Law is the rule of the right

by Peter Jimenea, from the Daily Guardian

IT TOOK decades for previous crooks to amass the same amount of loot the present clique of thieves in the kingdom by the river have plundered in just less than nine years. But look, even the shameless react violently after getting the spanking they deserved for their stupidity.

If we look closely at what is happening at the kingdom by the river, the indomitable corruption could bring an honest auditor to the brink of insanity. Lowly employees are more sorely tempted to steal but don’t, what a shame!

Consider this, Mr. Manuel “Boy” Mejorada was sacked as provincial administrator and even the Civil Service Commission (CSC) declared his position vacant. On why he is still at the Capitol, he has yet to say.

But somebody says he is now a Capitol volunteer. SEC. 480, of the Local Government Code (LGC) says the Provincial Administrator must be a resident of the province concerned, coterminous with the appointing authority and the appointment is mandatory.

Mejorada’s election case reached the CA because Gov. Niel Tupas, Sr. is willing to hit the mattress in sticking it out with him. On why, only God knows. But it was a saddest misfortune that what the governor claims to be his loyal men are now stabbing him at the back.

Former provincial administrator Mejorada and Levy Buenavista forced themselves to become members of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) in the acquisition of that Autoclave machine intended for use of Passi City Hospital

But being coterminous with Gov. Tupas, they are prohibited to become members of the BAC. Delicadeza dictates they should inhibit themselves from attending even the meeting or bidding being conducted by the BAC.

Sad to say, love of money knows no law. Buenavista impliedly represented himself as representative from the governor’s office while Mejorada entered as BAC member on the pretext of representing the office of the provincial administrator. What a cheat!

They should know that implied powers are those which are necessarily included in, but of lesser degree than powers granted to them. It cannot extend to other matters not embraced therein are nor incidental thereto.” (Azarcon vs. Sandiganbayan, 268 SCRA 747).

By forcing their way into BAC, Mejorada and Buenavista deliberately stepped over the line of pardonable behavior. What a gall, but the one eventually gets screwed is Gov. Tupas as usual, for playing dumb-sucker!

Love of money may have developed strange-relationship between the once blacklisted supplier and the man at General Services Office (GSO), an office of ill-refute. But their gang when in grouping is reeking with Domino theory, autoclave machine today, another item tomorrow.

The acquisition of that autoclave machine was inspired by greed. Greed compels them to transact business even if contra bonos mores – contrary to sound established practice or against good morals!

I heard that a number of Capitol employees were reprimanded by the governor for being suspects to have leaked the messy deal to this writer. Gov. Tupas should know this is an ironed transaction consensus omnium – by the agreement of all.

Unfortunately, they failed to notice that Capitol employees are no longer interested in reading good stories about the provincial government. The employees are now more interested to know on how Capitol officials spend their money!

By the way, only the office of the governor has the copy of that COA report. So, how did it leak? Let me share this very important lesson from experience which says; “The greatest security risk of any organization is not from outside but from within.”

Well I hope we understand each other now. There is nobody to blame but people who are so careless in holding important documents like that one from COA. They don’t have the faintest idea that even grasses have ears.

Now that’s what they get for their stupidity. I hope to have made your day in this column, you ask for it. Unlike me and Dirty Harry who ask others to make our day!

Trio Los Bobos

by Peter Jimenea, of The Daily Guardian

OUR hero Kuyabog still pursues his dream of instilling discipline, professionalism, industry, diligence and what have you on the 2,000 subjects of the Kingdom by the River.

And in so doing, turns that land into an elementary school because Kuyabog, capo di tutti capi of the trio los bobos, cannot, and does not care to, understand what the words above mean.

He does not see the substance of those values. All he sees are only forms, which is the trait he shares with the trio, este, mucho los bobos, pretending like him to be leaders but actually groveling nitwits that they are.

All that Kuyabog et al do is limit professionalism, industry, etc. to mere rituals like wearing of proper uniform, attendance to the flag ceremony every Monday morning, and perfect attendance sheet.

