buy and a sell transaction… 6%

4. A WIN for Us: We might end up purchasing the home ourselves and making a larger profit margin from a subsequent sale.

5. A WIN for the new Buyer when I sell it: Now that the property’s price has been appropriately discounted for the market, it is much easier to attract a new homeowner when you put it on the market for me to sell.

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Here are the steps to make this work:

First and most important, sellers, lenders, title companies… everyone involved in this transaction, receives full disclosures in writing from the beginning, communicating our intentions to buy and sell this property for a profit should the bank agree to accept our offer.

You market to find owners who are behind in payments or in foreclosure and who are interested in a short sale to avoid foreclosure and save their credit.

Contact us when you find a solid candidate for the program. If it looks good, we will submit an all cash offer.

We will then personally confer with you and the seller to explain the process and coordinate preparation of the required short sale documents. All intentions and plans are disclosed and agreed upon in writing with notary.

I , along with my short sale negotiation team,  are available to prepare, submit and negotiate the short sale package, driving the entire process for all involved and request they postpone the foreclosure auction if necessary.  (If the sellers agent would prefer handling short sale directly with bank instead of my team , that is great as long as they have a track record for success in this area).

While the short sale is being worked on, you work with me and my company to find a new end-user buyer. You create listing agreement with me as the seller and re-list house at agreed upon price. Full disclosure of entire process disclosed will be in writing up front to current owner.

The lender orders an interior BPO or appraisal to obtain an “as is” value.

We prepare a repair estimate, a terms and descriptions report along with our own comps to give to the lender’s BPO agent when we meet with them at property. (As an investor, I can let them in the house to assure BPO agent notes all its flaws)

We seek to find out what value the BPO agent gave to the house. We negotiate with the lender to find out their bottom-line price.

If the price makes sense, we will negotiate as needed and purchase the property with a 30 day close.

If the price does not make sense for me or my company to buy; you, as the Realtor still come out way ahead!  The process has given you some very important information in order for you to sell the house to anyone else you choose. By knowing  the lender’s bottom-line  acceptance  price, plus some potential buyers you have reached out to for us,  you are now in a position to sell the property quickly at an attractive price to those buyers or anyone else on the market at a agreed upon price.

However, if the price makes sense for us to buy, or we have an offer from an end buyer, as promised we will purchase the property with quick cash closing as promised. Keep in mind, our purchase contract will stipulate that the lender pays buyer’s closing cost, seller concessions and full real estate commission.  No money is ever requested from the seller.

To close the transaction we use title companies that are familiar with the sometimes more complex title and escrow work in transferring our new property to a new homeowner in a short period of time.

You may enjoy a complimentary video training on this strategy here:www.CoachingU2Profits.com )

Expired listings and short sales are just 2 of the many ways in which a good Realtor and you can support each other’s businesses.  There are many other strategies you may learn as well. I have over 24 exit strategies I teach my students in just one part of my 11 part training and coaching program, in addition to how to scripts to follow when calling every member of your much needed investors power team.  If you think you could use a down to earth, step by step plan, to quick profits through real estate investing, go to www.Coachingu2profits.com to see if this is right for you.

In the mean time, the most important thing you can do for your business is Get the Word Out!  Marketing yourself is the key to your success.

Spread the news!

Tamera Aragon
www.TameraAragon.com
Top 10 Marketing Strategies for Real Estate Investors
Part 1 -Aim-Ready-Fire- Talley The Score
Part 2 – Networking
Part 3 -Business Cards

