Pathologically, 'noy

CASE STUDY 1. “Medyo ang liit naman yata. If the report that three out of three million is true, how can we say there is an epidemic—that there is a high probability you will get into trouble or that you can say there is a chance you will fall victim to the racket?”

Thus spake BS Aquino III on the tanim-bala phenomenon at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Furthered the BS: “Like out of 10 (people) who will go to the airport, how many will be victimized? For every 10—two, three? That is not what happened. It was sensationalized and there were those who benefited to sensationalize it.” Veritably channeling his ka-utak Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya, much earlier saying: "It appears that the cases have been blown out of proportion.” As he cited that the actual number of cases is only about 0.008 percent of the total number of passengers leaving the country every year. 

CASE STUDY 2. "So tanong ko lang nga sa Kongreso, sabi ko: 'Malaki ang pressure sa inyo. Talagang 'pogi bill' 'yan'… Ayokong sabihin sa inyo 'babawasan ko ang buwis niyo' tapos baka naman 'yung sumunod...Tapos 'di ba 'yung susunod sa akin magsabi: 'Wala tayong magagawa kailangan kong taasan ang buwis niyo.' Mumurahin naman ako 'non. O baka naman maalala pa ng taongbayan na ako ang magmungkahi na bawasan na alam ko naman dadagdagan. Ayoko naman masabi 'yon,''

Gibberish goes the BS on the firmness of his opposition to an adjustment or reduction of the income tax rates.

Asserted he: ''Siyempre eleksyon, pulitiko, lahat ng mga nagbabagang mga headlines nakakatulong sa kampanya...Is that a responsible action?”

CASE STUDY 3. "Filipinos leave the Philippines and work abroad because they want it, not because they have no opportunities in their country."

Declared the BS during his state visit to South Korea.

CASE STUDY 4. "Pero palagay ko, wala naman sigurong magmumungkahi na huwag na nating tignan dahil trabaho ng Customs 'yung pangalagaan yung inaangkat dito sa ating bansa."

Concurred the BS with the Bureau of Customs’ rifling through balikbayan boxes.

Explained the BS: "Ang pangunahing layunin nito ay makatulong doon sa kampanya natin laban sa mga ilegal na droga.” And to strengthen the government’s drive against smuggling, noting that he has received reports that even firearms, ammunition and dismantled motorcycle parts are being smuggled into the country through the OFWs’ blood-sweat-tears-invested kahon ng mga pangarap for their families.

CASE STUDY 5. “Sa pagwalang bahalang ito, parang ginarantiyahang masisira ang train. Hindi po ba maski sinong kumpanya dapat sinisigurong masusulit ang kanilang investment pero hinayaan lang nilang lumala nang lumala ang sitwasyon hanggang umabot sa puntong ipinasa na sa atin ng ura-urada ang pagsasaayos ng MRT.”

Responding to calls that he apologized during his SONA for the sorry state of  Metro Manila’s mass public transport system, the BS instead laid the blame squarely on the Metro Rail Transit Corp.

Justifying: “Nang aayusin na natin, at inaayos na natin bigla naman silang humirit. Sila na naman daw ulit pero ang mungkahi nilang pagsasayos, ‘di hamak na mas mahal kesa sa ating plano. Syempre katumbas nito dagdag na gastos at perwisyo sa taumbayan.”

CASE STUDY 6. “May mga nagsasabi nga po na may blinders daw ako para sa taong matagal na nating kasama sa daang matuwid. Ako, mulat sa maganda pero batid din natin ang mga hindi maganda.”

Riposted the BS to critical calls for him to fire deadwoods in his administration, read: Abad, Abaya, Alcala, Paje, Soliman. Turning the tables on the critics: “Ako ba ang may blinders o itong mga pangit lang ang nakikita?”

CASE STUDY 7. “Makatuwiran po bang pagbitiwin sa puwesto si General Purisima na namumuno sa mga pulis na ginagawa nang mahusay ang kanilang trabaho?”

So the BS spurned calls demanding the resignation of the PNP chief over the  involvement of the police in high-profile crimes highlighted by the daring P2-million robbery-abduction on EDSA perpetrated by 10 cops in Sept. 2014.

CS 7.1. “Hindi po natin kilala ang taong ito bilang maluho o matakaw.”

So went the BS’ defense of Purisima after he was haled to the Ombudsman on graft and plunder charges rising out of the overvalued White House renovation and his undervalued property in Nueva Ecija.

