RP improves fight vs human trafficking — US report

But has yet to meet world standard By Cynthia Balana
Inquirer
Last updated 10:04pm (Mla time) 06/13/2007

MANILA, Philippines — The United States merely noted the “exemplary efforts” of the Philippines in assisting migrant workers, saying these were not at par with international standards as far as curbing the problem of trafficking in persons was concerned, according to the US State Department’s 2007 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report.

 

The annual TIP report, the seventh in a series, was released on Wednesday by US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice in a public event at the State Department’s press briefing Room in Washington, D.C.

 

In its report on the Philippines, it said the country remained on the Tier 2 list, which includes countries whose governments do not fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000’s minimum standards but are making significant efforts to do so.

 

The TVPA, passed on October 28, 2000, marks the most comprehensive US law to address the various aspects of trafficking in persons both internationally and domestically. The TVPA aims to combat trafficking by establishing measures to prevent trafficking, protect its victims, and prosecute those accountable for the human trade.

 

The 236-page report, mandated by the US Congress, is the most comprehensive worldwide report on the efforts of governments to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons.

 

Tier 1 countries are those doing the best job of controlling human trafficking, prosecuting those involved, and supporting and assisting victims. Hungary, Slovenia and the Czech Republic are newcomers to the Tier 1 group.

 

The report lists 75 countries in an intermediate Tier 2 group. These are countries that are demonstrating a “significant” commitment to address their trafficking problems but have not yet achieved international standards. At least 32 countries are on a Tier 2 “watch list” for having shown signs of failing to make improvements.

 

The report places 16 countries in the bottom Tier 3 — governments that have shown no commitment to meeting international standards.

 

In introducing the report, Rice said human trafficking until recently was akin to a global family secret – “it was known but not often discussed publicly.”

 

She said that US efforts to raise awareness of trafficking in persons have been paying off, and millions more knew about the global problem.

 

Rice said that in her travels around the world, she noticed “a greater desire by our partners to fight this crime and protect its victims.”

 

She said the US was helping to lead a global movement not just to confront this crime, but to eradicate it.

 

Rice said that more and more countries were coming to see human trafficking for what it was — “a modern-day form of slavery that devastates families and communities around the world.”

 

The same report congratulated the Philippine government for its “exemplary efforts to prevent the trafficking of migrant workers and to protect those who were exploited abroad.”

 

However, it noted that the Philippines remained a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor.

 

“The Philippines government should make greater efforts to combat internal trafficking by increasing public awareness activities and vigorously prosecuting those exploiting victims as well as making greater efforts to prosecute and convict public officials who profit from or are involved in trafficking,” the report said.

 

The US urges continued progress in the Philippines in these areas, saying it was looking forward to working with the government to support its ongoing anti-trafficking efforts.

 

“Working in cooperation with governments and its citizens around the world, the United States and the American people look forward to the day when all people may be free from these contemporary forms of human servitude and exploitation,” the report also said.

Sea evacuation for Filipinos in Lebanon mulled

By Cynthia Balana
Inquirer
Last updated 11:15pm (Mla time) 06/12/2007

MANILA, Philippines — The government is preparing for an evacuation by sea of 20,000 Filipino workers in Lebanon because of fears a civil strife may soon erupt in that Middle East country, according to Vice President Noli de Castro.

 

De Castro, presidential adviser on the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and chair of the Task Force Lebanon, said on Tuesday that Philippine officials were alarmed by the increasing tension in Lebanon.

 

He said the land evacuation route, which was first used by Filipino evacuees in 2006 at the height of the Israeli-Hezbollah war, might be closed should Syria, which is supporting the militants in Lebanon, join the conflict.

 

The government has maintained a partial ban of deployment of Filipinos to Lebanon, which means that workers, except domestics, whose job contracts were interrupted by their repatriation to the Philippines at the height of the Israel-Hezbollah war last year, may be allowed to return there.

 

De Castro said the task force was considering the option of a total ban after completing its assessment of the security situation in that country.

 

On Monday, two Red Cross workers were killed at a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon after their vehicle were hit by mortar shell fired by Islamic militants from Fatah al-Islam.

 

The violence between militants and Lebanese internal security forces began May 20, when Lebanese forces conducted raids in a Tripoli neighborhood, triggering clashes near the refugee camp.

 

The battles are the worst internal violence since the end of Lebanon’s civil war in 1990.

