Punchline
What Cabangon Chua wants, he gets?
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
LAST Tuesday, I was rudely reminded of four things that we need to continuously monitor: Firstly, the Dagupan City government has not recovered the MC Adore whose acquisition by the Amb Alc Holdings and Management is tainted, as ruled by RTC Judge Mervin Samadan; second, Citystate Banking continues to operate illegally in Dagupan City for failing to comply with city’s ordinances; thirdly, Dagupan Electric Corporation continues to ignore Mayor Belen Fernandez’s order to terminate and withdraw the electric meter installed at the MC Adore building; and fourth, Mayor Belen’s reluctance to directly confront Amb Alc Holdings and Decorp led both to believe that the city’s ordinances and she can be ignored.
The indecent reminder came through a copy of the resolution of the Pasig City prosecutor’s office delivered to The PUNCH, granting the motion of Mr. Antonio Cabangon Chua’s Citystate Bank to reverse the December 27, 2013 resolution of Pasig City Assistant prosecutor Rodney Magbanua, the investigating prosecutor, dismissing the libel case. (Note: Magbanua’s resolution had the concurrence of City Prosecutor Jacinto G. Ang).
The new resolution setting aside Magbanua resolution, submitted by Assistant Prosecutor Michael Robles, as reviewing prosecutor, and approved by Deputy City Prosecutor George De Joya, lacked respectable coherence and the telltale of a “cut-and-paste” operation was evident. I guess for them coherence didn’t matter for as long as the decision to set aside the dismissal was correctly spelled. Tsk-tsk.
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What I found disturbing was how the Robles resolution proceeded to debunk the Magbanua resolution as if it gravely suffered from severe ignorance of the law. It was a complete turnaround, upholding only the arguments presented by Citystate, without the benefit of any additional material information that would necessitate a total reversal.
While it was careful not to make any direct reference to Magbanua’s “defective” arguments, its arguments shamelessly embraced Citystate’s position hook, line and sinker.
To describe the Robles resolution as whimsical would be a huge understatement.
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A case in point was the determination of Prosecutor Magbanua that Citystate erred when it filed the complaint in Pasig City instead of Dagupan City. He correctly discerned that the fundamental issue revolved around the operation and existence of Citystate’s branch in Dagupan, not the general operations and banking policies of Citystate, hence, the complaint should have been filed in Dagupan.
In stark contrast, the Robles resolution, echoing Citystate’s position, simply belabored the right of a corporation to determine the venue for the filing of venue.
Notably, the chief city prosecutor concurred with Mr. Magbanua’s argument but curiously his deputy disagreed and backed Mr. Robles. And, the latter’s word in this case became the authority. I guess it’s only in Pasig City where a deputy can authoritatively overrule his chief’s concurrence. If that doesn’t boggle your mind, I don’t know what will.
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Then, to justify the retention of 7 members of The PUNCH family as respondents regardless of their functions, the Robles resolution perfunctorily cited the law that states that a circulation manager or business manager is equally liable as the editor. But none of the 7 functions as such. It completely disregarded the individual affidavits submitted by the 7 Punchers describing their duties to point out why they could not have taken part in the writing and editing of the news story in question. I submitted the position that as editor-publisher, I wrote the story and caused it to be published. These were ignored.
To wit, our Jun Velasco is a columnist; Marifi Jara, is our associate editor editing inside stories from her location in Davao; Jess Garcia is a sports correspondent and columnist; Johanne Macob is our correspondent whose beat is at the Capitol; Virigilio Biagtan is our illustrator who depicts news as written; Jocelyn de la Cruz is our production manager who encodes and does basic layout; and, Julie Ann Arrogante is our website administrator whose function is to routinely post published news on our website. The Robles resolution maintains they all had a hand in the writing of the story in question, just as Citystate prescribed!
Fortunately, we found it prudent not to include our collection and production assistants, machine operator, negative stripper in the editorial box otherwise they too would have been cited by the prosecutor as having committed libel as well.
It’s worth noting that the inclusion of all names in the editorial box as respondents is without precedence. It is like the Maguindanao massacre all over again with one difference – a twisted legal system, not bullets, is being used to mow down hapless journalists and media employees. Worse, that it was initiated by Mr. Cabangon Chua, owner of newspapers, magazines and radio stations, belies his commitment to press freedom, journalism and its avowed mission. Above all, he obviously has no qualms taking innocent journalists to the cleaners and putting them behind bars.
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Common sense alone dictates that no eight people can possibly be involved in the writing of one simple news story but it obviously is irrelevant to Mr. Cabangon Chua’s single objective – to harass and silence The PUNCH while his group tightens its grip on the questioned ownership of MC Adore. This will be borne out in the trial.
The inclusion of our 7 obviously seeks to make The PUNCH bleed financially. Mr. Cabangon Chua wants to cut a precious hard-earned P150,000 as cash bonds from The PUNCH’S lifeline for starters!
If this is the price to pay for writing the truth about Mr. Cabangon Chua’s and his friends’ agenda in Pangasinan, then so be it! It’s still a small price to pay to help Dagupeños recover the millions they lost from the rigged sale of MC Adore by former Mayor Benjie Lim and the Judas 9 to Mr. Cabangon Chua.
The PUNCH has seen worse financial times. I trust it will continue to survive on the trust and support of its believers, readers and advertisers.
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Mr. Cabangon Chua has already filed graft charges against Mayor Belen Fernandez, City Engr. Virginia Rosario and City Treasure Teresita Alcantara before the Ombudsman just as I had predicted. He has taken the offensive since he noted that the Fernandez administration is averse to going to court even if the interests of the city are threatened.
The city government can expect more ugly offensive tactics from the Cabangon Chua group geared to make the Belen administration completely inutile, enough to enable Mr. Cabangon Chua to impose his whims and profit agenda on the city.
So watch Mr. Cabangon Chua and friends sock it to the city. The graft cases and the reversal of the dismissal of the case vs. The PUNCH are just the beginning. I sincerely hope Mayor Belen will already finally consider flexing her political muscle to fight indecent business interests in the city. When she does, she can be assured of Dagupeños’ unconditional support. Hindi siya mag-iisa! But lead she must!
The PUNCH will always be an ally in a war for truth and justice. It’s never easy but it will not be deterred, not even by Mr. Cabangon Chua’s tools of harassment in his arsenal. His worst will yet see the best in community journalism.
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REFUNDS. The provincial sanggunian succeeded in making Panelco commit to refund overpayments made by its customers for overstated generation charge.
In contrast, the Dagupan sanggunian has not lifted a finger to compel Decorp to do the same. Decorp did not reply to our inquiry. Has a deal been struck on the issue?
Decorp customers need to be protected and it is not getting any from their honorable councilors!
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