‘PMA Breeding Ground of Putschists, Cheats, Fascists No More’

March 13, 2012 

By Artemio A. Dumlao

PMA's Top 10 graduates

Fort Del Pilar, Baguio City (March 12, 2012) – The Filipino people can be sure the Philippine Military Academy is no more a breeding ground of military officers staging coup d’ etats, corrupt practices and fascism.

PMA superintendent Major Gen. Nonato Peralta said drastic changes in the Academy were undertaken already to mean that “culture” is fixed so that values like maltreatment are nowhere already.

“Maraming innovations ang ginawa to erase maltreatment,” Peralta explained during the presentation of the top ten graduates of the PMA class of 2012 (Bagwis) becoming military officers on Sunday here.

Tom Puertollano, son of a lowly carpenter and market vendor from barangay Tambo, Lipa City, Batangas topped this year’s graduates.

Tom Puertollano

Besting 186 of his “mistahs” in “Bagwis” (Bagong Kawal ng Nag-iisang Lakas), Puertollano brushed off drastic military solutions to the country’s woes saying, “there are available and legal means to effect changes.”

Peralta said all Bagwis class members were perhaps the first class of all PMA classes before them to complete a two-mile open sea swim and a 42-kilometer full marathon, if only to replace the often misguided use of upper classmen on physical “abuses” to instill discipline, loyalty and sense of belongingness.

“I am confident,” Peralta said, “that the Bagwis class will be leaving a cadet corps that respects human rights.”

Discipline, maltreatment, honor and ethics are deep into this class, Peralta further said, showing confidence that the Filipino people can expect so much from the Bagwis class and the classes after them in the future. “Their mentoring delved on huge focus on ethics.”

“It is ingrained in this class,” the PMA official futher said, “that there should be no corruption while living up to nationalism and patriotism” according to the mold of national hero Gregorio del Pilar.

The Bagwis class went in Tirad Pass in hinterland Ilocos Sur, Peralta said, to have a history lane. “Now, they clearly identify themselves into the moulds of heroes.”

With the changes in the “culture”, Peralta said, discipline to endure and will power to achieve is a common trait among the 187 members of the class and those they will leave behind in the Academy.

“I am confident that, we cane be proud of them (both the PMA and the Filipino people). They are educated in Bayanihan as “not only as warriors but peace builders.”

Changes in the Academy now, and even the more stringent entrance requirements, are giving fruits to the best products.
Only 104 incoming plebes are entering the PMA on March to compose class 2016 from an overall more than 21,000 hopefuls. Aside from rigorous physical examinations, were neuro-psychiatric tests, Peralta said, explaining, “dahil magiging protector ng mga tao to.” They are very very well selected, Peralta reiterated.***Artemio A. Dumlao***

Who Coddled The Toxic Terror?

March 13, 2012 

By Fr. Shay Cullen
(His columns are published in The Manila Times,
in publications in Ireland, the UK, Hong Kong, and on-line) 

The protection, preservation and nurturing of life is more than just an act of survival based on instinct as it is with the animal kingdom. For human persons it is a rational balancing of alternatives as to what action is best to take in any given situation. The fact we have free will to choose a way of life that will save life rather than destroy or damage or endanger it would seem a very rational and morally right thing to do.

But not all humans will agree on what is the right course to take, the best thing to do in various given situations and competing opinions and interests can result in conflict if reason does not prevail. So it is morally reprehensible to spread toxic waste in a neighborhood, cut the trees that will result in landslides that can bury hundreds of people or build a poison factory in a pristine environment. The poison fumes and waste from such a facility will contaminate the air and environment and is very life threatening to those living within its vicinity. Rational moral people would not even think of it.

But there are educated and intelligent humans who are hell bent on willfully ignoring scientific truth about the clear dangers of coal burning power plants, a monster belching mercury, sulfur and heavy metals and deadly chemicals into the air and the environment on the shores of beautiful Subic Bay.