 

On Sunday, heavy clashes with militants who are said to have ties with al Qaeda left six Lebanese soldiers dead.

 

Reports said that 59 Lebanese troops have been killed since the fighting began at the Nahr el-Bared camp more than three weeks ago, according to the Lebanese military.

 

De Castro said the Department of Foreign Affairs alerted the embassy to locate the Filipinos in Lebanon to make their evacuation easier, just in case.

 

“We want to make sure that all Filipinos are accounted for when that time comes. The situation in Lebanon is still volatile. But we are also preparing for a new round of evacuation,” he said.

US launches website for new immigrants

Agence France-Presse
Last updated 08:35am (Mla time) 06/13/2007

WASHINGTON — The US government launched a website Tuesday aimed at new immigrants that contains information on everything from how to get a driver’s license to how to become a US citizen.

 

The site — www.welcometousa.gov — is billed as “the federal government’s official website for new immigrants.” It was assembled by a task force created by President George W. Bush in 2006.

 

The main site is in English, but selected information is available in other languages.

 

Basic new immigrant guides, for example, are available in 11 languages — including Arabic, Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese — while information on Social Security is available in 16 languages.

 

“Our plans include even more opportunities for American citizens and community groups to help newcomers integrate into American society,” said Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Emilio Gonzalez.

 

On Tuesday Bush urged reluctant Republican allies in Congress to revive legislation that would drastically overhaul US immigration policy.

 

The Senate’s Democratic leader Harry Reid pulled the bill, dubbed a “grand bargain,” from the Senate last week after Republicans refused to agree to move towards a final vote.

138 Filipino workers, 38 kids repatriated from Saudi

By Tarra Quismundo
Inquirer
Last updated 06:23pm (Mla time) 06/13/2007

MANILA, Philippines — It had been 10 years ago since Norma Namla left Cotabato City and braved the Middle East to clean a stranger’s house for little pay.

 

On her return, four little ones tagged along, all of whom she had during her troublesome decade in a foreign land.

 

Namla was among several Filipino mothers from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia who arrived Wednesday afternoon after they were granted amnesty for overstaying in the country.

 

With her were her two sons, aged 6 and 5, and two daughters, aged 4 and 1, all worn out by the long ride but kept awake by the surrounding fuss over their homecoming.

 

“Life is very hard there. I do not intend to go back there … We’ll just stay here and I’ll send my kids to school,” Namla said in Filipino while struggling to pacify her youngest child with her Filipino husband, also working in Saudi.

 

A domestic helper in her first seven months until she was forced to leave for lack of pay, the 38-year-old was among 100 female migrant workers and 38 children flown home on Wednesday after they availed of an amnesty the Saudi government offered for two months until the end of May.

 

Migrant Workers’ Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos Jr. explained that Wednesday’s batch of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) were able to come home after the Saudi government granted them amnesty even while the two-month program was intended only for Filipino Muslims who had stayed beyond their time of pilgrimage within and outside the period of the Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.

 

Some 750 OFWs, including Wednesday’s deportees, had rushed to the Philippine Consulate this month after “some enterprising Filipino” spread the news that the Saudi government had granted a general amnesty all foreign workers with immigration violations there, Conejos said.

 

“The grace period had lapsed but the Philippine consulate requested that the 750 be given consideration, and we should thank the Saudi government for granting it,” Conejos told the OFWs gathered in a waiting area inside the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1.

 

Had they been denied amnesty, the OFWs would have faced criminal charges, trial and possible jail time for their violations, among them fleeing employers, overstaying and bearing children out of wedlock.

 

“You tell us that there are still many left there. Don’t worry because they will be able to come home. But we are stopping at the 750,” said Conejos.

 

He later told reporters that other OFWs who would like to return home would have to go through the normal process, which would entail facing their violations and then securing exit visas through their employers.

 

As for the repatriated children, all of whom were born in Jeddah but many outside marriage, Conejos said the foreign office would find a way to fix their birth registration and documents.

The real cost of CICC

By Fernando Fajardo
Cebu Daily News
Last updated 02:04pm (Mla time) 06/13/2007

I hope Gwen will finally give us a complete accounting of how much the CICC actually costs. Is it P581.2 million, as she reported in her May 3 presentation, or is it P842.2 million, as alleged by Crisologo Saavedra?

