The Sin Tax Reform Act of 2012: Will It Really Curb Sin Products Consumption, Or Was It Just Another Mirage To Solons Waltzing Their Way To Heftier Pork Barrels?

If you have not been having better things to do recently, you might have had the reluctance to while away time watching or reading the debates among pro and anti congressmen and senators on the Sin Tax Bill. Finally, it was passed with Pnoy signing the same into law, hence, RA 10351 or The Sin Tax Reform Act of 2012 takes effect on January 1, 2013.

Sin tax, though, is not new. We had the original sin tax bill enacted (RA9334) sometime in January 2005, which mandated varying increases in excise tax rates every two years until 2011.

I am a smoker and a drinker, but I am not addicted to either cig or booze. Even a while back when I was consuming two to three packs a day and quite an amount of beer/liquor every day, I would dare say I was never addicted. I had complete control of my consumption: When I wanted to stop for a period, I did the moment I made the decision. No withdrawal syndrome whatsoever.

Now I consume a lot less: less than a pack a day, except when I drink. It makes sense to think smoke is more enjoyable with alcohol, but I can’t make out any logical explanation to it.

Pardon the digression. Anyway, the law says it is aimed at fixing the inequities in tax structure, removing the price classification that allowed tobacco companies to pay taxes based on 1996 prices, simplifying its administration by shifting from multi-tiered to unitary tax system by 2017.

Whatever the reason, most people support it for one obvious reason. Frankly, I don’t need sophisticated scientific studies to tell me smoking and drinking harm health. Equally, I don’t need anyone to tell me against what fun I derive or even feign deriving from drinking and smoking. To me, drinking and smoking are social activities. The conversation that flows along them makes them addictive (desirable of repetition) not the vice itself.

But then again, I don’t need to lift a finger to convince anyone.

The bigger issue is whether the funds that this new sin tax law is expected to generate will go to the law’s intended purposes. That’s where the government’s reputation has, time and again, proved wanting.

Whatever happened to the study that revealed we were losing some 20-30% (as a percentage to national budget), or as Manny Villar said in 2010, some 250B a year, in taxes to corruption? If the government had concentrated its efforts on plugging the loophole, we may still need the new sin tax law, but it would not have met the fiery opposition it did from the public, since the latter would know where the taxes go.

That the government seemed to have looked the other way still evokes the sentiment on government’s aversion to, nay inability in, finding intelligent solutions to tax collection problems, and reinforces the public’s impression on its propensity to imposing new taxes as a way of coping.

However, this sin tax law could prove to be a double-edged sword. While our tax minds at the BIR and DOF have made all sorts of projection on collections, they fail to acknowledge that as taxes are raised significantly high, the temptation for evasion rises with it. In a high-tax regime, the incentive to evade taxes becomes more compelling to justify taking the risk.

What is in it for Congress?

For sure, this means heftier pork barrel funds (now already at 70m and 200m per congressman and senator, respectively), euphemistically or innocently called Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF), to congress occupants. Now, how does one reconcile the corrupt reality of the past to the promise this new law makes under this new administration?

I would say I have faith in the current administration. No doubt it enjoys the confidence of a large majority of Philippine society, and the international community as well. But it’s not to say that stories that allegedly belie the “Matuwid Na Daan” philosophy of the president are nuisance and don’t deserve scrutiny. Some seriously project credibility that, if not looked into, will eventually erode confidence in the president or its administration, and imperil his lofty programs, including the present sin tax law.

I feel for the president, but with over 300 politicians in Congress benefitting from the enactment in the convenient guise of “projects for the people,” it is very difficult to paint a rosy picture against a gloomy backdrop of same old faces wearing business as usual grins.

I have prepared myself for paying more for every stick I light come New Year. The president, too, will pay more when he lights a stick. I wish him not only good health, but steady conviction in making all in government walk his path of “Matuwid na Daan.”

 

What Drives Americans Into Shooting Rampage?

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve had the privilege of watching over my children in quite a time now, or just observe them since they’re a young adult and a teen too anxious to grow up who impress on me they don’t need me to watch over them: kids these days. Pearl and I have been battling over whether there’s value in living together when we do almost surely well separately. Accustomed, we don’t treat the issue as pressing now as we did in the beginning.

