A 4


The Manila Times


FRIDAY


July 23, 2010 Edit orials


Congratulations, Atty. Rafanan R


ARELY, in our country where pakikisama often trumps ethical principles and the rule of law, does the head of a government body’s law department submit the results of his investigation into corrupt acts to the Ombudsman. But this is exactly what Atty. Ferdinand Rafanan, head of the Commission on Elections law department, did. And the Comelec commissioners themselves agreed to the submission of the Rafanan report to the Ombudsman, despite its findings that the commissioners, including the poll body’s Chairman Jose Melo, could be impeachable for gross negligence. So we must also say: Congratulations, Comelec commissioners and Chairman Melo. The case is the infamous one of the near-consummation of the purchase of 1,815,000 pieces of “ballot secrecy folders” (BSF) for about P380 each—or a total of P690 million. These folders were for use by voters in the May 10, 2010 elections. The purchase was not completed because two whistleblowers told the media about the scam. Atty. Rafanan’s report states, among other things, that: “It would appear that the chairman and the commissioners may


have to explain their apparent inexcusable gross negligence in promulgating Comelec en banc Resolution No. 8795 approving the recommendation contained in BAC Resolution No. 85-2010 for the procurement of 1,815,000 BSF [Ballot Secrecy Folders] for P380 per piece. This might constitute betrayal of public trust, which is a ground for impeachment.”


The passages about Chairman Melo and the commissioners are couched in language that gives them a wide escape window. It does not look like the Chairman and his commissioners will be impeached. But decisive are the report’s passages and recommendations about Comelec executives who were found by Atty. Rafanan’s probers to have committed illegal acts in their attempts to help complete a fraudulent transaction.


The report urges the Ombudsman to charge Comelec Executive Director Jose Tolentino and members of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) Maria Lea Alarkon, Allen Francis Abaya, Maria Norina Tangaro-Casingal, Martin Niedo and Antonio Santella with conniving with the executives of the OTC Paper Supply company, the suppliers. Also recommended for prosecution are OTC executives Henry Young and Willy Young. The Rafanan report recommends that Tolentino be charged with four counts of violating Republic Act 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. Three counts of graft were also filed against Alarkon, Abaya, Casingal, Niedo and Santella, while Henry and Willy Young face two charges.


The report also urges the Ombudsman to require Tolentino, Alarkon and panel secretariat head Jocelyn Postrado to explain why they should not be charged with obstruction of justice.


Administrative aspects As to the administrative aspects of the case, the report orders the


accused to explain why they should not be slapped with seven counts of grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to public service that may be filed before the Civil Service Commission, to whom a copy of the report had also been submitted. Tolentino and the awards committee members could be charged with dishonesty before the CSC. They made the Comelec “Com- mission en banc believe that they [had] made a comparison or canvass of prices when in fact there was no canvass of prices of BSF (bank secrecy folders) from other suppliers.” The report also said committee members also made “the Commission en banc believe that there would be public bidding, not direct contracting . . .” Rafanan’s report also said the commit- tee granted “the rights of a patent holder to OTC Paper Supply who had no patent rights, misrepresenting to the Commission en banc that OTC was the only available supplier of BSF, thus giving unwarranted preference to the exclusion of others.” The bids committee also lied to the Comelec commissioners in its


Resolution 85-2010 dated March 5 declaring that the OTC Paper Supply company [had] submitted “the accompanying eligibility documents when the truth is that it submitted no eligibility documents.” The report also recommended that Tolentino and the bids officials be charged with inexcusable gross negligence amounting to bad faith. The BAC members use of “obsolete data” on the number of clustered precincts resulted in a count that would have increased the cost by P51,497,600.


out to be all smoke? Will this turn B


ASED on the Rafanan report, the Ombudsman has ordered Tolentino and the other executives of the Commission on Elections to respond with counter-affidavits to the criminal and administrative charges proposed by Rafanan. The Ombudsman declared it found sufficient basis to push for a preliminary investigation into alleged violations of Republic Act (RA) 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, the Government Procurement Act under RA 9184, and violation of RA 6713, or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees. Failure by Tolentino et. al. to submit their reply to the charges will be construed as their waiver of the right to dispute the evidence submitted by the Comelec against them. Therefore, the Ombudsman will prosecute the case, beginning with a proper preliminary investigation. But will the case end the way hundreds of others have? Virtually in the waste bin?


A sign that it may not is the recommendation of the Ombuds-


man’s Field Investigation Office that Tolentino and the members of Comelec’s bidding committee be placed “under preventive suspension for six months without pay, pursuant to the provisions of Section 24 of RA 6770 [The Ombudsman Act of 1989].” Proper prosecution of this case will increase the public’s trust in government, restore some of the lost credibility of the Ombudsman, and bolster President Aquino’s image as the nemesis of corruption.


