Ducky Paredes

“A public officer or employee shall, upon assumption of office and as often thereafter as may be required by law, submit a declaration under oath of his assets, liabilities, and net worth. ”

by Ducky Paredes

On August 17, 1960, Republic Act 3019, as amended, was passed and approved into law, otherwise known as the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act of the Philippines. Section 7 states: “Every public officer, within thirty days after assuming office and, thereafter, on or before the fifteenth day of April following the close of every calendar year, as well as upon the expiration of his term of office, or upon his resignation or separation from office, shall prepare and file with the office of the corresponding Department Head, or in the case of a Head of Department or Chief of an independent office, with the Office of the President, a true detailed and sworn statement of assets and liabilities, including a statement of the amounts and sources of his income, the amounts of his personal and family expenses and the amount of income taxes paid for the next preceding calendar year.”

On February 20, 1989, this particular Section of the Act was expanded by the passage of Republic Act 6713, otherwise known as the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.

Section 8 of R.A. 6713 says: “Public officials and employees have an obligation to accomplish and submit declarations under oath of, and the public has the right to know, their assets, liabilities, net worth and financial and business interests including those of their spouses and of unmarried children under eighteen (18) years of age living in their households.”

That post-EDSA People Power Law came from Article XI, Section 17 of the 1987 Constitution that expressly states:

“Section17. A public officer or employee shall, upon assumption of office and as often thereafter as may be required by law, submit a declaration under oath of his assets, liabilities, and net worth. In the case of the President, the Vice-President, the Members of the Cabinet, the Congress, the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Commissions and other constitutional offices, and officers of the armed forces with general or flag rank, the declaration shall be disclosed to the public in the manner provided by law.”

So, how has it happened then that Supreme Court justices, congressmen, other officers of constitutional bodies (such as the Office of the Ombudsman) think that they are exempt from the coverage of these laws and Article XI, Section 17 of the 1987 Constitution?

This must be a tough law to follow since just about anyone can check on everything he owns and begin to wonder out how a government official could afford that mansion or that limousine or his children’s schooling abroad on his pittance of a take-home pay.

I am told that, for the Supreme Court justices, what got them off having us peasants see their Statements (SALN) was a spate of kidnappings in 1992 during the term of Chief Justice Andres Narvasa, Jr. The Court then figured that it would be best to exempt their SALNs (and those of all judiciary personnel) from public scrutiny so the kidnappers would not know who best to hold for ransom.

Based on that silly reason, the succeeding courts under Hilario Davide Jr., Artemio Panganiban, Reynato Puno, and now Renato C. Corona have exempted themselves and all judiciary personnel from public scrutiny. Oh, they file their SALNs but no one can see them! What is the point of filing statements that no one will ever see?

Recently, too, as it turned out, the congressmen (including the 188 who voted to impeach Corona for (among other offenses) not having filed his SALNs since he joined the Court, had also not made their SALNs available to the general public.

We can see that the corruption of our Courts and the government rests on a bedrock of privilege where the rules for everyone do not apply for those such as they who sit in posts that have some power over the rules and the laws.

Why do we even bother with SALNs if people can exempt themselves. Who would be most interested in keeping their assets secret if not those who have assets and net worth to hide? Not wishing for anyone to see one’s SALNs ought to be considered as proof enough that one has something to hide!

* * *

A wise man, once suggested, in jest to the young man entering government service, that he should declare in his pre-employment SALN, that he had a net worth of a billion pesos, even if he was still virtually a pauper. The idea was that the young man would then build up (through whatever means) to be able to attain that billion within a few years of being in government.

Most of those who become millionaires and billionaires from being in government, do not even need that subterfuge. They just brazenly make that first million without declaring it in their SALNs, especially if they did not have to tell anyone anything about their wealth.

* * *

In a sense, one cannot blame Renato Corona for doing exactly as the previous Supreme Courts allowed those in the judiciary — total secrecy about what they own. what they owe and what, in money terms, would be their net worth.

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hvp 01.16.12

 “I will follow my father’s footsteps in doing what is right, and God will take care of the rest. My father is my role model. My living role model is Cory Aquino. I am prepared.”

by Ducky Paredes

The bad teacher tells her student that he is not doing as well as he begins his work compared to how she was doing when she left it?

I remember that when Gloria took over from Erap that I had mixed emotions about it. Erap was a classmate and a friend. True, he liked my kuya better but then, didn’t everyone? Eventually, I figured then (in 2001) that it was possible that she might do better than Erap did. In that event, she might work out better for this country. Thus, despite my close ties to Erap, I was ambivalent about the change simply because there was a chance that she could turn out better for the country; after all, didn’t she tell Time Magazine: “I will follow my father’s footsteps in doing what is right, and God will take care of the rest. My father is my role model. My living role model is Cory Aquino. I am prepared.”

