FRANKLY SPEAKING
by Frank Wenceslao
An LA Times news item (Jan. 26) hit close to the Philippine Senate to demonstrate what will happen to Sen. Manuel Villar if he were like Mayor Roosevelt F. Dorn who pleaded guilty to a public corruption charge after earning acclaim and criticism as a juvenile court judge and was an equally polarizing figure in more than a decade as Inglewood city mayor.
“The plea ends a political career that saw significant drops in crime, as well as Inglewood’s attempt to bounce back from the loss of the Lakers and the Kings (when they moved to the Staples Center in downtown LA). But while supporters hailed Dorn’s leadership, critics said he ran the city as a fiefdom.
“Dorn, who stepped down Sunday evening, is barred from holding public office for the rest of his life as part of his guilty plea to a misdemeanor conflict-of-interest charge. He was also placed on probation for two years and fined $1,000. Dorn entered his plea as prospective jurors were set to be called for trial in connection with his acceptance of a $500,000 loan through a city housing program.
“As a judge, Dorn won praise for his tough-love approach toward young offenders. But others viewed him as imperious, accusing him of stretching the law to fit his personal mission. The 74-year-old jurist displayed the same zeal in trying to reverse the slide of a city mired in debt and shedding retail businesses. He developed a reputation for doing things his own way.
“Prosecutors alleged that Dorn betrayed his constituents in a scheme that allowed him to benefit from a low-interest city loan program he helped extend to elected officials.
‘He got greedy,’ said Deputy Dist. Atty. Max Huntsman. ‘He used every tool in his considerable arsenal as a lawyer and former judge to convince people that he was entitled to this public money.’
“During Monday’s hearing, Dorn told the court that he acted only after the Inglewood city attorney advised him that the loan was legal. He said he took a pay cut as a judge to run for mayor in 1997 and that he was never motivated by money.
‘I left the bench . . . in order to try to save my city,’ he said, according to a court transcript.
“Supporters and critics expressed shock at Dorn’s decision to drop his high-profile legal fight against the charges.”
That’s as it should be if the Philippines will ever recover from years of deteriorating political, socio-economic, and moral deterioration whose turnaround are being impeded by Villar and fellow Senators, namely:
Pia and Alan Peter Cayetano, Joker Arroyo and Aquilino Pimentel, which led me to send my column, “Be the Judge: Is Villar Guilty of Corruption” on GlobalBalita.com with a covering email, as follows:
I’m receiving emails from overseas Filipinos asking: What is the point of Senators Pia and Alan Peter Cayetano, Joker Arroyo and Aquilino Pimentel, all lawyers, acting like Sen. Villar’s defense counsels with a strategy for their client not to appear before the Senate, confront his accusers and make his case, instead of acting like a fugitive as though hiding from his peers will absolve him of his culpabilities?
Surprisingly, recalling how Arroyo (who already charged Villar for violating the Constitution and RA 6713 in the House of Representatives for government loans of his housing development corporations like Mayor Dorn) and Pimentel denounced Marcos’ injustice, they now use his dictatorial tactics to shield Villar’s illegal activities probably approaching if not worse than Marcos’ rapaciousness.
If Villar’s defenders want the rule of law to prevail, why don’t they ask Villar that unless he explains to their satisfaction how he’s amassed his PhP43 billion ($940M) net worth according to Forbes surpassing Metrobank chairman George Ty, a Eugenio Lopez’s or Vicente Madrigal’s heir in the list of 10 richest Filipinos, they can’t defend him anymore.
Better still, since Villar prefers to explain his side before the media rather than his Senate peers, why doesn’t he rebut any statement in my said GlobalBalita.com column with facts to his defenders’ satisfaction? Thus far, only Jimmy Cura is defending Villar against my charges with ad hominem arguments.
With all due respect to the Senators, you’ve been given a ringside view of what’s wrong with the Philippines’ economic development. Forget the legal and political aspects, imagine Economics 101 postulate that successful economic development stems from the wise and prudent utilization of scarce resources where they will do the most good.
While housing development is a priority program, is it wise and prudent for the nation’s scarce resources to be disproportionately utilized by Villar’s housing development corporations by virtually monopolizing GFIs’ and GOCCs’ loans for the government unified housing program?
Worse, in the process Villar has made his personal net worth to grow as of 2008, or in just 16 years after he’s first elected as congressman to a mind-boggling PhP43 billion ($940M) which he’s now spending as though going out of fashion to win the presidency.
Does it occur to the “honorable” Senators defending Villar that he will do worse if elected President?
Please be reminded of Lincoln’s words which I paraphrase, as follows: Villar can fool some Senators all the time, or fool all the Senators some of the time but he cannot fool all the Senators and the people all the time.
I rest my case with a prayer that the Holy Spirit fill the hearts and minds of our Senators to act as statesmen wisely and not selfishly in the these difficult times the Filipino people are beset by maximum peril.
Villar should withdraw his candidacy, or Pamusa will bring his case to the US if requested by the next President and be sentenced with Mrs. Villar worse than Dorn.
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