The officials of R.P. Energy, a Philippine conglomerate, composed of eminent intelligent business people are allegedly doing just that. They are pushing for the construction and operation of a coal-fired plant on Subic Bay. If you live near one anywhere in the world you are in a danger zone. A panel of experts has determined that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) required by law was done improperly and was inadequate. It ignored many important factors and impact zones.

Were the former officials of the Subic Bay Metropolitan authority (SBMA) complicit in allowing it to go forward? What consideration persuaded them that it was a rational and good thing to do despite the uproar and strong opposition to it? Their approval and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is rife with serious imperfections experts say. It may be cancelled by the new board of directors and a new proper one be conducted.

The eminent professionals have been consulted and have made research and submitted their results. They say in the newly released report that the conditions are not present to merit the operation of the coal-fired plant or could assure that the natural assets and ecosystems in the adjacent Freeport and rain forest: “would not be duly compromised, or irreversible damage would not occur and that the threats to the flora and fauna within the immediate community and its surroundings would be adequately addressed”.

They said: “the proposed coal plant would pose a wide range of negative impacts on the environment, the ecosystems and human population within the impact zone”. They mentioned the damage caused by acid rain to the rain forest, acidification of the bay, sulfur, nitrous oxide, mercury and lead in the atmosphere that it “would adversely affect the health of the populace in the vicinity”.

They stated: “that the warming and acidification of the seawater in the bay, resulting in the bio-accumulation of contaminants and toxic materials which would eventually lead to the overall reduction of marine productivity”.

With all this accumulated evidence that the coal-fired power station will be a prodigious polluter and a toxic terror still got the go ahead by the previous board is shocking.

The report means that if the plant goes ahead the visionary plan of the new administrator Robert Garcia, to convert the little used sea-side airport area across the bay from the proposed coal-fired plant into a “Family-oriented integrated international destination”, will be dead in the water.

Who will bring their children to a toxic dangerous environment to play, or take to the proposed golf-links, or swim in the bay rife with deadly mercury and chemicals? No one!

http://www.preda.org/en/news/fr-shays-articles/who-coddled-the-toxic-terror/

Ana and the ‘King’

March 14, 2012 


PerryScope
By Perry Diaz

Feuding cousins Ana Basa and Cristina Corona

Just when the House prosecutors seem like they’re losing steam in building a strong case against Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona… just when the senator-judges are beginning to doubt if there is even “clear and convincing” evidence to convict him… just when Corona went on a media blitz against President Benigno Aquino III and others whom he perceived as conspiring to oust him… and just when Corona’s invincibility seems beyond the reach of ordinary mortals, a young lady appeared on the scene.

During the early days of the Corona impeachment trial, it was revealed in Corona’s Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALNs) for 2003 and 2004 that he obtained a “cash advance” of P11 million from Basa-Guidote Enterprises Inc. (BGEI), a corporation that has since been dissolved.  That caught the attention of Ana Basa, a Las Vegas-based Fil-Am and daughter of the late Jose Ma. Basa III, one of five siblings who established the Basa-Guidote Enterprises Inc. (BGEI) in 1961.  One of the other siblings was the late Asuncion Basa Roco, the mother of Cristina Roco Corona.

The buzz generated in the media about the “cash advance” in Corona’s SALNs prompted Ana to fly to the Philippines to talk to her aunt, Sister Flory Basa, the sole survivor of the Basa siblings.  Sister Flory is a nun at the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary in Cavite. 

Family feud

As it turns out, the heirs of the original BGEI stockholders are embroiled in a nasty dispute with Cristina for the past 20 years.  The news about the P11-million “cash advance” to Corona – who is not a BGEI stockholder — triggered a series of events that could dethrone the “King of the Supremes.”

Renato and Cristina Corona

Days later, it was revealed at the impeachment trial that Corona withdrew a total of P32.6 million from three peso time deposit accounts with Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) on December 12, 2011, the day he was impeached by the House of Representatives.  Corona claimed that the money was not his but owned by BGEI.  He said that he withdrew the money because he believed that PSBank was responsible for leaking the existence of the accounts, which also include five secret dollar accounts.  But strangely, he opened a new account with the same branch and deposited the entire amount that he withdrew!