 

Saavedra secured a copy of the bill for P261.2 million sent by WT Construction to the Capitol in February yet, but it remained unacknowledged by the Capitol, pending validation by the Provincial Monitoring Office, by the time the data used in Gwen’s report on the cost of the CICC was extracted from the file of the Capitol’s budget office last April 25. What is the status of this billing today? How much of it was accepted and paid? Or has it not been validated up to now?

 

There may be some good reason for taking so long to validate and acknowledge the WT bill, but the pending amount should have been mentioned in the May 3 presentation, for transparency’s sake, to give a correct perspective to the media and the public as to the real cost of the CICC, which the Capitol wanted us to believe just cost over P500 million, cheaper compared to other structures, as Gwen pointed out in her presentation.

 

Back to the tussle between Tommy and Gwen, I believe that the city and province have bigger problems that need more attention from the two, separately or together, other than what occupies their minds presently, with which they try to outsmart each other.

 

Squatting in general or rather the lack of decent housing in the city is a problem that both City Hall and the Capitol must jointly be concerned about. This is because it involves not only the province-owned lot in the city but also because many of the squatters themselves may have actually come from the province of Cebu, driven to the city because of their poverty, only to remain poor as ever here, forcing them to squat or live in slum colonies.

 

How many squatters or slum dwellers are there in Cebu City? The last time I heard, not only thousands but tens of thousands. However, the way Tom and Gwen are behaving and looking at the problem of squatters in the city now, I doubt if there is any chance in the next three years to find a solution to the housing problem of even just the couple of thousand or so of squatters in the province-owned lot in Barangay Luz.

 

Tommy talks of a buying a piece of land owned by the Aznar family that he would like to develop for the city’s poor. That is good. If I knew Tommy now, when pressed for action, he could easily spew out plans from his fertile mind to solve a problem of the city, but what Tommy says and what he actually does are different things. When the heat of the problem is over, he just forgets everything and talks about it only when the issue surfaces again later. I think I already heard about this proposed housing project before.

 

Take the other case of the proposed mass transport system to solve the worsening traffic situation in the city. In the past, Tommy mentioned Curitiba City in Brazil as his model for improving the flow of traffic in the city – using buses with specific routes and bus stops that are provided with elevated platforms that level with the buses’ doorsteps to make loading and unloading of passengers safer and orderly. The new system is intended to replace the countless jeepneys in the city that would not bother to stop anywhere to load and unload passengers when traffic enforcers are away.

 

I read something about Curitiba City lately and now I know how its mass transport system started. It was done in place of the alternative proposal to construct a more expensive subway or light rail system. The mass transport system was just one of the many experiments Curitiba did to make living in the city more bearable if not pleasurable. It also included, among others, proper road network planning and control of land use and development in the different parts of Curitiba.

 

Those are things that Cebu City is not known to be good at. Didn’t City Hall, for example, notice only the uncontrolled invasion by almost all kinds of businesses in the Banilad-Talambam area when it was forced to look into the traffic problem there to justify not giving a permit to Gwen’s Ciudad project?
The SRP is another case. How long shall we wait to see the completion of all its facilities, hard and soft, required for the operation of the area as an approved Ecozone? How long shall we wait for investors to finally start locating and operating in the area?

 

When Congressman Eddie Gullas raised the issue of Talisay City’s ownership of part of the SRP, Tommy made us believe that it was the only thing that was keeping it from being titled and occupied by new investors and for the city to start earning income needed to help pay the SRP loan. The ownership issue is practically over now, with the title of most of the land there given to Cebu City, but we still have to see real progress in the SRP.

 

If I were Tommy, I would devote more time to the SRP instead of wasting it on heated exchanges of words with Gwen or Mary Ann.

MMDA Chair Fernando sued for dismantling ads

Group claims huge revenues lost

By Margaux Ortiz

Last updated 01:21am (Mla time) 06/14/2007

MANILA, Philippines — A group of outdoor advertisers has filed a graft case against Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chair Bayani Fernando before the Office of the Ombudsman, saying the agency’s destruction and defacement of their posters have caused them millions of pesos in lost revenues.

 

The complaint was filed by City Advertising Ventures Corp. (CAVC) general manager Jose Duarte who said the MMDA’s practice of splashing black paint on their advertisements had caused their clients to terminate their lease contracts with the company.