Like grade school toddlers, lowly employees must beat the traffic and be at the flag pole by 7:50. Otherwise, they might miss the ceremony. Kuyabog, the flirting Tibakla and Sirum-Sirum ordered the guards to shut all doors to the palace, so none gets out to the flagpole and none gets in to time in.

Those unable to attend get memorandum from Kuyabog himself chiding her/him for being unpatriotic and demanding explanation for disrespecting the flag.

The late ones fare worse. They may have catch up with the flag ceremony but their lateness of less than five minutes can swell to one hour because the flag ceremony can drag indefinitely. Tibakla the star of the show titled “Illegal Connection at the Old Palace” and Sirum-Sirum have the propensity to deliver lengthy but useless messages after the flag ceremony.

What the mucho los bobos fail to see is that to learn to become good civil servants, all that employees need to do is to do the exact the opposite of what Kuyabog et al do.

Kuyabog steals and steals because he has to support a costly lifestyle. He visits first class night spots and coffee shops, and maintains mistresses like Karing with whom he has a child, Bitang with two, his own wife Sakrifisya with three, a special male friend initialed “M”, another woman with a child whom he rescued from the town of the housing scam at the height of Bagyo Frank.

Kuyabog conspired with Mister Cutter and Gurami in rigging a public bidding to favor a notorious contracter named “CDC” to procure a substandard and overpriced autoclave (sterilizing machine) for a district hospital. The defective machine bled the kingdom P1.4 million.

Kuyabog, Gurami and Mister Cutter also conspired to rig another bidding to favor the same contractor to supply another hospital with an overpriced anesthesia machine that is already obsolete because the company already stopped producing it and its spare parts. the deal costs P2 million.

Not contented, Kuyabog and another official conspired to buy an overpriced software used in the assessment and payment of real property taxes. The supplier initially offered it at P1 million which was already overpriced at that but Kuyabog wanted a costlier one. He asked the supplier to change name to justify a higher rate that the latter gladly did. Here is the case of an individual, renaming its company to sell the same software at the bloated price of P4.5 million.

Employees get warned and disciplined for minor infractions like being late or missing flag ceremonies but we have here a master disciplinarian and his fellow gangsters inflicting irreparable injuries on the kingdom and its people. They get away with it and laugh their way to the bank.

Caterers, in addition, curse them. These trio, este, mucho los bobos, appointed themselves “tasters” to ensure that meals and snacks served during seminars meet quality standards. The problem is that, they taste not mere samples. They are actually eating to the point of satiety. That happens almost everyday and these mucho los bobos still get free food on top of their loot! Ex puduratos- shameless!

New warlords of drugs

by Peter Jimenea, of the Daily Guardian

IN MID 1990s, there were only two identified syndicates engaged in illegal drug business in Iloilo City. One was in Barangay Tanza-Esperanza and the other was in Barangay Bakhaw, Mandurriao.

The alleged leaders of the group were known only as Odicta and Prevendido. I knew these people when I was issuing surety bonds for temporary liberty of people facing criminal charges like the violation of R.A. 9165 or illegal drugs.

But lately, I received a lot of text messages during our Sky Cable TV talk show with DOJ Sec. Raul Gonzalez that there are new big players in illegal drug business making Odicta and Prevendido look like small peddlers on the sidewalks.

As disclosed by the texters, the new big players are Jong-Jong from the Waterfront and Bonnie from Mandurriao. More messages were coming in fingering the two as the new warlords of drugs in the city but we cannot disclose unsubstantiated accusations on the air.

The information fed by the televiewers during the replay of the program “Smart Views” could have concretized what the earlier claims hinted at. But Sec. Gonzalez advised them to come forward and prove their allegations against Jong-Jong and Bonnie.

Looking back to 1972, there were around 20,000 drug users only, mostly concentrated in Metro Manila with marijuana as the preferred drug of abuse. But in 1999, it shows there were already 1.8 million regular users and 1.6 million occasional users.

Out of the total number of users, however, 1.2 million belong to the youth. Worse, a survey conducted by SWS commissioned by DEP Center revealed there are about 9.3 million users all over the country. And that was seven years ago yet!