CS 7.2. “Wala naman akong minamasama doon dahil parang iyon ang normal na naging flow for quite a number of years — mula 2012 yata, kung hindi ako nagkakamali, ‘yung mga — involved si Alan Purisima dito sa paghahabol ng mga high value targets.”

So the BS said, finding nothing wrong in having the suspended Purisima on top of the Mamasapano operations

CS 7.3. “Nagsinungaling ba? Baka masyadong mabigat namang sabihin kung nagsinungaling. Pero baka naman ‘yung information nagkaroon ng konting wishful thinking on his part.”

So continued the BS’ defense of Purisima accused of having fed him the incorrect information on the Mamasapano operations, subsequently finding a scapegoat in 

Special Action Force chief Director Getulio Napeñas Jr.

CS 7.4.  “If ever I [was at] fault here, it was [because I trusted] these people. Why did I fail to detect that they were misleading me?”

More rationalizing than regretful went the BS, ultimately, when his beloved Purisima could not convincingly extricate himself from blame in the massacre of the SAF 44.

CASE STUDY 8. "Namatay rin ang tatay ko, alam ko pakiramdam niyo kaya patas na rin tayo ngayon."

The BS’ weird way of empathizing with the families of the SAF 44.

CASE STUDY 9. Eh buhay ka pa naman, di ba?

The BS’ rebuff of a businessman in Yolanda-devastated Tacloban complaining that looters shot at him.

CASE STUDIES 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17…ad nauseam. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is to blame, thus: “There is a problem, but it's a problem that should have less problems attached to it if certain things were done before we took over.”

And at the recent APEC Summit: “When one thinks about it, it is quite sad. If 10 years ago my predecessor had done what we’re doing now, I can only imagine where the Philippines would be.”

DIAGNOSIS 1. Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

“The narcissist lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others,” according to the American Psychiatric Association.

"Narcissists do not consider the pain they inflict on others; nor do they give any credence to others' perceptions," says Dr. Les Carter in the book Enough of You, Let's Talk About Me (p. 9). "They simply do not care about thoughts and feelings that conflict with their own."

Cautioned the Doc: Do not expect them to listen, validate, understand, or support you.

DIAGNOSIS 2. Schizoid Personality Disorder.

“A defining feature of individuals with SPD is a preference for solitary activities and isolation, reflected by a pattern of detachment and withdrawal, and an indifference to social relationships. This preference is not due to anxiety about being in social situations or paranoia but rather stems from an inner emptiness and apathy towards social situations. They generally lack strong emotional experiences and display a restricted range of emotion. In addition to their own lack of emotionality, they also lack an awareness of other people’s feelings and struggle to empathize…”

FINDING. Whichever, plainly pathologically ‘noy.

Mimosa scum

WHATEVER HAPPENED to the Mimosa bidding?

The government is taking another crack at the privatization of the sprawling Mimosa Leisure Estate in Clark Freeport, setting for October the bidding for the right to lease, manage, operate and develop the estate for 50 years. So the Clark Development Corp. press released last August.

The invitation to bid that CDC published earlier set the base price at P800 million, with the bidder submitting the “highest ranked” and “complying” offer winning the concession.

Requisite qualification included that: “Prospective bidders should have been in the business of mixed use, tourism-related activities equivalent to at least 50 percent of the P5 billion committed investment.”

The terms of reference (TOR) for the bidding were made available to prospective bidders for a nonrefundable fee of P500,000 right on the day the story went to press up to Sept. 14. This year.

A pre-bidding conference was slated on Sept. 16 at the CDC boardroom, with the submission of bids set for Oct. 13. This year.

On October 1, the papers announced CDC had “initiated” Mimosa’s privatization with “at least nine foreign and local companies” participating in the pre-qualification of bidders.

Declining to name the bidders, CDC President-CEO Arthur P. Tugade only assured that: “Doon sa siyam na nag-participate, halos kalahati locally-situated. At sa background nila, hindi naman maliliit, yun bang tinatawag nilang reputable at may character sa negosyo.”

Sources however told us, as I wrote here under the head “Selling Mimosa” (Punto! Oct. 5-6. 2015), that among the bidders were Robinsons, Filinvest, San Miguel Corp., two Korean firms, and one “client” of former CIAC head honcho Jose Victor “Chichos” Luciano.    

