Saturday, November 29, 2014

Lawyer Sixto feels above any law


Land titling fraud is so rife it’s no longer news. Any landowner may learn that his ten hectares in Batangas has just been registered in someone else’s name. It’s fake, he’d sue in court.
But the reverse is news. Alan Purisima, Philippine National Police chief, is told that ten hectares in Batangas has just been registered in his name. His spokesman swears it’s fake, so not in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth.
Just like that. No court action to return the land to its real owner. Not even an investigation of fraud, by the highest lawman in the land.
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Here’s similar news. Ex-Makati vice mayor Ernesto Mercado is told that 4.5 hectares in Batangas is in his name but not in his SALN. Swiftly, like Purisima, he disowns it.
But Mercado does more. He alleges the true owner to be estranged political ally VP Jojo Binay. He was just one of many dummies for Binay’s supposed secret 150 or 350 hectares.

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As proof, Mercado donates the 4.5 hectares to landless tillers. But the Secretary of Agrarian Reform hesitates to accept, due to hazy legality. For, how can anyone donate anything he swears isn’t his?
Children’s songs and games aim to teach: good morals, facts of life, ambidexterity. One nursery rhyme goes, “Ring a ring o’ roses, a pocketful of posies; Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!” Historians say it’s about the plague that ravaged Europe, and warns of contagion by touch. A local equivalent is the game “Tapikan Estatwa (Statue Tap).” Here the “It” chases to tap and immobilize (“infect”) the players, who can run again if re-tapped (“cured”) by one of them.
All we need to know we learned in Kindergarten, so...
...We quarantine our UN peacekeepers in an island for 21 days, upon their arrival from Ebola-stricken Liberia. They already had been confined for 14 days before flying home. But we’re extra careful, to keep our country Ebola-free. The deadly virus instantly spreads by contact with body fluids of the infected.
Our troops dutifully abide, devising sports fests to busy themselves. One suffers severe chills — a symptom of Ebola — is flown to a special clinic, but confirmed to have contracted malaria. The quarantine goes on quietly until...
...On the morning of Day 5, the Armed Forces chief and the acting-Secretary of Health fly into Quarantine Isle to shake everyone’s hands. They wear smiles on their faces, not WHO-prescribed protective suits.
The Ebola-precautious public is alarmed. The general says he only heeded advice of the Secretary, who says she only heeded WHO protocols. No need to wear protection with one who has no Ebola symptoms. They needed to assure the soldiers of their concern.
Which only made the public ask, if they had to pep talk the troops, why couldn’t they Skype or FaceTime? If the troops needed visiting, why not send the wives or kids? If the troops aren’t contagious, why isolate them at all?
Didn’t they ever sing nursery tunes or learn anything in Kinder?
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Epilogue 1: After the visit, the Secretary then shook hands with state doctors who will go around the country to heal the precautious public. With a handshake too the general sent off President Noynoy Aquino to Singapore, where he shook hands with the Prime Minister, who welcomed with handshakes conferencing British and Asian tycoons.
It’s been 12 days since, but observers are counting to 21. If Ebola spreads to Asia and Europe from Africa and Manila, let’s all hold hands in a circle and sing, “Ring a ring o’ roses....”
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Epilogue 2: There’s an acting-Health Secretary because the real one is sick. Unofficially he’s being investigated for procuring inefficacious vaccines, something only a penny-pinching non-doctor would risk. His version is that he has scalp infection from hair dye, something only a penny-pinching non-doctor would risk too.
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Lawyer Sixto Brillantes feels above the law. As Comelec chief he is unbound by the Election Automation Act. He bought for P3.5 billion in 2013 the faulty voting machines that his predecessor wrongfully had leased for P7.5 billion in 2010. He then spent P4 billion more for add-ons and warehousing. This was despite the shady supplier, Smartmatic, not being the developer, as the Act required. Too, Smartmatic had no source code in the 2010 and 2013 elections, also contrary to the Act. Smartmatic machines never passed test runs, or finished the ballot counting, in breach of the Election Code.
Brillantes’ alibi to buy the machines in 2013 was that Comelec was bound by an option to purchase under Smartmatic’s 2010 lease. Untrue! The Government Procurement Policy Board in fact had ruled in 2013 that the option automatically expired when Comelec did not buy the leased machines by Dec. 31, 2010.
Brillantes not only defied the GPPB. He also withheld the vital info from the Supreme Court, where Smartmatic’s critics had complained. He is above the GPPB and the SC.
Brillantes’ word is law. Last Nov. 20, videotaped by reporters, he slandered opponents of his negotiating with Smartmatic to refurbish the machines for another P3 billion. He said Comelec’s legal division wanted public bidding, but he was un-inclined to heed it.
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Chief Supt. Noel O. delos Reyes, one of the PNP’s finest officers, retires from the service today. A testimonial parade will mark his departure as Muslim Mindanao regional director. In holding various field and staff positions, delos Reyes earned renown in intelligence and investigation. His expertise helped identify the 198 Ampatuan massacrers of 2009. He served as special adviser to the government peace talks with Moro separatists.
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Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

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