The ill-mannered late autocrat of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, once intoned: “I am not an individual – I am the people.”
That Chavez maxim is an illusion. It packages populist leaders as infallible defenders of the people’s unified will. But it is a shorthand political insult – electing them does not amount to gaining political maturity where voters should elect according to the rule of law and good governance.
I once asked a Filipina OFW if she would vote for the Tulfo brothers in a popular elections. Her reply did not raise my eyebrows. She said, yes she certainly would because the Tulfos are men who readily dispense with immediate solutions to pressing problems of the poor using their mass media platforms. In contrast, government is so unlike the Tulfos – it is inept and bureaucratic with no sense of urgency. A political analyst has branded the Tulfo demeanor as “vigilante journalism.”
Yet ask another question – are men like the Tulfos who herald themselves as infallible saviors to government corruption truly infallible?
Until this very day, the Tulfos (their sister Wanda Tulfo Teo included) are poster boys of impunity. Then tourism secretary Teo entered into a P60-million ad placement in a show hosted by her brothers. State auditors flagged the deal for conflict of interest. In 2021, the Ombudsman cleared Teo and her brothers Ben and Erwin that there was no graft and conspiracy. But then who was the sitting ombudsman? It was Samuel Martires, the fraternity brother of Duterte who was protective of the Tulfos. The legal nuance became lost in popular translation: the Ombudsman verdict did not say if the Tulfos were found innocent.
Teo was also practicing nepotism in her own backyard. She appointed her own husband Roberto in the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA), which was under the tourism department. The Duterte government was a free-for-all corruption rampage.
Both Erwin and Ben are currently in a statistical tie in surveys on the top senatorial candidates for this coming May elections. Their populist followers are expected to dismiss talks of their fallibility. The argument is that after all, what is the present Senate but a group of impartiality-challenged stooges of their political patrons. That basest of senates is now tolerated – how do you explain Willie Revillame landing within the top six of current surveys? Erwin is poised to land No. 1 in the elections, his brother Ben not far behind.
Injuria non excusat injuriam: one wrong does not justify another. Just because we have a senate of clowns, it is normal to elect more clowns.
Erwin Tulfo was found to be a fraudster during his confirmation hearings as secretary of social welfare and development. These talks have recently resurrected following a document that circulated online, ostensibly from the United States Embassy in Manila itself and dated October 11, 2022.
The issue is no longer about his American citizenship. The same letter said his passport (number 566701788) has been revoked because he “made false statements of material fact” in his passport application. In other words, Erwin Tulfo obtained his US citizenship through illegal and fraudulent means.
Tulfo’s account was filled with holes. He said he was recruited by “a certain American citizen” to join the US Army while he was in the US for a vacation in the late 1980s. He said he did not know the persons who processed his application, that he was merely given documents stating his name as Erich Sylvester Tulfo who was born on December 30, 1965 in Hawaii. Really?
But the US authorities found the evidence on his real identity. Tulfo was born Erwin Teshiba Tulfo on August 10, 1963 in Tacloban city, Leyte. On November 22, 2022, the Commission on Appointments deferred his confirmation as DSWD secretary. And then he vied for a House seat in the family’s party list when the 3rd nominee was deemed to have “resigned.” That is not resiliency. That is being thick-faced.
In March 2023, a disqualification petition was filed in the Commission on Elections on Tulfo’s nomination in the party list ACT-CIS (Anti Crime and Terrorism Community Involvement and Support). Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are.
Comelec commissioners Marlon Casquejo (of Davao city) and Rey Bulay (Duterte’s frat brother in Lex Talionis fraternity) shot down Tulfo’s disqualification petition.
A brief background on ACT-CIS: In the 2019 elections, it garnered the highest number of votes in the party list race with 2,651,987 votes. Its nominee was the first-timer unknown Eric Go Yap. That was incredible for a party list not significantly distinguished, but not for a Comelec filled with Davao city and Lex Talionis appointees.
And how did the unknown Yap fare in the House? He was one of the principal authors of Bong Go’s Republic Act 11463 or the act establishing the so-called Malasakit Centers. His second nominee who sat with him in Congress was Jocelyn Pua Tulfo. Familiar? Yes, she is senator Raffy Tulfo’s wife. Their son Ralph sits in the House representing the 2nd district of Quezon City.
There was more to Yap. Although a neophyte congressman, he was named chair of the powerful House Committee on Appropriations. Later he was named caretaker representative of the lone congressional district of Benguet province. With that kind of power, it becomes logical to ask who his powerful patron in the House was. It was presidential son Paolo Duterte. Under Yap as appropriations chair, Paolo was awarded the highest pork barrel among all congressmen during the Duterte presidency and in the entire Philippine history – a staggering P51 billion in unprogrammed money, meaning it was a budget with no line items.
On July 10, 2020, Yap was among the 70 Duterte-dictated members of the House voting to deny the franchise of ABS CBN.
That is the kind of political crowd Erwin Tulfo is associated with – the Dutertes. As for his fake US citizenship, he is not just a fraudster who now wants to sit as senator to legislate for the public equity. On the contrary, he represents how lawbreakers can suddenly preach fairness, impartiality and cleanliness of record. It is people like him and his brothers whom the law should address with penal sanctions.
Let us not forget that three Tulfos in the Senate will not be enough for them. With Jocelyn and Ralph, that will be five Tulfos in political power. Not many moons ago since Rodrigo Duterte came to power, they have suddenly become a fat dynasty.
Erwin Tulfo is a pretender. Will a pretender answer to public trust? He has already answered that question by his fraud – he will not.
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.