“Matagal nang pina-privatize ang Mimosa. Yung mga nakaraan, karamihan mga foreign companies.” So was Tugade quoted as saying, even as he expressed hope that this time it would be for real: “Sa aming obserbasyon po… at sana tama yung obserbasyon namin baka matuloy na ho ang privatization, pero mahirap naman magsalita nang tapos kasi may proseso pa rin yan.”

Tugade could not have spoken any worse, and sooner.

Golfers cry foul

First to raise a howl over the Mimosa bidding was the Mimosa Golf and Country Club Association, Inc. led by local media mogul Allan P. Dungao.

Barred from the pre-bid conference on Sept. 30, Dungao assailed what he called the “lack of transparency of CDC.”

“We are a party of interest, having bought and being holders of club membership shares in Mimosa. Keeping us off something CDC said is ‘open public bidding’ is depriving us of our right as Mimosa stakeholders,” argued Dungao.

How, if ever, the golfers’ concerns were addressed by the CDC, neither Tugade nor his PR department made public.

Even as the restiveness that obtained among the Mimosa workers was placated somewhat by Tugade thus: “…aasikasuhin namin ang mga issues ng mga empleyado. Magtutugma ang mga kasunduan ng CDC at mga empleyado.”

In our aforecited column and in our banner story on the Mimosa golfers’ dismay over CDC over the pre-bid conference, we mentioned the claims of the creditor banks on the estate owing to the loans contracted with them by original Mimosa developer-owner Jose Antonio Gonzalez. Which – the banks’ claims – never factored in any of the CDC press releases on the projected bidding.   

All that the PRs said of the Castilian losing control over Mimosa was: In 1998, the CDC regained control over the property from Mondragon Leisure and Resorts Corporation which failed to pay its rental fees to the government. Circumventing the other, even meatier, substance to the story – the hundreds of millions of pesos the creditor banks extended to Gonzalez.

Creditors warning

Thus, BusinessWorld on October 16: Creditors of the Mimosa Leisure Estate’s (MLE) original developer warned investors against joining the privatization efforts launched by the Clark Development Corp.

Stern, the creditors stand that:  …(A)ny lease agreement with the CDC would be null and void due to the government’s failure to take prior agreements with them into account.
Sterner yet: The special purpose vehicle for secured creditors…said it would be forced to foreclose on MLE’s assets and pursue legal action “to protect (their) rights, including that against the colluding winning bidder.”
On the grounds that:  …(T)he Terms of Reference violated the 2004 memorandum of agreement with CDC on the protection of creditors’ rights…(having) held their claims in abeyance in exchange for CDC’s assurance of a percentage of casino proceeds and the protection of their rights in the privatization.
Citing: …(T)he Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in the case of G.R. No. 154188, where it upheld creditors’ rights to foreclose the collateral leasehold rights over the MLE.

Accusing: CDC did not inform the public of the existence of liens and encumbrances, and pending foreclosure cases.

Offhand, see there CDC’s epic ignorance, if not gross incompetence, to exercise due diligence on the creditors’ concerns as part of the groundwork preparatory to the Mimosa bidding.

Which, in effect, is a total negation of CDC’s winning Executive Leadership Team in the recent Asia CEO Awards. Unless cluelessness and ineptitude have become corporate core values, of course.  

CDC did not inform the public of the existence of liens and encumbrances, and pending foreclosure cases.

On second reading, it assumes a deeper meaning; it virtually constitutes an indictment. Of a willful act of deception, CDC is tagged there. That is not only utterly immoral. It is patently criminal. A scam off a scum, to take it to the extreme. 

Aye, a travesty of the very transparency Tugade is trumpeting at the CDC.  

Unreasoning

“CONSPICUOUSLY ABSENT during the groundbreaking ceremony was Clark Development Corp. President-CEO Arthur P. Tugade.”

So reported the astute Ashley Manabat on the launch of the multi-million-dollar AeroPark Campus at the Global Gateway Logistics City (GGLC) property in the Clark Freeport Wednesday of last week.

Tugade had the best reason for his absence: He was at the Marriott in Pasay City receiving the Asia CEO Award’s Executive Leadership Team won by CDC, and his consolation prize as finalist in the Global Filipino Executive of the Year.

Methinks a deeper, if dubious, unreason for the Tatalonian Toughie’s nonappearance: Capilion.

Strange, if not illogical, (dis)connection? Read on.

One. The CDC has praise released Capilion’s Clark Green Frontier (CGF) as the biggest single investment – at a reported P7 billion – that came to the Freeport under Tugade’s incumbency. The only one, controversial at that, his critics would readily smirk.

