Thread by @olliekarp

In today's #dailysoup, I'll introduce a former Philippine president and current deputy speaker, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

She's known for being involved in a couple of blatant corruption scandals, political instability, and China-shilling deals.

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Arroyo is the daughter of another former Philippine president, Diosdado Macapagal.

Before entering politics, she took an economics degree at Georgetown University, where she was classmates with Bill Clinton. She also served as an economics prof at the Ateneo.

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In the 1990s, Arroyo ran as a senator. She became a vice president under the administration of Joseph Estrada, which was cut short cuz of a revolution in the early 2000s caused by a gambling-related corruption scandal.

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After Erap's ouster, Arroyo became his successor, while he was arrested.

However, Erap's supporters started January 6-style riots in early 2001, aiming to reverse Erap's arrest and bring him back, but they were suppressed while Arroyo declared a "state of rebellion".

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The Arroyo administration is infamous for its blatant corruption scandals, with examples including corruption schemes inside the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the infamous "Gloriagate" scandal, and Arroyo's China-shilling deals.

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The family members of Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia, an AFP Deputy Chief of Staff appointed by the Arroyo administration, were accused of plunder through accumulating P303M of ill-gotten wealth from 2002-04 by transferring from government funds to their own pockets.

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Moreover, one witness stated that during the early years of the Arroyo administration, military funds supposed to be used for soldiers' salaries were diverted to retirement funds for three Arroyo-era AFP chiefs.

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Although another witness saw what was known as "suspicious transfers" from government funds to the pockets of Garcia's family members, the Arroyo government decided not to charge Garcia with plunder, claming that "there was lack of evidence".

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Meanwhile, a complex web of corruption in the AFP occurred, especially involving "ghost beneficiaries" and "sus contracts". Description is seen in the left picture.

Meanwhile, former senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago stated that a "Gang of 12" was behind "military scams".

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The most infamous corruption scandal during the Arroyo administration came from the 2004 Philippine general elections, in which numbers were changed to look as if Arroyo was leading over her competitor, Fernando Poe Jr., a famous Filipino actor who died in the same year.

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The 2004 general elections were manipulated to favour Arroyo, especially through the "dagdag-bawas method" or "deliberately increasing or decreasing the number of votes until Arroyo dominates the region". This is the most drastic in the southern portion of PH cuz...

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...it is a notorious hotspot of a decades-long Moro insurgency in the Philippines.

One method used to change the numbers to favour Arroyo can include corrupt local leaders confiscating ballot papers at gunpoint so that they could be filled by themselves and...

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...allowing "no election to take place" while corrupt local leaders secretly fill in the ballots by themselves.

Another method of electoral cheating to favour Arroyo can include creating a "Manila-based special force" which would fill in electoral returns in advance...

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...and then sending them to Philippine provinces, pretending that "Arroyo already won.

Other cheating methods included overprinting ballot papers, manipulating "vertical tally bars", and even manipulating thumbmarks to conceal identification.

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In 2005, a wiretapped conversation between Arroyo and a Filipino politician was shown to the public, leading to allegations that Arroyo rigged the 2004 elections to win.

This was called the "Hello Garci" scandal, which rhymes with "Hello Kitty".



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The "Hello Garci" scandal led to increased notoriety points for the Arroyo regime, as well as attempts to impeach Arroyo, but they were blocked by Arroyo's political allies.

This culminated to that one time in February 2006 when protests and a coup attempt...

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...brewed that Arroyo declared a "state of emergency".

Arroyo's presidency is also notorious for two coup attempts, the Oakwood Mutiny in 2003 and the Manila Peninsula Siege in 2007.

I was in school when the siege happened. Classes were called off cuz "we saw tanks".

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The Arroyo administration is also known for her China-shilling deals.

In the mid-2000s, the Arroyo administration, through the PNOC, signed some "Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking" agreement with China, through the CNOOC, and Vietnam, through PETROVIETNAM,...

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...agreeing for Chinese and Vietnamese forces to be allowed to explore the disputed SCS, particularly 80% of the Philippines' EEZ, aiming to "find more oil".

The Arroyo-era JMSU allowed Chinese vessels to loiter, hoard resources, and build illegal islands in the SCS.

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Arroyo's opponents expressed concerns that by signing the JMSU, she "is trading Philippine territory for Chinese development assistance", with one example including a $400M loan from Beijing for a Chinese investment on a "rail project connecting Caloocan to Calamba".

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Note that the CNOOC is a now-sanctioned CCP-owned company notorious for a JV with a Singaporean company run by the wife of the son of a Burmese drug trafficker infamous for being the "godfather of heroin".

CNOOC is also known for being complicit to the Uyghur genocide.

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Furthermore, the Arroyo administration signed 65 bilateral agreements with China on many fields such as defence cooperation that China saw Arroyo as "more receptive than her successor, Benigno Aquino III".

One paved the way to the infamous NBN-ZTE scandal.

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Another notorious corruption scandal during the Arroyo administration involved Arroyo's attempted dealings with Zhongxing Telecommunications Equipment (ZTE), a CCP-controlled firm, aiming to create a "national broadband" project. Testimonies state that the NBN-ZTE...

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...deal was overpriced x filled with bribe attempts as Arroyo lunched with ZTE at Shenzhen in 2006. The Exim Bank indicated a funding of a loan to the NBN project.

Then, the NBN-ZTE scandal was followed by dramatic political peepotalking in the Arroyo government.

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Meanwhile, the Arroyo administration is also known for being complicit to human rights violations, including the slaying of journalists and political opponents during the Ampatuan-perpetrated Maguindanao Massacre of late 2009.

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Meanwhile, Arroyo is also known for the "BIDA scheme", in which PAGCOR, along with a few other government agencies, would serve as a part of Arroyo's propaganda machine under the guise of a "PG-rated anti-drug campaign". Read more here:

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https://twitter.com/olliekarp/status/1632457587114524672?s=20

Although Arroyo was arrested for corruption charges, Duterte acquitted her in 2016, allowing her to return to political power. However, the Marcos Jr. government demoted her to Deputy Speaker.

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Moreover, Arroyo is currently a chairperson emeritus of the Association for Philippines-China Understanding, which is home to blatant wumaos like Huang Xilian.

Arroyo is also another China-shiling politician like Duterte.

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Shoutouts:
@P_Kallioniemi, @Aaron_MatthewIL, @outlierplanet, @nuevoiluminado, @NervosaCafe

If you have any more info, feel free to comment below.

This is Phase 1, Entry 30 of the #dailysoup. Feel free to read the previous entries here 👇
bit.ly/thedailysoup

APPENDIX: I spent much of my childhood during the Arroyo administration, and I still remember my parents watching the news about her scandals.

Esp. for those from the #Philippines, I wonder if you still also remember what life was like during that time?

Shoutouts: @redditPH

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