Outrageous

By REY O. ARCILLA 
Malaya

File Photo: Binay clan

(The treatment by US lawmen of a female Indian consular officer in New York was most inappropriate and utterly outrageous.)

A lot has already been said about the incident involving Mayor Junjun Binay of Makati demanding that he be allowed to pass through a gate of a posh village in his family’s domain.

Some of the comments I’ve read were kind. Others unkind. But one that I thought was funny is the comment about one of the mayor’s bodyguards holding an umbrella over him when it wasn’t even drizzling… “Kinailangang payungan para hindi mahamugan and bumbunan. Malambot pa kasi.”

Aside from being funny, I thought it was also a rather perceptive comment. He is not yet mature enough to know any better than to throw his weight around. Or perhaps power has gone to his head, seeing as he is not only the mayor of Makati, but he also has a sister who is a senator and another a congresswoman? And lest we forget, a father who is the vice president of the Republic? How much more powerful can one get in this benighted land? Pity.

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I like US Secretary of State John Kerry. He is not even a career diplomat, yet he had the good sense to immediately express regrets at the outrageous treatment by American lawmen of a female Indian consular officer in New York.

Regardless of the offense she may have committed, the US authorities should have known better than to treat her like a common criminal. She is an official representative of a foreign government duly recognized by the US government through the grant to her of an exequatur (official recognition by the host government to perform her consular duties).

Instead of making her go through the humiliating experience of being strip-searched (some reports say cavity-searched too), the US authorities could have easily resorted to other means of making her answer for her alleged offense. Reports say she is accused of visa fraud and for allegedly making false statement about how much she paid her housekeeper. Is that a major crime? Is that a crime committed by a person who might be hiding something illegal in her cavities?

Certainly, there are more appropriate ways of handling such a situation. For one, the US State Department could have summoned the Indian ambassador to inform him of the case. Thereafter, some discussions could have taken place on how to handle the situation without a resulting acrimony between the two sides.

The US attorney who is handling the case happens to be an Indian born in India, migrated to and grew up in New Jersey. It looks to me he was in a bit of dilemma. It’s possible he didn’t want to appear soft on a fellow Indian, a government official at that, that he went to the extreme to prove to his superiors in his adopted country that he is nothing but a straight-shooting US attorney. I wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of this fellow’s relatives still living in India.

However this incident plays out, I think it does not augur well to India-US relations in the foreseeable future. The Indians are a fiercely proud people and they do not take lightly any affront or insult against them by other countries, big or small.

How I wish we were the same. But I’m afraid that will never happen for as long as we have leaders in government and business, in almost all sectors of society in fact, up to now, who are so much in awe of the Great White Father (he is at the moment black) in Washington.

For instance, a head of state does not host a state dinner in honor of a mere foreign minister. But that’s exactly what Noynoy did for Kerry. He could have had him at a private dinner in the Palace instead to offer special thanks, through him, to the US Government for its assistance to victims of Yolanda.

Which reminds me… years ago, the US Embassy was allowed to expropriate that portion of the service road on Roxas Boulevard where its so-called Seafront compound is located. 

Several DFA personnel were inconvenienced by the blocking of the road and complained to this space. We wrote about it, drawing the attention of the DFA and the Pasay City government. The former merely passed the buck to the latter which, in turn, simply ignored our calls.

At that time, the compound had a fence made of steel bars with pointed ends that made it impervious to fence climbers. Recently, a concrete fence about ten feet high was put up and it now covers or has replaced the steel bars, most probably for security reasons and the privacy of those living inside the compound. Cars have also been allowed to park across the service road in front of the compound. But the road remains closed to traffic and commuters who are now asking when they would get their road back. Paging Foreign Secretary Albert “Amboy” del Rosario…

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Question: Why did President Noynoy Aquino and his sidekick DILG Secretary Mar Roxas go posthaste to the SM North EDSA mall where another caper by the “Martilyo Gang” took place and where, fortunately, no one was hurt? Yet they did not even deign to have a look at the site where a gruesome accident took place that saw a bus flying from the skyway in Paranaque and killing 22 people? Nor did they visit NAIA 3 where four people were killed in cold blood that included an incumbent mayor of a town in Zamboanga del Sur and his wife, and four others were injured? Worse, not a peep from either of the two on both incidents?

