Why Boboy, Judy, et al are not yet in jail?

“If you can manipulate news, a judge can manipulate the law. A smart lawyer can keep a killer out of jail, a smart accountant can keep a thief from paying taxes, a smart reporter could ruin your reputation-unfairly.”

Mario Cuomo

By Alex P. Vidal

They are all facing graft raps before the Office of the Ombudsman, but why is it that some of the accused are now in jail—“with no bail recommended”—while the others remain “scot-free” after being allowed to post a bail bond, which is usually peanuts compared to the stolen amount.

Some of us may ask, “Aren’t they all crooks?”

Former Iloilo second district congressman and ex-TESDA chief Augusto “Boboy” Syjuco and wife, former Iloilo second district Rep. Judy, and several others were each allowed to post a P30,000 bail bond after being charged with embezzling government funds in connection with the P20-million TESDA unauthorized project, thus they did not automatically join senators Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla in jail.

The Syjuco husband and wife, et al are facing graft and corruption charges while the jailed senators are accused of plunder.

The Office of the Ombudsman accused Mrs. Judy Syjuco of using P20 million of her Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocations—commonly known as pork barrel—on an unauthorized project implemented by TESDA headed then by her husband, Boboy, during the Arroyo administration.

INJURY

The prosecutors claimed the project has “caused undue injury” to TESDA's supposed beneficiaries and bound the government in a grossly disadvantageous contract.

“They should be in jail now that the Ombudsman has filed the graft case in the Sandiganbayan like Jinggoy, Bong, et al,” some people may insist. They may add: “Is the anti-graft and corrupt practices law double standard?”   

It pays to always look at both sides of the coin. Before we criticize something let’s make sure we understand what it is all about and why it is there.

If we don’t look deeper into the wisdom of those behind the passage of Republic Act No. 7080 or “An Act Defining And Penalizing The Crime of Plunder”, we will suspect that the law was passed so that small fries—thieves in government who steal a lesser amount—would be protected from landing behind bars as soon as a prima facie evidence has been established by the Office of the Ombudsman against them.

We are referring the plunder law’s Sec. 2 on the Definition of the Crime of Plunder; Penalties, which states that “Any public officer who, by himself or in connivance with members of his family, relatives by affinity or consanguinity, business associates, subordinates or other persons, amasses, accumulates or acquires ill-gotten wealth through a combination or series of overt criminal acts as described in Section 1 (d) hereof in the aggregate amount or total value of at least Fifty million pesos (P50,000,000.00) shall be guilty of the crime of plunder and shall be punished by reclusion perpetua to death.

PARTICIPATE

“Any person who participated with the said public officer in the commission of an offense contributing to the crime of plunder shall likewise be punished for such offense. 

“In the imposition of penalties, the degree of participation and the attendance of mitigating and extenuating circumstances, as provided by the Revised Penal Code, shall be considered by the court. 

“The court shall declare any and all ill-gotten wealth and their interests and other incomes and assets including the properties and shares of stocks derived from the deposit or investment thereof forfeited in favor of the State.”

It’s clear that the reason why the Syjuco couple was allowed to post bail was because the amount involved in the unauthorized project was less than P50 million. It's not plunder.

Jinggoy, Bong, et al are now languishing in jail because they allegedly stole hundreds of millions of pesos of people’s money via kickbacks from bogus non-government organizations created by Janet Lim-Napoles. It's plunder.

REALIZE

Authors of the plunder law must have realized that the law could be used by a despotic president to persecute his political enemies or a leverage to ferret out political and even business favors if the cap for the amount involved in a plunder law is below P50 million.

If a government official is charged with graft and corruption for pocketing at least P1 million in tax payers’ money and the law does not recommend a bail for his temporary freedom, we can’t imagine what will happen to the opposition if the administration lowers the broom and intends to wipe them out.

Any vindictive President can use the law at his disposal to harass, intimidate and persecute political dissidents.