Cristina then sent a text message to a media personality saying that the P32.6 million came from the proceeds of the sale of a piece of BGEI property to the City of Manila.   But assuming that it’s true that the money belongs to BGEI, why did Corona — who didn’t have any financial interest in BGEI other than being married to Cristina — deposit the money in his personal accounts? 

Recently, it was reported in the news that in 1995, Ana’s father, who is Cristina’s uncle, Jose Ma. Basa III, filed an estafa case against Cristina for allegedly failing to account for the rental income of BGEI.  However, the court dismissed the case and Cristina sued her uncle for libel for putting out a public notice in the newspaper alleging that it maliciously put her in a bad light.  The notice announced that Jose Ma. Basa III, claiming to be a majority stockholder of BGEI, had filed a criminal case against Cristina for allegedly misappropriating rentals due BGEI.

It is interesting to note that at the time Cristina was sued for estafa, Renato was working as Chief Presidential Legal Counsel to then President Fidel V. Ramos.

In an interview with Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI), Ana said that the original stockholders of BGEI were her father Jose Ma. Basa III, Cristina’s mother Asuncion Basa Roco, Mario Basa, Sister Concepcion Basa, and Sister Flory Basa.

Ana said that Cristina wrested control of BGEI when she became its administratrix in 1989.  Since then, attempts by the stockholders to inspect the corporate books were denied by Cristina, thus keeping them completely in the dark about BGEI’s financial matters.

“Justice in my lifetime”

Ana said that in the past 20 plus years, the Corona couple heaped sufferings upon her parents and the rest of the BGEI stockholders.  She said that they were constantly harassed by the Coronas. “There were people sent to our house with guns, scaring my parents, and phone calls in the middle of the night because there were pending cases regarding this corporation,” she said.  “Inapi kami talaga (We were really oppressed). If they can do (this) to their own blood relatives, what more to people out there who are old, are not politicians, are not rich and are not lawyers? My parents were just ordinary citizens, just being good citizens here in the Philippines and yet to have your own blood relatives cause this type of injustice is…” She was lost for words and started sobbing.

Ana’s father passed away without getting justice.  Her mother, Raymunda is now 83 years old but would like to see justice.  And so does Sister Flory who just turned 90.  Her birthday wish was:  “I want to see justice in my lifetime.”

But with Corona enthroned as the country’s Chief Justice, can justice really be served?  Ana said that she will continue to fight because she promised her father on his deathbed, “I would continue his fight for justice.”

In an interview with Ted Failon of TV Patrol, Sister Flory said that she’s willing to testify at the impeachment trial of Corona.  She said that the Coronas could keep the money, all she wanted is to see justice done.

What goes around…

Well, Ana and Sister Flory might finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Last March 12, Corona’s lawyers started their presentation of Corona’s defense.  But Corona’s defense panel has a dilemma.  For Corona to avoid culpability, his defense lawyers have to prove that the P11 million “cash advance” and the P32.6 million he withdrew from PSBank on December 12, 2011 does not belong to him.   If so, then Corona would have to return the monies to the rightful owners, the heirs of the Basa-Guidote clan.

Indeed, Ana might fulfill her deathbed promise to her father and Sister Flory might get her birthday wish granted.  And how about Corona?  One thing for sure, he might be able to get away with betrayal of public trust but he can’t escape from the Law of Karma.  As someone once said, “Nothing escapes the Law of Karma. You get from the world what you give to the world.”  Yes, what goes around comes around.

(PerryDiaz@gmail.com)

# # #

“The world suffers a lot. Not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people!” – Napoleon

Concealing dollars is money laundering

March 10, 2012

BY AMADO P. MACASAET
MALAYA

‘Unfortunately, he only succeeds in sinking himself deeper in the hole every time he talks.’

CHIEF Justice Renato C. Corona charges the Philippine Savings Bank with leaking his dollar accounts as early as September last year.