AeroPark, with $150 million – P7.065 million at the current exchange rate of $1:P47.10 – is already, if slightly, bigger than Capilion. The enormous difference though coming with AeroPark being but a part of GGLC, “a major real estate development that will entail the investment of over $3 billion in new facilities…” While CGF is all there is to Capilion, Tugade aside.

Two. The Capilion project – per CDC’s Q&A shit, er, sheet – “will cover the development of two commercial buildings, covering (sic) a total floor area of 43,151.04 square meters. Date of project completion unspecified.

AeroPark will have “five office towers with a gross floor area of 142,000 square meters. Expected to be completed in 24 months or in 2017.” 

Three. Capilion has apparently finished trimming trees and digging at its CGF site, so called green – per CDC – for “the implementation of …Green Buildings that are in response to calls to help save the environment.” What, how, why green, the CDC Q&A did not give any inkling.

The day after the groundbreaking, AeroPark initiated “mobilization…for the construction of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified facilities whose spatial offerings and amenities will once again change the landscape of Clark and the surrounding area.” With LEED, AeroPark’s “greenness” needed no explanation.

AeroPark further sayeth all its five buildings would be certified “Grade A.”

Four. The Capilion project is bruited about to “initially employ 18,000 workers, and when it reaches its full capacity, about 75,000 jobs would be created.”

At the groundbreaking rites, Gov. Lilia G. Pineda expressed her delight over the 10,000 workers needed for the first phase of AeroPark, which when completed is seen to “generate employment opportunities to over 300,000 workers with $600 million in annual payroll for entry-level employees alone.”

In four out of four, AeroPark takes the thunder out of Capilion, leaving its drumbeater Tugade simply beat. And then one more.

Five. The Capilion project – principally because of its location – roused vehement opposition from the Angeles City council, the advocacy group Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement, traffic watchers, and local businessmen.

AeroPark – principally because of its location – has generated enthusiastic  support from local government leaders, notably Governor Pineda and Mayor Ed Paminutan, Clark advocates and business groups. (Speaking of Pamintuan, hizzoner has been uncharacteristically quiet on Capilion, giving rise to speculative, if malicious, talks of some “Bedan conspiracy” between CDC and city hall.) 

It is precisely that very location of AeroPark – the expansive GGLC property – that Capilion oppositors are suggesting as transfer site for its CGF, to free the Freeport from the traffic gridlocks it is expected to cause at its designated site by the very entrance to Clark.

Which Tugade cannot cause, GGLC being out of his CDC domain, located as it is in the civil aviation area administered and managed by Clark International Airport Corp. President-CEO Dino Tanjuatco.

Which Tugade will not. Else losing to CIAC the credit for effecting the P7-billion investment.  

Whichever, AeroPark makes the folly of Capilion all too conspicuous. Tugade would have stuck out like a sore thumb had he been present in the groundbreaking rites.         

Even if he did not lose in Asia CEO Award’s Global Filipino Executive of the Year.

Taken for idiots

THE CLARK Development Corp. takes the people of Angeles City, everyone that has a stake on the Freeport for that matter, for fools.

CDC could not care less even when it speaks with a forked tongue, knowing full well that the people hereabouts could not care any lesser.

A case in point is the Capilion caper.

The opposition to Capilion from sectors in the local community centers primarily on the project’s location – by the very main entrance of the Freeport – which would not require MMDA’s unlamented Francis Tolentino to wreak traffic havoc there.    

CDC’s counterpoint, presented in a Q&A full-page ad in the local papers in mid- August cited: 

What is being done in order to avoid traffic build-up in CGF area?

Capilion is required to submit a Traffic Impact Assessment (TIA) to CDC. Capilion has commissioned the UP National Center for Transport Studies (UPNCTS) to prepare the required TIA. UPNCTS will work closely with CDC regarding the preparation of this requirement. The TIA would be prepared in consultation with the Angeles City Government. It will include an analysis of traffic situation in various stages of development of the project. It will identify locations that would be prone to traffic congestion or conflict points. The TIA will also recommend remedial measures to overcome potential traffic problems.
On the other hand, CDC is drawing up a comprehensive transport and traffic plan for Angeles City and adjoining areas. This wholistic approach includes the new rotunda that was constructed at Clark’s main gate and the proposed East Perimeter Road in Mabalacat City.