FRIDAY July 23, 2010 The Manila Times DANTE F. M. ANG 2ND, Executive Editor


FRED DE LA ROSA, Chairman Editorial Board RENE Q. BAS, Editor in Chief ROMY P. MARIÑAS, News Editor


ARNOLD S. TENORIO, Business Editor CONRAD M. CARIÑO, National Editor BRIAN M. AFUANG, Art Director RENE H. DILAN, Photo Editor


 DANTE F. M. ANG 2ND, President and CEO


Telephone All Departments. 524-5665 to 67 Telefax 528-1729; Subscription: 524-5664 Local 222 URL http://www.manilatimes.net • e-mail newsboy1@manilatimes.net Letters to the editor


THE MANILA TIMES is published daily at 371 A. Bonifacio Drive, Port Area, Manila 1018


VOLUME 111 NUMBER 283


T


HE Commission on Elections has allowed Juan Miguel “Mikey” M. Arroyo to sit in the Fifteenth Congress as the deputy of a party that claims to represent security guards. Not unexpectedly, the Comelec’s decision has drawn much flak—especially from other party-list representatives. In pique, Mikey lashed out at his critics, dismissing them as “hypocrites.”


He claimed that most of the other party-list congressmen are millionaires like him, adding that some of them have declared more assets as reflected in their 2009 Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth (SALN). By invoking his critics’ SALNs, Mikey has again put his foot in his mouth. As Pampanga congressman, he


was once accused of not disclos- ing certain valuable pieces of property—including real estate in the United States. His excuse that the money used to acquire them came from surplus campaign contributions failed to convince the public that he was not, as law- yers put it, prevaricating. His performance during a TV interview with Winnie Monsod last September did not erase the impression that he was in posses- sion of “hidden wealth.” Viewers cringed as he tried to talk his way out of that one. In any case, most people doubt if Mikey’s critics are as rich as he is. However, his wealth is not the only issue that makes him an unlikely repre- sentative of security guards, or jaguar in the vernacular. His membership in the party- list group Ang Galing (AG) was announced only after he decided to surrender the second district of Pampanga to his mother, former President Gloria M. Arroyo, in the


Jaguar Mikey


gressman belongs to the Comelec. In a press statement, Akbayan


DAN MARIANO


run-up to the May 10 elections. Before that, few people were


aware that AG existed at all. Even fewer—if any—had heard Mikey utter a word in behalf of his al- leged current constituency. For much of the time he spent in Congress as representative of the Second district of Pampanga, he was preoccupied with defend- ing his beleaguered mother as was his filial duty. Oh yes, he chaired the House energy committee but whatever he did in that capacity had not attracted much attention, much less commendation, from ei- ther his constituents or the public at large.


Nothing in his background sug- gests that he was ever a security guard, or even their champion. In contrast, the party-list rep- resentatives whom he now ac- cuses of “hypocrisy” have track records that prove decades-old promotion of the rights and in- terests of workers, landless farm- ers, women, the youth and other disadvantaged sectors. Some have suffered imprison- ment and torture because of their advocacies. For them, standing up for the powerless is a life-long mission. They have the scars to prove it.


What has Mikey got to show? Not even a pimple.


Comelec’s fault Ultimately, the fault for Mikey’s installation as a party-list con-


Rep. Walden Bello pointed out that the Comelec erred in its de- cision favoring Arroyo because it contradicted its own rules. “This is not even a question of whether or not Mikey repre- sents the marginalized,” Bello said. “The fundamental issue is Arroyo’s failure to provide documentary evidence proving his link with the [security guard] sector which is in com- pliance with Section 6 of Reso- lution No. 8807.”


On March 25 the Comelec is-


sued Resolution No. 8807 pre- scribing rules of procedure con- cerning the filing of petition to disqualify a party-list nominee for lack of qualifications. Specifically under Section 6, the poll body demanded that party-list groups and nominees submit documentary evidence to prove that they belong to the marginalized and under-repre- sented sectors, sectoral party, or- ganization, political party or coa- lition they seek to represent. Akbayan claimed that Mikey


and AG did not comply with those requirements. According to Bello, the Comelec’s law depart- ment director Ferdinand Rafanan has stated in a letter that Arroyo and his group did not file any documentary evidence as re- quired by the resolution. “This is a blatant violation of


the law,” Bello said. “How could Comelec decide that Arroyo is a lawmaker, when he is in fact a lawbreaker?” Last April Akbayan filed a plea with the Supreme Court seeking to disqualify Mikey as a party-list representative. As of this writing, the tribunal


has yet to act on the motion. However, there is reason to hope


Miracle in Rwanda I


NEVITABLY life tests each and everyone of us. Often with what seems to be beyond our ca- pacity to bear or survive. Yet we have seen and may even have ex- perienced extraordinary and amazing tales of human survival, physical and mental, in times of crises. When these miraculous events occur it is because the hu- man beings involved have gone beyond themselves or into them- selves to seek help, stamina, en- lightenment and emerge positive and hopeful, enduring and strug- gling. They rise above themselves and hold on to something/some- one and take another chance for a new future. Miracle in Rwanda, currently on stage in Metro Manila (at the Insu- lar Life Theatre in Makati on week- ends), is an extraordinary tale of survival from Africa. Miracle in Rwanda, the play, is a monodrama written and acted in a riveting one- woman show by Lesley Lewis Sword. The author and actor has Pinoy credentials courtesy of her mother, the well known and ac- complished, Loida Nicolas Lewis. Lesley was inspired by the story of Immaculee Ilibagiza, a girl Tutsi (one of two main Rwandan tribes), whose family—parents who were teachers and three young broth- ers—were among the one million Rwandans who died in the geno- cidal madness of 1994 that oc- curred in Africa while the United Nations and the world were paralyzed by disbelief and inertia. Tensions between the Tutsis


MA. ISABEL ONGPIN


and Hutus, the two tribes in- volved, were a fact of life for dec- ades throughout Rwandan his- tory, something which colonial powers had exploited for their own benefit exacerbating the ill will between them.