The charge is stupid.

He publicly accused the bank of leaking his peso and dollar accounts, an imputation of a crime that could very well be interpreted as having severely damaged the reputation of PSBank.

It is for this reason that the bank may consider the withdrawal of a petition for a TRO. Instead, the bank should release to the impeachment court all the records of deposits of the Head Magistrate. The impeached magistrate should know that all banks and financial institutions are examined periodically by the Bangko Sentral.

In every examination trip, the BSP is accompanied by a member of the Anti-Money Laundering Council whose eyes are trained solely on undeclared deposits of foreign currencies.

It is not correct for Mr. Corona to say that it was the PSB which leaked the details of the dollar accounts. Leaked to whom, he did not say. The fact is the $700,000 account turned up during a regular examination.

The dollar deposit was not leaked. It was discovered by the BSP and the AMLA in the course of routine examination of all financial institutions.

The Anti-Money Laundering Council has a duty to determine the source of the dollars so that after close examination the council may make the conclusion on whether or not the money is laundered. If the council believes the funds are laundered it goes to court to prove its case and forfeits the amount if it gets a favorable ruling.

It is now the duty of the Anti-Money Laundering Council and the Bangko Sentral to turn over the dollar deposit records to the Office of the Ombudsman who shall determine whether information should be filed with the Sandiganbayan.

The AMLA works very quietly. It has been reasonably successful in the sense that it has forfeited ill-gotten money in the billions of pesos.

Laundering covers all currencies, pesos included.

It is not good business practice for any bank, in this case Philippine Savings Banks, to leak deposits to anybody. But it cannot refuse to open its books for examination by the Bangko Sentral and the anti-money laundering council.

At this stage the Chief Justice is wasting time making so much noise and accusing PSB of leaking the details of his peso and dollar deposits. The point is the deposits do exist. The Head Magistrate has not explained why the money is not listed in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth. The amounts are well over his income as Chief Justice.

His own ruling in a case involving dollars of the Marcoses deposited in Swiss banks states that any amount not listed in the SALN and not justified by income is presumed to be ill-gotten.

Is the Chief Justice trying to exempt his case from his own ponencia? That’s what it looks to all of us.

His lawyers told the impeachment court the deposits will be explained in due time. Let’s see how they can do it. Let us figure out the oxymoronic act of saying the deposits will be explained but at the same time the defense wants the submission of the evidence covering the deposits suppressed.

From the very beginning the Chief Justice was on a media war on his impeachment case.

Yet he charges the prosecutors of trying his case by publicity when they take to media to explain evidence they obtain.

Unfortunately, he only succeeds in sinking himself deeper in the hole every time he talks.

Does he think that the “leaks” of his deposits in two banks diminish his responsibility of not listing them in his SALN? We think not.

As Chief Justice, we presume that Mr. Corona knows the laws on money laundering and the law that makes mandatory the disclosure of assets and liabilities and net worth.

The Chief Justice must have known from the very beginning that hiding wealth not justified by income is criminal, at least questionable.

But it seems he sat in comfort not ever suspecting that his position as Chief Justice would be questioned in an impeachment trial. Now that the hidden wealth has been discovered, he cries foul and goes as far as saying his impeachment is the cruel way of President Aquino’s revenge over Mr. Corona’s ruling on Luisita.

Whoever leaked or discovered the deposits and other assets not in the SALN and submitted them to the prosecutors in the impeachment trial did a patriotic act. They want to help the Court right a wrong.

But the Chief Justice claims in television appearances that he has been wronged. By whom? Nobody but himself because he documented his own fraud. None of that is related to how he gave justice to the poor tenants of Luisita.

Is Aquino ready to end impunity?

March 10, 2012

ON DISTANT SHORE
By Val G. Abelgas

On Friday, March 2, another journalist was shot and wounded by two motorcycle-riding gunmen outside his home in Iloilo City in the latest attacks on media men in the country. The victim, Fernando Gabio, who hosts the “Mr. Expose” program on Radyo Mo Nationwide, was lucky he was hit only in the leg and survived.