 

“I am filing this complaint on behalf of CAVC for the purpose of filing criminal and administrative charges against respondent Bayani Fernando, for his act of authorizing and ordering MMDA personnel under his control and supervision to dismantle, confiscate, destroy and deface the banners and streamers of CAVC …” Duarte said.

 

CAVC lawyer Caesar Ortega said that last April, the Makati Regional Trial Court issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting and preventing the MMDA from dismantling their banners.

 

“The MMDA is now circumventing the court order by splashing black paint on our banners instead of dismantling them,” Ortega added.

 

According to him, when the police arrested several MMDA workers last April for defacing their streamers, officials of the government agency denied having anything to do with the incident.

 

Ortega, however, said that Fernando later admitted on national television that he had ordered his men to splash black paint on advertising posters. “Fernando’s order was made in plain and simple bad faith,” he added.

 

Duarte said Fernando violated the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act by ordering his men to deface of at least 10 of their banners. He added that they have lost P8 to P10 million in revenues in the last six months.

 

“MMDA Chairman Fernando says our banners are illegal installations. We refute that very strongly,” Duarte said, adding that all their banners, streamers and billboards were installed with the clearance of the Department of Public Works and Highways. He also stressed that the company also secured the necessary barangay or city permits before putting up their advertising materials.

 

“We would have kept silent just going about our business if the black paint splattering spree of MMDA was an isolated case of an overreaction to Administrative Orders 160 and 160-A,” Duarte said.

 

Administrative Order 160 directed the DPWH to conduct field inspections, an evaluation and assessment of all billboards, determine those that are hazardous and pose imminent danger to life, health, safety of the general public and dismantle these.

 

Administrative Order 160-A, on the other hand, specified the legal grounds and procedures for the prohibition and abatement of billboards and signboards constituting public nuisance or other violations of law.

 

“Unfortunately, this has gone on with alarming frequency and our company’s reputation and credibility have been compromised in the process,” Duarte said.

Villafuerte says Puno is undermining Kampi

Villafuerte says Puno is undermining Kampi
By Norman Bordadora, Jhunnex Napallacan
Visayas Bureau
Last updated 05:28am (Mla time) 06/14/2007

MANILA, Philippines — Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte on Wednesday accused Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno of undermining their own political party — President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi, Partner of the Free Filipino) — to support the leader of another party for House speaker.

 

Villafuerte, Kampi president, and Puno, the party chair, have been visibly at odds after they chose to support different candidates for speaker.

 

Puno has said he and more than 40 of Kampi’s 53 members in the incoming House of Representatives support Speaker Jose de Venecia of Lakas and his bid for a fifth term as House leader.

 

Villafuerte, on the other hand, opted to back Kampi member and Cebu congressman-elect Pablo Garcia.

 

“It comes as a surprise that after undermining Lakas and other coalition candidates in the last election Puno has made a 360-degree turnaround by announcing support for Speaker De Venecia instead of supporting Garcia, a colleague in Kampi,” Villafuerte said.

 

On Tuesday, Puno said that if Kampi decides to support De Venecia, Garcia should leave the party if he wants to go on with his own speakership bid.

 

“That is a very irresponsible statement from Secretary Puno. I think Puno should be the one ousted from the Cabinet instead,” Villafuerte said.

 

Villafuerte said Puno’s threat to expel Garcia from the party will have serious repercussions not only in Kampi but on the administration as well.

 

“Congressman Pablo Garcia is one of the most trusted allies of the Arroyo administration who has always been able to deliver the votes for the administration candidates in his area,” Villafuerte said.

 

According to Villafuerte, De Venecia is in for a surprise.

 

Villafuerte said more congressmen from the De Venecia camp have shifted their support to Garcia.

Court clears tearful Imelda Marcos of 5 tax offenses

By Margaux Ortiz
Inquirer
Last updated 04:26am (Mla time) 06/14/2007

MANILA, Philippines — It was yet another victory for the widow of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos who said that the long trail of injustices against her family by the Philippine government was finally coming to an end.

 

A Quezon City Regional Trial Court judge Wednesday acquitted Imelda Marcos of five counts of tax code violations, saying the prosecution failed to establish the criminal intent in all complaints.

 

“Thank God that at last, after 21 years, once again, justice for the Marcos family has prevailed,” Marcos said in a statement.

 

“I am very happy, because this is not just for the Marcoses — justice for the Marcoses will ultimately (lead to) to justice for the Filipino people,” she said.

