Pet Melliza

BY PET MELLIZA, The Beekeeper The way officials of the Commission on Audit (COA) deal with public offices other than theirs, is amusing. They can be strict, quick to issue “notices of disallowances” on expenditures a public officer incurred in good faith, that is, he/she did not benefit personally from but just the same, the COA can do as it please by issuing the notice which is only a prelude to the “notice of reimbursement” in case the COA is dissatisfied with the explanation. The notice of reimbursement is to be followed by legal suit, civil or criminal or both, in case a public official fails to refund the government. But it scarcely occurs to the them that they dwarf other public officials in making illegitimate expenditures with the only difference that they exempt themselves from receiving notices of disallowance, much less, orders for reimbursement. COA people even have the temerity of making government office, particularly, local government units (LGUs) scrape down the bottom...

BY PET MELLIZA, The Beekeeper The way officials of the Commission on Audit (COA) deal with public offices other than theirs, is amusing. They can be strict, quick to issue “notices of disallowances” on expenditures a public officer incurred in good faith, that is, he/she did not benefit personally from but just the same, the COA can do as it please by issuing the notice which is only a prelude to the “notice of reimbursement” in case the COA is dissatisfied with the explanation. The notice of reimbursement is to be followed by legal suit, civil or criminal or both, in case a public official fails to refund the government. But it scarcely occurs to the them that they dwarf other public officials in making illegitimate expenditures with the only difference that they exempt themselves from receiving notices of disallowance, much less, orders for reimbursement. COA people even have the temerity of making government office, particularly, local government units (LGUs) scrape down the bottom...

STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL UNION OF PEOPLE's LAWYERS NUPL-Iloilo Statement All is not lost yet with the Supreme Court ruling on December 6,2010 declaring Executive Order No. 1 that created the Truth Commission formed by P-Noy as “unconstitutional”. The President can proceed with what he has to do without such body. However, as lawyers, we are saddened by that decision. In that regard, the SC misses another opportunity to redeem its name earlier tarnished when it stopped the Congress from performing its Constitutional mandate of impeaching Ombudsman Ma. Merceditas Gutierrez, an impeachable public officer closely linked to the disgraced Arroyo regime, on mere technicality. That and its latest move of declaring as unconstitutional the truth commission might have temporarily blocked the new administration and the Filipino people from exacting justice from former President, now Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and her cabal for their heinous crimes of plundering the country and violatin...

By Pet Melliza, The Beekeeper The giant Globe telecom is only doing itself a disservice and paving its own destruction selling a wireless broadband that, for all intents and purposes, is bogus. Yours truly happens to be among the thousands lured into buying its Globe Tattoo. For a while, it chipped off a big chunk off the market of rival Smart “Bro” that hit the road running but ended up whacking its own clientele with lackadaisical services the way Globe Tattoo does to its own clients now. We have been tricked and bilked by Globe Tattoo. Globe gained because its rival defaulted. Stated otherwise, Smart Bro alienated its own market driving its patrons into the open arms of its rival which, in turn, is replicating the same self-destructive trick today. We bought a unit of Globe Tattoo mid this year. For a while, it worked and served as good companion when we are out of office. It cost P2,600 initially. We bought one in July when Globe dived down its price to only P760 plus a...

BY PET MELLIZA, The Beekeeper Ace Builders, Inc. already laughed its way to the bank by the time Iloilo City chief legal counsel Junio Jacela dropped by its office in Metro Manila last September to serve a notice of rescission of the infamous P135-million contract to construct low cost housing units in Pavia, Iloilo. Atty. Jacela reported that the notice of rescission could no longer be served because the contractor could no longer be located. Today, Mayor Jedd Patrick Mabilog wants a “closure” to the scandal – by sweeping it under the rug and not by hauling the contractor and its co-conspirators to the court. Mabilog today busies himself bleeding vehicle owners plying city streets by pulling off another money-making scheme of compelling them to buy “stickers” worth P100 to P500 for 2010 -- that loses its validity its validity at 12 midnight of December 31. The “Pavia housing scam” began in 2001 although actual civil works started only after Buenaventura Geronimo aka “Jerry” Treñas s...