So far, 10 journalists have been killed in the country since President Benigno S. Aquino III took over in July last year. That means one journalist killed every other month, reinforcing the Philippines’ rank as the toughest country in the world for journalists, trailing only behind Iraq, a nation still reeling from a virtual civil war.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines reports that more than 150 journalists have been killed since the fall of dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. In 2009 alone, 39 journalists were killed, with at least 30 killed in the infamous Maguindanao massacre.

In 2010, four journalists were killed and in the following year, eight more were gunned down. Last year, broadcaster and environmental activist Gerry Ortega was ruthlessly murdered in Palawan. In January, publisher and editor Christopher Guarin of General Santos City was killed in cold blood.

Aside from journalists, activists, human rights workers, students and even politicians and judges have been common targets of such violence.

Just a few days into Aquino’s administration, three activists, including a schoolteacher, were killed by unidentified gunmen. The renewed spate of killings elicited stern statements from the Obama Administration, the International Press Institute, and the UN Commission on Human Rights.

Kabataan party-list Representative Raymond Palatino, citing a report submitted by Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chair Rosetta Rosales to the House of Representatives, said a few months ago that Aquino’s human rights record may even surpass that of his predecessor, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. The CHR report said the number of torture victims rose to 37 in 2010 from 17 in 2009, and arbitrary arrests ballooned to 85 in 2010 from 61 in 2009.

“President Aquino’s avowed commitment for human rights is starting to unravel its monstrous form. While the record of former President Macapagal-Arroyo remains unbeaten, I am afraid that President Aquino’s record could turn out worse given the rise in human rights abuses under his watch,” Palatino said in a press statement.

Citing figures gathered by human rights group Karapatan, Palatino noted that the first four months of Aquino’s term already claimed 28 victims of extrajudicial killings, which translates to an average frequency of one victim per week. The group has also recorded a total 48 cases of extra-judicial killings from July 2010 to June 2011.

None of the perpetrators of these crimes have convicted. The suspects in the Maguindanao massacre, led by members of the Ampatuan clan, have been arrested and charged, but more than two years since the killings, the cases have dragged on without even having gone through the trial phase despite the presence of strong evidence and witnesses willing to testify.

Just recently, in its World Report 2012, the New York-based Human Rights Watch called Aquino to task, saying “Despite promises of reform, his administration has made little progress in addressing impunity. Extrajudicial killings of leftist activists and petty criminals continue, with the government failing to acknowledge and address involvement by the security forces and local officials.”

“During his campaign for president, Benigno Aquino III pledged to end serious violations of human rights in the Philippines. Yet since taking office on June 30, 2010, the Philippine military continues to be implicated in apparently politically motivated extrajudicial killings—deliberate unlawful killings by state security forces—and enforced disappearances. These abuses persist in part because of the Philippine police’s failure to conduct thorough and impartial investigations, particularly when evidence points to military involvement,” the HRW report said.

The Aquino administration’s political will to end impunity and human rights abuses came under scrutiny recently by Amnesty International. In its Submission to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review on Impunity for Torture, Unlawful Killings and Enforced Disappearances, the human rights watchdog said: “In November 2009, after the Maguindanao massacre, President Aquino (then a senator) issued a statement demanding the immediate revocation of Executive Order No. 546, vowing to “never again [use] public funds to support and maintain a private security force”. Two years later, however, he announced that he no longer intended to revoke it, and instead would “professionalize” the militias.

This inconsistent human rights policy, plus the slow grind of justice, the continued existence of militias, and the failure of government authorities to pursue the perpetrators of these political killings have contributed to the continuation of the culture of impunity that Aquino, while campaigning for office and during his two state-of-the-nation addresses, vowed to end but continues to tolerate.