 

Marcos stood before Judge Rosa Samson-Tatad of RTC Branch 103 in a simple, knee-length dress, dabbing her eyes with a tissue and sniffling during the entire promulgation.

 

In the decision read by a court staff, Tatad said Marcos could not be held criminally liable for violations of Sections 45, 50, 82, 83 (a) and 84 of the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC) of 1977.

 

The Bureau of Internal Revenue, represented by lawyer Rosario Padilla, filed the cases against Marcos for allegedly failing to pay an income tax of P33,737 after earning P192,080 in 1985 from her jobs as governor of Metro Manila, minister of human settlements, and chair of the board of trustees of the Home Development Mutual Fund.

 

The prosecution also accused Marcos of failing to inform the BIR of her husband’s death, and refusing to file an estate tax return and pay more than P5 billion in estate taxes to the government as her husband’s legal heir.

 

However, Tatad noted in her 19-page decision that the Marcoses had been forcibly evicted from the country and brought to Hawaii in 1986, leaving most of their personal and real properties under the possession and control of the government.

 

Isolated

 

“As the defense contended, the Marcoses were totally isolated from the rest of the world. They were not afforded means of communication and transportation and were not allowed to receive visitors,” Tatad said.

 

The judge added: “Thus, it was really impossible for the accused to have complied with the requirement of filing and paying any of her tax obligations.”

 

As for the accusation that Marcos failed to notify the BIR regarding her husband’s death, Tatad gave credence to the defense’s assertion that the death of the former President was “already of public knowledge.”

 

“It would be quite unimaginable for the accused to still notify the BIR about the death of her husband when the same is generally known throughout the country,” the judge said.

 

Tatad also acquitted Marcos of the charges accusing her of failing to file and pay her estate tax returns amounting to P5.7 billion.

 

“The court finds merit in the argument that the failure on the part of the accused to file the estate return and to pay the estate tax is not willful,” the decision read.

 

Sequestered

 

The judge said that from the day the Marcoses were exiled in 1986 [after the People Power revolt] until they returned in 1991, the properties of the former President had been sequestered and placed under the control and possession of the government, after which forfeiture proceedings were filed in the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court.

 

“True, as pointed out by the defense, why would the government require the accused to comply with her obligation when it had taken away the very means by which she could comply with the requirements of the law?” Tatad said in her decision.

 

She also noted that it was only logical that a legal heir, who did not possess knowledge or information regarding the total value of the estate of Marcos’ late husband, “would not dare execute a return under oath under pain of criminal liability.” With a report from Associated Press

RP’s biggest criminal trial: Summations in

RP’s biggest criminal trial: Summations in
By Volt Contreras
Inquirer
Last updated 02:14am (Mla time) 06/14/2007

MANILA, Philippines — Public prosecutors took 626 pages to make their final written assertion that deposed President Joseph Estrada was guilty of plunder, and that a country still to heal fully from the Marcos dictatorship could not waste a “second chance” to punish a corrupt leader.

 

Defense lawyers, on the other hand, took only 276 pages to insist that Estrada was innocent, and that his downfall and subsequent legal troubles were brought on by a “mobocracy” — a reference to EDSA II, or the people power uprising in January 2001.

 

The protagonists in the biggest criminal — and most politically charged — trial in Philippine history filed their summation of evidence and arguments in the Sandiganbayan Wednesday, two days before the anti-graft court is to hear their oral presentation.

 

This penultimate volley only seemed to heighten the tension leading to the June 15 confrontation of the two camps at which the 70-year-old Estrada, under house arrest at his vacation estate in Tanay, Rizal, has been allowed by the court to attend.

 

Each of the memoranda, while mostly a rundown of the paper trails, legal jurisprudence, and quotes from the witness stand, also tried to appeal to the justices’ sense of history.

 

“It is a rare occasion, indeed, for the country to have a second chance at attempting a fundamental change in its administration of justice — after the failure to obtain swift and timely justice against the Marcoses and their cronies, many cases against whom are still pending with courts after more than 20 years,” the prosecution’s memo read.

 

‘Overwhelming evidence’

 

The government lawyers told the court that the evidence against Estrada had turned out “overwhelming” after almost seven years of trial and “after political alliances were forged and broken, after ambitions were formed and thwarted, after numerous delays engineered by the defense.”