But with the reorganization of the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) in 2002, along with it is the birth of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), Pres. Gloria M. Arroyo then vowed to make Philippines a drug-free country by setting 2010 as deadline.

She was irritated by reports that one in 29 Filipinos aged 10 to 44 is hooked on drugs. This is also what got the DOJ Secretary so disgusted about that he declared a total war against drug lords and their protectors in Iloilo City.

As noted since 1972 to 1999, we were always receiving reports about law-enforcers fighting one another as if fighting criminals on the streets because of drug-money.

True, drug money buys judges, court personnel, prosecutors, police, military, lawyers, politicians and even officials in the barangay. So what’s more is there to tell about drug money?

It was only after PDEA was created that war on drugs transformed into a commitment for our law-enforcers to fight illegal drugs as if fighting a battle being fought by the Israelites and the Palestinians.

As a result, a number of police officers were recalled and transferred to new assignments. The new assignment was not a punitive action but a rescue operation to save them from moral bankruptcy - courtesy of PRO-6 Regional Director, C/Supt. Isagani Cuevas assisted by PDEA Regional Director, S/Supt. Roybel Sanchez.

True, today illegal drugs business in the city changed a lot. Odicta shifted interest from illegal drugs to legal businesses. But his contemporary in Bakhaw was reported to have joined forces with Jong-Jong for fear that Bonnie and allies who are making fast progress would finally control the market.

Texters claim that a Chinese linked to illegal drug business and a certain policeman with provincial assignment are allies of Bonnie while the shabu queen recently arrested by the PDEA at the waterfront is linked to Jong-Jong.

On how true, only God knows. But underworld business carries with it jealousy, betrayal, swindling and double-cross. As criminals have no recourse to court of law for settlement of differences, death is the most logical solution to all judicial problems.

In Mainland China they also have a very simple solution to this problem – a bullet in the head done in public. But this Chinese concept of swift justice is at odds with due process and I am certain Sec. Gonzalez won’t agree to this!

Document disproves Gorriceta’s claim

from Herbert Vego, of the Daily Guardian

DID Pavia, Iloilo Mayor Arcadio Gorriceta deliberately lie when he repeatedly accused the Syjuco couple of trying to “magic” asphalt into dakal-dakal or gravel and sand? Let’s see.

A faxed copy of a document – the September 9, 2008 letter of 2nd District Congresswoman Judy Syjuco to DPWH Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane, Jr. – mirrors the initiative of the congresswoman, not of the mayor, in amending the program of work from one of dakal-dakal component to one of cement. Excerpts of the letter follow:

“This refers to the repair/rehabilitation of Tigum Pagsangaan Road, scheduled for the rehabilitation cost of Php 10.5M.

“We hereby support the upgrading thereof from the original plan of ‘repair/rehabilitation’ to ‘concreting of road.’

“May we please ask the District Engineer of the Iloilo 4th District Engineering Office to make a new program of work to be submitted to your Regional Director and then to your Honor as soon as possible for a corresponding increase of budget that is required for the upgraded work to be done.

“On the other hand, please be informed that we object vehemently to the request of the Mayor of Pavia to administer the work. The town should limit its affairs to local governance and should not be in construction business.

“The DPWH is the sole agency for public projects which it may itself administer or bid out to qualified contractors.”

Let us recall that Mayor Gorriceta started hitting the Syjucos – the congresswoman and her husband, TESDA Secretary Augusto Syjuco – on AM radio stations on September 10, one day after the congresswoman had written the above letter. Since it was Madam Syjuco herself who had asked for upgrading of the program of work from “repair/rehabilitation” using dakal-dakal to “concreting” or cementing, how could the mayor accuse the couple of settling for mere dakal-dakal out of a bursting P28-million budget?

From the aforesaid letter, it is obvious that there was no such P28-m defrayed, since the congresswoman was actually asking for additional fund; and that the P10.5-m already released was not a first tranche of the alleged three tranches but the entire budget for the original program of work.