Kashmere being the 19-year old that she is preoccupies herself with studies, but mostly adoring her boyfriend, to be blunt. Anne, on the other hand, even as I see her dodging my suggestions against grownup girl stuff (you know what I’m saying: make up; lipstick, etc.), is childishly glued to koreanovelas. Both seem oblivious to what’s going on around them.

The news of Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre where 20 children no older than 5, and 6 adults senselessly lost their lives to a heavily armed Lunatic named Adam Lanza, somehow makes me thankful my children aren’t as news buff as many of their age. I can’t really tell the value of them knowing or not knowing the incident, although I am sure they’d be hard put to avoid it as it’s in almost every nook and cranny of news channel and space.

The horror of it directly and strikingly challenges a father’s idea of protecting his children.

I feel strongly for our America-based colleagues at work, who lost their loved ones in this menacing tragedy: Dean Pinto who lost his son, Jack; William Sherlach who lost his wife, Mary; Paul Minella who lost his niece, Grace; and I breathe hope and solace in R.J. Fressola’s wife, Liesl, who teaches at the school and is among those who survived.

The bigger problem is this is becoming terrifyingly routine to America: Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, and now Connecticut. Schools drawing shooters of innocent adults and kids alike who, sadly, have to die because they are at the wrong place when something wrong ticked in one’s mind.

I know whatever is causing this blood thirst could be as validly mysterious as any science prior to breakthrough. But we know that males are mostly involved in these, and we also know that guns are instrumental in the mass deaths. Sadly, America is obstinately attached to their constitutional right to bear arms, and to the elation of the gun industry and lobbyists, who continue to make billions of dollars off the illusion that it’s inherently American to have the right to bear arms.

Unfortunately, it’s way past the issue of gun possession as it is now. An individual hoarding 7 firearms, including an assault weapon or a semi-automatic rifle designed to kill a large number of people in few squeezes of a trigger, isn’t constitutional entitlement to protection. It is militarized thinking, influenced by how America has been arming to the teeth its military and civilian forces.

Streets and communities of this great nation have become battlefields awash with household artilleries that convert instantly into massacre instruments in the hands of a deranged individual whose detection have increasingly become difficult.

In that sense, I enjoin everyone to be watchful on the direction of our own gun laws, lest we take the path our all-time benefactor had trodden and we find ourselves in the same murderous rage that beset an otherwise soberly proud America.

 

RA 9344, The Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006; A Product of Congressional Overreaching Advocacy and Executive Hypocrisy

RA 9344 or Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006; A Product of Congressional Hypocrisy and the Executive Department’s Faked Advocacy

A reading of this law, which its proponents claim to be hailed around the world as progressive and a landmark piece of legislation, gives you a sense of the author’s (Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan) misplaced and fancied idealism. It fails to consider the government’s track record in implementing infrastructure aspects of legislation that are executive in nature. And the excuse is often fashioned as, and perennially attributed to, lack of funds.

In the case of this particular law, they go as shameless far as to claim lack of funds, lack of proper training and education of prosecutors and law enforcers on the intricacies of the law, etc. It is like reading a template with some tweaks here and there made to suit the peculiarities of a subject law.

Susmariosep, if this is so, then what’s the incentive or compulsion in making sure that laws succeed, when their failure has, by time, developed a “rubber stamp” justification.

No amount of excuses should exonerate any agency or department of government for its failure to implement the infrastructure of a law (which I will explain below), especially so that a law’s passage is, to a large extent, rationalized and persuaded by the safety nets these infrastructures provide.

Infrastructure of law is the aspect of legislation that makes the whole desirable and workable. Omit it and the entire complexion of the law changes substantially, so that legislators may not have been swayed in favor of its enactment had it not been in place.

Metaphorically, it is the pairing leg to a two-legged law, the other leg being the substance of the law. The latter is what the law is trying to achieve: in this case, to restore a child-offender to his former state or reform him, to becoming a productive member of society. The former, the mechanism to make sure that children are rescued and given the needed care, attention, and affection, to keep the human material in them, and prevent them from graduating into hardened and calloused criminals, which in turn, should take them out of the application or protection of RA 9344.

In other words, there is a staging period between one point where a street child is innocent and another where he would have become “hardened” by difficult experiences to a point of incorrigibility. It is in that stage that the government, through the JJWC, should act in carrying out the design of the law if it is to apply the leniency and protection thereof. Otherwise, a child offender (incorrigibly hardened) should be treated, under the law, just like any other offender.

