Kune Salinas, victim of a corrupt system

"If it's never our fault, we can't take responsibility for it. If we can't take responsibility for it, we'll always be its victim." Richard Bach

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- We don't fault Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales for unveiling the guillotine on 19 Philippine National Police (PNP) officials over the anomalous purchase of coastal boats in 2009.
She did a good job. 
Aside from dismissal from service, the crooks should have been sent to jail.
The P4.54-million police coastal craft procurement scam was another blot in the image of the PNP organization and heads should definitely roll. 
Kudos to the Office of the Ombudsman.
But while we extol the Ombudman's performance, we can't help but commiserate with the other sacked PNP officials who may have been innocent in the scandal.
Like Senior Superintendent Cornelio "Kune" Salinas, director of the Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO).

IMPLICATE

Spotless in 31 years of service, Salinas was implicated for being a member of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC).
He was also the chief of the PNP Maritime Group’s Operations Management at the time of the boats' procurement. 
When the defective boats were delivered, Salinas was no longer with the Maritime Group as he was already transferred to the Police Regional Office 6.
He later learned that the Maritime Group did not accept the substandard boats when delivered by the supplier, Four Petals Trading.
The trouble was the Inspection and Acceptance Committee of the PNP’s Logistics Support Services (IAC-LSS) under Superintendent Job Marasigan issued a certificate of acceptance and paid the supplier.
Salinas swore he did not steal a single centavo from the transaction, but neither denied nor confirmed that some PNP officials indeed made money.

'GOOD GUY'

According to Gov. Arthur "Art" Defensor Sr., Salinas is a "good guy." He was not referring, of course, to Salinas' role in the boat brouhaha, but on his overall performance as a police official serving the Iloilo province.
Based on Salinas' emotional narration of facts to members of media recently and the circumstances that developed leading to the boats' procurement, he could be innocent.
Salinas could be a victim of a corrupt system in the procurement process involving government properties where membership in the BAC can lead to the abyss even if he didn't dip his finger in the cookie jar.  
Was it possible that when Ombudsman Morales meted the "severe" penalty, which included the accessory penalties of perpetual disqualification from reemployment in the government service, forfeiture of retirement benefits and cancellation of civil service eligibility, she failed to separate the chaffs from the grains?

ROTTEN

Were the good guys lumped with the organization's rotten apples under the principle of "an act of one is an act of all"?
In trying to slay the dragon of corruption, the Ombudsman probably wanted to eliminate both its head and body to ensure a total victory.
Salinas and other BAC members probably became accidental villains by virtue of their presence in the dragon's intestines.
We wish Colonel Salinas the best of luck as he tries to weather the storm by seeking for a Temporary Retraining Order (TRO) before the Court of Appeals and for filing a Motion for Reconsideration (MR).
If he is really pristine, as the saying goes, no one can put a good man down.

Indictment of jail officials

"If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher." A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

By Alex P. Vidal

LOS ANGELES, California -- There is a parallel case in the indictment of jail officials in the Los Angeles County jails here and in the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP)-Western Visayas in the Philippines for brutality and corruption.

High-ranking jail officials were hauled off to court in the cases in the Philippines and California.

Charged with plunder before the Office of the Ombudsman in the Philippines was Chief Superintendent Ignacio Panti, the former director of the BJMP in Region 6 for the alleged double funding of the inmates’ food at the Iloilo District Jail (IDJ).

Panti and other jail officials included in the case allegedly amassed ill-gotten wealth through "misappropriation, conversion, misuse of public funds or raids on the public treasury,” their accuser, Valenzuela City Jail Inspector Angelina Bautista, alleged in her complaint-affidavit filed April 21.

Also charged were BJMP budget officers, disbursing officers and accountants from January 2011 to January 2013, and wardens of the IDJ during those years.

The provincial government of Iloilo was spending for the food of some 700 inmates of the IDJ located in Barangay Nanga, Pototan, Iloilo but BJMP Region 6 also appropriated funds for it, Bautista further alleged.

Aside from the Ombudsman case, the BJMP again hogged newspaper headlines when several jail officers were recently sacked for the mysterious deaths of two inmates initially reported to have committed suicide.

MURDER

Follow up investigations showed the two inmates, allegedly involved in gangs that engaged in trafficking of illegal drugs, could have been murdered one after another inside the jail.  

In L. A,. Paul Tanaka, the former undersheriff of the Sheriff's Department, and a now-retired captain William "Tom" Carey, have been charged with conspiracy and obstruction of justice for allegedly concealing the whereabouts of an inmate who was working as an FBI informant.