The Aquino administration has at least two theaters where it can show its resolve to end the culture of impunity – the Ampatuan trial and the prosecution of retired Gen. Jovito Palparan, who went into hiding after being indicted in December of two counts of kidnapping and illegal detention of UP student activists Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno in 2006. Called “The Butcher” for obvious reasons, Palparan was commanding general of the 7th Infantry Group in Central Luzon, when a series of disappearances and political killings occurred in his jurisdiction.

While Aquino pressed the House of Representatives to impeach his nemesis, Chief Justice Renato Corona, and is now doing everything to pressure the Senate to convict him, he has not lifted a finger to hasten the trial of the Ampatuans nor order the military to intensify its manhunt for Palparan. This inconsistency in pursuing justice is not helping Aquino’s reform agenda, and is sending the wrong signals to both the perpetrators and victims of these political killings and other human rights violations.

The immediate prosecution and conviction of the Ampatuans and Palparan would boost Aquino’s campaign to put an end to the culture of impunity in the country, and send warnings to other would-be human rights violators that their acts would not be tolerated and go unpunished.

Being the son of the foremost victim of political killing, the late martyr Sen. Ninoy Aquino, and the icon of democracy, the late former President Cory Aquino, it is incumbent upon Aquino to start taking action against these political murders and human rights abuses.

But can we expect this from someone whose family’s guards met protests of Hacienda Luisita farmers with bullets and truncheons? Can we expect this from a man who finds delight in pulling the trigger of a gun even it’s just aimed at a non-human target? I certainly hope so.

(valabelgas@aol.com)

How Many Dirty Judges, Justices and Lawyers Are There?

March 10, 2012 

GLIMPSES
By Jose Ma. Montelibano

It is jolting to reflect on the corruption of the Judiciary even though it can be everyday man’s assumption that our justice system sucks. The poor have long experienced a different kind of justice for them and a far friendlier one for the rich. That is nothing new and has been a powerful issue used by the rebellion to recruit partisans. But corruption is not about a rich-versus-poor scenario, it is the corrupt for themselves against everybody.

From the onset, I had welcomed the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Rene Corona. I have less interest in Rene Corona the person and much, much more for Rene Corona as the personification of both the Supreme Court and the Judiciary. It has been a keen interest of mine to have the public eye focused deliberately to the corruption of the Judiciary because it is the worst kind of corruption. And if others, especially the Judiciary and the legal profession would like to make a counter claim and deny the shameful level of corruption in their area of responsibility, they may wish to look at how the Philippines can be considered a corrupt country with one crucial branch not blackened as well.

For over thirty years, when I am in the company of lawyers, socially or professionally, corruption in the Judiciary and the legal profession has been a given. It used to be that corporations would have legal retainers on the basis of the relationships of owners of senor management and lawyers or law firms. But it began to expand a little when corporations would retain law firms with good connections to judges and justices. The imbalance of the Judiciary in dispensing justice warped even more when it went beyond the traditional difference between justice for the rich and justice for the poor to justice that can be bought.

Lawyers and/or law firms with good connections mean good connections with judges and justices. It means that decisions can be unduly influenced by relationships, for favors and for money. It means that judges and justices can be for sale. With judges and justices selling their decisions, there can be no corruption in the Judiciary.

The last discussion I had with a youngish lawyer in his 40′s produced the same information as has been mentioned in the last forty years. He said it is almost impossible for lawyers or law firms not to know a dirty judge or justice, and that many of them allow themselves to be used to corrupt those judges and justices in the interest of their clients. After all, clients who can afford want insurance far and beyond the merits of their cases. Why else are they looking for lawyers and law firms with friendly ties to judges and justices.

This young lawyer said that lawyers like him who have not established themselves are not in a position to risk their careers by exposing dirty judges and justices. He said there is a government agency under the Judiciary which accepts complaints against wrongdoing by judges and justices. However, he would never go there because complaints are leaked and the fate of the lawyer complainant is sealed – no more future in his profession. He did say that some very well established law firms had more leeway and courage to make complaints but they hardly do. Most prefer to keep things quiet and enjoy their advantage over smaller and newer law firms.