Of course, she was prepared — to become the worst ever President we have had so far. Now, Gloria is in jail, probably for a very long haul, considering that new charges against her continue to be discovered. We have not yet seen the end of this long train.

Last week, she wrote a “study” intended for her former economics student (and read out loud by a University of the Philippines economics professor) to tell her former student how badly he is doing.  Of course, Noynoy ignored his former teacher. After all, if one went back to 2001, the year the Arroyo presidency began, it is clear that the present as new President, Pnoy’s attention is more focused on his job, than Teacher Gloria’s was.

Just think that in her first week as President, she approved a deal that neither Presidents Ramos nor Estrada approved. There were many tings amiss in that deal to repair certain power generating units that an Argenitnian company had been awarded. What was amiss was that there was a government guarantee on it and neither former President liked that added burden. Yet, the brand new President approved it in her first week. Then, there was the PIATCO contract for the construction of a new airport terminal. She decided to rescind it. This resulted in delays in the work and in the country being sued by the Filipino and German investors in international courts.

In May, 2001, a few months into her presidency, Muslim bandits abducted 20 hostages at a resort in Palawan. Even as Gloria officially adopted a hardline “no ransom” response to these and other kidnap cases and launched military operations against them, it was later revealed that hostages’ families paid ransom to the kidnappers directly, with some claiming that Philippine military officers received a portion of the funds.

Then, wasn’t Mike Arroyo accused of receiving bribes from a telecommunications company seeking government-approved contracts? It even later turned out that both Mike and Gloria and a host of other of their people were also involved. This was just in the first 18 months of Gloria’s presidency.

Thus, it would seem to me that Gloria really has no business telling Pnoy how to run things. The country might have slowed a bit on the economic front but 2011 was that kind of a year for the rest of the world, too, judging by what we read about the economy in the rest of the world. Besides, the new President, coming as he does into a government known (for the last nine years) as being one better known for kleptocracy and corruption, how could he implement projects envisioned and developed by the previous administration, without first vetting how it was developed and who benefited by them. In fact, in that review, the government has, in fact, found many things not quite right with what would have been developed, if these plans had been implemented as planned.

* * *

The impeachment of Renato Corona as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court begins in earnest this afternoon.

Too bad that word that the World Bank had uncovered questionable procurements and disbursements in connection with the Judicial Reform Support Project (JRSP), which was partly funded by a World Bank loan of $21.9 million.  The JRSP was started during Chief Justice Hilarion Davide’s watch and was designed to restore efficiency in the dispensation of justice in the country.

The World Bank now says officially (in an aide memoire) that since Corona assumed his post in mid-2010, progress in reforming the judiciary “has been rated unsatisfactory,” with “implementation delays and additional work required for smooth project closing.”

The WB document says:  “The review discloses that the fiduciary environment pertaining to JRSP implementation has so deteriorated that the task team now rates the JRSP as  ‘high risk’ and ‘unsatisfactory’ on project management, project procurement and financial management dimensions, and observes that project financial statements can no longer be relied upon.”

The review uncovered “inaccurate/incomplete information” on the project’s financial management report, “diminished existing internal check-and-balance mechanism,” purchase of information technology equipment outside of the agreed procurement plan, and the practice of borrowing funds from the loan for the justices’ foreign travels, paid to a travel agency owned by lawyer Estelito Mendoza.

The World Bank now wants a refund of $199,900, covering 70 payments deemed “ineligible” or unauthorized under the terms of the JRSP. And the WB wants its money before Jan. 31, 2012!

* * *

On to the impeachment! What we should all pray for is that this may serve to begin a cleansing of our judiciary. If we cannot all become billionaires, let us pray that what a much-loved president hoped for — that “those who have less in life should have more in the law” — can come true in our lifetime!

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hvp 01.15.12

“There will be a change in the Philippine judiciary after the impeachment trial, no matter how it goes — hopefully a change for the better.”

by Ducky Paredes

From his request for a subpoena to be served on the Speaker of the House, Feliciano Belmonte, we see that the defense of the Chief Justice on his impeachment will rely on legal technicalities. This is a weakness in the way that Pinoy lawyers approach their cases. They do not necessarily seek the way to find justice. They seem to rely more on finding loopholes, or kinks in the law that they can exploit to get away with murder or some lesser felony.

In this case, the hope is to catch the Speaker on the legal technicalities on how the 188 Congressmen who signed the impeachment complaint conducted their individual verification of each of the charges against the Chief Justice.