If all the mayor wants is to see the aforesaid road concretized, rather than go into construction business himself, then he now has reason to be jolly. In response to the congresswoman’s request, the DPWH has upped the road budget from P10.5-m to P37.5-m, which would concretize the 2.5-kilometer Pavia portion of the Tigum-Pagsangaan-Cabugao Norte provincial road, with a width of 9.1 meters — 6.1-meter concrete plus a 1.5-meter gravel shoulder on each side. That’s P9-5-m more than the P28-m asphalt road that Gorriceta would have settled for.

It is a no-no for a municipal government to undertake the job because it is not accredited by the Bureau of Research and Standards, except in rare cases where the DPWH itself flashes the green light whenever such a municipality has a group of qualified engineering personnel and needed equipment.

By keeping their mouths shut while clawing for an ideal program of work for Gorriceta’s municipality, the Syjucos have done an action that speaks more than Gorriceta’s thousand words.

This corner thinks that Ka Cadio, until recently a kapuso of the Syjucos, should have coordinated with Boboy and Inday Judy instead of raising hell. Since unfolding events have betrayed his accusation as a mere figment of imagination, he has gained nothing but lost a patron.

No matter how Cadio denies it, Pavianhons have not forgotten that it was Boboy Syjuco who bankrolled his candidacy for the mayorship in 2004, and again in 2007 after Boboy had restrained other hopefuls from running against him.

Incidentally, for the first time since the dakal-dakal issue cropped up, the Syjucos will grace a public function today – the graduation exercise of TESDA’s 173 construction trainees who expect to work in Saudi Arabia and Guam.

No, there’s no anti-Cadio press conference in the agenda, contrary to radio reports, for the sake of KKK – kalipayan, kauswagan, kaayuhan.

Achievement or major blunder?

by Ranie Jangayo, Daily Guardian

AMID the controversy over the shootout Wednesday last week at Jalandoni-Delgado Streets, Iloilo City that left three persons dead, some human rights lawyers and civilians opine the PNP should review its rules of engagement.

This, after a TV crew that responded to the scene of the incident caught the cops on tape firing at the three victims even if they were already lying on the pavement seriously wounded.

Some considered this an achievement on the part of the PNP but others see this as a major blunder committed by members of the Regional Intelligence Office (RIO) under Supt. Samuel Nacion.

Nacion is one of the region’s highly-trained and respected police officials, a colleague told this corner.

But Nacion must face the consequences of what they did.

***

Reacting to Mayor Jerry Treñas’ comments that the shooting incident would dissuade bad elements from operating in the metropolis, human rights advocates said it should not be viewed that way.

As far as we are concerned, every police action is presumed to be within the framework of our legal system.

The committee chairman of public safety and police matters in the city council must also conduct a separate investigation on the incident in aid of legislation.

***

While we welcome the internal probe by the National Police Commission and the Police Regional Office 6, some expressed doubts because the police will investigate their “kabaro”.

PRO-6 is composed of police personnel while the National Police Commission is allegedly known for exonerating high ranking police officers who are subjects of complaints by ordinary citizens.

***

Can you also imagine Col. Bartolome Tobias, the ICPO director, making an outright conclusion that there was no overkill or rubout even without watching first the TV footage?

It was an instant attempt to mislead the people in the guise of making us believe that it was a plain shootout.

Tobias should have told us to wait for the result of the investigation.

***

We are again reminded of the 11 Kuratong Baleleng kidnap-for-ransom gang members who were shot to death in Metro Manila 13 years ago. This case stained the image of the police.

Just lately, another alleged rubout happened when four suspects in the May 16 Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) robbery case were riddled with bullets by the police.

The cops involved were recommended to be dismissed.

***

Police should only use reasonable force to neutralize suspects during the engagement.

What we saw in the GMA-6 Iloilo footage showed how police officers shot Samuel Cioco, Gerard Emaas and Hino Balacutan even if they were already lying on the pavement.

Did Nacion and his men even think of rushing the wounded to the nearest hospital? It took them almost four hours to take away the bodies from the scene. Instead of bringing them to the hospital, they were brought directly to Somo memorial homes mortuary.

Even if it is true that Gerald Emaas was “Kilabot ng Masbate,” and Samuel Cioco and Hino Balacutan were notorious criminals, cops should know that they also have the right to due process. Tawo man ini sila!