The prize catch of these raids was the so-called Stonehill Blue Book, a ledger that listed more than 200 officials who received money from him in the course of his transactions with them. What made the Blue Book politically explosive was that it contained entries that showed the President himself and the leading Liberal Party senator, Ferdinand Marcos, took money from Stonehill, a revelation that devastated Macapagal’s moralizing claim that his New Era Administration was committed to eradicate graft and corruption in the government. Centerpiece evidence The Blue Book was the government’s centerpiece evidence to prove that the raids uncovered a treasure trove of documents that showed that Stonehill operated a “network of corruption,” whose tentacles penetrated all levels of government, from the presidency to the legislature to the bureaucracy. The disclosure of the Blue Book’s contents during the hearings at the deportation board led to a crisis of government, including a Cabinet shake-up and the dismissal of Secretary of Justice Jose W. Diokno, who spearheaded Macapagal’s Moral Regeneration campaign, with the raids on Stonehill’s business conglomerate offices. The Stonehill scandal broke out just two months after Macapagal took office. He had defeated in the elections President Carlos Garcia of the Nacionalista Party by running on an anticorruption platform.
Posted on: Mon, 09 Sep 2013 04:17:54 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015