When the opposition to Capilion – notably from Angeles City Councilor Max Sangil, who sponsored a resolution “vehemently opposing” the project, and followed it up with another seeking a House inquiry, and the advocacy group Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement – continued getting column inches in the front pages and critical time in the airwaves, CDC press released in the last week of August “to ask all concerned to be patient and allow traffic experts from UPNCTS to finish the Traffic Impact Assessment.”

That: “This traffic study and plan would be presented to concerned parties in the near future. CDC asks the public not to lose sight on how it is putting up a wholistic approach to help LGUs address traffic problems.”

Guiao

In mid-September, 1^st District Rep. Joseller “Yeng” Guiao, acting on the city council resolution and on a PGKM letter, met with CDC President-CEO Arthur P. Tugade for a briefing on Capilion.

Guiao, in a statement to media, said he was giving the CDC “two weeks to get ready and prepare for a meeting with all stakeholders.” He likewise asked CDC to “come clean and make a full disclosure of its lease agreement with Capilion.”

At the Balikatan Forum of the Capampangan in Media Inc., Guiao reaffirmed that stand: For CDC to “explain (Capilion), present the lease agreement and then open yourself up to question.”

Upon hearing CDC Communications Dept. Manager Noel Tulabut in the same forum claiming “some confidentiality clause” involved, an obviously piqued Guiao blurted: “That lease agreement is supposed to be a public document. Let us have a complete presentation.”

By the start of October, doubts were raised by the PGKM on the integrity of the     

the Traffic Impact Assessment (TIA) made by the University of the Philippines- National Center for Transportation Studies (UP-NCTS).
This, rising out of the admission of CDC itself that the TIA was undergoing revisions by three offices.
“Please understand that there are still revisions that go through three offices (CDC, UPNCTS, Capilion). We ask for your understanding.” So went a text message from CDC Comm Dept’s Noel Tulabut.

Prompting PGKM Chair Ruperto Cruz to riposte: “Is the CDC doctoring the UP traffic study to suit Capilion’s needs? Why still go through a study if CDC and Capilion have the power to revise the findings?”

Even as he demanded that the CDC should immediately present to the public the traffic study made by the UP-NCTS “as is or it would lose its credibility.”
Noting that two weeks had elapsed since Guiao’s promised meeting of all stakeholders, Punto sought him out, only to learn that he was out of the country:  
“I’m still in Bahrain. As soon as I get back on Monday, I will arrange things,” he texted.
Many Mondays have come and gone since. It is nearly the middle of November.

We have not heard of Guiao. We have not heard of the final outcome of that Traffic Impact Assessment. Even as pre-construction diggings have been completed at the Capilion site.

And, through all these times, the mayor of the city that will bear the brunt of the social cost of the Capilion project has remained uncharacteristically silenced. 

Yeah, CDC is not even asking the people anymore for patience and understanding.

Smug in its thought of having taken us for idiots.

And the moronic among us happily indulging CDC.  
Or didn’t you notice how the Metro Angeles Chamber of Commerce and Industry praised Tugade to the high heavens for his brand of management, not the least of which is transparency, that, they hailed, redounded to the Freeport’s success “based on facts and real accomplishments”?

Indeed, MACCI makes the greatest argument proving CDC correct in taking us for idiots.  

Standing brave

CAREFUL, CAREFUL.

I thought the dearly beloved showbiz maven Tita Luds, aka Inday Badiday, came to life with a long-time friend cautioning me to “tread softly” on the current of news flowing in the front pages of Punto! lately.

“Your dirty sneakers have stepped – hard – on some delicate judicial toes with your treatment of the Delfin Lee issues,” dear pal, a court hanger-on, told me. “And you sure are well aware of that cliché of Gehenna having no fury like…”

Oh, hell, never have I scorned any woman, I cut him. Not in my personal pursuits, not in my journalistic practice.

The Delfin Lee stories, only two at this point – his appeal not to be moved out of the Pampanga provincial jail for fear of his life, his case against the honorable executive judge of the regional trial court – were well confined within the pages on which they were written. Document-grounded, as they stood. Fact-based, until proven otherwise by a competent court.

Cut-and-dried straight news, as Ashley Manabat wrote them, as I edited them, as they appeared in Punto’s front page, to wit:

Delfin Lee fears for life in impending jail transfer in our Nov. 3 issue.

Delfin Lee files case vs. RTC Executive Judge with the bullet For ignorance of the law, usurpation of authority, graft on Nov. 5.