1. Showing you bad houses to buy before showing you the target house. Your Real Estate will first show you a series of houses in terrible condition and is overpriced. Then, after you see your terrible selection and you believe these houses are what you after to work with. Once that belief is set in, then your Real Estate Agent will show you a nice house. By the Law of Contrast, a valuable house looks even more valuable when it comes after a worthless house. If you find yourself viewing houses that are just rip offs, be careful when you see a decent house. It is actually less valuable than you believe. You Real Estate Agent may even try to compliment those worthless houses so that when decent house shows up, you believe it’s your perfect home! 2. Making you travel to look at the houses you want to buy first. This is a very common practice and it would seem to make sense. You would need to look at the houses before buying it, correct? Well, there is reason behind the Real Estate Agent wanting you to travel and spend your valuable time staring at these houses. By spending so much time on one house, it becomes too much of an effort to find your perfect house. You end up settling for your less than desired house. What should be happening is that before looking at the house, you should request a comparable analysis. Your Real Estate Agent has statistical information about the houses you are looking at and houses similar to what you are looking at. This statistical information reveals the market value of the home and whether the home is worth you TIME. By not showing you the comparable analysis, the time, effort and pain it takes for you to search for a home causes you to make a decision faster. If the Real Estate Agent shows you the comparable analysis first, it reduces the pain and you would wait longer to decide. Also, the Real Estate agent has to spend time to create the comparable analysis report where most likely, they would not want to do. Rule of thumb: Find a Real Estate Agent that will give you the comparable analysis first. Now, this isn’t to say you should never look for the house first. There is one exception. When you first meet your new Real Estate Agent, there is some level of concern on the agent’s side. The agent is spending valuable free time on you, gambling that you would buy a house through him. So if you start off by requesting comparable analysis, he will not do it. Any honest Real Estate Agent would not do it. A comparable analysis is valuable information that the Real Estate Agent gets for being a Real Estate Agent. They need to pay a fee to be a Real Estate Agent. What the Real Estate Agent needs to know, is that you need to provide some “level of comfort” that you will certainly buy the house through him in order to get the comparable analysis. To me, this is fair because if the Real Estate Agent is going to spend the time on you to help you find a home, then it would only be fair that you buy through him and let him get the commission. The legal way to show this “level of comfort” is to sign the 90-day commitment contract that indicates you would only work with him and no other agent for 90 days. This legal way is by no means the only way nor is this a bad way, either. It is only a matter of preference and your relationship with your Real Estate Agent that determines the best approach. 3. Encouraging you to put a high security deposit when writing up a contract to purchase your desired home. A security deposit informs the seller you are interested in purchasing the property and the amount lets the seller know how serious you are. The higher the amount, the more serious you are. The moment the contract is agreed upon by both parties and signed, you must provide the security deposit within the set time specified in the contract. This security deposit is suppose to be returned to you if the contract becomes null and void, if the conditions (usually financing and inspection) specified in the contract fails. Now, this procedure seems to be fair. Here is where the problem lies: If the contract becomes null and void and you want your money back, all parties must sign a form called a Mutual Release. This signature must include the buyer, buyer’s agent, seller and seller’s agent. If any one party does not sign, you will not get your money even if the contract has been null and void. If anyone party refuses to sign, you have to go through court, most likely small claims court, to settle your dispute and if you know anything about the court system in Canada, you know your court date could be as long as two years away! You should never be serious in buying house. It is poor negotiating tactics. If your Real Estate Agent encourages you to put a high security deposit, it is because your Real Estate Agent wants you to be serious about purchasing the property even though it is poor negotiating tactics. The reality is your security deposit can be very difficult to get back. Sadly, this is the general process in most home buying transactions and it is a very poor process. And did you know…

IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO PUT A SECURITY DEPOSIT AT ALL!

There are no limitations to a contract. It is only a matter of agreement. You can write anything you want on the contract as long as both party agrees. My suggestion is to encourage your Real Estate Agent to only provide the deposit after the contract passes the conditions. This is possible, but only if your Real Estate Agent is willing. Once again, I cannot stress this enough, to find a Real Estate Agent do not search through the Internet and pick the first one you see. Good salesmen do not make good Real Estate Agents. If you have any more questions or concerns, feel free to e-mail me at admin@freerentalads.ca You are also certainly welcome to e-mail me your good and bad home buying experiences. I may or may not choose to post them up. More to Come!