We should not risk the safety of our children and the society, in general, by allowing these kids criminals back to the open in hope that they reform and forget the pleasures, sense of being, nay power, they inordinately savored during their criminal reign.

Anent RA 9344, it pertains to provisions, anchored on its declared state policy, to wit:

“(c) The State likewise recognizes the right of children to assistance, including proper care and nutrition, and special protection from all forms of neglect, abuse, cruelty and exploitation, and other conditions prejudicial to their development.”

They are particularly enumerated under Chapter I Title III of the law: the roles of Family, The Educational System, The media, The establishment and strengthening of Local Councils for the Protection of Children, and further scattered over the four corners of the document embodying this legislation.

In effect, the persuasion power of this law is in the character of prevention of the Infrastructure provision, as gleaned from the cited policy of the state. If the state truly recognizes, as a policy, what the law had written in it, then this law can have its shot at success. If the state truly recognizes the right of children to assistance, care and nutrition, protection from all forms of neglect, abuse, cruelty, and exploitation, then we should see much less of this eventuality-turned juvenile offenders, such that delinquency rates would have sensibly and realistically gone down to earn it the label of success.

Sadly, the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Council (JJWC), has failed and continues to fail to execute its mandate.

This ineptitude, inaction, and irresponsibility have augured well for criminals who prey on the youth, exploiting their extentual criminal immunity, and making them foot soldiers in carrying out their nefarious activities.

I agree that these kids are were innocent, or at least that’s how they started. However, consider them erstwhile innocent to be more precise. Before they were rounded up by hooligans as recruits, they have been longtime occupants of the streets. Unwanted, uncared for, abused, and hungry, they are exactly the subject of the infrastructure provision of this law.

Had the government, through the JJWC, a fourteen-member council, representing seven prime departments of government, with extra 2 representative from NGOs, done its mandate under the law, these kids should have been taken out of the streets into state-sponsored caring institutions, as designed in the law, before they had been steeled and hardened by their ensuing difficult experiences.

Now, these once pitiful and harmless kids, by painful neglect of their plights, have become calloused and have turned into monsters that no longer fit the description of the intended subject of the law, as contemplated by legislators.

The bad guys all along are out there watching and waiting for the right time to do their easy pickings. Syndicates know that the best way to a hungry child’s heart is through the stomach. Feed them, and promise them more of things, which theretofore they could only dream of, and they’ll jostle mightily to get counted. Then they start stealing, stabbing, and shooting. WITH DISCERNMENT.

Now, the government in its attempt to defend this law, wants us to believe that, while admitting that this has not succeeded yet, they are ready to get their acts together to put all in place for this law to work.

What baloney! It’s like saying “sorry, we might have to endure more senseless deaths and varied crimes (authored by these menace called by euphemism ‘children in conflict with law,’ which is insulting to their victims) while we try to catch up. Yes you might have to continue dying, losing properties, dealing with threats, in the meantime. You are advised to take the necessary precautions.”

That’s how this sounds to those who lost loved ones’, limbs, property to, and/or traumatized by, these monsters.

Hell I’m not going to put up with this. They come to me or my kids, I’ll shoot them, and I will bill the government for allowing these criminals, hardened as they are, to prowl the streets and victimize us, hapless law-abiding citizens.

The world is upside down: the lawful constituents of society are now at the mercy of the lawless and anarchists.

Congress had better wake up and institute corrective legislative measures by ending this stupid law, and not falling, again, for empty promises that make people’s safety contingent to the government’s supposed efficiency, something it’s hardly known for.

Restorative justice, diversion and diversion programs, interventions, etc.: words that lace this law are nothing but lofty rhetoric. No wonder we’re tagged as a country of slogans and acronyms, and that’s all.

We say to the government: Until you’re ready, don’t put us before a barrel of a gun.

Don’t trial-and-error with people’s lives, lest you end up dealing with vigilante groups forced to take matters in their own hands to protect themselves, when they see the state leaves itself helpless to protect its own people.

Pnoy should rally his liberal congress occupants to arrest this before more lives are wasted if he wants to give meaning to his the battle cry of “Matuwid na Daan?”

 

Pambansang Kamao; Pambansang KAMOTE?

Many were disillusioned with Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao in the run up to what has been touted as the biggest boxing event in years –which in fact, lived up to its billing. Believe it or not, many thought it was good lesson if he lost, so that he would reassess his direction viz-a-viz what path the Filipino people had always laid down for him. Sure, he is entitled, just as anyone else, to live his life his way: Pursue whatever dreams he has for himself and outside of himself; Gun for whatever he aspires to.