"What began more than four years ago as a federal investigation into brutality and corruption by deputies in L.A. County jails reached the highest echelons of the Sheriff's Department on Thursday (May 14), with two top officials indicted on charges of orchestrating an elaborate scheme to thwart the FBI," reported the Los Angeles Times on Friday.

The grand jury indictment, report said, "offers a portrait of a department adrift with senior officials responsible for investigation abuses working instead to undermine internal safeguards and ignoring repeated warnings of widespread problems in the nation's largest jail system."

PLOT

Prosecutors accused Tanaka and Carey of directing a group of deputies who were convicted last year of carrying out the plot to impede the FBI investigation.

The cases against them centers on events in August and September 2011 when the pair instructed several deputies to keep close tabs on an FBI inmate informant.

Report said the two met with some of the deputies on Aug. 19 to hear what information they had extracted from the inmate referred only as "AB" about the scope of the FBI inquiry.

The following day the same group  met again to discuss the fact that a cellphone deputies had confiscated from "AB" belonged to the FBI and had been used in a sting operation against a deputy who smuggled it into the jail to the inmate.

Days later, the report said further, Tanaka gathered in a parking lot with deputies who had gone undercover to pose as the inmate's cellmates in an attempt to glean information about the FBI's investigation.

Tanaka and Carey also reportedly went to great lengths to keep FBI agents from speaking with the inmate.

Can we just stop and talk awhile?

“Maybe then we could go for a ride drive down to the countryside. Get away from the gray and frenzied hurly-burly of the city life.”  JOSE MARI CHAN

By Alex P. Vidal

THERE has been so much hatred and violence in the local, national and international news these past weeks.

Crimes, immorality, political bickering and graft and corruption have dominated the headlines and overshadowed so many positive events in the fields of foreign relations, education, arts, science and sports.

An Iloilo provincial official announcing to the world in a national event her displeasure toward her philandering husband and wishing in jest that he be injected with an anti-Ebola virus so that his womanizing days will come to a screeching halt.

A former Iloilo municipal mayor hauling her estranged husband to court for physical and verbal abuse.

A city hall consultant lambasted by his wife in the social media because of, again, womanizing.

Cain and Abel tearing each other apart publicly like real life enemies and dragging the name of the city mayor in their brutal skirmish.

INSULTS

A city mayor and his erstwhile councilor allies swapping insults in their Facebook accounts and their respective sympathizers joining the fray.

A capitol bigwig accused of enriching himself at the expense of super-typhoon Yolanda victims and hiding his loot in an island.

A tough municipal mayor accused of ordering the murder of the assailants of his son, including the assailants’ family members who wanted to rescue the victims.  

Tensions have exacerbated in the national level due to the endless muckraking of the main dramatis personae trying to malign each other in preparations for the mega political derby in 2016.

A governor apologizing not to his wife but to his younger mistress for the leaked sex photos and video that have caused a tidal wave of humiliation among their respective households before the national media.

A transvestite murdered by an American sailor for not revealing his/her true sexual preference.

Cops accused of "hulidap" and molesting women lawbreakers under their custody.

EBOLA

Filipino peacekeepers coming home from Ebola-hit Liberia treated like Ebola patients and driven away to a secluded Luzon municipality for quarantine as their superior officers and town officials squabble.

Even the social media is not spared from man’s hateful fulminations.

The rift between Senate President Frank Drilon and his former media consultant for Iloilo, Manuel “Boy M” Mejorada, has escalated in the national level when Mejorada filed plunder and graft raps against his former boss before the Office of the Ombudsman.

Drilon’s Iloilo sympathizers have banded together and impeached Mejorada’s integrity as a retaliatory act.

There is now a smorgasbord of name-calling, insults, character assassination and even physical threats.

The war has deepened and emotions are at fever-pitch.

Meanwhile, Mejorada continued to fire his artillery in the national media hopping from one TV and radio station to another in a bid to cripple Drilon in the bar of public opinion.

Tension exacerbates each time followers of both parties engage in unnecessary word war and heated debates in the media programs and coffee shops.  

Why don’t they take a break first, stay calm and sober, stop and talk awhile?

Killing Boy Mejorada will complicate matters

“Murder’s out of tune,

And sweet revenge grows harsh.”

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Othello

By Alex P. Vidal

WHILE walking inside the La Paz Public Market in La Paz district, Iloilo City last Monday night, I overheard in a loud radio set inside a billiards hall former Iloilo provincial administrator Manuel “Boy M” Mejorada while being interviewed by Aksyon Radyo anchorman Joecel Banas.