 

They said Estrada’s acquittal by the Sandiganbayan would “sound the final death knell for good governance in our country and irreversibly doom our generation and the succeeding generations to decades of abject poverty caused by the pernicious effects of continuing pervasive corruption.”

 

The prosecution led by Special State Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio — and formerly by past Ombudsmen Aniano Desierto and Simeon Marcelo — had presented 76 witnesses to pin Estrada down for plunder, previously a capital offense until the Arroyo administration abolished the death penalty last year.

 

Estrada, with eight other respondents, is accused of running a conspiracy to amass some P4.1 billion in kickbacks from illegal gambling, tobacco excise taxes, and stock market commissions, and laundering the money through a foundation and secret bank accounts during his short-lived presidency.

 

His co-accused include his son, now Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, and lawyer Ed Serapio, both of whom have been granted bail, and Yolanda Ricaforte, Jaime Dichaves, Eleuterio Tan, Alma Alfaro, and Delia Rajas, who all remain at large.

 

Another respondent, Charlie “Atong” Ang, Estrada’s former gambling buddy, was granted a two-year probation by the Sandiganbayan last May. Ang had pleaded guilty to corruption of a public official and agreed to return P25 million to the government in a plea bargain arrangement.

 

‘Uncorroborated testimony’

 

In their memo, Estrada’s lawyers led by former Solicitor General Estelito Mendoza said the case against their client was mostly hinged on the “uncorroborated testimony” of the ex-President’s estranged crony, Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis “Chavit” Singson.

 

The infamous “ledger” supposedly reflecting Estrada’s payola collections from the illegal numbers game “jueteng,” for instance, was “Singson’s personal records” akin to “self-serving diaries” and was thus inadmissible as evidence, the defense said. (The prosecution had alleged that Estrada raked in some P545 million from jueteng.)

 

The defense also said the eyewitness testimony of prosecution star witness Clarissa Ocampo, then an executive of the Equitable-PCIBank, that Estrada signed as “Jose Velarde” on a secret account was “not sufficient” to establish that Estrada was Velarde.

 

For one, the defense said, Estrada signed “for Velarde under the heading ‘By,’ meaning he signed for the real Velarde,” whom Estrada maintained to be co-accused Dichaves.

 

The defense also stressed that Estrada’s signature was “not honored by the bank, precisely because it knew that he was not Velarde.”

 

‘Physical impossibility’

 

On Estrada’s allegedly pocketing a P130-million cut from the tobacco excise tax revenues earmarked for Ilocos Sur province, the defense said it was Singson who had “admitted” to misappropriating those funds and falsifying documents to cover his tracks.

 

It said Singson’s claim of having personally delivered the P130 million in cash to Estrada at the latter’s home in the municipality of San Juan was “a physical impossibility” and “a mere concoction.”

 

The defense also said the purchase of Belle Resources shares by the Government Service and Insurance System and the Social Security System — a transaction in which Estrada allegedly pocketed P189 million in commissions — had been proven “valid and regular even [by] witnesses put up by the prosecution.”

 

It added that no evidence linked Estrada to the payment of the commission except the “hearsay testimony” of then Belle vice chair Willy Ocier, who claimed to have had a conversation with Dichaves in which the latter talked about a P200-million commission for Estrada.

 

‘Denial of justice’

 

According to the defense, Estrada was “denied justice” at the Senate impeachment trial and at the Supreme Court, which ruled that he resigned when he left Malacañang in 2001, thus legitimizing the takeover of then Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

 

“We have no choice but to submit now to this special division [created in the Sandiganbayan to try Estrada et al.],” it said.

 

In what may pass as an aside, the defense noted how Singson, an administration candidate, lost in the May 14 senatorial elections: “The people told him what it thought of him.”

 

It also said that while Singson’s political career had plunged, Estrada “enjoys the trust of our people on the same level of confidence in [former] President Corazon Aquino.”

 

“The message of the people [in the elections] in 2004 and 2007 should not go unheeded … That would only be fair and approximate the desideratum of a level playing field, to which we are all committed, as in duty-bound,” the defense said.

Arroyo to Cabinet, GOCCs’ heads: Resign

Revamp said to be her response to poll debacle By Gil C. Cabacungan Jr., Michael Lim Ubac
Inquirer
Last updated 01:31am (Mla time) 06/14/2007

MANILA, Philippines — President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has asked all the members of her Cabinet to resign in a move that insiders described as a fallout from the administration debacle in the May 14 senatorial elections.

