The Philippine Online Chronicles

Brigadier General Danilo (Danny) Lim is running as an independent senatorial candidate. However, the Liberal Party adopted him as a guest candidate. He is currently detained under maximum security at Camp Crame in Quezon City for rebellion charges and purported military revolts which was said to be against the Arroyo government’s crimes of plunder, corruption and human rights violations.

General Lim and I share a common friend, Berthram Tan who we fondly call Nonoy.  Nonoy once said to me “This is why we need to safeguard our election process and forget the TRAPOS.” I reassured him that is a project that I am working on. We shared so much hope for our country. Nonoy and I often discuss the latest political gossip.   We shared the vision of what the president of our country should be.

With a heavy heart, I grieved when  Nonoy died on September 27, 2009 and as  I delivered my eulogy I vowed that “I will keep those dreams alive for you”.  I recalled what Nonoy told me just a month before his death “My good friend, General Lim is running for senator. Maybe you can check on him”.  I thought nothing of it because I don’t know General Danny Lim. The little I know about him reeked of  negativity.   I called his wife Aloy Lim whom I met at Nonoy’s wake and told her that I wanted to meet General Lim because Nonoy believed so much in his friend.  There must be something that Nonoy found in him that I don’t know about.  Before my visit, I did a search on General Lim.

Who is Brigadier General Danilo Lim?

Running through his statements during the 2007 coup attempt at Manila Peninsula is like reading the news today after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's (GMA) congressional bid.

The abuses of her government continue. The deliberate refusal or failure of the dubious leaders to investigate and prosecute the people responsible for the scandalous “Hello Garci” electoral cheating, the Jocjoc Bolante multi million peso fertilizer scam, the IMPSA bribery scandal, the “Jose Pidal” and the jueteng scandals involving billions of public funds, the Northrail Project scandal, the Venable contract scandal, the NBN scandal, wholesale bribery of congressmen and governors in Malacanang, as well as the unabated and resolved extrajudicial killings of citizens, particularly journalists and members of the judiciary, and the use of military and police officers for some unlawful missions, among others, are clear proof her failure of good and decent governance. There are numerous illegal and immoral activities and transactions conducted by this government with impunity that betray the citizens and the State of their pristine right to exist as a people with decency, dignity and integrity.

He must know something we don’t know. Perhaps when the time is right, he will tell all.

When I met the soft-spoken General Lim in Camp Crame, the first thing we talked about was Nonoy. Apparently, both were exchanging text messages until General. Lim didn’t receive any more replies and little did he know, Nonoy collapsed already.   It is sad that we got to meet this way through Nonoy’s death but I wasted no time.   I admitted to General Lim that I know little about him and most of it is based on news reports tagging him with "military adventurism".  I showed him  printed copies  of his statements against GMA and thought that they still ring true today.  We didn’t talk that much as we were  watching the program on International Human Rights Week organized by the political detainees and other detainees not classified as “political”.     I wished him the best and promised to stay in touch especially during the campaign period.

Just today, his spokesperson sent me press releases on his views regarding GMA’s congressional bid.   I am sharing it here in blogwatch.ph in its entirety because I do not  want to misquote him. It is difficult to get interviews from him except through his spokesperson.  Security is very strict that even cellphones, cameras, laptops and recording device are not allowed inside the detention center.

Electing GMA, a “massacre of RP democracy”

December 2, 2009

Detained Brigadier General turned Senatoriable Danilo “Danny” Lim appealed to the citizens of 2^nd district of Pampanga not to support President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s bid to become a congressional representative, stating that to do so is to participate in the “massacre of Philippine democracy”.

“People who will vote for a megalomaniac like Arroyo would be participating in a historical crime, a crime against the Philippine nation,” Lim said.

Lim said the whole nation, and the whole world will now look at Pampanga and its citizens to “fulfill its responsibility to preserve the integrity of our democratic institutions, the little that is left of it after Arroyo’s almost decade of impunity and malgovernance.”

“Just as the Ampatuan massacre is not just a massacre of people but a massacre of Maguindanao’s attempt to become a democracy, electing Arroyo as congresswoman is also a carnage of whatever is left of our democratic ethos,” Lim said.

Lim also warned that Arroyo’s election bid as Pampanga representative is just one of her “multiple trump cards in her attempt to be in power forever.”

“Amid the public fear of her becoming a member of parliament and the country’s Prime Minister, there is still the impending threat of her declaring a failure of elections,” Lim asserted.

“Among her possible moves, Lim, reveals, includes declaration of emergency rule, failure of election, and even “post-election manoeuvres” either by amending the constitution led by an Arroyo-dominated Congress or by destabilizing a new government which is not in line with her political objectives and interests,” Lim said.

“Arroyo has been known for her Machiavellianism.  Just focusing on her election bid as representative would be underestimating her capacity for machination and her attempt to preserve the old order,” Lim warned.

“As such, in the midst of a situation wherein Arroyo is seemingly unchallenged, we call on the people to choose the new over the old, constructive dissent over manufactured consent and a Gloria-free future over prolonged despotism. Now is the moment of reckoning,” Lim concluded.

Corrupt allies ensures a Speaker Arroyo

December 4, 2009

Former Army Brigadier General Danny Lim today warned that unless Mrs. Arroyo is stopped from running as a congresswoman of Pampanga, she maybe assured of bagging the House Speakership due to the big number of corrupt allies who will be swarming the next Congress.

“With the support of her lackeys, her soon-to-be former government officials and corrupt political allies in the House of Representatives, Mrs. Arroyo may yet become the next Speaker of the House on her way to becoming a prime minister,” he said.

“At the extreme, Mrs. Arroyo will even bribe her way to the speakership. This could be one of the reasons why we have too many cases of Malacanang-sponsored corruption, to raise funds,” he added.

Early this week, Mrs. Arroyo filed her certificate of candidacy in Pampanga, hoping to replace her son, Rep. Mikey Arroyo.

Lim said the sinister decision of Mrs. Arroyo to run, which is a part of the bigger plot for her to become the country’s prime minister, is a product of planning hatched long time ago in conspiracy with administration officials.

“Just look at the big number of administration officials who are going to run in next year’s elections, most of them for seats in the House of Representatives. These are the people whom Mrs. Arroyo could dwell for support, for the number that she will need,” Lim said.

He said the decision of Arroyo to gun for a House seat is also partly the reason why she is bent on placing her favorite generals to key positions in the Armed Forces of the Philippines and in the Philippine National Police.

“Congresswoman or not, she could count for support from these officers. However, the Filipinos are not that idiots not to read her move,” Lim said.

Photos from Belle Enriquez, spokeperson for Brig. Gen. Danny Lim. Used with her permission. Some Rights Reserved.