| Salonga: CA corruption exposé good for reforms FORMER SENATE PRESIDENT JOVITO Salonga on Saturday confirmed the purported corruption in the Court of Appeals and said reforms were urgently needed. “It is true that there is bribery in the appellate court,” the 88-year-old founder of the judiciary watchdog group Bantay Katarungan told the Inquirer. “It should be stopped. The bribery should be exposed. It should be the beginning of legal reforms in our system of justice.” Salonga, mentor to a number of magistrates and a frequent amicus curiae of the Supreme Court, made the remarks in reaction to the exchange of accusations of bribery and corruption between Associate Justice Jose Sabio Jr. and businessman Francis de Borja in
Asked whether Sabio’s claim of a P10-million offer for him to inhibit himself from the case was a positive development, Salonga said: “Yes. Undoubtedly.” He said Sabio’s revelations in connection with the case that was resolved in favor of Meralco were yet another indication of the need to reform the appellate and other courts. Fr. Joaquin Bernas, dean emeritus of the Ateneo de Manila School of Law,
The Court of Appeals en banc decided on Thursday to raise to the Supreme Court the “propriety” of certain justices’ actions vis-à-vis the Meralco vs GSIS case. The high court is scheduled to deliberate on the matter on Tuesday. Notorious justices Salonga said that since 2000, Bantay Katarungan had exposed instances of corruption “and underscored the need for reforms in our system of justice.” “We have written to the Judicial and Bar Council and, from time to time, the appointing power, on the need for reforms in specific instances not only in the Court of Appeals but also in the other courts,” he said. Salonga refused to name names, saying he wanted to spare the Inquirer and himself from being sued for libel. But he said the justices concerned were “notorious.” How corruption works in the appellate court and the personalities involved are known to Bantay Katarungan’s lawyer-members, according to Salonga. He said even the law students doing volunteer monitoring for the watchdog group “know who these people are.” A recent victory for Bantay Katarungan was the Supreme Court’s rejection of the appointment of Sandiganbayan Justice Gregory Ong to the tribunal in 2007. ‘Honest man’ It was Bantay Katarungan and Salonga’s other nongovernment organization, Kilosbayan, that questioned Ong’s appointment on account of questions on his citizenship. Bernas, a constitutionalist and also an adviser to the Supreme Court in important cases, begged off from commenting on the purported bribery attempt involving Sabio and De Borja. “I don’t know the facts,” he said on the phone. Bernas did say that while he did not know De Borja, “I consider [Sabio] to be an honest man.” Sabio teaches legal ethics at the Ateneo Law School and has received support from students and other members of the faculty. Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, an opposition lawmaker and a former law school dean, said: “This may be an initial black eye for the Court of Appeals ... but if [Sabio] just remained silent, nothing will happen.” Sabio also hails from Cagayan de Oro, where he once served as a regional trial court judge. He also taught law at the Ateneo de Cagayan-Xavier University, where he gained prominence as a “terror” professor. One of his former students, lawyer Edgardo Uy, told a Cagayan de Oro newspaper that Sabio should be trusted for his disclosures. “I believe he is speaking the truth. I’ve known him since my student days. That’s why I know he is honest,” Uy said. Rodolfo Meñes, president of the Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry, described Sabio as a “good lawyer.” “I am surprised that he is being dragged into this controversy. I know him only professionally, but I know him as an honest man,” Meñes told the Inquirer. Preventive suspension On Friday, a former Malabon City judge asked the Supreme Court to order the preventive suspension of all appellate court justices involved in the Meralco vs GSIS case. In a “verified complaint-letter affidavit,” Florentino Floro Jr. said these justices should be investigated for gross misconduct, gross ignorance of the law, manifest undue interest and violations of the Codes of Judicial Conduct and of Professional Responsibility, among others. Floro said the high court should once and for all “cleanse the entire Court of Appeals.” “The undersigned, in his conscience, knocks at the doors of this court, because of the shocking events which rocked the very foundations of our entire judicial system: CA justices accusing each other, not in courts, but in the media. This is too much. This is the darkest hour of the CA since its creation,” he said. Floro named as respondents in the case Sabio and Associate Justices Bienvenido Reyes, Apolinario Bruselas, Myrna Dimaranan-Vidal and Vicente Roxas, as well as CA Presiding Justice Conrado Vasquez Jr. He said the high court should appoint one of its retired associate justices as an independent investigator and a special prosecutor to look into the matter. Headline maker Floro himself made headlines when he was ordered dismissed from the judiciary in 2006 by the Supreme Court. The high court declared him mentally unfit after he admitted to having “psychic visions,” having dwarfs as friends and being an “angel of death” who could inflict pain on people, especially those he perceived to be corrupt. Undeterred, Floro filed cases against judiciary officials he claimed to have violated the law. In April 2007, he filed administrative charges against what he called the CA’s “Dirty Dozen,” whom he accused of corruption. He said those found guilty should be dismissed from government service and disbarred. With reports from Jerome Aning in Manila; Ma. Cecilia Rodriguez, Inquirer Mindanao |
Sunday, May 15, 2011
CORRUPTION IN THE COURT OF APPEALS
Saturday, May 14, 2011
SAVE THE LOOT JAIL THE LOOTER
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Court seizes Ligot assets
Ex-comptroller Jacinto Ligot
P40M taken by court from ex-comptroller
By John Constantine G. Cordon, Reporter
THE Sandiganbayan has garnished about P40 million in various assets owned by former military comptroller Jacinto Ligot.