It was absolutely comical how many lawyers and law firms went to the defense of a Chief Justice accused of betraying the public’s trust. Corruption and protecting a former president anticipating plunder cases against her. It was as though they were fighting for their king – and they most probably think so. After all, Corona and his lieutenants act as if he were the Supreme Court, as though accusations against his character and behaviour are also attacks against the Judiciary.

Yet, the stained reputation of the Judiciary and its deteriorated credibility does not seem to upset them at all. They have been acting as though they are all in one clean branch of government and that the President of a dirty executive Branch and members of a dirty Congress had no right to think of their Chief Justice as unfit. They do not even begin to wonder if there are more dirty justices, judges and lawyers than dirty policemen by percentage.

The President was voted in on a platform of change, and change in a very specific field – corruption. The President is trying to live up to his promise and mandate. He needs the Judiciary to clean up. Without the Judiciary, the President only has one option for reform – a revolutionary government. What the President starts has to end with the Judiciary, has to end with justice being dispensed with firmness in a society long wracked by corruption.

Instead, Chief Justice Rene Corona and the majority of the Supreme Court have been the biggest and worst impediments for PNoy’s reform-focused government. It does not make it easier for the President to push a reform agenda by going after the Chief Justice, but a Chief Justice sneaked into his position around midnight forces a confrontation. The two of them cannot co-exist in harmony unless both agree to the cleansing of government.

The impeachment trial is not about Corona, it is about corruption in the judiciary. I understand, therefore, why the Corona cohorts in the Supreme Court who gave him a technical opening to be appointed in the dead of night have to protect him, and one another. I understand why judges and court employees have to defend one of their own as though they are defending their way of life. I under why many lawyers and law firms are totally uncomfortable with a President challenging corruption in the Judiciary. After all, when judges and justices do business with litigants, the lawyers are the usual go-between, the negotiators, the couriers of cash or favors.

It is not easy to beat the system, even if that system is a cancer that gnaw at the soul and nobility of the Filipino people. If we are afraid to confront the cancer, we can at least ask, “How many dirty justices, judges and lawyers are there?”

The Nun who floored the Chief Justice

March 10, 2012

AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR 
By William M. Esposo
The Philippine Star

Last Thursday, your Chair Wrecker was informed that Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice (CJ) Renato Corona had announced in a Radio DWIZ interview that he was blaming me for the spread of that story about a second wife that he allegedly has.

Valuing our relationship, my immediate reaction was to text CJ Rene this message: “Rene, I was just informed that you’ve blamed me for that ‘second wife’ blogger’s posting. I never wrote that. In case, you read my columns, I shy away from such issues where innocent victims could get affected. That was from a blogger, identified as PedestrianObserverGB, who posted it all over.” CJ Rene duly acknowledged receipt of my text message.

Last Wednesday, CJ Rene initiated a media blitz to address the fallout spawned by Ana Basa’s revelations on how he and his wife Tina allegedly maltreated their family and illegally acquired their Basa-Guidote assets. Ana Basa is the daughter of one of the original owners of the Basa-Guidote Enterprise, Inc. (BGEI), Jose Ma. Basa III.

Ana Basa’s story must have thrown the CJ camp into panic, as evidenced by the media blitz that it spawned. In his March 8 column, Mon Tulfo of the Inquirer, a CJ backer, wrote that his sympathy for the Chief Justice “was somehow lessened after reading Basa’s story.”

What’s very damaging for the CJ is the fact that one of original owners of BGEI is a Nun, Sister Flory Basa. Hounded by controversies, the CJ will find it very difficult to look more credible than Sister Flory in the public eye. On Facebook, Dennis Garcia, of Hotdog fame, commented: “God is a great casting director… just when people were about to throw in the towel… He sends a handmaiden of the Lord to take up the cudgels of the bumbling, ineffective prosecution team.”