But people sense when one erstwhile humble and lowly hero had drowned in the intoxicating sea of egotistical fame.

Whatever he says or does, he sounds and looks like saying or asking MORE, MORE, MORE!!!

The reason why Pacman alienated so much of the affection of his Filipino fans is the same reason that alienated people, in general, from the Arroyos (Gloria et al.) when the latter tried to fill every nook and cranny of the political and government landscape with one of their own. In other words, no matter what the real intention is, it smacks of, reeks of, and betrays, GREED.

Whoever buys this RELIGION “overdo” thing? To that extent, people want to see the Manny they used to know: straightforward, unembellished, and genuine.

Well, he is well way into it. He is in Congress, although arguably, the wrong place for him –It’s all self-aggrandizement. He is better off in the local government, where direct action makes the difference. How the hell can he contribute in legislation? Hire consultants for every bit of his work? Now he wants his wife as governor, who’s just as clueless in local government as he is in congress. One had better know when to say “no thanks, I don’t have the aptitude for it.”

Obviously, Pacman obstinately and defiantly sees himself more than most people do, to say no. Why he even intimated in a CBS interview, “60 minutes,” his interest in occupying Malacanang, by saying, when asked, “it’s still distant into the future, we’ll talk about it when the right time comes” or words of that idea.

This is when celebrities abuse their popularity. Oh it’s very familiar in Congress, would you agree?

My golly, it gives me beehives. It gets me queasy. Again, we had all better know our limits.

I love the guy for the hero that he was, he is, and he ought to be. Just get out of cunning maneuvers, duplicity, and just be Manny.

Remember, he had the world in his palm, when he was simply Manny.

Even when buffer twists his tongue to say “peykyeow!”

We are happy that he is safe, now he ought to come down a little. Touch base with his faith and real values. Not the values he admired for others and so he also wants for himself.

People know the score: He sees his life as a fairy tale; rags to riches. He wants to continue to leave us in awe by proving he could do and be more; congressman…. President…

Manny, you don’t have to. You already have us in permanent awe. To do more, much more, as you’ve been seen or perceived doing for a time now, is to DISILLUSION the fan in many of your compatriots and friends around the world.

 

Mr. President Make Me a Proud Taxpayer

In the world of the employed, meaning withholding tax taxpayers, payday is both a day of thanksgiving and a day of curse. Thank God the worry of whether there will be food on the table the next meal time will vanish in the meantime (short meantime, that is). Curse hell and all when you see that up to over-a- third of what you sweat and literally give up sleep for is lopped off your pay purse without the courtesy of asking.

A worker is forced to give up as much as 32% of hard-earned pay for the so-called civilized society. I would have been a happy taxpayer if I got my money’s worth. But it’s no civilized when your own home gets burglarized, when you get attempted for robbery or robbed, when people lose lives and limbs simply because they attempt to protect what is rightfully theirs. We have to understand that attempts for and robberies or burglaries are always a circumstance away from homicide.

Our laws are just as good as their enforcement.

Our Congress is just as good as the congressmen comprising it.

Let me break it down, we have in congress… Manny Pacqiao, Tito Sottto, Ramon Revilla… Now you know what kind of laws will come out of it. Think RA9344, the law that pampers cold-blooded fifteen-year-old criminals with complete irresponsibility, meaning they cannot be imprisoned even if they kill you.

And a general’s son is attempted for extortion by police officers themselves… It could not have hit him closer than home. Now he’s told “in your face” what he has long already known: The police is riddled with misfits it’s tempting to think it’s more accurate to generalize than make exceptions. That’s the kind of enforcement we’re treated to.

I am talking about personal experience when I talk about the house being broken into, and being attempted for robbery. These are hardly any justification for giving up so much in taxes. I feel like being robbed twice every time; every payday.

 

Justices Boycott CJ Sereno’s First En Banc Session as SC’s Presiding Officer: Big Boys Behaving Like the Court is their Playground.

Justices Boycott CJ Sereno’s First En Banc as SC’s Presiding Officer: Big Boys Behaving Like the Court is their Playground.

CJ Sereno is not my personal choice for CJ, not because I discount her capability, but because the appointment had never ventured into this kind of excursion before: we have always predicted the most senior nominated associate justice to get appointed. That Pnoy’s appointment of her went against the long-running tradition should not be seen as politicking.