According to the two-page Sheriff's Report dated May 6, the anti-graft court has frozen four bank accounts of Ligot in the Armed Forces and Police Savings and Loans Association Inc. (AFPSLAI) worth P7.4 million, five parcels of lots and condominium units.
The report, prepared by Sheriff Romulo Barrozo, showed that the AFPSLAI accounts of Ligot had been seized.
During an interview, Barrozo, however, said that the accounts "may have already been withdrawn."
When he was about to garnish the AFPSLAI accounts, according to the Sandiganbayan sheriff, the savings and loans association handed him a check worth only P2.9 million, which it said corresponded to the four accounts.
"They [AFPSLAI] mistakenly handed me the check when there was no execution yet, only the freezing of the accounts but as shown by the check, the accounts may have been withdrawn already," Barrozo said.
The anti-graft court said that the AFPSLAI accounts amounted to P7.4 million.
Aside from the bank accounts, the Sandiganbayan also garnished the P25-million unit of Edgardo Yambao, Ligot's brother-in-law, at 19A Essensa East Forbes Condominium in Taguig City (Metro Manila).
The anti-graft court attached to its garnishment order Yambao's P1.4-million house on 307 Katipunan Avenue, Loyola Heights in Quezon City.
It also attached Ligot's unit at 201 2/F Pamayanang Diego Silang Project II in Taguig City.
Although the unit, estimated to be worth P507,000, was listed under the name of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority, Barrozo was able to acquire the title for the unit and freeze it.
The sheriff's team also moved to attach Ligot's property in Parkview
Condominium in Makati City (also in Metro Manila) worth P7.8 million.
But the Register of Deeds of Makati City sent Barrozo a notice of denial, saying that the unit was still under the name of Megaworld.
"We are already moving to attach the Parkview Condominium because the Office of the Special Prosecutor already showed that Miguela Ligot-Paragas [Jacinto's sister] has already started to pay (for) the condominium and will already transfer the unit to Paulo Ligot [Jacinto's son]," Barrozo said.
The Sandiganbayan sheriff's also attached two lots—one in Tanay, Rizal province, worth P2 million listed under the name of the former military comptroller and the other in Muntinlupa City (also in Metro Manila) worth P1.2 million owned by husband-and-wife Edgardo and Maria Isabel Yambao.
To date, the Sherriff's Division has frozen P40 million of the pieces of real and personal property out of the P135 million that it had been ordered to seize from Ligot, a former lieutenant general in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
Barrozo said that his group is set to also attach Ligot's pieces of property in Malaybalay City, Bukidnon province, where the former-AFP comptroller served as commander of the Philippine Army's 403rd Infantry Brigade from June 1996 to October 1999.
Ligot also served for a year as comptroller of the Army from April 1995 to May 1996.
He was the chief comptroller of the Armed Forces from November 1999 to March 2001.
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Antonio L. Buensuceso Jr.
Friday, May 13, 2011
LAFF TAYM MUNA
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Antonio L. Buensuceso Jr.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
SHELL PAYS FOR HER WRONGDOING BUT NOT IN THE PHILIPPINES
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
ART. 2232 CIVIL CODE
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ANG kasong ito ay nag-umpisa sa isang pag-iibigan na puno ng pag-asa at pagmamahalan. Sinundan pa ng detalyadong pagpaplano at magarbong preparasyon na humantong lang sa pagkapahiya at kalungkutan.
