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...