By: PET MELLIZA/ The Beekeeper Heaps of scrap metal and driftwood dotted the lower ground of the public market when Jaime Esmeralda, MD, stepped down from the mayoral seat to assume the post of vice mayor of the municipality of Igbaras on July 1. In two month’s time, the gold mine disguised as scraps disappeared. The new mayor, Vicente Escorpion, ordered them disposed in the name of beautification and cleanliness. The scraps consisted of GI sheets, steel bars, railings and beddings, wood slabs, pipes, trusses and hinges among others that could value up to P2 million when sold to the junkyard and furniture shops. A dozen or so in the pile of hidden wealth consisted of lumber flitches and whole logs of century old hard wood that withstood the test of time. When yours truly began to be aware of the public market and its environments, more than 40 years ago, the original wooden beams consisting of flitches or entire logs, were already in place. They survived the termites and the Elemen...

The Beekeeper BY Pet Melliza (Iloilo City, Philippines)--The way Iloilo City mayor Jedd Patrick Mabilog stacks the Anti-Prostitution Task Force with nitwits, it is already a foregone conclusion that it will solve everything particularly the empty pockets of its operatives, except, well, prostitution. Yours truly would rather suggest that the enforcement of the anti-prostitution task force be vested on the PNP or the social welfare office. At the very least, PNP members are trained in basic criminal procedures, are accountable public officers, and many of them have undergone gender sensitivity seminars. The task force of Mabilog is dominated by casuals and project-hires (those whose term depends on the duration of a certain project or program) who are not accountable officers. Most are non-civil service eligible and posted on the job not by their education qualification but only by their proximity with the appointing authority. Last Monday, November 15, we were on the road for home...

Onli in Irong-Irong, da Pilipins by Pet Melliza Irong-irong indeed is blessed with the Traffic Mismanagement and Mis-engineering Unit which solves everything except traffic snarls. The campaign of the city against jaywalking is all for show. The task force anti-jaywalking si stacked with casuals and "job hires" (those whose term of employment is during the duration of the project implementation) untrained and unschooled. They wear no ID nor uniform and nothing to identify them. They don't even show proof that they are authorized to enforce the ordinance penalizing jaywalking. But they turn a blind eye, just like their counterparts in the Traffic Mismanagement and Mis-Engineering Unit which is stacked by casuals who are political appointees -- members of the task force anti-jaywalking turn a blind eye on the real culprits of gridlocks on roads: private vehicles parked on either side of the road, some diagonally, even vertically. Big businesses which convert roads into t...

By Pet Melliza, The Beekeeper Fair and objective reporting, oh, Kara! Lawyer Harry Roque hit the nail on the head in his criticism of the incident investigation report (IIR) of the committee that P-Noy tasked to get to the bottom of the botched hostage rescue at Quirino Grandstand, Manila, the Philippines. The committee, chaired by justice secretary Leila De Lima, recommended among others, charging certain broadcast journalists who "obstructed" government negotiators working for the release of foreign tourists taken hostage August 23 by a former police major distraught by a questionable order of the Ombudsman dismissing him from service with all benefits due him forfeited. The media were only doing their job of informing the public on the unfolding drama that eventually led to the carnage – five Chinese and three Canadian nationals and the hostage taker Rolando Mendoza killed. Roque, director of the Center for International Law (Center Law) based at UP Law Center, bewailed...

The Beekeeper By Pet Melliza Uniform or “anyform” P4,000 is P4,000 and that’s the reason why employees at the Iloilo Provincial Capitol are baffled at the way two officials there are ramming down their throats the exclusive procurement of their uniform for next year. This early, the pair is itching to persuade Iloilo Province’s 2,200 employees to cough up the P4,000 even before the uniform allowance of the same amount is released in January or February next year. Official "A" has its own set of designs from one supplier or tailoring shop in Manila. Official "B" has its own, too, also in Manila but a different contractor. Fellow officials and the rank and file are just baffled because the duo’s technique of hard selling is just too radical, revolutionary even. During the early three straight terms of Gov. Arthur D. Defensor, Sr. 1992 - 2001, employees had the option whether or not to wear uniform. They might spend their P2,000 uniform allow...