Ito ang kuwento ng isang dalaga na tawagin nating Cindy. Nagkaroon siya ng nobyo na ang pangalan ay Robert. Nakilala niya ito sa isang kilalang unibersidad kung saan sila parehong nag-aaral. Ang relasyon ng dalawa ay kalat sa buong eskuwelahan dahil na rin sa tamis ng kanilang pagmamahalan. Sa kanilang mga ka-klase, kitang-kita na isang relasyon ito na hahantong sa simbahan at magiging masayang-masaya ang dalawa.
Nagpatuloy ang relasyon nina Cindy at Robert hanggang makagradweyt sa kolehiyo. Natuloy ang engagement at nagplano ng kasal ang dalawa. Ang tradisyonal na pamanhikan ay sinunod. Kumuha ng lisensiya sa kasal. Ang kasal ay tinakda ng Setyembre, isang Sabado sa isang kilalang simbahan. Maganda ang mga imbitasyon na ipinalimbag at ipinadala sa mga kaanak, kakilala at kaibigan ng dalawa. Ang gown ni Cindy, mga damit sa selebrasyon, iba pang damit ng mga abay at flower girl ay binili at inihanda na. Kinontrata na ang isang five-star hotel kung saan gaganapin ang reception ng kasal. Kahit nga ang mismong kama o "matrimonial bed" pati ang lahat ng mga gamit ay binili na. Ngunit, dalawang araw bago ang kasal, nakatanggap ng isang nakababahalang sulat si Cindy mula kay Robert. Sinasabi nito na ipagpaliban muna nila ang kasal dahil sa posibleng pagtutol ng ina ng lalaki. Pero sumunod na araw ay sinabi naman ng lalaki na walang problema at tuloy ang itinakdang kasalan. Sa kasamaang-palad, iyon na ang huling narinig ni Cindy mula kay Robert. Ang pinakaaaba-ngan na kasalan ay nakansela. Sa tindi ng sama ng loob at pagkapahiyang naranasan, kinasuhan ni Cindy at ng kanyang pamilya si Robert para maghabol ng danyos. Makakakuha ba si Cindy ng bayad sa danyos-perwisyong inabot?
OPO. Ang ordinaryong pangako ng kasal ay hindi naman talaga tatanggapin na kaso sa korte. Walang magagawa kung sakaling hindi ito panindigan. Kaya lang ang ginawa rito sa kasong ito na pormal na pagtatakda ng ka sal, magarbong paghahanda at detalyadong preparasyon, pagkatapos ay bigla na lang iiwanan ang kawawang babaeng papakasalan sa altar ay ibang usapin na. Kaila-ngang panagutan ni Robert ang lahat ng bayarin at danyos dahil hindi na ito simpleng paglabag sa ating kinamulatang tradisyon. Hindi limitado ang sakop ng kayang ikaso sa tao. Ayon sa ating batas (Art. 21 Civil Code), ang kahit sino na kusang loob na gagawa ng isang ba gay na makakapanakit sa iba sa paraan na kontra sa moralidad, tradisyon o panuntunan ng publiko ay dapat magbayad ng danyos-perwisyo. Maari pa nga na ang danyos ay magmula sa pagkapahiya (moral) o para hindi na siya tularan ng iba (exemplary damage) (Art. 2219[10] & Art. 2232 Civil Code). Bilang basehan ay puwedeng gamitin ni Cindy ang desisyon sa kasong Wassmer v. Veles 12 SCRA 648.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
SO WITH THE CALLUSES ON THE 'EYES OF THE COURT'
MANILA, Philippines—President Benigno Aquino III Tuesday told state auditors—"the eyes of the bureaucracy," in his words—that they could now do their job of safeguarding the public coffers without fear that they would be stopped.
Speaking at the 112th anniversary celebration of the Commission on Audit (COA) at its office in Quezon City, the President urged state auditors to join his administration's fight against corruption, saying that things were now different under his watch.
"If before, auditors were afraid to reveal the anomalies they see in government transactions, now you are given the power to be free, brave and fearless in your duties. If before, unscrupulous officials tend to raid the public coffers, now just hearing the name COA would strike fear in them and they would withdraw," Mr. Aquino said in a speech delivered in Filipino.
"Being the eyes of the bureaucracy, you know that no one is blindfolding you in tracking down anomalies. No one is stopping you to speak up against things that are not right, and no one is tying you so you can fulfill your mandate to be honest and loyal guardians of the people's money," he said.