Bad Real Estate Agents in Disguise I classify bad Real Estate Agents are those sneaky Real Estate Agents who claim to help you, but really just looking to get the commission. How do these bad Real Estate Agent masquerade as good ones? 1. The Bad Real Estate Agent pretends to be a Hard Worker If you hire a Real Estate Agent, you want them to work hard for your money because you do. And Real Estate Agent knows that. Salesmen know that. But working hard never guarantees success. A Real Estate Agent, like all people, should be have some level of workmanship, but not to the point of slavery. Do not be gullible enough to believe your Real Estate Agent will climb mountains for you. It is just a job. He should have other priorities. Do not base your Real Estate Agent selection based on how hard they work or how must time they spend with you. If your Real Estate Agent is wasting too much time pretending to work hard, then your Real Estate won’t have time to actually get you valuable information you need to make an informed decision. The moment the contract is signed and the agent get the commission, Bad Real Estate Agents will run to the next sucker and never want to talk or help you anymore. 2. Charmer Every now and then, you’ll meet the person who knows exactly what to say. He knows the words you are looking for you and make you feel comfortable to trust him. When trusting an agent, don’t look for how kind, gentle, or how witty he is. Look for the results. What has the Real Estate Agent really done for you? 3. Not providing sufficient information. Information is vital for you to make important decisions. Bad Real Estate Agents will hide information in order to get you to make the decision to buy the house. To make sure the agent is being absolutely honest with you and providing you all the information you need to know, always have another reliable source to verify the information. One good way to find honest Real Estate Agents is through referrals. If you friends have experience good results from the agent, then at least you found someone honest and you know the results. Do NOT go through the Internet and pick the first agent you see or the agent that has the most advertisements. They are just spending marketing money, which they intend to recover from you. I especially find the ones that are top ranked search engines to be the most conniving, especially the Mississauga location!!! Now for the good news. If you are fair and you are looking for a human being Real Estate Agent and you treat them like a human being with no slavery expectation, you should be able to find a decent Real Estate Agent to help you. There are indeed plenty of honest agents that are really hiding because they are too busy helping their clients. You have to scout around and do a lot of homework to find that close-to-perfect agent that matches your needs. Using the information in this article, you should be able to filter out the bad agents. Now, after all this discussion, one may even be asking whether you need a Real Estate agent. In private homes sellers, you do not. Only homes where sellers have a Real Estate Agent, you do need buyer’s Real Estate Agent to protect you. Whether you want to purchase home through private or through an agent should not be a deciding factor. Simply look at the house you want to buy and the price you want to buy it at. If your selected house requires a Real Estate Agent, then you should get one, too. If you have any more questions or concerns, feel free to e-mail me at admin@freerentalads.ca You are also certainly welcome to e-mail me your good and bad home buying experiences. I may or may not choose to post them up. For those who have not read my part 1, please do so. My next articles will take a closer look at tactics Bad Real Estate Agents pull.