He can score a massacre by using the Office of the Ombudsman as a tool to indiscriminately haul to court any political enemy who makes a mistake of being caught dipping his fingers in the cookie jar. This could be the reason why in a plunder case, the accused must have at least pocketed P50 million in order to spend his time in jail while his case is under trial.

The R.A. 7080, in a nutshell, protects the “political enemies” of the state.

Now we understand.

Not yet a thief

“It's not fair that the accused is not protected from adverse publicity whilst the accuser is guaranteed anonymity, whatever the verdict.” Jonathan King

By Alex P. Vidal

We can’t call Bayan Muna partylist Rep. Neri Colmenares a thief yet unless proven otherwise.

It’s too premature to conclude that he benefited from the alleged anomalous construction of the two-classroom building in Barangay Dela Peña Primary School, Barotac Viejo, Iloilo worth P1.8 million.

The project was reportedly funded by the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), recently declared as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

A case filed in court against any individual—government official or ordinary civilian--does not make that individual outright criminal.

In our justice system, the accused has to undergo a trial where he is given the chance to answer the raps against him and clear his name.

The accuser, on the other hand, has to present evidence or evidences to support the charges and help convict the accused.

REASONABLE

If the court finds him guilty beyond reasonable doubt in a criminal case, he goes to jail and becomes a convicted criminal.

The graft case filed against Colmenares by the Movement for People Empowerment (MPE) at the Office of the Ombudsman here last August 5, immediately caught fire and brimstone, so to speak, among both the defenders of President Benigno S. Aquino III and the leftist organization represented by the Ilonggo partylist congressman.

Colmenares has been a consistent critic of Malacanang. He and his colleagues in Bayan Muna dismissed MPE’s charges as “harassment.”

Pro-administration allies, including some elected public officials connected with the ruling Liberal Party (LP) immediately “shared” the news about Colmenares’ case in social media, especially in Facebook.

CAPTION

“So the whole world may know,” screamed the caption under an article from Panay News dated August 5, 2014: “Bayan Muna’s Colmenares and company ‘GRAFTBUSTER’ FACES GRAFT CHARGES” posted in the Facebook page of Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog. “Don’t only comment…please also SHARE.”

Colmenares swore he “never stole a single centavo from public funds” explaining that his office only endorsed the project requested by the office of Barotac Viejo Mayor Niel Tupas III to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

The Ilonggo solon stressed that “based on the reports sent to my office, it was completed last February and like in other projects, not a single centavo was given or passed through me.”

Colmenares said he was willing to undergo a lifestyle check to prove that he is not a crook, a challenge belittled by MPE coordinator Tomas Calderon in a Panay News article dated August 6, 2014 as “alibi.”

Calderon said the same “strategy” was used by jailed and suspended senators Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., Jinggoy Estrada and even former president and now Manila mayor Joseph Estrada.

It’s too early to say that the graft case was an act of vendetta on the part of the administration since it was not yet established if Malacanang was behind the MPE.

DOUBTS

If it hopes to erase doubts in the mind of the public

that it was only picking on critics of President Aquino like Colmenares, MPE should also run after other lawmakers, including senators, regardless of party affiliations, who also clearly and scandalously benefited from the pork barrel fund via the locally implemented infrastructure projects, where the biggest robbery through kickbacks and under the table transactions occurred; where scalawags and thieves really made a giant killing.

A graft case shouldn’t be used as a weapon to harass and intimidate critics of the Aquino administration. Pro or anti administration, the law should be fair to everyone. In the crusade against graft and corruption, there should be no holy cow; no special treatment; no palakasan.

But if evidence shows that Colmenares, et al really

benefited from the Barotac Viejo, Iloilo school building project, they must pay the price and go to jail. No ifs. No buts.

Tell us who are your friends

“Neutral men are the devil's allies.”

Edwin Hubbel Chapin

By Alex P. Vidal

The front pages of all the newspapers, headline news of all TV and radio networks yesterday said it all!

