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| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| The Ermita Doctrine
By Antonio C. Abaya Written Jan. 14, 2007 For the Standard Today, January 16 issue If the Philippine Daily Inquirer of recent day is to be believed, Filipino officials and politicians have, without apparently realizing it, come close to redefining the parameters of guilt and innocence and, with it, a new paradigm for public morality. In its Jan. 09 issue, the Inquirer banner-headlined that �Ex-DOJ chief Perez faces extortion raps,� with the exasperation-tinged sub-head that �Finally, Ombudsman acts on $2-m bribe complaint.� This had to do with the decision of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez to file graft and extortion charges against former Justice Secretary Hernando Perez, in connection with the complaint of former Manila congressman Mark Jimenez that Perez had extorted from him the amount of two million US dollars. Together with Perez as respondents are his wife Rosario Perez, his brother-in-law Romeo Arceo, and business associate Ernest Escaler. Said the Inquirer follow-up story of Jan..10: �Based on bank documents presented by Jimenez, graft prosecutors said there was sufficient evidence that Perez and the others had committed illegal acts. �The documents included the $2-million deposit that Jimenez had wired to Escaler�s account in Coutts Bank in Hong Kong in February 2001. The amount was (later) transferred to Arceo�s and Rosario Perez� Swiss accounts. �Perez and his wife claimed that the funds were proceeds of the sale of their Batangas property to Escaler. But the Perezes earlier said the funds were the inheritance of Rosario and Arceo. Investigators found that the memorandum of understanding did not prove that a sale took place.� If this was indeed inheritance money, that would also have been easy to verify from BIR estate records. Actually, this is stale news. Weeks or months after the scandal broke out in 2001, Inquirer columnist Vic Agustin ran in his column the details of the transfers to the Swiss accounts of Rosario and Arceo, giving the bank�s name, the account numbers, the amounts transferred, and the dates of the transfers. In any judicially civilized country, this would have been an open-and-shut case as early as 2001. Onli in da Pilipins does it take more than five years just to decide to file the case. And another five to 20 years, or more, to hear the case and decide on the guilt or innocence of the respondents, if the Marcos and Estrada graft cases are any indication. Is the Philippine justice system dysfunctional in spite of, or because of, the dominance of lawyers in our society? Or is our society dominated by lawyers because our justice system is dysfunctional? It is an exaggeration, of course, but it seems that we have 240 lawyers in Congress legislating new laws every year, and 40,000 lawyers outside Congress advising their clients, or figuring out for themselves, on how best to bend, twist, stretch, dribble, massage, dilute, finesse, squeeze dry, bleed white, or otherwise disfigure beyond recognition those very same laws as well as others, to their advantage. Including, but not limited to � as lawyers are wont to say � the prostitution of the Constitution so that the trapos, most of whom are lawyers, can remain in power forever. A clue as to why our judicial system is dysfunctional may have been provided by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita. One day after Ombudsman Gutierrez announced that Perez would be charged with graft and extortion, Secretary Ermita publicly expressed his �belief� that Perez is innocent, just because Perez is �one of our allies.� (Inquirer, Jan. 10) �Nani is one of our allies, and deep inside me, I know what he is telling me is the truth,� Secretary Ermita is quoted by the Inquirer. Even before Perez and his co-accused are charged in court and tried, the Little President has publicly expressed his �belief� that he is innocent, just because he �is one of our allies.� This must go down in Philippine judicial history as The Ermita Doctrine. Guilt or innocence is determined by whether or not the accused is �one of our allies�. It is amazing that neither the Catholic bishops (so quick to turn purple when the issue is jueteng or birth control), nor the Jesus is Lord Movement of Evangelist Villanueva, nor the El Shaddai cult of Mike Velarde�.the supposed moral guardians of this country�were outraged by this self-serving criterion of public morality.. Not that it surprised anyone. It merely puts in black and white what many observers have long noted about the Philippine judicial system: it does not matter what the intrinsic merits of your case; what is more important is who you know who is �one of their allies.�. And it explains the inexplicable. The Ermita Doctrine explains why Virgilio Garcillano cannot be summoned to a congressional investigation of the Hello Garci tape. Garci is innocent of any wrongdoing because he is �one of our allies,� even if he claimed he never left the country when he was being sought by congressional investigators, while the Government of Singapore, in its note verbale to the our Department of Foreign Affairs, stated that Garci arrived in Singapore on July 14 on board a Learjet and left the next day on board a commercial airliner. It is obvious that one of them was lying. And most people would readily cross out the Singporean Government, not only because it is famously straight-laced, but also because it has no reason to lie. But by Sec. Ermita�s reasoning, Garci is innocent because he is �one of our allies.