Mejorada said he was ready to appear in the Senate blue ribbon committee that will investigate the alleged overpriced construction of the Iloilo Convention Center (ICC).

Mejorada has filed plunder and graft complaints against Senate President Franklin Drilon, Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr., Department of Public Works and Highways Secretary Rogelio Singson and six other government officials and private individuals in relation to the P700-million project before the Office of the Ombudsman.

Although Drilon, who hails from Molo district, Iloilo City, has expressed willingness to inhibit himself in the soon-to-be announced committee hearing prompted by a resolution filed by fellow Ilonggo Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Mejorada said he prefers to see Drilon in the senate hearing “so we can discuss the issue face to face.”

INSIST

Mejorada insisted there was overprice in the mega project and respondent Drilon must be held accountable for the alleged loss of P488 million from the coffers of the government.

Drilon has denied the allegations of his former Twitter handler and media consultant for Iloilo.

When Banas asked Mejorada if he has received threats in his life considering that he stirred the hornet’s nest involving big names in Philippine politics, Mejorada, who first served as executive assistant of former Iloilo Governor Neil D. Tupas before being promoted as provincial administrator in 2006, quipped: “Ila man ina grupo a (It’s also their own group).”

Mejorada said “God will protect me” if indeed He believes in Mejorada’s crusade against graft and corruption.

During the 2013 local elections when he campaigned against Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog, Mejorada claimed that certain characters, some of them members of drug syndicates, wanted to kill him.

Some of those who allegedly wanted him dead aired their threats via the social media and even showed the weapon they intended to use against Mejorada.

DRUG LORD

He identified an alleged drug lord in Brgy. Muelle Loney, City Proper as one of those who are itching to shoot him if their paths will cross.  

Mejorada walked with a bodyguard most of the time until after Mabilog was reelected overwhelmingly.

If Mejorada was saying that the persons allegedly interested to kill him belong to “the same group”, was he insinuating that some of those included in the plunder and graft raps were allies of the drug lords who wanted him dead during the heat of the 2013 local elections?

We are concerned that some of Mejorada’s enemies might take advantage of his rift with Drilon, et al and harm him (God forbid) while he is in the thick of battle against the respondents of the Iloilo Convention Center (ICC) brouhaha.

When so many people want to eliminate a certain individual, chances are his most recent enemies will be blamed.

FIGURE

We know that Drilon, a national figure and a potential presidential aspirant, is not a violent person.

We can’t speak the same for other characters caught in the web of the imbroglio and those sympathetic to the senate big man.

Now that the issue has exploded into horrific proportions and is now known worldwide, killing or attempting to kill Mejorada at this time will only complicate matters.

Feud between Drilon, Mejorada deepens

"Those who stand for nothing fall for anything."

Alexander Hamilton

By Alex P. Vidal

The bridge has been burned.

Now that the recent graft and plunder charges filed by former Iloilo provincial administrator Manuel Mejorada against Senate President Franklin Drilon, Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez, Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson and other Department of Public Works and Highways officials have caught headlines nationwide, the feud between erstwhile friends Drilon and Mejorada is expected to escalate.

Mejorada filed the charges before the Office of the Ombudsman Wednesday in connection with the allegedly overpriced construction of the Iloilo Convention Center (ICC) in Iloilo City.

Both Drilon and Mejorada have been swapping criminal charges these past months.

Mejorada, Drilon’s former Twitter account handler, had earlier sued Drilon, et al for alleged overpriced of improvement project of the Promenade in Iloilo City implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

Drilon fired back by filing a libel case against his former media consultant in Iloilo after Mejorada exposed the alleged ICC overpriced in his blog.

MALVERSATION

Mejorada also filed charges of malversation of public funds, violation of procurement law, anti-graft and corrupt practices act and dishonesty and grave misconduct against the Ilonggo senate president and other officials.

Mejorada’s charges stemmed from the allegedly overpriced ICC, Drilon’s purported P700-million pet project being carried out by Hilmarc’s Construction Corp., the contractor of the allegedly overpriced Makati parking building.

Mejorada insisted Drilon was behind the allegedly overpriced convention center. He was quoted in an interview over Radyo Inquirer 990AM as saying

“Siya po ang namuno nito. Siya ang nag conceive nito at siya po ang lumakad para sa project” (He led this project. He conceived this, and he arranged this project.)

“Mayroon akong matibay na dokumento kung paano nilitson o nilutong Macau ang bidding ng Iloilo Convention ni Drilon,” Mejorada disclosed adding that he has documents to prove that the supposed public bidding was rigged.