The judiciary is hell-bent not to genuflect before the executive branch, its co-equal in government, as manifested by the gallant stand of the majority of the judges, prosecutors, and other hall of justice employees all over the country who wore black last Monday to assert judicial independence.

The move was precipitated by President Benigno Aquino III’s astonishing brickbats against the Supreme Court, which had torpedoed the Palace’s Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) or pork barrel.

Mr. Aquino’s unprecedented tirades against the higher court initially failed to catch fire among lawmakers and local government executives.

They, too, were caught by surprise by the President’s boldness and, to some extent, stubbornness. Many mayors and governors were made to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea.

SUPPORT

But lately, some tong-gressmen, city and municipal mayors and governors started to voice their support for their embattled chief executive in Malacanang.

They were even undaunted and willing to engage in a slugfest the church’s top prelates who denounced the DAP in the pulpits.

These tong-gressmen and some local chief executives must have realized they would be accused by Malacanang as “ingrates” for abandoning the cause that benefited their districts, cities, municipalities and provinces if they did not take a stand and come to the President’s defense at this crucial moment.

A common cause that benefited their favorite contractors and, what else, their own pockets!

DAP funded most local infrastructure and public works projects through the tong-gressmen and sin-nators bribed by Malacanang to impeach Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona.

UNITY

In unity there is strength. United we stand, united we fall.

This must be the battlecry of the local chief executives, tong-gressmen and sin-nators who are now singing hallelujah to President Aquino.

In Negros and Iloilo, many mayors and governors have started to show their true colors by joining the Palace in justifying why DAP should not have been shot down by the Supreme Court like the Malaysian Airlines jet.

They knew that if they abandoned the king, they would be isolated politically and made to face the Commission on Audit’s wrath like condemned and captured enemies facing the firing squad.

The Supreme Court has ordered those who had feasted on the P137.3 billion worth of DAP to return the people’s money. Unable to do so would be tantamount to stealing and the act is punishable by law.

Hence, local chief executives, tong-gressmen and sin-nators are frantically moving heaven and earth in the propaganda and publicity department to reverse the storm by coming out in public and risk their reelection to defend the “good side” of DAP.

MONDAY

The court’s black Monday onslaught was a curt message to the executive branch: we are co-equal and, therefore, will not succumb to any dictatorial fulmination and display of absolute power and attempt to force us on our knees.

We will know if President Aquino’s rah-rah boys and girls in the local government units are really determined to swim and sink with their king if the League of Provinces and League of Cities and Municipalities will pass resolutions defending the president and the DAP.

Tell us who your friends are and we will tell you who you are!

Mario, Glenda, Benigno

“Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.” John F. Kennedy

By Alex P. Vidal

During moments of euphoria, sadness, tragedy, defeat and victory, we remember not only events but names.

We remember three names that are currently synonymous to heroism, destruction and stubbornness: Mario, Glenda, and Benigno.

Mario is now the toast of the soccer community when he sank that lone goal for Germany’s fourth FIFA World Cup in the recent championship match against Argentina at the Estadio Maracana in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil last July 14.

Because of that come-from-behind date with fame in Rio, a mere mention of Mario Gotze’s name evokes sweet moments of heroism and victory.

The 2014 FIFA World Cup produced not only a soccer hero, but also a new inspiration for Filipinos pinning their football hopes only on the overfed and over fancied Azkals XI, a team not even rated among the top 100 in the world and can never represent the Philippines in the next FIFA World Cup in 2018.
If he were a Filipino, Mario would be a shoo-in for senator under the pork barrel’s Liberal Party.

Filipinos love sports superstars like they love their childhood super heroes. And they won’t hesitate to elect them into public office like what they did to former senators Ambrosio Padilla, Freddie Webb, and Robert Jaworski. Two years from now, a boxing champion will also be called as “Senator Manny Pacquiao.”