Answer: I don’t know. Do you?

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Why is the Supreme Court taking too long to decide on whether or not the Development Acceleration Program (DAP) of the Aquino government is constitutional? People are wondering, especially after the Court has already declared the pork barrel of legislators unconstitutional. Noynoy’s bosses believe that, for all intents and purposes, the DAP is just another pork barrel in a different guise and they want it and other pork barrel items for the president’s use abolished. Unfortunately, Noynoy is not listening. He just signed the 2014 Budget with his pork barrel intact.

Is the high tribunal’s delayed action due to the Sword of Damocles now hanging over the justices’ heads in the form of a move of several congressmen to impeach some or all of them? Or is it the call for both houses of Congress to have the Judiciary Development Fund (JDF) and the Special Allowances for Judges (SAJ), both tagged as the Supreme Court’s pork barrel, scrutinized and vetted by government auditors for possible unwarranted uses? Both moves apparently have the support of Malacanang.

The only thing that the honorable justices need to bear in mind is that once upon a time, part of the DAP was used to impeach a former chief justice.

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Reminders (for Noynoy):

1) Filing of charges against officials of the National Food Authority (NFA) during Arroyo’s illegitimate regime. Noynoy himself said on several occasions that there is documentary evidence to prove the venalities in the past in that agency.

2) Investigation of reported anomalies in the GSIS during the watch of Winston Garcia and ordering his successor, Robert “Pretty Boy” Vergara, to file the proper charges, if warranted, against the former.

Noynoy should also order Vergara to report to him on COA’s findings that:

(a) He received the obscenely excessive compensation of P16.36 million last year making him the highest paid government servant and;

(b) That, as of five or six months ago, at least P4.13 billion in contributions and loan payments made by 12 government offices to the GSIS had not been credited to the offices as of Dec. 31, 2011.

COA also said the amount of unrecorded remittances could go much higher because only 36 agencies have so far responded out of the 186 that were sent confirmation requests by government auditors. Of the 36, 27 confirmed “discrepancies” in their premium and loan payments ledgers when compared with those of the GSIS.

There are three questions being raised when remittances, or parts thereof, of government agencies are not recorded by the GSIS on time: a) Where are these huge sums “parked” in the meantime?; b) Do they earn interest?; and c) To where (whom?) does the interest, if any, go?

Pray tell, Mr. Vergara, what is the present status of these funds?

3) Facilitating the investigation of rampant corruption in the military and police establishments.

4) Resort to his immense presidential powers to expedite the resolution of the Ampatuan massacre case that is now on its fourth year.

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Today is the 219th day of the seventh year of Jonas Burgos’ disappearance

The Justice Department has dismissed the charges against several of those accused in Jonas’ disappearance. Cleared were former AFP chiefs of staff Hermogenes Esperon and Alexander Yano, ex-PNP chief Avelino Razon, retired Lt. Gen. Romeo Tolentino, Brig. Gen. Eduardo Ano and Lt. Col. Melquiades Feliciano. Only Maj. Harry Baliaga will be charged for arbitrary detention, murder and obstruction of justice on the disappearance of Jonas.

“Pwedeng kasuhan ang kamay ng krimen pero ang utak ay hindi?” rued Lorena Santos, daughter of a desaparecido like Jonas.

Mr. President, is this what you meant when you called for a “focused, dedicated and exhaustive” probe of what really happened to Jonas?

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A Merry Christmas to one and all!

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24 December 2013 Email: roacrosshairs@outlook.com