Compare the second headline to the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s in its Nov. 6 issue:

Delfin Lee accuses Pampanga judge of extortion.

A confession, sans contrition: I was tempted with the headline Delfin Lee cries extortion vs. RTC judge.

It had the dramatic punch, the louder scream, the stronger sensation.

But “extortion” was too strong a word, and in the context of the documents on hand, speculative, if not conclusive. The word totally absent in the texts of the complaint Delfin Lee filed with the Office of the Court Administrator.

Tag me a cobarde, but I’d rather stick to the facts for a story than stick my neck out and risk it being chopped. Yes, notwithstanding my solid background in the tabloid press, I remain a contrarian to that precept in yellow journalism: “Why sacrifice the story for the facts?”     

So, how could I have stepped out of journalistic bounds and stomped on some dainty toes at the RTC?

Your column, Fearing Judge Dredd (Punto! Nov. 5), my friend just won’t give up.

What about it?

It was a mere presentation of the letter of the Honorable Divina Luz P. Aquino-Simbulan, executive judge of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Third Judicial Region, to RTC Branch 42 Presiding Judge Maria Amifaith S. Fider-Reyes where Lee’s case is docked, seeking “advises that the appropriate Court Order” for the transfer of “accused Lee” from the Pampanga Provincial Jail to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology facility in Barangay Telabastagan, City of San Fernando.

In short, a brief of the arguments advanced by the Honorable Aquino-Simbulan to support her case for Delfin Lee’s transfer. And, in the spirit of fairness, Delfin Lee’s Omnibus Motion to prevent that transfer.

Nothing more than a “she-says, he-says” narrative.

What about your commentary at the end of the column, ah, so stubborn is this  friend.

Politics, as long clichéd, is the art of the possible. Murder and mayhem, not excluded.

And Philippine jails are never wanting in incidents where inmates are unceremoniously, if routinely, executed even before any conviction is promulgated.

Be afraid Delfin Lee, be very afraid.  

No way, not even in the remotest sense, were the statements linked to the Honorable Aquino-Simbulan or to anyone.

Those are facts of life in these islands, stated as they are, absent any allegation, empty of malicious implication, devoid of even the slightest insinuation.

Why, Fearing Judge Dredd is whining pussy to the tigerish roar of Star Alex Magno’s First Person column in the Philippine Star of Nov. 10, sub-headed Judicial Dynasty, to wit:

…The courts in the province of Pampanga are under the direction of Executive Judge Divina Luz Simbulan. As executive judge, she wields some clout over the appointment of court personnel and the work of other judges. She is, among the judges in the province, first among equals.

It turns out, Judge Simbulan is married to Atty. Jesus Simbulan. The husband, for his part, holds the rank of regional state prosecutor for Region III. As such, he directs the work of all prosecutors under his jurisdiction.

…(T)here is a sense that some conflict of interest might pertain if the executive judge of a province is married to the regional prosecutor whose domain encompasses that province. The position of one could serve to magnify the power of the other.

For better or for worse, we live in a culture where informal influence is often more telling than the letter of the law. Although the couple may do their work completely independent of the other, the situation causes much unease and opens much room for malicious speculation. The judge, after all married to the prosecutor.

Now, there’s a brave stand.

              

Fearing Judge Dredd

PROSECUTOR, JUDGE and, God forbid, executioner.

That is how the Honorable Divina Luz P. Aquino-Simbulan, executive judge of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Third Judicial Region, comes out in some charge sheet filed in the mind of detained real estate developer Delfin S. Lee. Some Judge Dredd, in that Stallone movie and British comic book there.   

This, after the Honorable Aquino-Simbulan wrote RTC Branch 42 Presiding Judge Maria Amifaith S. Fider-Reyes where Lee’s case is docked, of “advises that the appropriate Court Order” by the latter be issued “directing the transfer of accused Lee” from the Pampanga Provincial Jail to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology facility in Barangay Telabastagan, City of San Fernando.

Meticulous and methodical, the Honorable Aquino-Simbulan built up her case for Lee’s transfer on the grounds of: 1) “anonymous letters affecting Lee”; 2) “a small gym (with bench press) in the vacant cell adjoining the cell where… Lee was incarcerated”; 3) alleged Lee’s bodyguard Kenneth Nicdao goes on daily duty from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the provincial jail; 4) “information from RTC Zumba instructor Marlon Sumala that… Nicdao…threatened to kill or hurt him”; 5) “questions arise as to the security measures existing at the Pampanga Provincial Jail where even incidents of illegal drugs infiltration have been reported.”

