P-Noy's sacred cow

President Aquino can show to the Filipino people his firm resolve and will to rid the government of graft and corruption by not letting personal reasons cloud his better judgment over the case of Land Transportation Office chief Virginia Torres.

Torres has become a big embarrassment for the President, especially with her refusal to observe delicadeza and the rule of law more importantly.

The LTO chief has refused to take a leave of absence from her post despite the recommendation by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to do so after a panel of prosecutors found evidence to charge her and her assistant Menelia Mortel with “gross neglect of duty.”

Torres has repeatedly said that only the President – her shooting range buddy, kababayan and textmate – can remove her from office.

Even the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), which has control over LTO, can’t seem to touch Torres due to her self-proclaimed closeness to P-Noy and the Iglesia ni Cristo.

While the DOJ has recommended that both Torres and Mortel should be put under preventive suspension by the DOTC if they would not take a leave of absence, the DOTC only clamped down on Mortel.

Last March 25, DOTC Secretary Jose “Ping” De Jesus served a 90-day suspension order and a formal charge sheet against Mortel, but left Torres’ fate to Malacañang. 

This despite the fact that Torres and Mortel were both charged by the DOJ of the same offenses for abetting or, at the very least, failing to stop a takeover last Dec. 9 of Stradcom Corp., the information technology provider of LTO.

CCTV footage submitted to the DOJ investigating panel had shown Torres and Mortel facilitating the takeover of Stradcom’s offices by a group led by one Bonifacio Sumbilla at the LTO compound in Quezon City.

De Jesus should have suspended Torres along with Mortel. Torres is a mere assistant secretary to De Jesus, who should have no qualms suspending her as he would then be merely following a DOJ recommendation that found sufficient evidence to file criminal and administrative charges against Torres and Mortel.

Her suspension by DOTC is a must so that she cannot use her office to obstruct the gathering of evidence by the DOJ at the LTO in the investigation of the charges that had been raised against her.

Torres has become an untouchable, so to speak. She reportedly even disregarded two DOTC memorandums to LTO to pay Stradcom P750 million in payments overdue since November due to the ongoing intra-Stradcom dispute, obviously referring to the ownership controversy.

Even members of the House transportation committee were stumped during a hearing, with Rep. JV Ejercito telling Torres that she has no reason not to pay Stradcom for “services already rendered.”

President Aquino must do what is right. He is already being perceived as a weakling. His indecisiveness over the fate of Torres only further fans this perception of him.

Blowing it out of proportion

I still cannot understand all that brouhaha about the issue of the six-year-old boy doing a dance routine on the show “Willing Willie.”

 I agree that the dance itself was inappropriate for a boy of his age. According to Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman, the dance routine taught by the boy’s father was sexually suggestive, it appearing like the performance of a “macho dander.”

But what about the multitude of street children roaming the streets, selling sampaguita or begging for alms? What has the Soliman done about them?

Soliman concluded that was crying because he was shamed by the dance routine and felt that the people at the studio were making fun at him.

But what really happened? The boy Jan-jan started sobbing as he thanked his aunt Josie and his parents back home for giving him the chance to be at “Willing Willie.” Having watched several episodes of “Willing Willie” and even “Wowowee,” shedding tears was a sure fire way of touching Willie’s emotions and those of the audience. It can even result in Willie in giving more money than he is supposed to.

Sure, the dance routine taught Jan-jan by his father was age-inappropriate. But to come to the conclusion that Jan-jan knew it to be sexually suggestive that’s why he cried is an unsupported assumption.

But how about the street children who stay up until the wee hours of the morning roaming the streets? Shouldn’t Soliman investigate whether these kids are happy or crying over their situation? After all, this seems to be her basis for saying that a child is being abused.

Let’s take the issue even further. Soliman might also want to review copies of episodes of all television programs to find out if similar incidents have happened in the past. Maybe she will find instances of young girls dressed skimpily and gyrating on live TV.

And why limit ourselves to children? Women too have rights against exploitation. Why don’t we start banning dancing by women in a suggestive way? Let us also require women appearing on television to dress appropriately and to start covering themselves up.

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