Top women
Mr. Aquino made special mention of both COA Chair Grace Pulido Tan and Commissioner Heidi Mendoza in his speech.
He said it was important in his crusade against corruption to bring into the commission people who could be trusted and would not consider any government official as a sacred cow. He said this was why he did not hesitate to appoint Tan as its chair.
"And when we met Heidi Mendoza, we also did not pass up the chance to appoint her as commissioner," he said of the woman who blew the whistle on the irregular transactions made by former military comptroller Carlos Garcia.
The President also said those named "Heidi" or its variants were apparently women who were fearless and who would not exchange principles for bribes. He cited the efforts of auditor Haydee Pasuelo from Iloilo City, who was able to stop three agencies from spending P97.8 million and discovered that two government officials had been able to steal more than P1 million.
Pasuelo was named COA's outstanding employee for the year and received an award from the President.
Mr. Aquino also called on state auditors not to accept bribes from agencies whose records they were examining, whether in the form of a house, a car or money.
The right path
"This is true service. This is the right path. This is the realization of our goal for change, and you auditors are in the frontline of this fight," he said.
The President said he expected the new Ombudsman who would replace the resigned Merceditas Gutierrez would be able to work well with the COA.
"If the COA files a case in the Office of the Ombudsman, we are expecting that it will be attended to and studied well, that it will not be just put in a corner, or that it will be resolved with the people ending up losing," he said.
The President is now waiting for the Judicial and Bar Council to submit a short list of nominees for Ombudsman.
Stellar auditors
Gutierrez, who was impeached by the House of Representatives, was to have been tried at the Senate this month. She submitted her resignation to Mr. Aquino last week.
Despite threats to their lives, a group of state auditors have examined the records of numerous transactions and have gone the extra mile to uncover irregularities involving public funds, primarily the scam involving Pag-IBIG housing loans.
On Tuesday, the COA honored them in a ceremony attended by a President for the first time.
Two groups led the awardees—Audit Team 3 from Regional Office VII (Central Visayas) in Tacloban City, and Audit Team 6 from its Regional Office I (Ilocos) in San Fernando—which had uncovered bogus borrowers, ineligible developers and other irregularities involving the Home Development Mutual Fund or Pag-IBIG.
The irregular transactions involved over P500 million in funds. The members of Audit Team 3 are Rodulfo Ariesga, Alicia Malquisto, Imelda Oballo, Elena Merida and Josefina Galos. The members of Audit Team 6 are Sabiniano Cabatuan, Pelilia Veloso, Herminia Laforteza and Nixon Niera.
The Pag-IBIG loan scam had also headlined legislative inquiries.
According to the COA, the auditors of Team 6 did not have an easy time because they received threats to their safety when they were scrutinizing the housing records. The officials they were investigating also delayed the submission of reports and records, and offered self-serving explanations.
Those they had investigated also resorted to misrepresentations to distract the team's attention from the issue.
The COA said the accomplishments of Team 3, which is considered the whistle-blower of the Pag-IBIG loan scam, helped enhance the commission's image and credibility, especially when the team testified at congressional hearings on the bogus housing loan borrowers.
Team 3's technique in uncovering the anomalies will help future investigations because it shared its audit programs that can be implemented nationwide, the COA said.
COA's role in governance
The commission commended Pasuelo for her work disallowing the expenses of three government agencies amounting to P97.84 million, and which have also resulted in the dismissal of two government officers for malversation of public funds amounting to P1.25 million.
The expenses that Pasuelo had disallowed included disbursements for financial assistance to volunteer health workers, procurement of digital sterilizers for a hospital and payment of extra cash gift to employees of the provincial government of Iloilo.
The COA said Pasuelo's accomplishments heightened the people's awareness of the commission's role in good governance and in the fight against graft and corruption.
Monday, May 9, 2011
THE NATIONAL TREASURY IS PEOPLE'S MONEY
Missing link
By Conrado de Quiros
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:12:00 03/08/2011
Filed Under: Graft & Corruption, Government offices & agencies, Government Contracts, Judiciary (system of justice), Military, State Budget & Taxes
Yes and no.
The yes is patent. You compare the Senate hearings on the NBN deal with the one we have on the Garcia plea-bargaining case, and you see that the differences are monumental.