� The Ermita Doctrine also explains why Joc Joc Bolante cannot be summoned by the Senate to shed light on P728 million worth of fertilizer funds that were dispersed by him just before the 2004 elections, even to congressional districts that had no agriculture to fertilize. Joc Joc is innocent of any wrongdoing because he is �one of our allies.� The Ermita Doctrine also explains why Imelda Marcos and her children, and Joseph Estrada and his son, continue to float in a judicial limbo, neither guilty nor innocent, - 20 years and five years, respectively, after cases were filed against them. There are untiring efforts by Malacanan emissaries to make them �some of our allies,� through the process of �reconciliation,� if they would only agree to share their loot. The Ermita Doctrine is undoubtedly also at work in the plunder cases, pending in the Office of Ombudsman for three years now, against Gen. Carlos F. Garcia, Gen. Jacinto Ligot and Col. George Rabusa. The concern seems to be that if these open-and-shut cases were pursued with any vigor, the resulting revelations would entangle �one of our allies� or �several of our allies� in their web of military corruption. The Doctrine of Original Sin is said to taint every single human being with the guilt of Adam and Eve, and thus humankind, with the exception of the Virgin Mary, needs the intervention of a Savior.. The Ermita Doctrine of Pre-Determined Innocence dispenses salvation only for those who are �one of our allies.� For the rest of the wretched lot, there is only the Hell of living in a dysfunctional society. ***** Reactions to [email protected]. Other articles since 2001 in www.tapatt.org OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to �The Ermita Doctrine� This is one of the best articles I have read about all the past and present corruptions in the Philippines . Is there a chance for change? Maybe when the younger generations takes over. But practically the younger generations is running the show now. Oh well. Mario L Samoy, [email protected], Jan. 15, 2007 Genzyme Corporation, San Diego, California wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Antonio, Thank you for your recent email. It put a fresh complexion on news items that I have been pondering on. I do hope you will keep me on your mailing list. However I thought the following article might be of interest to you. (See the tail end of this transmission. ACA) I am a 76 year old retiree, living in the Philippines, with British and Australian citizenship. I have taken the liberty of forwarding your sent article on the �Ermita Doctrine� to some of my friends, I hope this meets with your approval. More power to your elbow Regards Doug Adam, [email protected], Jan. 15, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Mr. Abaya: I, too, am not surprised at all! Of course nothing surprises me anymore re the judicial system in Pinas (and by extension, all the way to the Executive and Legislative departments). Hasn�t this Doctrine been around since ever since and was perfected by Macoy (may he rest in peace) during his dark regime? And, bear in mind that the Honorable Secretary was a product of that dark regime that somehow, intermittently, he thinks we're still in that regime? Incidentally, looks like 2007 is the year of the "Triumvirate from Batangas". First, it was "Mayor Binay" and now Sec. Perez and of course the General, Congressman and spin doctor from Balayan, Batangas -- the Honorable Executive Secretary Ermita. I'd love to read in your future article as to why Batangas has yet to produce a legit president of our Pinas considering that their "stocks" are at par with their counterparts from the North.. Thanks, Rico Gloton, [email protected], Jan. 17, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Many thanks, Tony. Incidentally, am sorry to say that Eduardo Ermita was a graduate of De LaSalle. (Uh oh. Here we go again. ACA). Abrazos, Jaime Calero, [email protected], Sydney Australia, Jan 17, 2007 La Sallite wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Tony, Bravo! That is a devastating exposition of the moral standards of the present administration or - its utter lack of moral standards. But tell me, where did Nani Perez and Ernesto Escaler learned and developed their Machiavellian ways - in the same school from which Joe de Venecia got his bachelor's degree? (Like I said above, here we go again. ACA) About the Ermita Doctrine, everybody knows the germ of the concept of "one of our allies" entered his mind when he was at that academy where alumni, even if they studied there in different eras, are trained to be "closer than brothers". Ermita was at that academy from 1953 to 1957, Carlos Garcia and Gregorio Honasan from 1967 to 1971. The latter two first entered the portals of the famed school ten years after Ermita left it. Yet, because the younger alumni and Ermita are supposed to be "closer than brothers" the younger mistahs are treated with kids' gloves. Remember what happened to Ermita's classmate at the academy - Tomas Dumpit? Oscar Lagman, [email protected], Jan. 17, 2007 La Sallite wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww That is why the Mayor of Pasay City was livid when his case was quickly acted on. Usually daw eh cases like