 

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita told reporters the President was seeking an overhaul of the bureaucracy starting with her official family and the heads of the 117 GOCCs and GFIs — corporations and financial institutions owned or controlled by the government.

 

“It’s not courtesy resignation. The President asked them to submit their resignation so that she will have a free hand … to reorganize,” Ermita said.

 

He said the housecleaning had nothing to do with the May polls in which only two of her senatorial candidates, according to the latest count of the Commission on Elections, had made it to the Magic 12 despite the vaunted administration machinery.

 

“Remember the President has set her own program from Day 1 … in order to move our country forward. Bottom line: We must improve the wellbeing of our people. So she will do everything to improve the conditions of our people,” said Ermita.

 

But one of Ms Arroyo’s advisers, who requested anonymity, said the shake-up was the President’s way of responding to the people’s resounding rejection of her handpicked senatorial candidates.

 

The adviser said Ms Arroyo was referring to the government’s main revenue-raising arms — Internal Revenue Commissioner Jose Bunag and Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales — when she spoke to the Cabinet about the need to overhaul the government and start with a new face.

 

Ex-Mayor Lito Atienza

 

The same source said that Ms Arroyo was also considering bringing into the Cabinet some of her loyal local government officials who have backed her up during her term, notably outgoing Manila Mayor Lito Atienza.

 

Despite their big advantage in financial resources, a broad network of local government officials and a political machinery, only two of the President’s chosen ones — Edgardo Angara and Joker Arroyo — landed in the winning circle.

 

Another Malacañang adviser confirmed that the Cabinet revamp was triggered by the embarrassing result of the senatorial elections as Ms Arroyo’s men failed to deliver in their assigned areas.

 

“Each Cabinet official was given a specific province or region to ensure that Team Unity (TU) bets win the majority of the seats. Unfortunately, only a few of them delivered and those who came short of their assignments are likely to lose their posts,” the source said.

 

Ermita, Genuino may be axed

 

Ermita, who was tasked to lead TU’s charge in Batangas province, is rumored to be among those in danger of being replaced.

 

The Malacañang adviser said the President was choosing another retired general in her Cabinet — either Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza and Defense Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane — as Ermita’s replacement.

 

Palace sources said one of the officials who were likely to get the ax was Ephraim Genuino, chair of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor). He had reportedly received an angry call from Ms Arroyo for his failure to provide financial support to the administration’s Senate campaign.

 

A Pagcor source who requested anonymity for obvious reasons, said Genuino concentrated on the campaign of his two children — one for councilor and the other for Congress. Both of them lost.

 

In his regular press briefing at Malacañang, Ermita said the “matter of changing of the guard” was the “sole prerogative of the President.”

 

Ermita, however, was careful not to use the word “fired” to describe Cabinet members and appointees in the GOCCs, such as the Government Service Insurance System, Social Security System, National Power Corp. and Pagcor, and the GFIs led by Landbank, who were being asked to resign.

 

Search committee

 

Finance Secretary Margarito Teves confirmed Tuesday that the President had instructed him Saturday to relay to the board members of the GOCCs and GFIs the verbal order.

 

“I was not present (in the meeting) but informed by Teves and (Trade Secretary) Peter Favila that such instruction was verbally given by the President,” Teves said.

 

The chair of the search committee — Bernardino Abes, a former labor secretary in the Cabinet of Ms Arroyo’s late father Diosdado Macapagal — was “now doing the work of determining the composition of 117 GOCCs, 19 of which are GFIs,” Ermita added.

 

The recommendation will include those “who should replace who,” and “people who have overstayed.”

 

Ermita refused to comment about the timing of the Cabinet revamp.

 

“We don’t know. Look, you yourselves told me, ‘The President has three more years,’ so every man counts. It’s up to the President. She can see the overall picture from where she sits as President.”

 

President’s criteria

 

Ermita stressed that running the government’s huge bureaucracy under the executive department was Ms Arroyo’s sole responsibility, so “we should give her the opportunity to use her good judgment in choosing those who will run it.”

 

“Let’s leave it to the President. But all Cabinet members serve at the pleasure of the President. Let’s give it to the President to determine people running the bureaucracy,” he said. With a report from Tony Bergonia