The constitution reserves to the president the power to appoint, from the shortlist of at least three nominees dutifully vetted by the multi-sectoral Judicial & Bar Council, who will lead the 15-man Supreme Court; the president did just that.

There should be no occasion to cry foul over the appointment, regardless of her (Sereno’s) record of voting on any case.

That the senior justices themselves had absented from Sereno’s maiden session as CJ portends of an ever factious Supreme Court. I can bet that people picture a grumbling bunch of justices protesting Sereno’s appointment like kids snatched of candies in their hands. The whole thing reeks of immaturity on the one hand, and belligerence against the appointing president, on the other.

Sadly, neither way augurs well for the Court that needs to restore its credibility, coming off a beating from the impeachment and eventual ouster of erstwhile CJ Renato Corona.

If the justices would be true to their professed allegiance to constitutional supremacy, they have to learn to respect the mechanism (president’s power to appoint) laid down therein regardless of their personal preferences.

 

Floods And The Bucks That Wash With It

Guess who makes big bucks off flooding...

The media (incidentally) in the guise of public service. Tragedy and catastrophe inherently mean viewership. And a lame government obliges in cunningly specious gratitude.

Susmariosep! It takes two to tango? Tangoed, done, kaput!

Ever wonder why each media outfit has its own “foundation”company? That’s where the bucks fall, say funneled. Reminds me of that brave& proud one-liner… “The Buck Stops Here!” Yikes!

Is there ever a truly independent audit to see where the big bucks go? Doubt it!

Should there be one? YES! But the government may not be the best party to do that. An NGO would better fit the task.

Now, do you still wonder why we can’t really plug the “loophole?”Did you say “It is by design?”

Project NOAH, relief goods, and flood mapping and monitoring are NOT “drilling down to the heart and bottom of the problem.” It’s a superficial, quick fix, and band-aid approach that has taken us to where we are right now.

We have to be outraged! How much of what we sweat for do we helplessly give up to taxes? I can hear groan, grouch, and whine! Yes, outrageously MUCH! We should make the government account for every peso of it.

How about addressing deforestation? Trees are being mowed down by the hundreds of hectares each year.

How about dealing with the dilapidated, antediluvian drainage system which has clearly seen its days? While house-size drainage tunnels have become an international standard, we’re downsizing the definition of “house” to fit the standard.

How about dealing with the perennial and nagging problem of trash and its proper disposal? What makes the last one difficult is there’s always political consequence to it. Whatever you do with it, somehow the squatting problem always gets in the picture, and politicians never had the will to dare antagonize "their" votes, thus, the IMPASSE.

Until we see resolute moves in the foregoing, media will continue to be flood’s incidental beneficiary, and the public, a character to this “reality” blockbuster agony.

 

It's Our Own Trash, Stupid!

 We never learn!

Time and again we've been confronted, and we've understood.

It's always our own trash rushing its way back to us!
But as always, we talk BIG like it (THE PROBLEM) has finally seen its end, then we retreat and leave things the same way they were.

Then again, we even have the gall and temerity to act surprised!

As our own place teeters in ominous floods of terrifying magnitude, I can guess out the next events of BIG TALK, LAY LOW, and SAME O SAME O, with better-than PAGASA forecast precision.

Hell, we had better learne to fend for ourselves.

I started seeing fashion in paper bags taking the place of plastics. It's no rocket science; paper dissolves and bio-degrades, plastic brings half the trouble we face today.

 

Happy Father's Day....

Fathers love their children the way the kids will forever never understand, never match, but feel and feed on. Happy are the fathers in most parts of the world who have the peace and grace to hug, kiss, and share moments of love with, their children.

In places of conflict like Syria where children are used as shield against attacks, may God send down His angels to pull them out of this grisly mess. May God restore humanity on both sides of conflict to spare and respect the innocent.

May God comfort the fathers who've irreparably lost their sense of being when they've powerlessly lost their children to the barbarity of human frailty.

For the lucky fathers in places of peace that we are, let us offer them our fervent prayers that they too, in time, may find a reason to celebrate this day.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY.

Happy Independence Day! Let's Work!

METRO MANILA, METRO CEBU, ARE NOT THE PHILIPPINES

 

Two years ago, I thought it was timely to post on the the subject. Now, I have yet to feel any difference, so I am reissuing the same post with sigh, fatigue, and hope as well.