These, the Honorable Aquino-Simbulan herself established through periodic inspections at the provincial jail.

These, the Honorable Aquino-Simbulan concluded as manifest of the “special treatment” Lee is getting at the provincial jail.

And so, in the name of equal justice for all, he should be moved to another, less accommodating, jail?        

Why, the Honorable Aquino-Simbulan is even doing Lee a favor with his transfer to the Telabastagan jail as his lawyer Atty. Willie Rivera holds office in nearby Balibago, Angeles City. Easily dismissed a non-sequitur given Rivera’s preparation for the city vice mayoralty race which rendered him inactive in Lee’s defense.

So thoroughly methodical was the Honorable Aquino-Simbulan that she already obtained the assurances of BJMP officials led by Supt. Rufino M. Santiago, Jr. and District Jail Warden Roy Regacho that “they can secure accused Delfin Lee” in Telabastagan.

Injudicious

Not exactly Hamlet’s method to the madness but injudicious lapses Lee perceived in the Honorable Aquino-Simbulan’s actions.

One. Since when did anonymous letters become grounds for judicial truths?

Two. Since when did a single bench press become a gym? Besides, that press belongs to the jail.

Three. The Honorable Aquino-Salgado herself said in her letter to the Honorable Fider-Reyes that the name of alleged Lee bodyguard Nicdao does not appear in the jail logbook for visitors, thus: “Nicdao does not even log thereat.”

How could she write then that Nicdao goes on daily 8-to-5 duty for his boss?

Four. What has Lee got to do with the “information” of Sumala that Nicdao threatened to kill him?

Five. Security measures at the provincial jail as to “incidents of illegal drugs infiltration” are the responsibilities of the warden.

Last time I look, the warden of the provincial jail is named Edwin Mangaliman, not Delfin Lee who is in jail for alleged syndicated estafa and not for drug trafficking.

The above arguments duly noted in Lee’s Omnibus Motion filed by his lawyer Rony Garay to prevent his transfer to Telabastagan.

Moreso, Lee holds the Honorable Aquino-Simbulan as having “already pre-empted any action” of the Honorable Fider-Reyes who “is yet to act on the said advice”

This, with the Honorable Aquino-Simbulan already “coordinating” the transfer of Lee with the BJMP officials without waiting for the Honorable Fider-Reyes court’s action.

Per Lee’s motion, the Honorable Aquino-Simbulan’s efforts could have violated Rule 114, Section 3 of the Revised Rules on Criminal Procedure, to wit: “No person under detention shall be transferred except upon lawful order of the court.”

Even worse, Garay said, is the Honorable Aquino-Simbulan’s basis for her “advice” which he said were “pure surmises, conjectures and hearsay.”

So much for the persecutor, er, prosecutor and judge roles. Now to the, God forbid, executioner’s part.

Given the absence of “direct allegations or claims of special treatment” in favor of Lee, Garay said, his transfer would “trivialize and trample upon his constitutional right” of being presumed innocent until the contrary is proven.

Dared him: Should the executive judge insist on the transfer, then the Honorable Aquino-Simbulan “be required to execute a written personal undertaking to secure the safety of his client and if ever he is physically harmed at the BJMP Telabastagan, any consequence shall be the personal liability of the executive judge.”

Extreme prejudice

In effect, Garay was saying Delfin Lee’s blood would be in the Honorable Aquino-Simbulan’s hands. And she is not even the one hearing the case of Lee!

Wow! Is it just me or do we see some perversion of justice here? Of what was used to be called “termination with extreme prejudice” beyond the bounds of the courts? Indeed, of some Judge Dredd?

"I now strongly feel that the move to transfer me to a jail where I would be vulnerable is related to my earlier statement that once the Supreme Court dismisses my case, I will go out to expose all the anomalies I know against (Vice President Jejomar) Binay." So was Lee quoted as saying by a recent visitor.

In his expose before the Senate, read by his lawyer, Lee said the case against him was pursued by Binay after he rejected the demand of the vice president for P200 million and also to implicate former Vice President and former Pag-IBIG Fund Chairman Noli de Castro in a housing scam.

Lee alleged that the extortion attempt was coursed through one Gerry Limlingan and that both demands were made during Binay’s first months as head of the Home Development Mutual Fund.