Glenda, the name of a mysterious college student who borrowed from me P3,000 cash and disappeared like a comet several years ago, is now remembered as a storm that terrorized Luzon last July 15 and 16.

RAMPAGE

Glenda’s murderous rampage left scores of deaths and sent some 200,000 families packing to evacuation centers.

Glenda lashed at Metro Manila and flooded the main highways and avenues. She brought only monsoon rains in Iloilo, but most parts of the region were also affected in one way or the other.

Hell hath no fury like a typhoon named after a woman. Glenda came, saw and conquered.

Like Yolanda, Glenda represented sadness, mayhem and death. Weather forecasters coined the names of incoming typhoons based on alphabetical order, so let’s not feel bad if Glenda happens to be the name of our mother, sister, wife, girlfriend, or debtor. 

Benigno is the leader of the 90 million Filipinos now up in arms against the “pork barrel” fund deodorized as Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

The Supreme Court has declared DAP as unconstitutional and asked Benigno’s lawmaker allies who have availed of the controversial appropriations, to return the taxpayers money worth P137.3 billion to the national treasury.

But the funds are reportedly nowhere to be found now. All of a sudden, no one has come forward to defend Bengino except himself. No one has volunteered to make a gallant sacrifice for the king. When the going gets tough, it’s only Benigno now by his lonesome self defending the port in the attic.

Lawmakers and their local government partners claimed they spent the money “wisely” to finance infrastructure and public works projects in their respective cities and provinces. 

SUSPICIOUS

But people were suspicious that a bulk of the funds may have gone to the pockets of corrupt politicians allied with Benigno in the form of kickbacks via fake non-government organizations, the same trick that sent P10-billion pork barrel scam accused Janet Lim-Napoles to the calaboose.

Benigno’s popularity suffered a sharp decline since 2010 according to the recent Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia surveys.

The negative impact on Benigno’s popularity must have something to do with his refusal to let go of Harvard-educated budget secretary Butch Abad, DAP’s chief collaborator, and for defending the DAP and engaging the Supreme Court in a power play that could provoke a constitutional crisis.

Because of this, the once supremely popular president and son of the late former President Cory and the late brave Marcos opposition leader Ninoy, has earned the reputation as a “stubborn” president.

We might lose Miriam but not to a brain cancer

“Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul.” Jim Valvano

By Alex P. Vidal

In all her political life, critics have hounded Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago with catcalls and unsavory allusions to mental illnesses and below-the-belt potshots normally reserved for political gadflies and imbeciles.

A Manila bus carrying truckloads of anti-Erap protesters even emblazoned the vehicle with a giant caricature and a vitriol that screamed, “Miriam baliw!” (Miriam crazy) at the height of the myth called “Edsa II” where former President and now Manila Mayor Erap Estrada was toppled in 2001.

If Santiago “ate death threats for breakfast” during her tumultuous stint in the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation under the late President Cory Aquino, she swam with ridicules and insults from political adversaries allergic to her brand of politics.

Despite the brutal verbal snipes, Santiago soldiered on and nearly conquered Malacanang in 1992—no thanks to the sudden power blackout that lasted until she lost a commanding lead during the canvassing of votes in the presidential race against FVR.

BATTLE

In her battle against an ailment that contributes in the rapid change of her mood from good to bad vice versa, she was pilloried and branded with names.

Her most acerbic enemies in the rival Lakas-NUCD Party called her “Brenda” or brain damage. She laughed it off and “refused to go down to their level.”

Santiago may have lost her chance to win the top position in Malacanang due to a ramshackle political party and probably to poll cheating, but she remains the darling of young voters and university students wherever she goes all over the country—and the most sought-after commencement exercises speaker to boot.

When no one was gutsy enough to defend the politically deteriorating Erap in 2001, Santiago defied the odds and risked her disastrous 2004 senatorial reelection bid by siding with the besieged president.