T he Beekeeper BY PET MELLIZA SC can redeem self The Supreme Court can still redeem its reputation by reconsidering its status quo ante order on the Congress, virtually stopping it in its initiatory tracks of impeaching Ombudsman Ma. Merceditas Gutierrez. With that controversial order for the Lower House to turn back the clock before Rep. Niel C. Tupas, Jr. (LP, 5th district, Iloilo), chair of the committee on justice, threw the monkey wrench on Madame Gutierrez, the High Tribunal forfeited a very rare opportunity to redeem its tarnished reputation as an “Arroyo Court”. Fr. Joaquin Bernas, SJ who holds a master of law degree and a professor at the Ateneo College of Law called the highest court of the land the “Arroyo Court”. Yours truly can’t add to that. Fr. Bernas is among the few legal luminaries who don’t hesitate to chide anybody in his column at the PDI, like Madame Gutierrez, his student in Ateneo Law and the members of the judiciary, many of them also his former students. ...

Virginia Palanca-Santiago’s exercise of raw power (8) Posted on September 6th, 2009 Author: Pet Melliza, The Beekeeper, ☼ IloiloViews Libat Dos had some misgivings against Libat Uno and was compelled to express it during the meeting of their group in a house just across the PNP station at Igbaras, Iloilo. He was aggrieved with the latter for skimming off a substantial amount from his share in the operation to kick out the municipal treasurer and the private secretary to the mayor. The latter was all denial but Libat Dos countered that the source of the fat mullah herself told him of the specific amount he was entitled to. Libat Uno muttered back that he needed the amount and anyway, it was him who took the pain of contacting the benefactor who sent the largesse with the instruction to deliver five-digit amounts respectively to contacts in the Office of the Ombudsman – Region 6 and the Bureau of Local Government Finance to execute the order of dismissal on the two employees...

The Beekeeper BY PET MELLIZA It's not the ideal time to get sick and be hospitalized nowadays with private and public medical facilities filled beyond capacity. The district hospital at Guimbal, Iloilo had to erect a tent; even its corridors can't accommodate additional patients. So far, the accumulated figure of dengue cases since january in Iloilo Province alone, excluding Iloilo City, went above 2,500 with 13 deaths, which is still better than 1996 when the death toll shot above 50, mostly children. This year, the Philippine Science High School at Jaro, Iloilo City, shut down for a week for fogging operation after a dozen of its students were infected by dengue. We don't know how successful the procedur was. The Department of Health scorns fogging because it does more harm than good; while it may help eliminate a generation of mosquitos, it does not the eggs which will hatch and spread the terror anew. Fogging contains chemicals toxic not only to Aege...

The Beekeeper BY PET MELLIZA Virginia Palanca-Santiago’s exercise of raw power (19) Lawyer Roming Gerochi has one word for the Office of the Ombudsman – “Monalisa”, an old ditty popularized by Matt Monroe and Frank Sinatra. He said that in one episode of “Kape kag Isyu”, a cable TV talks show aired live on Sky Cable every Saturday at 9 – 10 am. Many dreams have been brought to the doorstep of Monalisa but “they just lie there and they die there.” Virginia Palanca-Santiago, assistant ombudsman for the Visayas and chief of its W. Visayas regional office based in Iloilo City, is now in town preaching public accountability on elective local officials. Many cases have also been brought to the doorsteps of Virginia Palanca-Santiago and they, too, just lie and die there. The moral pygmy whose sense of right and wrong is as revolting as her looks being tasked to promote public accountability? That sounds like Pangulong Erap pontificating on marital fidelity. Gerochi threatened to sling mandamu...