This is sad; it is also foolish. Doesn’t this Chief Justice realize that the SC has ruled that a legal verification “is a formal, not jurisdictional, requirement.” What this means is that even where a verification can be proven to have been defective or inadequate, a “court may simply order the correction of unverified pleadings or act on them and waive strict compliance with the rules.” (Bello v. Bonifacio Security, citing Ramirez v. CA and Altres v. Empleo)

So, it is clear that even assuming that there was no strict compliance with the rule on verification, the remedy is simply to order it corrected or waive the requirement and proceed. This means that if the congressman who signed did not actually read the complaint, have him read it! Besides, as Sonny Belmonte explains it, they did discuss this openly in the caucus. In fact, the Congressmen had discussed this matter among themselves, even before the impeachment complaint was formally put together.

The indisputable fact that 188 members of the House signed the impeachment complaint should be enough compliance to the constitutionally required vote of one-third of all the members of the House. The more significant and substantial requirement is this vote, and there is no doubt that it was obtained. Harping on what the courts have themselves designated as a mere “formal” requirement, worse, insisting that this formal requirement should derail the impeachment process despite an overwhelming vote for it, is a misguided notion that upholds the letter but violates the spirit of the law.

Furthermore, the Senate should grant the respect owed to its co-equal chamber of Congress, by accepting the implied certification, arising from the fact of its submission of the verified complaint to the Senate, that the constitutional requirements have been complied with.

Article XI, Section 3(2) of the Constitution grants the House “the exclusive power to initiate all cases of impeachment.” The House has declared that it has initiated the process, and impeached the Chief Justice. This should settle the issue. The Senate must accept this determination by its co-equal chamber and proceed with its own constitutional duty to conduct the trial.

Have we forgotten how the Erap impeachment was announced and transmitted to the Senate as a postscript to the regular prayer that precedes every session of the Lower House? That may have been improper, brazen and even unfair; but, apparently, it was legal!

Of course, this is expected from the Corona camp. It is the hallmark of a strategy to avoid substance and nitpick on technicality. Even in the face of an overwhelming vote of 188 members of the House supporting the impeachment and endorsing it to the Senate for trial, they will still claim that the complaint is defective and should be thrown out for insufficiency in form and substance. In fact, one would not be surprised if the other Gloria justices issue a TRO against the continuance of the impeachment trial on just this silly matter.

(One wonders whether the same defect may be imputed in the Gloria Arroyo TRO that seems to have been issued, as it were “without thinking” so much so that the government that was ready to present its arguments against, was not even given a chance to present her view.)

An impeachment is not a matter that is decided on the basis of law or rules alone. There is a political aspect to impeachment that gives much weight to the primacy of numbers. Corona must remember that he was overwhelmingly impeached by the House. Thus, he must face the Senator-Judges, who, if enough of them so vote positively on the charges, will end his days as Chief Justice.

That, in the barest of terms, is what Corona will have to face on Monday. In a sense, it is democracy in its most primitive form. Majority rules! The one with the numbers, gets his way.

* * *

Judges and justices have it easier these days than before when they had to face the Commission on Appointments(CA) before they could be confirmed. They have it much easier now because they are vetted only by the Judicial and Bar Council, a select group of lawyers handpicked by the President from among the appointees’ fellow lawyers plus one from the Senate and another from the House.

While this makes it easier for the President’s appointees to join the judiciary, it has also become much easier for charlatans and misfits to get into our judiciary. No more do they have to face the probing questions of the politicians in the CA who will often bring out the most embarrassing things about the prospect.

* * *

From all the horror stories one hears about the judiciary — decisions for sale, judges and justices on the take — from lawyers and even Court personnel, it is only natural that a reformist President will want to do something about the judiciary. This impeachment is about reforming the judiciary.

In a sense the Chief Justice is right when he characterizes himself as a Louis XV, the last king of France before the revolution, who was believed to have said: “Apre moi, le deluge.” There will be a change in the Philippine judiciary after the impeachment trial, no matter how it goes — hopefully a change for the better.

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hvp 01.12.12

 “(T)he former President would be like a millstone around any candidate’s neck in any election, even among opposition leaders who are choosing a Minority Leader.”

by Ducky Paredes

Although in the 2010 elections, the main opposition party that emerged in the House of Representatives was the Lakas Kampi CMD (Lakas-Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino-Christian Muslim Democrats), the party now has only 19 remaining members. Minority Leader and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman could even leave the party, if he feels that he is not being treated right.