When the president of Rwanda died in a plane crash, the shock brought on unfounded rumors accusing the Tutsis of being re- sponsible. This caused general panic in the country, which in turn brought deliberate encourage- ment from Hutu authority figures including elders, religious leaders and hotheaded tribal figures for en eruption of violence with the Tutsis at the receiving end. The violence of one group try- ing to eliminate another for the sole reason of who they were was the hideous Rwandan genocide, the horrifying spree of machete- killings that lasted for months costing one million deaths. The killings went on for months, a record of man’s inhumanity to man, which remains indelible, ir- retrievable and permanent. Whole families and entire com- munities were decimated. Immaculee Ilibadiza was a


Tutsi survivor and wrote a book, Left to Tell. She has traveled far from Africa to tell her tale of how she survived and why. Faith in God and His Blessed Mother car- ried her through, made her strong, gave her the capacity to forgive. Lesley Lewis Sword was at one of her talks where Immaculee’s story sparked in her the creative urge to dramatize how she survived with seven other women in a secret bath- room that measured 3 x 5 feet in a Hutu Protestant pastor’s house in the middle of the slaughter. Immaculee and her companions stayed incarcerated in that space for 91 days hardly able to move, lice-infested, disease-ridden, wearing the same clothes they came with, virtually starving with the small amount of food that the pastor could smuggle in. Meanwhile they heard the menacing sounds of their hunters nearing them and hunting Immaculee by name. The mental torture brought on by fear and hopelessness translated into excru- ciating pain for Immaculee’s body. Then holding on to the rosary her father gave her before he sent her off to hide, she prayed. She began a dialogue with God and His Mother summoning and ac- knowledging her Faith and trust in Divine Power. Prayer is lifting one’s thoughts to God, express- ing belief, trust, a plea for succor. The rosary is a rote prayer that expresses over and over again the mysteries of Christ’s life on earth


and the role of His Blessed Mother in loving humanity. Praying the rosary in times of crises shows faith and trust that Christ and His Mother will come to one’s succor. Miracle in Rwanda depicts how the human spirit looks for its Di- vine source finding strength and serenity in the midst of trial and persecution. It brought Immaculee the ability to endure, the enlight- enment to see her life in the per- spective of history and eternity, ris- ing above despair and bitterness. She received the grace her prayers sought and went beyond her fear and hatred to move on to under- standing and forgiveness. After 91 days, she and her com- panions went back to the reality of what happened, left their prison and trekked to a French refugee camp over the dead bodies of their fellow Tutsis. There Immaculee met the neighbor who killed her fam- ily. But by then she was purified by prayer and the closeness it brought her to Christ and His Mother and she gave him understanding and forgiveness, almost as a matter of course. Her struggle was over. Faith has saved and elevated her above the untenable state of an- ger and vindictiveness. Miracle in Rwanda is indeed that and it is dramatically brought to us by the intensity of this theatre piece which Lesley Lewis Sword, author and actor, brings to life in more roles than one.


miongpin@yahoo.com


that it would overturn the Comelec’s ruling favoring Arroyo, which apparently violated the poll body’s own guidelines. Mikey would be well advised to postpone any celebration over the Comelec ruling. His ecstasy could prove premature.


Road menace


Thanks to the example set by President Aquino, VIPs no longer use their wang wang, the Filipino onomatopoeia for sirens. Instead, they turn on their cars’ hazard lights—and naturally their body- guards follow suit.


Like the eardrum-perforating sirens of old, the intent behind the flashing hazard lights is for us lesser mortals to move out of the big shots’ way. The prob- lem is that this could have dis- astrous consequences. On Commonwealth Avenue


convoys with flashing hazard lights have become a common sight for obvious reasons. It is the main route to the Batasan where sit many of the country’s self-im- portant politicians.


Ordinary motorists using the same road cannot be forewarned if the convoys—that invariably travel at great speed—intend to shift lanes or execute some other dangerous maneuver because the hazard lights override the con- voys’ signal lights.


The only prudent option left to other road users is to slow down and let the VIPs pass, which is ob- viously the point of flashing those hazard lights in the first place. Even without their wang wang, these VIPs are still able to de- clare: Hey, we’re special; get out of our way!


They are still a road menace— siren ban or no.


dansoy26@yahoo.com


opinion


AMBIENT VOICES


BIG DEAL


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