In the NBN case, you had a sense of the Senate working under a hostile environment. That environment was a government determined to cover up the perfidy, not least because it involved its highest officials leading up to the First Couple themselves. Though some of the senators performed brilliantly, with no small help from Jun Lozada, unearthing not just an entire conspiracy to defraud the public but an entire culture behind it—"moderate the greed" was one of the mind-boggling concepts it bequeathed to us—you had a feeling it would go the route of the Jose Pidal case, the "Hello, Garci" case, the Mega Pacific case.
Which it did.
In today's investigation of the generals, you have a sense that the Senate can really get to the bottom of things, no small thanks to a government giving it no reason not to. The senators have been spirited in their interpellation, or interrogation. I particularly like the part where Franklin Drilon put Edgardo Yambao in a quandary by asking him if he was waiving his right to deposits totaling P255 million in various banks after he denied owning them. It made him reconsider his position posthaste. Not an easy choice: future loss of freedom for money laundering and/or tax evasion or immediate loss of a fortune for abandoning a claim to it.
You have the sense that this time around, the crooks won't just be found, they will be punished. The newfound zeal has already driven someone to end his life, though that is probably more a testament to his own moral code than to the Senate's heightened acuity. But though Angelo Reyes may be a fluke, his death helps to push back the culture of impunity, which applied not just to murder but to theft. Before this, the corrupt could rob the country blind and expect not be touched—not by the shadow of jail, not by the breath of death. Reyes' death showed they can. Where their own hand fails, justice can always lend a hand.
Along with Merceditas Gutierrez's impending impeachment, President Aquino's "Pag walang corrupt, walang mahirap" seems to be getting a lot of traction. Those two things, the Senate hearing on Garcia and Gutierrez's impeachment, are bound to impact on each other and reinforce each other, making them more than the sum of their parts. The signs are hopeful in that respect.
So, yes, we are making inroads in the fight against corruption.
The no is a lot less patent but no less real. You can see that too in one vital similarity between the NBN hearing and the Garcia one. That is the lack of public outrage surrounding it.
There is public interest surrounding it, but not widespread outrage, not deep-seated opprobrium, not complete and utter reprehension. There were pockets of it during the NBN hearing, particularly after Lozada narrated his abduction, and there are pockets of it now, particularly after Reyes took his own life. But it does not seep downward.
That's the missing link in our investigations of corruption, in our hearings about pillage. In other countries, public opinion is very much a part of those investigations and hearings, public revulsion at the crooks, civil or military, is very much an element guaranteeing that they will be found out and punished. Not so here.
One is tempted to say that the solution is to exhort the public to be more vigilant of their rights, to be more watchful about their liberties, to be more jealous about their property. In part that is true: A great deal of indifference and cynicism has seeped into the culture, no small thanks to the last nine years, which needs pushing back. But it's really more than that. Because the problem really is not that we are tolerant of the robbery that is taking place before our eyes, it is that we cannot see the robbery that is taking place before our eyes.
The common reaction from the man in the street, "Sila sila lang naman 'yan," suggests the depth of the problem: It's just a division of spoils. If corruption is robbery at all, it is robbery between public officials. They are robbing each other, they are screwing each other. They are not robbing us, they are not screwing us.
To be jealous of your property, you must know that it is your property. That's the crux of the problem. Elsewhere in the world, that is very clear. Taxes are the people's money, the national treasury is the people's money, the money that public officials use is the people's money. That is not at all clear here. We do not really see taxes as our money. We—the poor especially who imagine they do not pay taxes anyway when in fact they do courtesy of VAT—do not see taxes as something we entrust to government to give back to us in the form of roads and bridges and schoolhouses. We see taxes as gratuity, or tong, we are required to give our officials in the same way that serfs give up part of their harvest to their lords, in the same way that vassals give tribute to their masters. Once we give it to them, it is no longer our property, it is theirs.
We do make paeans to taxpayers' money as being the people's money, but that hasn't seeped into the culture, that hasn't seeped into the national consciousness. That is what needs to be done. The fight against corruption cannot be waged solely by government. That is impossible; all that it will lead to is a reasonably honest government succeeding in moderating the greed. So long as the people themselves are not incensed by corruption because they do not see it as stealing from them, so long will it thrive, moderated or not.
We've still a long way to go.
SYNDICATED ESTAFA
MY QUEST FOR SWINDLED
RETIREMENT PAY BY SHELL
 
SWINDLING ITO, SYNDICATED ESTAFA
HOT PURSUIT
DUTY OF LAW ENFORCEMENT ENTITIES
SHELL SWINDLING OF RETIREMENT PAY 5TH YEAR
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