The Beekeeper By Pet Melliza Defy the church IF Fray Butod — the quintessential symbol of the patriarchal, despotic, conservative, reactionary and backward sector of religion usurping the title “The Church” – ordered me to go forth and multiply and reject birth control practices, shall I say amen? If Fray Butod threatened me with eternal damnation in hell or excommunication in life shall I cringe? Before answering those queries, let’s journey back to the past. One conclusion we can glean from it is that humanity gained giant strides in all spheres of knowledge that translate to unprecedented progress. Today, by tapping the keyboard or mouse of your PC, in matter of seconds we can communicate to people in different parts of the world, we can access information at such speed and efficiency never before imagined. Humanity progressed not because of the conservative, patriarchal and reactionary faction of religion, most often its hierarchy and having the temerity to dub itself “The ...

The Beekeeper BY PET MELLIZA Hostage drama culture of arrogance We grieve with the families killed and wounded in the botched rescue attempt of the PNP. I may be dumb but at least I am not as stupid as idiots in PNP SWAT uniform, “Manila’s Finest” who mishandled the hostage-drama at Quirino Grandstand, Luneta last August 23. This is one maxim we can coin at the manner the supposed rescuers led the victims to their tragic end, eight dead and seven injured, all Chinese nationals, when the smoke of the rescue settled down. We were watching the drama unfold at Tibsrock resto, at Mandurriao and felt like smashing a beer bottle on to the empty head of whoever ordered the arrest of SPO2 Gregorio Mendoza, brother of hostage taker, Rolando Mendoza, a former police senior inspector. The arresting officers simply roughed him up in full view of viewers of the live coverage worldwide, including the hostage-taker himself. We are baffled how the non-commissioned police officer was arrested sa...

The Beekeeper By Pet Melliza Defy the church IF Fray Butod — the quintessential symbol of the patriarchal, despotic, conservative, reactionary and backward sector of religion usurping the title “The Church” – ordered me to go forth and multiply and reject birth control practices, shall I say amen? If Fray Butod threatened me with eternal damnation in hell or excommunication in life shall I cringe? Before answering those queries, let’s journey back to the past. One conclusion we can glean from it is that humanity gained giant strides in all spheres of knowledge that translate to unprecedented progress. Today, by tapping the keyboard or mouse of your PC, in matter of seconds we can communicate to people in different parts of the world, we can access information at such speed and efficiency never before imagined. Humanity progressed not because of the conservative, patriarchal and reactionary faction of religion, most often its hierarchy and havi...

The Beekeeper BY PET MELLIZA Virginia Palanca-Santiago's exercise of raw power (18) Virginia Palanca-Santiago's unusual haste to “solve” the case People's Graftwatch of Iloilo versus jaime Esmeralda, et al, invites suspicion. Even while the answer of Esmeralda et al were in transitu to Cebu, they already received a six-month preventive suspension order dated March 14, 2005. It was signed by then Ombudsman for the Visayas Primo Miro but there is strong reason to believe that it was the handiwork of his assistant, Virginia Palanca-Santiago, who was already Western Visayas Director of the office based in Iloilo City. At that time, Miro, already too debilitated by an illness aggravated by his alcohol habit, was no longer in charge. He had one trait – he could not write a single English sentence without incurring a hundred crimes against grammar and logic. The one de facto running the show than was Virginia Palanca-Santiago. There were far more grave cases...

The Beekeeper BY PET MELLIZA Virginia Palanca-Santiago's exercise of raw power (17) Virginia Palanca-Santiago, the woman who should be addressed to as “Honorable” being the assistant ombudsman for the Visayas and concurrently, regional director of the Office of the Ombudsman in Western Visayas, scarcely shows her face in Iloilo these days. Further, her office no longer accepts my pleadings; her subordinates told me to mail them directly to the Cebu office on the lame excuse that receiving pleadings at the Iloilo office “affect” the reglamentary period of responding to pleadings. I don't know how receiving documents by the Iloilo office reduces the reglamentary period. In this IT age, Virginia Palanca-Santiago can make use of the internet, fax machine or telephone in transmitting the contents of any pleading. Besides, the Iloilo office has an in-house lawyer to answer the pleading in her behalf. We are inclined to suspect that the reason why the Iloilo office of the Ombudsman no...