(I have strong evidence as to how Drilon rigged the bidding for the Iloilo Convention Center.)

The senate president, who hails from Molo, Iloilo City, allegedly set aside P200 million from his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), P200 million from the Department of Tourism and P100 million from Malacañang’s Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), parts of which were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

Mejorada claimed that an additional of P200 million was also funded by DAP.

COST

The cost of the construction ballooned from P192 million to P488 million, added Mejorada, a former president of the Iloilo Press Club.

The project was supposed to be concluded by March 2015, it was reported.

Aside from Drilon, Jimenez and Singson, Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority board director Mark Lapid, Public Work Undersecretaries Jaime Pacanan and Romeo Momo, DPWH Regional Director Edilberto Tayao, DPWH Iloilo Engr. Marilyn Celiz, W.V Coscolluela and Associates and Hillmarcs Construction Corp. also face charges.

Even if former Iloilo Governor Neil D. Tupas will interfere between Drilon and Mejorada, it appears they have severed their friendship.

It was Tupas who bridged the friendship between Drilon and Mejorada.

We tolerate corrupt leaders

“Money and corruption are ruining the land, crooked politicians betray the working man, pocketing the profits and treating us like sheep, and we're tired of hearing promises that we know they'll never keep.” Ray Davies

By Alex P. Vidal

No Ilonggo politician has been jailed for graft and corruption.

But many politicians from Western Visayas have pending cases in the Office of the Ombudsman.

Some of them have already retired or still active in public service, while others have already died.

There has been no conviction in the P125-million Pavia Housing scam in Pavia, Iloilo committed by prominent characters in Iloilo city government more than 10 years ago, but some of the accused are already dead if not retired.

Most of those facing graft charges normally belong to the opposition and their cases are the ones being expedited if the administration considers them as threats in the next elections.

While cases against the opposition are prioritized and tackled like a speed of light, cases filed against politicians allied with the administration gather cobwebs and may never even be remembered until the changing of the guards in the Office of the Ombudsman, when the next president takes over the helm of the Malacanang.  

BELIEVE

That’s why we don’t believe that Senate President Franklin Drilon of Molo, Iloilo City will be jailed for graft and corruption.

We don’t believe that the graft cases filed against him by his former Twitter account handler, Manuel “Boy M” Mejorada for the alleged overpricing of Iloilo Esplanade, etecetera; and former TESDA chief Augusto “Buboy” Syjuco for alleged overpricing of the Iloilo Hall of Justice, etcetera will ever reach first base.

Drilon is one of the most powerful personalities in the administration of President Benigno “Noynoy” S. Aquino III today; the most influential honco in the kingdom of the Liberal Party.

As the third highest official of the country, Drilon enjoys the protection of no less than the President and his cabal who are also die-hard LP stalwarts.

He is even one of their rumored candidates for vice president in the 2016 elections.

The Office of the Ombudsman, as a quasi-judicial body, can never claim independence from Malacanang if it allows itself to be used as a tool by the Malacanang to persecute those identified with the opposition, but is lenient to those identified with the administration.

TOLERATE

The Philippines is probably one of the countries in Asia, if not the world, that tolerates and even elects into office corrupt politicians.

Even if many of the rumored aspirants for the highest positions in the country are tainted in the imbroglio related to misuse of pork barrel funds and other graft and corruption scandals, Filipinos are still willing to give them mandates in 2016.

Even if the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee will establish the guilt of the Binays in the multi-billion Makati parking space scandal, Vice President Jejomar Binay will remain as the leading aspirant for the presidency of the country two years from now.

Binay is extremely popular in Western Visayas, including in Capiz, the bailiwick of DILG Secretary Mar Roxas.

So many politicians in Iloilo, Negros, Aklan, Antique, Capiz, and Guimaras have shifted allegiance to Binay. And their numbers are growing by leaps and bounds.

DIMINISH

For these local politicians, graft and corruption issue will never diminish the vice president’s chances in 2016.

We continue to tolerate and elect into office even the worst politicians. That’s why we deteriorate as a nation. Corruption eats up the very foundation of our socio-economic and political spheres.

The practical difficulty surrounding the effort to get rid of corruption is enormous. It comes from all sides. The biggest is the obstacles arising from a corrupt and inefficient bureaucracy, warned Syed Hussein Alatas, in his book, “Corruption and the Destiny of Asia.”

Any effort to correct injustice and reduce the suffering of the victims should be attempted however limited its success may be. The experience itself is valuable and revealing, explained Alatas.

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.