Last Friday’s TV Patrol exclusive interview with Sister Flory could be the haymaker that finally floored CJ Rene. At 90, Sister Flory was lucid and could even hear better than Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile. Sister Flory said that the CJ and his wife Tina can have the Basa-Guidote money since they’ve taken it already — but they only want justice. Throughout the interview with Ted Failon, Sister Flory displayed no bitterness and exuded every bit of the quiet sanctity that would normally surround a servant of God.

There are two ways that the revelations of Sister Flory and Ana Basa could severely affect CJ Rene Corona. In the Court of Public Opinion, the revelations presented a very bad face of the CJ — allegedly mean, oppressive, gun-totting, scheming, thief. The defense panel claimed that Ana and Sister Flory couldn’t be presented anymore as witnesses. How will the impeachment court deal with the reality that public perception will naturally be heavily in favor of the Nun? Isn’t it the mandate of the impeachment court to ferret out the truth and determine the fitness of Renato Corona to sit as Chief Justice? Truth should prevail over technicality.

The impeachment trial prosecutors could present Ana Basa and Sister Flory to testify against the CJ. CJ Rene had claimed earlier that the P32.6 million from three PSBank (Philippine Savings Bank) accounts that he withdrew on the very day when the impeachment case was sent to the Senate belonged to BGEI. The CJ cannot retract that now and point to another “source” for all those millions.
This puts CJ Rene in a dilemma. If he doesn’t use BGEI as the “real” owner of the P32.6 million that he withdrew on December 12, 2011, how would he then account for it? BGEI is the only entity of note that CJ Rene could use because for the last three decades he lived on a salary from the government and there’s nothing else in his SALN to account for this big amount.

Perhaps running short of legal arguments to refute these latest “close-to-home” charges that Ana and Sister Flory Basa had revealed against him, CJ Rene resorted to argumentum ad hominem. In his GMA Network interview last Wednesday, CJ Rene cited The Firm — which is associated with Justice Tony Carpio — as the operator of what he claimed is a demolition job against him. At the start of the impeachment trial, CJ Rene had accused Justice Carpio of wanting his CJ post.

CJ Rene also claimed that President Noynoy Aquino is persecuting him for the adverse SC decision on Hacienda Luisita. CJ Rene expanded his media assaults by claiming that two Senators, one of them Sen. TG Guingona, the other one he did not identify, tried to pressure him to resign. Giving CJ Rene the benefit of the doubt, so what’s wrong with that? The two Senators may have done it to spare the country the division a controversial impeachment could spawn.

From the way the CJ camp has been running this impeachment battle, it’s obvious that they’re engaged on two fronts — the impeachment court and the court of public opinion. That’s understandable because as a political process the Senator-Judges will have to account to the Filipino people. All those rallies at the SC compound, CJ Rene’s occasional media appearances when important issues would arise from the trial, press conferences of the defense panel (and prosecution) — were all about shaping favorable public opinion.

The investment in shaping favorable public opinion isn’t just for the duration of the impeachment trial — but beyond an acquittal verdict. The CJ camp will have to prepare the public mind to accept an acquittal verdict. If it’s true that the recent INC (Iglesia ni Cristo) rally was a subliminal show of force for the embattled CJ, then that’s all part of shaping favorable public opinion. Even the sudden rumor about a coup could be a part of the mind conditioning process — seeding a suggested public discomfort if the CJ is convicted.

On Facebook, a lot of friends have been asking: “Has CJ Corona gone berserk? Why is he hitting everybody, calling them liars and conspirators? Why doesn’t he just bare it all?”

From the communications strategy standpoint, that’s also understandable. The CJ camp must be thinking along the lines of painting a conspiracy picture that will taint the charges being hurled at CJ Rene. However, even if it’s true that certain persons have wittingly or unwittingly contributed their efforts to press the charges against CJ Rene Corona — that doesn’t mean that they’re lying.

Lying is the worst form of propaganda because it can be easily exposed and debunked. It’s the truth that really hurts.

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Shakespeare: “Madness in great ones must never unwatched go.”

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Chair Wrecker e-mail and website: macesposo@yahoo.com and www.chairwrecker.com