“If this happened to me, it can happen to any legitimate businessman or ordinary person. We are all subject to the whims and caprices of Binay, especially when he becomes, fate forbid, the president of this country,” furthered Lee, not so cryptically. His message loud and clear.

Politics, as long clichéd, is the art of the possible. Murder, not excluded.

And Philippine jails are never wanting in incidents where inmates are unceremoniously, if routinely, executed even before any conviction is promulgated.

Be afraid Delfin Lee, be very afraid.  

Party pooper

BALIMBINGAN, IT is called in the local parlance.

The game of musical chairs, or the dance of changing partners, transposed to politics. So it is euphemized.
Butterflies flitting from one flower to the other, seeking the sweetest nectar. So politicos engaged in it are metaphored. And, put in simile, like rats abandoning a sinking ship, where the party losing popularity is concerned. 
Plain political prostitution, in all its graphic obscenity. 
Strange bedfellows politics does indeed make. So sworn foes today are the sweetest friends in the next polls. Hi Leila, hello Ping.

The party pooper in the last elections becomes the party boy in the next. Mar, is that you? 
Political opportunism – the very rule of thumb in the Philippine political praxis.

As it was – even long before the paragraphs above saw print in another paper some 10 years ago – so it shall ever be.

Actually balimbingan has devolved into something worse. Now, politicos don’t change parties like they change clothes. They need not to, really, as they just come as they are, walk into just any party and get away with it.

See the senatorial slots for the 2016 polls.

Vilma Santos’ husband, the re-electionist Sen. Ralph Recto is in both the Liberal Party and Grace Poe slates.

Finding their slots in the not-so-divine Grace’s line-up and Jejomar Binay’s United Nationalist Alliance are re-electionist Sen. Tito Sotto, comebacking Senators Dick Gordon and Migz Zubiri and champion of the overseas Filipino workers Toots Ople.

And please explain returning Sen. Ping Lacson’s tenably tenacious foothold on the diametrically opposed LP and UNA.

A mockery of party politics is the Philippine practice. A return to the two-party system, though finding popularity anew, is no assurance of effecting the primacy of party platform over individual popularity.

The master of politics himself, the Great Ferdinand, knew this by heart. Thus his immortal take on Philippine politics as “personalist, populist and individualist” upon which he founded his fuehrership, and, with his beloved Imeldific, propagated their Malakas at Maganda apotheosis.
All Filipino politicians come from the Marcosian mold of “personal, popular, individual.”

All pretensions to party advocacy are, well, pretensions.
So Quezon ranted: “My loyalty to my party ends where my loyalty to my country begins.” God bless him.
Party loyalty is a contradiction in terms; loyalty to the country is as true as Judas’ devotion to Christ. Where politicos are concerned.
The pre-eminence of the individual politician over his party is inherent in Philippine political history. Thus, Nacionalista Party-Roy Wing, Liberal Party-Kalaw Wing, Liberal Party-Salonga Wing in the not too distant past.
Thus followed, a Liberal Party sundered by anti-GMA and pro-GMA flanks winging to Atienza-Defensor on the right, Drilon-Pangilinan, et al on the left. With poor Jovy Salonga, tottering at the fulcrum.
On another plane, witness how political parties hereabouts are hitched on the tides of fortune of their founders: the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan was an invincible monolith at the height of the Marcos dictatorship, only to crumble to dust after EDSA Uno. The sainted Cory Aquino took Ramon Mitra’s Laban to the promised land, then pulled the rug from under him and emerged with Fidel Ramos’ LakTao, that’s Lakas-Tao for you, that evolved into Lakas-NUCD-UMDP. Then there was Erap Estrada’s Partido ng Masang Pilipino and the Reform Party of Miriam Defensor-Santiago. Ditto Lito Osmena’s Promdi and Raul Roco’s Aksyon Demokratiko.
To repeat: The Philippine political experience has made, aye it is the very, mockery of party politics. A change to the parliamentary system is bruited about as the harbinger of political maturity, and consequently, the supremacy of a party’s platform of governance as the dominant factor in the choice of national leaders.
It is not bad to dream. But, kung mangarap ka’t magising, na ikaw ay ikaw pa rin, para anupa’t ika’y patulugin? Baka ka lang bangungutin.
Yes, no less than a lobotomy of the Filipino psyche is required to better Philippine politics.

And we haven’t even considered here those who’d want to be president to establish some inter-galactic governance, legalize the four seasons for this tropical country, settle the country’s debts, stop China, or win back “former wife” Kris Aquino.