Who would not be?
The tragedy happened Jan. 25, 2015. The Ombudsman had suspended Purisima in Dec. 2014 and he was supposed to be not involved in the operations of the PNP.
But details of events that led to the tragedy showed that despite the suspension, President Aquino involved Purisima in official operations.
It was a blatant flouting of the law.
That is the question of many people reading reports of massive withdrawals from Vice President Jejomar Binay’s alleged 242 bank accounts under his name as well as under the name of his wife former Makati Mayor Elenita Binay and son Junjun, Makati mayor. A number of the accounts are also in the name of his alleged dummies.
The amounts mentioned are mindboggling. In the Inquirer story on the report of the Anti-Money Laundering Council which was the basis for the freeze order by the Court of Appeals of suspected Binay accounts, the total amount mentioned is P11 billion since 2008.
The condonation doctrine has no legal bases. It is a legal principle established by the Supreme Court in the 1959 case of Pascual vs Provincial Board.
Arturo B. Pascual was elected mayor of San Jose, Nueva Ecija, in November 1951 and reelected in 1955. In October 6, 1956, the Acting Provincial Governor of that province filed with the Provincial Board three administrative charges -Maladministrative, Abuse of Authority, and Usurpation of Judicial Functions – against Pascual committed during his first term.
In dismissing the case against Pascual, Supreme Court Justice David J. Gutierrez said, “When the people have elected a man to office, it must be assumed that they did this with knowledge of his life and character, and that they disregarded or forgave his faults or misconduct, if he had been guilty of any. It is not for the court, by reason of such faults or misconduct to practically overrule the will of the people. against the said appellant.”
The condonation doctrine had been used in several Supreme Court cases including the one the public is more familiar with: Aguinaldo vs Santos.
Binay immediately shut down the idea re-assuring his allies that there is no backing out of his ambition to be the next president of the Philippines, something that shudders many who imagine the level of corruption would it be under his presidency.
Binay gave the reason why he is pursuing his presidential plans despite the perception that he is severely damaged: “Napakalaki ng lamang ko. Never in the history na may ganun, hindi naman ganun kaagad ang lamang” (I keep a wide lead in surveys. Never in history that someone is leading the race by a wide margin).”
Which is true.
No one is really surprised that Vice President Jejomar Binay backed out of the Nov. 27 debate with Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV which he himself suggested to the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas.
When the debate was starting to take a life of its own after he mentioned it to KBP President Herman Basbaño last October and Trillanes accepted the challenge, Binay was just waiting for an opportunity to back out.
The opportunity happened yesterday during his 72nd birthday celebration at the Philippine Marines headquarters.
He was asked about Trillanes’ statements that he was going into the much-publicized activity fully aware that the vice president, a lawyer, has an advantage as far as debating skills are concerned. But the senator, who was formerly a Philippine Navy officer said, he is on the side of truth.
While we are riveted to the splendor of Hacienda Binay’s Kew Gardens and air-conditioned piggery, let us not forget Philippine National Police Chief Alan Purisima and his questionable acts as a public official.
Talking with reporters in Indonesia, Aquino said, “Natuwa ako noong sinama niya lahat sa bahay niya sa Nueva Ecija. Iyon, gawain ng tao na hindi nagtatago.”
What kind of logic is that? Allowing media to see his vacation villa in a 4.5 hectare property in Nueva Ecija does not answer the questions of how he acquired it at a cheap price and how he was able to build a nice four-bedroom vacation house complete with swimming pool, gazebo and a nipa hut out of his salary as a police officer.
It is PR.
Reports said Napoles arrived at Bicutan from Fort Sto. Domingo, a police camp in Sta. Rosa City , Laguna at 11:15 p.m.
Napoles has been charged with graft, plunder and serious illegal detention in connection with the misuse of the multi-billion Priority Development Assistance involving three senators – Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, Bong Revilla, members of their staff and other personalities.
She joined at the BJMP co-accused Atty. Gigi Reyes, former chief-of-staff of Enrile.
Main Decision
http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/pdf/web/viewer.html?file=/jurisprudence/2014/july2014/209287.pdfSeparate Opinions:
http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/pdf/web/viewer.html?file=/jurisprudence/2014/july2014/209287_carpio.pdf
http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/pdf/web/viewer.html?file=/jurisprudence/2014/july2014/209287_brion.pdf
Concurring and Dissenting opinion
http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/pdf/web/viewer.html?file=/jurisprudence/2014/july2014/209287_delcastillo.pdf
Separate Concurring Opinion
http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/pdf/web/viewer.html?file=/jurisprudence/2014/july2014/209287
_bernabe.pdf
Concurring Opinion
http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/pdf/web/viewer.html?file=/jurisprudence/2014/july2014/209287_leonen.pdf
The progressive groups –Anakbayan and Kilusang Mayo Uno- have hinted on impeachment in their statements hailing the High Court’s decision on DAP.
Anakbayan’s Vencer Crisostomo said, “Aquino and his pork gang should resign now in shame. Calls for him to be removed from office via impeachment or via a people’s uprising is growing and is increasingly justified. Aquino and his pork gang should be ousted.”
KMU’s Elmer Labog said, “The SC ruling could only further fuel calls for the Pork Barrel King’s resignation, if not ouster from office.”
Luchi’s name was mentioned in Inquirer’s May 18 issue as one of the mediamen in the list of those who “received” cash gifts from Napoles through a certain Mon Arroyo,former television director.
The documents, Inquirer said, were contained in the hard disk given to them by the mother of Benhur Luy, one of the whistleblowers in the Napoles PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) scam, and Levi Baligod, former lawyer of Luy way back on April 27, 2013 when the two visited the Inquirer office.
Among working journalists, we have a term “didal.” That is used when a PR (press relations officer) pockets the money intended for a reporter.
If a reporter finds out that his name was in the list and he didn’t get anything, we tease him, “Na didal ka.”
(Accepting money from a source for a story is unethical and is denounced in the practice of journalism. A reporter writes a story because he has discovered something that would be of interest and beneficial to the people and not because someone paid him to do it.
(The reality, however, is that there are PRs whose job should only be to facilitate access to his principal, who payoff media to promote his principal. This is a bad practice.)
We are told that these days the new term for “didal” is “bukol.”
We suspect that’s what happened to ABS-CBN’s Korina Sanchez and GMA 7’s Mike Enriquez.
An Inquirer report said according to the documents submitted by PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) scam whistleblower Benhur Luy, pork barrel queen Janet Napoles paid off a number of media personalities.