Punchline
Accuser becoming the accused?
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
THE full-court legal (psy-war?) offensive of the Cabangon Chua group against the Belen Fernandez administration in Dagupan has started, if the publicity that the group launched is to be believed.
As it appears today, the cases allegedly filed against Mayor Belen and City Treasurer Romelita Alcantara are just products of a press release issued by the group. No copy of the case filed has been seen, much less furnished the respondents. In fact, the information on the case claimed by the AMB ALC Holdings and Management Corp. that it filed against City Engineer Virginia Rosario some three months ago was only received recently.
But then, yes it could be true because it is the only remaining option for the Cabangon Chua group to defend its tainted purchase of the MC Adore hotel properties. As the group correctly discerned, the root of the problem of Citystate Savings Bank with the city is the questioned purchase of the MC Adore. (The merits of the case, much of which have been reported in our pages in the past, will be up to the Ombudsman now to determine).
Also, I had suspected that the group would soon file cases against Mayor Belen after they filed a libel case against The PUNCH and Decorp’s Jojo Liwag. I thought it was unusual that the group did not include the mayor in the complaint in spite of the fact that the mayor was the sole source of the news that was the subject of the claimed libelous material. It was clear then that the strategy was to silence The PUNCH first before going for the kill against the city government. Mercifully, the complaint was promptly dismissed by the Pasig City prosecutor. (The group’s motion for reconsideration remains pending today).
So will the charges prosper? I seriously doubt it.
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ACCURATE OBSERVATIONS. But read this.
City hall observers who’ve been closely following the MC Adore saga are one in the thought that Mr. Antonio Cabangon Chua is barking up the wrong tree, and could end up the biggest loser yet.
They asked – Why charge Mayor Belen for graft when she was the only consistent oppositionist to the raw deal from the very beginning, even before the tainted sale was consummated with “indecent haste” (the judge’s words). It was she, as vice mayor, who persistently questioned the process undertaken to sell the MC adore until the defective bidding (yes, there was no prior publication as required by law) was conducted. How truly observant, they!
If Mr. Cabangon Chua wants his money back (from the grapevine, he actually spent some P80-M more on top of his winning P119-M bid), he should actually file cases against those who misled him to believe that the fire sale of MC Adore was a shoo-in for him. There was former Mayor Benjie Lim who called for the “special session” that led to the adoption of the resolution found to be infirmed and eventually declared null and void by the regional trial court; the nine city councilors (they distinctly remember as the Judas 9) who unanimously passed the defective resolution, not once but twice; the members of the appraisal committee, the disposal committee, and the bids and awards committee who recklessly followed the pied piper. The group also suspects that the regional COA office had a hand in the conspiracy when it approved the extremely minimum bid price, and therefore, should be charged as well. Hmmm.
The lawyers among the overly opinionated observers believe that initial investigation alone will reveal this background since the complainant invoked the sale of MC Adore. They agreed that once the can of worms is opened, it would not be farfetched for the ombudsman herself to discern that there was indeed a conspiracy to defraud the city government of millions, and in the process, might even name AMB Holdings as a respondent for allegedly having conspired with the group in what was believed to be a rigged bidding. Were they suggesting that the accuser can become the accused in this case? I asked. They just smiled at my seeming stupid question.
In brief, the nosey observers are convinced that Mr. Cabangon Chua is getting the wrong legal advice from Atty. Ferdinand Topacio, and a lot of bull from the Lim loyalists who think he is gullible enough to believe anything to save the millions he plunked into the messy deal.
“So bring it on, Mr. Cabangon Chua,” came the chorus followed by chuckles.
Meanwhile, one lawyer in the group said he laughed when he heard one of the group’s irresponsible trumpeter in Dagupan bragged over radio that his “source” at the Supreme Court told him that the SC had ruled in favor of the group’s petition to transfer the hearing of the case on MC Adore transferred from the regional trial court in Dagupan to Quezon City. The lawyer said he was amused by the sheer ignorance and naivety of the trumpeter not realizing that by announcing a supposed Supreme Court’s decision even before it could be released, he is liable to be held for contempt, even assuming that the rumor is true. That could mean a jail term or a fine.
A little knowledge can, indeed, be dangerous to those who pretend to know it all.
Anyway, the consensus reached by the pesky observers is for the city hall to brace itself for an ugly publicity offensive because the legal system will take care of the case.
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LIBEL IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL. Journalists and bloggers are heartened by the news that the Center for International Law (Centerlaw) filed a petition asking the Supreme Court of the Philippines to partially reconsider its February 18, 2014 decision on the constitutionality of the Cybercrime Prevention Act.
In its motion for partial reconsideration Centerlaw not only challenges the constitutionality of online libel as provided in the Cybercrime Prevention Act but of the criminal nature of libel in the Philippines itself as found in the country’s Revised Penal Code.
Let’s sit tight and pray that our Supreme Court justices will see the light for press freedom as enshrined in our constitution!
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KAPAMILYA PA RIN – It is gratifying to note that ABS-CBN’ s Bandila has been doing its utmost to repair the damage done by its horrifying report about a “flesh-eating disease” in the province 3 weeks ago that it soon found to be untrue.
This response of the network certainly speaks well of its professionalism in journalism practice. While an apology was the least it could do, the network’s initiative to report more of the province’s outstanding attractions is gaining followers and that makes up for lost grounds.
Hopefully, the hoax story unwittingly swallowed by the network has provided the lesson to all that a community that takes pride in itself will not hesitate to give anyone its due that dare cross it for the wrong motives.
Note that it didn’t take Guv Spines to go ballistic in public to make Pangasinenses stand up spontaneously to shout “foul”!
The ‘Kapamilya’ fans not only felt relieved on seeing ABS-CBN’s sincere mea culpa response but felt EVEN more justified by their unstinting loyalties.
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CORRECTION PLS. Here’s a note of clarification on the status of our Deretsahan columnist Bebot Villar.
Bebot (a.k.a. Antonio Villar Jr.) was appointed with the rank of Secretary late 2009 and began his stewardship of Dangerous Drugs Board as its chairman in January of 2010. This year is his 5th year at the helm of DDB.
He was mistakenly referred to as “former Usec. Antonio Villar” at the Pacebook awarding rites last week. Oops.
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