The hand of Malacañang, particularly Gloria Arroyo’s husband, Mike Arroyo, is obvious in the “Wanted” posters for Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson.
The “Wanted” photos were posted along Roxas Boulevard by members of the Volunteers against Crime and Corruption along Roxas Boulevard last Wednesday despite the fact that the issuance of the arrest warrant is still being questioned before the Supreme Court.
VACC is headed by Dante Jimenez, who left the original anti-crime group, Crusade Against Violence.
I retrieved a 2001 opinion piece by Jimenez in the Philippine Star Ngayon which spoke enthusiastically of Arroyo joining the VACC as volunteer lawyer.
Last Friday, Manila RTC Judge Myra Fernandez issued the arrest warrant against Sen. Panfilo Lacson for the murder of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito.
It was revealed last Monday that the Judicial and Bar Council, by a vote of seven out of eight members, recommended her nomination to the Court of Appeals. Sen. Francis Escudero, a JBC member, as head of the Senate Justice committee, was the only one that did not vote for Fernandez.
Walang mapagsidlan ang Malacañang ng kanilang tuwa sa tagumpay ng operasyon nila laban kay Sen. Panfilo Lacson ng ililabas ng judge kapahon ang warrant of arrest para sa pinakamasugid na kritiko ng pamahalaan.
Nakita nyo ba ang mukha ni Gary Olivar, deputy presidential spokesman ng nagbigay ng reaksyun sa warrant of arrest ni Lacson? Hindi maitago ang tuwa. Kunwari pang hands off. Alam naman natin kung paano pinaandar ang makinarya ng pamahalaan para lamang madiin si Lacson sa pagkamatay ni Bubby Dacer at ng kanyang driver na si Emmanuel Corbito.
Narinig ko sa radio si Ric Diaz, hepe ng National Bureau of Investigation counterterrorism unit, at siya ang namumuno sa team na maghahanap ngayon kay Lacson. Tumatawa siya sa radyo na parang nanunuya.
Sige tumawa ka. Bilog ang mundo. Kapag oras na ang amo mong utak ng maraming krimen sa mamamayang Pilipino ang hahabulin ng batas, ang taumbayan ang magkaroon ng selebrasyon.
Mrs B posterThere’s nothing that a mother would do for her child. No distance too far to travel, no obstacle too high to hurdle.
It has been almost three years since Edith Burgos, wife of the late Jose Burgos, Jr, founder of Malaya and regarded as a press freedom icon, last saw her son, Jonas.
On April 28, 2007, Jonas, father of an 18-month old girl, was abducted by unidentified men and a woman while having lunch at the Hapag Kainan restaurant in Ever Gotesco Mall in Quezon City. He was dragged into a waiting van and he has been missing since then.
Jonas is described in new reports as “activist-farmer”. Probably because at the time he was abducted, he was a member of the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Bulacan (AMB), a provincial chapter of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP).
Jonas studied agriculture at Benguet State University. He practiced organic farming in the Burgos family farm in Bulacan and shared his knowledge of it with other farmers.
Since the abduction almost three years ago, the Burgos family, headed by Edith Burgos has been searching relentlessly for Jonas. Mrs. Burgos has taken all the avenues — courts, police, military, morgues, government agencies including the Office of the President, international organizations and the streets — to look for her son.
It’s not just that justice delayed is justice denied. It’s also that justice selectively served is justice screwed.
At that, I don’t even know that justice, selective or not, is being served on Panfilo Lacson for the murders of Bubby Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito. Of course there’s direct evidence against him in the form of ex-Senior Supt. Cezar Mancao saying he heard him order Michael Ray Aquino to dispose of Dacer. But all that stands on the head of the pin that is Mancao’s credibility. Did Mancao truly suffer remorse during his exile in the US and felt compelled to tell what he knew a decade later, or is he just down on his luck from the same exile in the US and ready to swear that Lacson had Jose Rizal shot?
That is not something we can know under the present regime. I have no problem with Lacson being prosecuted grandly for the murders of Dacer and Corbito, and if found guilty punished grandly as well. But I have every problem with him being tried under this government. Or, since that is really a circuitous way of putting it, by this government. Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets. The justice department today has the distinction of being the one office writ large in Orwellian script, fomenting the opposite of what it says.
The Judicial and Bar Council should stop outright the obviously Palace-hatched proposal of Rep. Matias Defensor to name the successor of Chief Justice Reynato Puno before the ban on appointments starts on March 22 or even during period when the ban itself is in effect.
The JBC has reportedly calendared Defensor’s proposal that the council names nominees to the post to be vacated by Puno upon reaching the mandatory of 70 on May 17. Since Matias is an ex-officio member of the JBC, the council certainly cannot ignore his letter of December 22 outlining his proposal. The JBC must take it up, but it can, just as promptly, send it to the trashcan.
The JBC meeting is scheduled on Monday. Insiders said the issue the members will deliberate on is whether there is a precedent for naming nominees to a position which is not vacant. There is nothing in the records of the JBC that shows it has named nominees before an actual vacancy has occurred. So, definitely, there is no precedent.
The JBC should not allow itself to be used as a tool in Gloria Arroyo’s desire to install her own man as the chief justice.
(Editor’s Note: The author has logged 32 years in the public service as Senate president, justice secretary, labor secretary and executive secretary. He was a bar topnotcher and a staunch advocate of reforms in the judiciary. He is the national chair of the Liberal Party and its leading senatorial candidate in the May elections.)
The Paramount question is: Under the 1987 Constitution, can an outgoing President Arroyo still appoint the successor to Chief Justice Puno?
The forthcoming retirement of Chief Justice Reynato Puno and President Macapagal-Arroyo’s impending exit from power present an interesting legal question that will have an impact not only on our Supreme Court but on our country’s future as well.
The multiple murder case against Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. will be heard by Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of Quezon City RTC Branch 221.
The case was re-raffled yesterday after QC RTC Judge Luisito Cortez filed a notice for inhibition Tuesday, citing heavy case load and concerns for the safety of his family, among others.
The re-raffle was presided by acting Executive Judge Fernando Sagun.
Ang nangyari kay Ruby Rose Barrameda Jimenez ay isang patunay na walang “perfect crime”.
Kahit gaano kagaling ang pagka-plano ng isang krimen, lalabas na lalabas ang katotohanan. Sa kaso ni Ruby Rose, dalawang taon bago lumabas ang katotohanan.
Si Ruby Rose, 27 taong gulang, ay biglang nawala noong March 14, 2007. Nang nawala siya, may kaso siyang isinampa sa kanyang asawa para makuha ang kanyang mga anak.