This article is not about the secrets of buying a rental property for no money down and half the price of the market value of the house. I am not Tom Vu or Don Lapre and I am not in jail. In Canada, the no money down home did use to exist, but not anymore. Some banks and/or lenders were willing to lend you the 5% down payment so that you don’t have to pay a dime out of your own pockets to purchase a home. However, given the current financial situation with tighter lending restrictions, there will be no bank or lenders who can do that in Canada. The buying home for half price did use to exist as well. At one point, foreclosures in Canada would allow foreclosed homes to be sold at rock bottom prices. The new law, which has been in placed for many years now require the homes be sold at the highest possible price for foreclosed homes or else the lenders could be sued. Hence, sometimes foreclosed homes sell higher because Canadians have the misconception that foreclosed homes are a really good deal causing it to have a reverse affect. There have been many people buying foreclosed homes believing they got a good deal and not doing a thorough check as to the actual value of the home. Now, clearing out the quick money maker myths of buying homes, there are still many things you need to be aware of before starting. If there exist ever an industry with more sneaky sales tactics and money motivated people, it has got to the Real Estate industry. As a buyer, you could be dishing out $350 000 and everyone wants a piece. The Real Estate Agents want a piece. The lenders want a piece. The lawyers want a piece and the sellers want piece. No wonder there are so many scams in this industry. The first thing to be aware of is the Real Estate Agent. A Real Estate Agent is suppose to act on your behalf to buy or sell the home. Both the buyer of the home and seller of the home will have their own Real Estate Agent called a Buyer’s Real Estate Agent and a Seller’s Real Estate Agent. In Canada, each Real Estate Agent gets an average of 2.5% and sometimes 2% for the commission of selling the home. Some Real Estate Agents provide cash back rewards. Canadian Real Estate Agents gets higher commission than anywhere else. In United States, their Real Estate Agents only get 1% of the commission and their homes are actually much cheaper. Even though Real Estate Agents are the least educated of the parties involved in the buying home transaction, they seem to be getting the biggest piece of the pie. Do not listen to mls.ca and their gimmicks on Real Estate Agents are ethical. (http://www.howrealtorshelp.ca/swf/). Where do they get the idea any Real Estate Agent off the street is ethical. Their claim is based on these tests that they pass to become a Real Estate Agent. Agents passing a test does not meant hey are ethical. It only means they can remember enough to pass the test. One would believe it should be the Real Estate Agent’s job to help the buyer ensure the home is of value. Rightly so, many buyers depend on the Real Estate Agent to protect them and provide them advice and in my opinion, the ethical Real Estate Agent should do that. However, the true reality is that Real Estate Agents do not make money unless if the home is purchased. The reality is that the Real Estate Agent’s salary is not truly dependent on giving you advice. The Real Estate Agent’s job is to get the buyer to buy a home through them so they can get paid! As a result of this, what ends up happening, are two types of Real Estate Agents with variations in between. The first type is the honest agent with the belief “If I work hard and treat my buyer right, the buyer will come back to buy more homes from me. The second type is the “I need to get the buyer to buy a house quickly so that I can move on to the next buyer (sucker) so that I can maximize my time for profit.” The bottom line is that you are looking for the first type and you want to avoid the second type. We’ll call the first type, the Bad Real Estate Agent. We’ll call the second type, the Good Real Estate Agent. So what kind of characteristics does the Good Real Estate Agent have that the Good Real Estate Agent does not have? 1. The first characteristic is Patience. Bad Real Estate Agents will attempt to sell you a home quickly to get the money quickly. Do not buy a house without spending a lot of time looking at several different homes. Be careful of tactics such as Real Estate Agents claiming it is the perfect and acting like a salesman rather than providing you information. 2. The second characteristic is information. A good Real Estate Agent needs to provide you all the information to let you make the informed decision and we are not talking about their opinion. Real Estate’s opinion does not matter. Real Estate Agents have data such as the history of the house being sold at, homes being sold near the area and type. A Real Estate Agent should be able to provide you with a compilation of official documents that tells you these kinds of data to let YOU make an informed decision. 3. The third characteristic is care. You will know this during the actual signing of the contract to purchase the home at a certain price. Once you become interested in a property and want to buy the property at a certain price set by YOU, you have to write up a contract. The contract consist atleast three conditions that will null the sale of the home and a security deposit. The common three conditions are, buyer can get financing, the home passes inspection and the appraisal value of the home is above the price to be purchased. Generally, you will want the lenders to appraise the home so that you know the fair value of the home and the lenders would only lend of you are buying the home at fair market value. The security deposit is an amount you will provide to lock the home from being sold to other buyers while you perform to checks to see whether these conditions have been met. If these conditions are not met, then you SHOULD get your security deposit back. The Bad Real Estate Agents will want to you provide very few conditions and a big security deposit. Doing so ensure the home is more likely to be sold. Do NOT go through the internet and pick the first agent you see or the agent that has the most advertisements. They are just spending marketing money which they intend to recover from you. I especially find the ones that are top ranked search engines to be the most conniving, especially the Mississauga location!!! If you have any more questions or concerns, feel free to e-mail me at admin@freerentalads.ca You are also certainly welcome to e-mail me your good and bad home buying experiences. I may or may not chose to post them up.