that take forever. Bakit daw napakabilis. Jojo Vicencio, [email protected], Jan. 17, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww My father, Justice Francis Garchitorena, in his early years at the Sandigan Bayan, told me about one person whom he sentenced to an unimaginable number years in prison. The man was a postal worker who violated a public trust when he stole a paltry sum from a letter he was delivering. I asked my father why so long for so little and he said, with a firm voice but a heavy heart, "because it was the law". Then I asked my father about the grafters and the corruptors that regularly stole millions every day. Again, with a heavy heart, he told me that hearing the case in court and rendering decisions were only part of the battle. The other part was left to the individuals who had to qualify, file, and, prosecute the cases. As the years went by, his constant lament was that some members of that branch of government responsible for bringing the cases to court were so highly incompetent and that winnable cases were being thrown out on technicalities and procedure. I�m not sure whether that incompetence emanated from a conscious choice to be sloppy or negligent, but, from my father�s horror stories, it seemed to be a bit more than mere coincidence that the higher the profile of the person suspected of graft and corruption, the more incompetent the government became in prosecuting them. After almost twenty years of hearing stories like this, hardly anything ever surprises me when it comes to the Office of the Ombudsman and its being, apparently, used as political leverage by the executive branch of government. Jaime Garchitorena, [email protected], Jan. 17, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Mr. Abaya, I have always liked the way you hit the nail right on the head each time. But this one is a real gem. As I had said before, write on . . for us. But wait. Is anyone listening? Romeo S. Recide, [email protected], Jan.17, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Ang dami talagang magnanakaw sa gobyerno natin, sila sila na ang nagnanakawan....Poor Juan dela Cruz, for having those mandurugas! Thanks and regards tukayo! Tony Dalagan, [email protected], Fairfax , Virginia , Jan. 17, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Hi, Tony. I wouldn't be surprised if our country has the highest number of lawyers per capita in the world and the highest number of legal cases per capita in the world. Perhaps too, our country has the highest number of columnists plus broadcast commentators per capita in the world. These result in too much divisiveness and too much anti-productive politicking. This partly explains why our economy is not growing as fast as it should. I am glad we have a President who is very focused on her work, very positive in her thinking and not distracted by all the political noise created by her detractors who want to grab power and destructive criticisms created by media who want to sell their papers. Cheers! Bobby Tordesillas, [email protected], Jan. 17, 2007 MY REPLY. You�re obviously in the wrong country. You want high economic growth, but no political noise, no lawyers, no critical columnists, no radio commentators, no divisiveness, no anti-productive politicking. Then you should move to the People�s Republic of China or the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. And you can take Gloria Arroyo, Jose de Venecia, Eduardo Ermita, Raul Gonzalez and Ronaldo Puno with you. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww This is very enlightening. Every Filipino should know what this powerful piece of information entails.The Philippines would never move forward with this kind of mentality. Thank you for the renaissance. I'll disseminate this information to most of the people I know and who care. More power to you. "Gabayan ka ng Panginoon." Gus Diamante, [email protected], Jan. 17, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww In a land where the rule of law is the exception, the man with the gun is king. All we can do is hang our heads in shame because we seem powerless to do anything about it. The politician with the gun is god in our country. We are a pious people. Our churches are filled to overflowing every Sunday and alive with the voice of people singing the unending hymns to God. But what happen as soon as they leave the church and go back to the everyday world? Nothing happens. Everything remains the same. We ought to despair, but we cling to hope. Perhaps, our reward is not on this earth, but in Heaven. Amen. Virgilio Gonzales, [email protected], Jan. 17, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww This article is hard-hitting as it is meant to be. Public morality, as you say, has become situational, and, in the Ermita Doctrine, relational. You identified the central factor behind our national woes, the barkada system, a vestige of tribal society? The wealth of the country does not filter down to the masses because of this entrenched value system. Looting has become a national pastime, as no one goes to jail. They in fact bask in social and political glory. Bravo. Such incisive analyses deserve a more popular venue. Rudy Ordonez, [email protected], Jan. 17, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww A very, very sad commentary on our Land of Birth . Quo vadis, mahal kong Pilipinas? As my neighbor said with mea culpa....all government high officials