Apparently, after the elections, when Lagman thought he might have a chance to be Speaker, to get the votes of their 35 party mates, he made a deal with now Senior Deputy Minority Leader and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez that they would share the speakership. Should Lagman make it to the Speakership, Lagman would give up the seat to Suarez by about this time.

Obviously, the party did not capture the Speaker’s chair. In fact, their party was decimated. Not only that, their Party Leader, former President Gloria Arroyo has been arrested and has been charged with several major crimes including plunder and election fraud!

Now, Suarez is out to collect on their agreement and is apparently hoping for their Party Leader (Gloria) to help him take the post of Minority leader from Lagman, who calls on his rival not to anymore involve the former President and now detainee.

Lagman asks Suarez to “stop involving former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in his struggle and should not use her hospital suite as his campaign headquarters. Suarez must wean himself from the former president and desist from running to her for help.”

It would seem to me that the former President would be like a millstone around any candidate’s neck in any election, even if this is only among opposition leaders who are choosing a Minority Leader.

In fairness to Gloria, as Suarez tells it: “The former president has nothing to do with that (Lagman’s ouster). She has so many problems. She only said that if there’s an agreement for term sharing then that must be honored. But that was sometime in November.”

I agree that if there is such an agreement, it should be honored. But, that presumes that politicians are like you and me, who can be shamed into going through with an agreement, even if it may be against their personal interests. In fact, Lagman denies that there was a general time-sharing agreement — that this was only referring to the position of Speaker, in the event that Lagman’s campaign for the post succeeded.

(I ask the reader: If now, for the hardly significant post of Minority Leader, Lagman is not willing to time-share, do you think he would have given up the Speaker’s gavel in the event that his campaign for speaker had succeeded and he was now sitting as Speaker?)

Apparently, one day last week, at least ten party members arrived separately to visit the former President in her hospital suite at the Veterans’ Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) where she is detained on charges of electoral sabotage. They met up and had an informal caucus where they might have agreed to depose Lagman. Among the visitors were:  Suarez, Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, Occidental Mindoro Rep. Amelita Villarosa and presidential son, Party-List congressman Mikey Arroyo.

But Suarez expresses surprise that Lagman suddenly reneged on the agreement and wants to cling to his post even if members of the minority bloc already earlier voted to uphold the term-sharing pact.

At any rate, considering that at least 188 congressmen are with the President, out of the total 284, of which 250 are in the majority bloc, leaving just 34 in the minority, there seems little relevance who ever sits as Minority Floor Leader, is there?

* * *

House Majority Leader and Mandaluyong Rep. Neptali Gonzales says about the possibility of Lagman abandoning the opposition ranks, “If he has the intention, if he so decides to join the majority, I’m sure he would be given a position commensurate to his expertise and experience. He is certainly most welcome.”

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez disagrees: “He must start as a foot soldier. We worked hard to help the administration and he has not yet proven his loyalty.”

* * *

We have letters: “Mr. Paredes I suggest you defer from trying by publicity the Corona impeachment case. It is the Senate’s job. Also, the more you talk against Corona, the more I feel the prosecution has a weak case.

 “There are so many more urgent and important matters to write about like asking Pres. Arroyo to rehabilitate also the PNR like what he is doing to NAIA. We need mass transportation like trains, not more roads for cars to pass, like the proposed sky bridge! Have you been out in Makati? I bet you can’t stand the pollution! I use face mask whenever I walk in Makati.” — Efren Mercado

* * *

Actually, Efren, I honestly can’t do that; writing about Corona is a lot of fun, because he takes himself so seriously and regards himself as some kind of God, even, as we constantly discover, he really has feet of clay. You would be taking away from me a lot of my enthusiasm for writing, if I agree to do what you want. Sorry.

As for the PNR, watch for it. What you want to happen will happen. In the coming months, more trains will be running and even the Metrorail (LRT and MRT) will be running more efficiently and providing greater service. Even the busses will become more disciplined.

Chairman Francis Tolentino knows what he is doing. Metro Manila will get better — soon.

* * *

“It is a morning and evening ritual to read Malaya on line. My day or evening is not complete without reading your article. It keeps me updated here in Xiamen China about what is happening to our country. Thank you.

“Last year, I wrote you a short message that I wasn’t able to send pamasko to my brothers & sisters because the conversion of dollar to peso was 40+. This Christmas, I was able to send each one of them so they have something on the table and continue the spirit of traditional Christmas the Filipino way.  My nieces and nephews were very happy. They were all thankful.

“One of my sisters sent me this message: ‘Don’t simply thank God for the blessings you receive, but thank Him because He has chosen you to be a blessing to someone else.’ I think this holds true to all OFW’s.” — Edna Salcedo

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hvp 01.09.12