Santiago, a constitutional expert, always had a mouthful to preach about the rule of law and the majesty of the constitution--which made her even more unpopular in the eyes of nondescript politicians unaccustomed to her unconventional style in interpreting ambiguous provisions of law.

VOTE

Her gallant vote against the move to impeach Chief Justice Renato Corona along with fellow senator-judges Joker Arroyo and Bongbong Marcos stood as a towering principle amid rumors of Malacanang payoff and bribery via the doomed Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) or pork barrel to cast a yes vote.

In the most recent debate related to the P10-billion pork barrel anomaly engineered by Janet Lim-Napoles, Santiago torn to shreds those whom she perceived to have connived with Napoles, including Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, in a scary speech that had the spectators–those present in the senate gallery and those watching on TV “live”--on the edge of their seats.

Santiago is fearless. A one of a kind warrior. When the 69-year-old daughter of La Paz, Iloilo City attacks an opponent, she is merciless and relentless. She always goes to war “bloodied but unbowed.” When she opens her mouth and begins her spiel, the firebrand senator produces a staccato and a parody that provides unlimited excitement and entertainment to her audience.

ADMIT

Her admission last July 2 that she had a stage 4 lung cancer devastated her fans. Fighting tears, the maverick lawmaker assured the nation she could survive if given the proper medication.

"I have cancer of the left lung, which makes it difficult for me to breathe. I think you have noticed that for the past years, I've always had difficulty. I've always had shortness of breath," Santiago told a news conference.

It’s risky to speculate on the real condition Santiago is in today. Stage 4 is an alarming state. What we can do for now is to pray that she can overcome the deadly disease.

God forbid, we might lose her to a lung cancer – at least not to a brain-related disease, which her critics had been trying to maliciously insinuate since time immemorial.

  

Pork verdict a World Cup goal for Filipinos

“It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.” Nelson Mandela

By Alex P. Vidal

While soccer fans were waiting for the coronation of either Germany, The Netherlands, Argentina, or Brazil in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the Filipinos already secured their World Cup victory courtesy of the Supreme Court’s 13-1-0 goals against the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) recently.

Malacanang-backed DAP collapsed like a deck of cards and exposed this administration’s subservience to pork barrel to finance infrastructure projects and the like.

Malacanang’s embarrassment, however, became the nation’s victory. A victory sweeter than the FIFA World Cup.

Results of the Filipino People vs DAP championship dominated the major news headlines even in the Middle East, Americas, Australia, Europe where there are large Filipino communities.

Now that DAP has been declared unconstitutional and nipped in the bud, the bleeding of the national treasury will now come to a screeching halt.

STOP

The Supreme Court ruling stopped the thieves masquerading as public servants in their tracks.

But the sweetest World Cup goal came from the higher court’s order for those who have siphoned millions of DAP or pork barrel share to return the money.

The money belongs to the Filipino people and the SIN-nators and other lawmakers who feasted on DAP under this administration shouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole, ordered the Supreme Court.

But while we are jubilant about our own domestic World Cup conquest, we feel sad that some of the major infrastructure projects that have started rolling down the city and province of Iloilo are among those expected to be torpedoed.

Senate President Frank Drilon’s name came out first in the list of sin-nators with large sums of DAP appropriations at P100 million as of December 2012.

PROJECTS

Drilon picked the tab from the DAP of most multimillion pesos worth of projects being implemented through the Department of Public Works and Highways and  inaugurated by no less than President Noynoy Aquino in Iloilo City last June 27.

Drilon has confirmed that DAP partly funded the almost P1-billion Iloilo Convention Center (ICC) at the Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao district.

“Partly funded” means money has already been funneled to the gigantic structure President Aquino described as like the Sydney Opera House.  

What was shocking and repulsive, to say the least, was the revelation that some of the sin-nators who claim to be “champions” of public service and integrity like presidentiables Francis Escudero (P50 million), Allan Peter Cayetano (P50 million), Loren Legarda (P50 million), and Antonio Trillanes IV (P50 million) are also closet pork eaters.