are CORRUPT. They buy their way with stolen money....a way of life now! If the CBCP, El Shaddai, the INK, Opus Dei, K of C and other High Moral Groups stand by idly, what can ordinary citizens do? GMA is in cahoots with these known crooks to keep herself in power???? Again....Quo vadis, Philippines ? Already known as one of the most corrupt countries on earth. On the other hand, we have millions of OCWs. suffering deprivations and exploitation, who continue to remit hard earned money to their loved ones. These dollars have added to our economy....no thanks to who sits in Malacanan or the charlatans in Congress. Ernie Aragon, [email protected], Jan. 18, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Amen� Genny Ferrer, [email protected], Jan. 18, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony, Please continue to write until we can catch up and, to a certain degree, be effective and powerful to deliver the same message that you convey. You can make a whole lot difference to those who read your articles and those you can inspire to write. I think that if all those who can write will take as much effort as you do, generations will wake up one day to a new and better world against the nightmare that is being imposed upon and experienced by the people day after day. More power and God bless. Jose Balmadrid, [email protected], Jan. 18, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear tocayo Tony, Thanks for yet another thought-provoking article on the distortions within our legal and political systems. Tony L. Ledesma, [email protected], Jan. 18, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww You said it right, Tony. That is why our political system never improved. Ika nga ni Erap before, " Pana-panahon lang yan." One of the reasons why I was happy that Erap was kicked out of his presidency is because of his patronage politics and mostly shady people pa naman ang mga naka tie up nya. But I think, under an Assumptionista and Atenista President, things have been worse. Pera pera na takbohan. Remember the congressmen, especially, Marcoleta? This is my frustration, Tony. I thought GMA would improve this, but if you see the faces of DOJ Gonzales, Pichay, Nograles, JDV, and other suckers, manghihinayang ka, eh. GMA became the president via her vice presidency. It�s like hitting two birds with one stone. Sana , in her first three year term, she proved the ERAP people wrong by doing a bull-shit free presidency. Ang nangyari is the unexpected. Puro bullshit lies are being told by her. Classic example is the Venable contract. If nothing is wrong with that contract, why not divulge the lobbyists? D ba? Well, we all know the Garci scandal. And the list goes on and on and on. I�m disappointed, especially those who voted for her. Continue sending! Mike Delgado, [email protected], Jan. l8, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony, The presence of Ermita in public life also goes to show that with Ms. Arroyo�s penchant for appointing retired military men, we are being led by close-to-senile senior citizens who can no longer think straight, much less, have the presence of mind to watch their words in public. Para rin yan yung public pronouncement ni Ermita last December on the 6000 bonus of government employees. In GMA TV, he flashed with bravado that this is due to the �improving fiscal situation of the country�. Haynaku, economist pa naman kuno ang amo. Vitti Corpuz Valenzuela, [email protected], Jan. 19, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Hi, Tony Well said. No one could write about it any better than you. But for us who can only talk about it, our voices have become acutely hoarse. And we keep asking ourselves, what must we do and what must be done? Ciao! Cesar Sarino, [email protected], Jan. 18, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Amen to that. Arnel Serrano, [email protected], Jan. 19, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Mr. Abaya, To thwart the application of the Ermita Doctrine on the Nani Perez case, following is a presentation before concerned Filipinos of why a simple correct reading of the Plunder Law--not new evidence�is needed for the case of plunder to prosper against the ex-DOJ Secretary and avoid a miscarriage of justice: As reported today by a newspaper: "Assistant Ombudsman Mark Jalandoni was quoted as saying that because there was no series of illegal TRANSACTIONS (capitalization for emphasis supplied), the requirements for the filing of a plunder charge was not complied with, even if the amount involved was double the plunder threshold of P50 million." However, "plunder may still be filed vs Nani if there's new evidence." (Norman Bordadera, "Plunder may still be filed vs Nani if there's new evidence," Phil. Daily Inquirer, January 17, 2007 , pages A1 and A13) Actually, new evidence may not be necessary. All that may be needed is a correct reading and implementation of the Plunder Law, not its "misquotation" tantamount to "unilateral legislation" of an ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENT--that is, at least two illegal "TRANSACTIONS"--that is NOWHERE PROVIDED IN THE LAW. According to earlier media reports, the Office of the Ombudsman would charge former DOJ Secretary Hernando Perez with the lesser bailable crime of EXTORTION, instead of the grave non-bailable PLUNDER, despite the alleged $2 million payoff to him by Mark Jimenez that met the P50 million threshold