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Four months into the Pnoy presidency, it’s not surprising that Pulse Asia’s poll on trust rating for the president yielded a high 80%. That, despite the controversies that hounded the fledgling administration. No doubt the president enjoys the trust of the people. In fact, it is that trust argument that catapulted him to the presidency.

The president, on several occasions, has been trumpeting the inroads and headways on reforms that his administration has made. That’s welcome news, but I’m afraid that’s only true in Metro Manila, and so in behalf of the people in the provinces, I would like to remind the president that Metro Manila and Metro Cebu are not all of the Philippines. Whatever reforms his administration intends to implement must be implemented, save for any legal or other reasonable limitations, across the entire Philippine archipelago.

Take for instance his Daan na Matuwid, Pag Walang Kurap, Walang Mahirap challenge. That does not even reverberate in the provinces. The provinces are completely out the national government’s radar, I’d suspect and like to believe, judging by how “business as usual” it is out there.

Pnoy’s administration must implement a sweeping investigation on all aspects of local government in the provinces: branches and agencies of government, particularly agencies that rank high in the corruption scale, including Government Owned and Controlled Corporations (GOCCs). Start with lifestyle checks, and proceed with thorough investigation: assets vis-à-vis capacity to acquire.

The agencies tasked to watch and check for, or prosecute public officers for offenses and abuses, are mum for reasons known only to them. They, too, must be checked on and prosecuted for conspiracy, complicity, nonfeasance, malfeasance, misfeasance or whatever legal justification the administration's legal bright boys and girls can find to make sure that their acts or omissions do not go unpunished. If a true prosecutorial investigation is conducted by operatives that have the required integrity and grit, they’ll find that laws have different standard of enforcement in the provinces.

People in the provinces are sick and tired of being excluded in the government’s real reform agenda. Before they become completely dismissive of the administration's so-called programs for reform, the president had better include them in his Philippines. It’s not enough to say that he does, it is more important he get people on the ground that will make his reforms felt.

 

Voting 20-3 The Senate Convicts CJ Corona

Five months and 44 trial days after 188 congressmen signed, filed, and endorsed to the senate, the impeachment complaint against the chief justice, Renato C. Corona, the senate, sitting as an impeachment court, voting 20-3, hands down a guilty verdict.

It has been an invaluable educational – legal to be more precise – experience for the Filipino people. To students and practitioners of law, and the academe, this provides the quintessential and only conclusive precedent. To future congressmen-prosecutors, senator-judges, respondent, a case law they can glean from for guidance and direction. To the man on the street, a better understanding of this quasi-political and public proceeding; as the senator-judges say, it is in fact, the Filipino people, by their representation, who are judging the respondent.

The decision was well-anticipated, even as speculation brewed on how the reelectionists would vote, primarily because the issue is simple; whether the chief justice is still fit to head a co-equal branch of government. Free of the stringency, rigidity, and legal niceties of a criminal case, owing to the sui generis character of the proceeding, all but three arrived at a conclusion that resonates with the majority of the public who followed this saga. To that extent, the impeachment court has carried out its duty in tune with the pulse of the people they represent.

Conviction was sealed on Article II of the Articles of Impeachment, thus voting on the remaining two other articles, 3 & 7, has been moved for and resolved dispensed with.

The Crux Of The Guilty Argument.

The Constitution commands, under Sec. 17 thereof, that a public officer submit a declaration under oath of his assets, liabilities, and net worth, in the manner provided by law. That implementing law is RA 6713, The Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officers and Employees, which pronounces, under Sec. 8 thereof, not only the obligation on the part of public officers to disclose all assets, business interest and financial connections, but the right of the people to know the same.

These have been the bases of the prosecution’s submission that the chief justice culpably violated the constitution, and betrayed the public trust when he admitted in open court that he had USD2.4M and PHP80M in his bank accounts, most, if not all, were not reflected in his SALN.

The Crux Of The Defense Argument.

The defense seeks shield behind RA 6426, the Foreign Currency Deposit Act, which grants the privilege of absolute confidentiality of deposits held in these accounts, and the theory of commingled funds. Its position is that the chief justice is justified in not disclosing his assets held in foreign currency, because he relied in good faith on the said law; and the peso funds, because he only held them in trust for Basa-Guidote, and his children.

The Verdict.

The policy of the state is disclosure, non-disclosure is the exception. It is elementary that for one to obtain excuse from compliance with an obligation, it must present its basis in law so clear and categorical that it leaves no room for contrary interpretation.

In the instant case, the Constitution and RA 6713 unequivocally command a duty, while RA 6426 confers a mere privilege. Between a duty and a privilege, a public official must choose the performance of a duty than the exercise of a privilege. Further, what RA 6426 prohibits is for banks to disclose the accounts; not for accountholders-public officers to comply with the mandate of the Constitution.

Reliance on a law, or misinterpretation thereof, as a defense is a hard sell considering that the respondent is the chief justice, whose interpretation of the laws has, in many occasions, vested rights and imposed obligation, if not meted punishments, on countless of parties to litigations. How do you even reconcile this with the decision on a lowly court interpreter who’s been removed from office simply because she failed to disclose she had a stall in a public market?

In the words of the Presiding Officer, the man of the hour,: “he has been measured, and he failed.”

PNP/MMDA In Metro Manila Are Sleeping On The Job.

If you've ever used the overpass in Aurora, Cubao, you'd wonder where the government is. Okay, you might have used it, but you almost didn't find anything unusual or of concern. So what's the fuss? Well, try using it at night. That’s among the most dangerous few meters of real estate in Metro Manila. Up there, unlit and unregulated, all crooks stray: pimps; hookers; snatchers; robbers; and all else.

Last night, I nearly fell victim to these lowlife bunch. Even as I negotiated my ascent, I have had the sense that trouble awaited up there. At the end of the flight of stairs flanked, or say crowded, these hooligans. One hooker held me by the arm offering her service, and I noticed some men tugged along her. I knew I could be a target. I carried three bags: a backpack, one slung my on shoulder, and another I held by the hand; I just came from Batangas.

Up there you can’t trust anyone. Anyone you see isn’t part of backdrop, he’s part of the game plan. He won’t jump on you, others are tasked to do that. His role is to intimidate you by inaction; make you feel helpless.

I unplugged my headphones; of course you don’t want to miss any signal, and kept walking. They casually talked while they walked behind me. Quickly, I felt someone unzipping my backpack. Then I thought, it’s on. I turned to my back and caught the hooker in the act; she suddenly withdrew. Then the boys moved in, perhaps for their plan b, to rob me in that few steps before I could get to the other side of Aurora. I tucked my bag in my arm, took to the rail side of the bridge so I could see them peripherally, and walked real fast.

That was close, and I am infuriated. That could happen to my daughters, whom I just took home to Project 7 before that overpass incident. I am a taxpayer, and so are the millions who take public commute and use overpass, and we are put to peril by these idiots in the government.

These MMDA bigheads who force everyone to use their overpriced footbridges endanger us by pushing us to these unlit, crook-infested, and unguarded concrete planks. We're like gazelles being thrown into lions' dens.

MMDA should manage the safety issues of these footbridges in coordination with local governments and the PNP. Goodness, Isn't there any safe place for us? 

And where’s the PNP? Hunkered in clubs? And don’t dare give me that “Thanks for bringing that up; I haven’t heard of this” crap. PNP acting like it's not aware of this is downright outrageous. Until you get your acts together, these crooks become more and more brazen by the day, and our children are put to growing danger. They rob you with impunity, thanks to ignorance, inaction, indifference, and ineptitude of the police.

That’s why you can’t blame people who distrust cops. Rumor has it that some cops protect these bastards; As they say, all rumors always have some truth to them. 

It could be a leadership problem. Since the police top brass don't experience public commute, they're oblivious to street maladies: the very problems they're mandated to look out against and replace with peace & order. Maybe we should get these public officials to try out these routes and, once in a while, leave the obscene comfort of their chauffeur-driven cars to keep them close to the concerns of the public.

I am only talking about the Aurora Cubao footbridge, but this is true for most footbridges, including particularly, the Munoz-Roosevelt footbridge, which has seen its own generous count of robberies. And let us not forget that many robberies lead to homicide when victims resist, as if they have no right to defend their persons and properties.

I advise everyone to avoid using footbridges at night, as much as possible. If you’re taking public transport, instead of alighting at the stop across the side of the road/street where you need to be, alight past that road/street then simply walk back. That may take a little bit more of walking, but no trekking, and safer, I'll take it.

Disclaimer: I know cops and many government officials who do their jobs well; they and those who live up to their oath that I have not had the grace of knowing are NOT the subject of this writing.

Mon Tulfo’s Beating Is Half The Story

Anna Belies Mon Tulfo's Beating Claim
The viral video of Mon Tulfo’s mugging by Raymart Santiago et al. sent everyone pitying him, but me. I suspected there was an antecedent to the video.  Judging by how the Tulfo brothers behave in the media, it’s almost a no-brainer.

True enough, one brave lady (anna, not her real name) came out, albeit requesting that her identify be withheld, with a statement belying Tulfo’s claims. Watching the video, I only wondered what could have provoked Raymart et al. to such a beasty rage, but I never doubted that there was. It’s easy to guess what these Tulfo brothers are capable of doing; they say it with imprecating temerity and regularity.

It’s high time these Tulfos were confronted and taught a lesson. Their brand of journalism is rustic and unprofessional, the kind you only expect to see in the unregulated world of the internet. It’s a shame that a fast-growing and otherwise respectable broadcast media outfit, ABC Channel 5, buys into them. The arrogant malediction or profanity that characterizes their broadcast programs exposes our children to the risk of mistaken inspiration.

Sure I can concede that I, as many others, support what they do to the extent of exposing the abuses of men of power and privilege, and lending voice and defense to the oppressed. Sadly, they simply OVERDO everything. Zeal and passion cannot excuse anyone, especially people who are public by reason of their profession from whom, in fact, more is demanded, from the responsibility of decency, civility, and tact, that comes with such stature.

I shudder to imagine how many children of this nation have been regrettably introduced to the Tulfos’ aired profane rants; anathema to raising well-mannered generations of youth.

You just can’t walk around P.I.’ng everyone; earn big, and walk away with it like you own the world.

CJ Corona; Walking on Thin Ice.

The chief justice announced that his wife will testify before the impeachment court to give a supposed persuasive explanation of the 37 million peso discrepancy in the chief justice’s SALN. As earlier posited, Cristina contends that the amount represents the just compensation for the expropriation of a real property owned by her family held in trust in favor of Cristina and family by the chief justice. At any angle you look at it, it is a hard sell.

This simply defies logic and reason. First, it is of notice that public officers are subject to scrutiny and lifestyle checks owing to the principle of public service being a public trust, and related laws on graft and corruption. This being the case, CJ knew he would be opening himself to controversy if he allowed funds belonging to others to be held in his name. Further, if that were so the case, why did not Cristina simply hold it in her name?

If his defense on this issue is to be credible, he has to offer better explanation than one so predictable and lame it can only elicit yawns than excitement.

Defense Built on Quicksand

I feel sorry for the chief justice, but it is obvious he is pinning his hopes of acquittal on technicalities. Much has been said about the impeachment proceedings being sui generis, a class of its own, hence, not liable for strictissimi juris application of the rules of court and laws. Neither is it subject to beyond reasonable doubt quantum of proof as ruled upon by the presiding justice under conformity of the court. These make the chief justice feel like the world is closing in on him, which explains the defense’s frantic objection to practically everything the prosecution offers in evidence.

·         They object to the presentation and admission of condominium titles in CJ’s name arguing that these are irrelevant and immaterial as the court has ruled against presentation of evidence if offered to prove ill-gotten wealth, and that the issue is squarely on non-disclosure and non-filing of his SALN.

·         They moved to exclude the bank records arguing that these are unlawfully obtained invoking the doctrine of the fruit of the poisonous tree.

It is silly to parse on proses of the remaining charge in article 2; that is, non-disclosure and non-filing of SALN, in effect saying that under-declaration of assets is out of the ambit of the charge of non-disclosure. You can sense the desperation.

The principle of the fruit of the poisonous tree is misplaced in this case as it only applies to the State as when police makes seizures without warrant and outside of the exclusion allowed by law as search incident to a lawful arrest. The intent of the principle is to clip the enormous power of the State against a hapless accused who stand to lose life, liberty, or property if the State is permitted unbridled exercise of its police power.

It finds no application in this case again on the sui generis nature of the proceedings.

Finally, this is a public hearing aired on national television. Regardless of technicalities and irregularities on how the evidences are obtained, the public understands that CJ did not disclose all properties he held in his name. Correspondingly, the only way he’ll get a pass for it is to explain convincingly the circumstances leading to the discrepancies. Harping on irregularity in the obtention of bank records does not erase the crooked picture the events has portrayed of him.