for plunder under RA No. 7080 as amended. As similarly explained by Ombudsman official Jose de Jesus in the ANC TV interview by Ricky Carandang replayed on January 11, 2007, the reason is that the case did not meet the supposed other requisite for plunder: series or combination of at least two "TRANSACTIONS" that produced the ill-gotten wealth. It seems the Office of the Ombudsman "misquoted" RA No. 7080 and introduced a word--"transactions"--that is not mentioned at all in the law. For, the alluded Section 2 of the Plunder Law clearly speaks NOT of combination or series of TRANSACTIONS but of "criminal ACTS as DESCRIBED IN SECTION 1 (d)" of the law. What then are these DESCRIBED criminal ACTS? If we will look in turn at Section 1 (d), the ACTS referred to are again NOT TRANSACTIONS but combination or series of the MEANS or SCHEMES employed in acquiring the ill-gotten wealth. In fact, the law leaves no room for guessing or speculation�its Section 1 (d) specifically enumerated the SIX MEANS or similar SCHEMES which, if committed in series or in combination with each other, will constitute plunder if the ill-gotten wealth is at least P50 million as quantified in Section 2. If we will proceed further and examine the six MEANS or SCHEMES described under Section 1 (d), we may find that two of them seem to have been perpetrated by ex-Secretary Perez , as follows: first, the alleged RECEIVING, indirectly and by virtue of his position, of $2 million from Mark Jimenez, which act falls under Section 1 (d) (2) of the law and forms part of the bases for the Ombudsman's finding of probable cause; and, second, the alleged TAKING UNDUE ADVANTAGE of his POSITION to unjustly ENRICH HIMSELF, covered under Section 1 (d) (6) and is an integral part of the alleged conspiracy with Ernest Escaler, Romeo Arceo, and Rosario Perez that the Ombudsman found as reported by media (Phil. Daily Inquirer, January 9, 2007, p. A7). To constitute plunder, the alleged $2 million payoff need not be part of the IMPSA deal or the sum of two illegal transactions. It is enough that, as can be seen, it met the additional condition that it was acquired through combination of at least two criminal ACTS, MEANS or SCHEMES specifically provided by the Plunder Law. Moreover, based on the Ombudsman's own resolution as cited by media, a THIRD criminal ACT�which clearly falls under "SIMILAR SCHEMES" mentioned and envisioned under Section 1 (d)--is FALSIFICATION OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS (DJ Yap, "Ex-DOJ chief Perez faces extortion raps," Phil. Daily Inquirer, January 9, 2007, front page), thereby more than complying with the two minimum criminal ACTS required for plunder--which requirement is obviously imposed to erase any doubts as to the deviousness and determined efforts in the execution and concealment of the crime. What's more, if the Ombudsman's interpretation of at least two TRANSACTIONS under Section 1 (d) of the Plunder Law is followed, which interpretation will apply to all cases of ill-gotten wealth whether lower or higher than P50 million, it may fatally weaken, if not outrightly decriminalize, the more numerous past and future cases of ill-gotten wealth below P50 million that are not the product of at least two illegal transactions, or cannot be proven by the Office of the Ombudsman as such owing to greater difficulty in proving this additional condition that the Ombudsman unilaterally imposed, starting with the Nani Perez case. Accordingly, the Office of the Ombudsman should adhere to the explicit provisions of the Plunder Law and file the appropriate charges mandated under it. Failure to do so will result in travesty of justice. Marcelo L. Tecson. [email protected], Bulacan, January 17, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony,, I really admire you having the guts to criticize government and its officials and I feel you will not stop doing so. I can sense that if you had the power to clean government by yourself, without second thought you will do it, right now from where you stand. Our country needs men like you. If you will run for any national position, I WILL VOTE FOR YOU! HONEST! (Thank you, but I am not a candidate for any office. ACA) Then with you we and the rest of the guys like us can start cleaning government. Starting from the Aguinaldos and their cohorts, and from each of the Presidents who ran our government like HELL, those who where mentioned in the book of Ric Manapat SOME ARE SMARTER THAN OTHERS, and this Administration as you viewed it. WHEN OUR HISTORY IS CORRECTED, then we can start fresh! Rodolfo Cada, [email protected], Feb. 01, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww I cannot agree with you mor,e Tony. What is wrong with these people that they trade even their souls for the devil's enticements whose "debatable" temporary benefits last only til what, 2010?, but whose permanent damnation runs eternal ... I have served in government for the past 27 years ... more specifically in the AFP and I definitely knew Ermita then as having more semblance of honor than now. What is it that makes men "knowingly" take the road to perdition? To me, there is no substitute for doing what is right! Even if this hurts! We really should think less of ourselves. This life is not about us. It is about forgetting us for the greater good. Lt. Col. Dennis Acop, [email protected], Jan. 21, 2007 ) OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |