Only 16.67 percent passed the Bar - but that's still a surplus

When the head of the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC), Justice Jun N. Valerio, could be gunned down at the gate of his own home in Quezon City at just past midnight by a lone "hitman" -- this is more than a grim reminder that nobody's safe. It's a sign that nobody's considered too important to be shot down with impunity.

Valerio didn't have a chance. He was braced by his murderer when he got down from his Toyota Prado to open the front gate of his home. Four shots and he was dead. His younger brother, Darwin, in a daze and in despair, told a newspaper reporter afterwards: "He had no enemies. Everyone was his friend, so no one would think something like this could happen."

That's the essence of violent crime. Too often, the victim and family members never expect it to happen. This is why there has to be a visible and roving police presence -- particularly in the dark of night -- in our neighborhoods. In poor Justice Valerio's case, the gunman was even seen by a group of teenagers engaged in a nearby drinking session. Of course, when he waved his pistol at them they fled.

The killer walked away without challenge or pursuit by any nearby lawmen or any mobile patrol car within sound of the gunshots. Of course, our contingent of policemen is stretched thin. What I've noticed, though, is that at night there are almost no foot patrols or beat cops pounding the pavement (and very few prowl cars "on the prowl" for that matter -- in fact they're usually parked somewhere, not on the move). Do our cops keep daylight "office hours" like white-collar workers and executives? It's almost axiomatic, after nightfall that's when the rats -- and the drunks and hellers -- come out.

Certainly, it's not merely an official like Valerio who's at risk. Crime cannot be totally prevented. When there's a determined assassin who clocks his intended victim's movements, even a bodyguard or several security men can't keep one eye open all of the time. But our unprotected citizens are sitting ducks when there's not even a minimal effort to keep violent animals at bay by maintaining a constantly mobile patrol, whether on foot or in a patrol vehicle. The prospect of the police being within earshot of a crime scene should be a deterrent to most criminals.

Finally, it can never be said that a person has "no enemies." There's always somebody with a motive, not to mention that there are too many crazies and druggies in a homicidal blue funk. In the government corporate counsel's case, the modus operandi of the murder indicates deliberate planning and intent. As the newspapers have said, Valerio was the "highest-ranking official" assassinated during the Estrada administration.

There's no time for the luxury of hand-wringing and finger-pointing. Swift but careful sleuthing will have to be put into play. The police must get their man. Such a high-profile and insolent act demands the toughest of crackdowns.

The results of the 1999 Bar examinations are finally out. The names of the successful examinees -- comprising a "low" 16.67 percent of the 3,978 law graduates who took the tests -- were released last night.

To accomplish this, the Supreme Court conducted en banc deliberations yesterday, although it was a Sunday. Chief Justice Davide inhibited himself and took no part (because, as he clearly said, a relative of his had taken the exams), but 13 members of the High Court went ahead to formalize in a resolution issued under Bar Matter No. 979 a consensus reached last Thursday relieving Associate Justice Fidel Purisima as chairman of the 1999 Bar Examinations Committee and designating Senior Associate Justice Josue Belosillo (who was a 1995 Bar Exams chairman) as the new chairman.

Justice Belosillo, as confirmed in the resolution issued at noon yesterday, met with the examiners of the eight Bar subjects who all assured him that the integrity of the exams had not been impaired or compromised. In this process, Justice Belosillo also consulted with a group of respected retired Justices -- namely Jose Feria, Ameurfina Herrera and Camilo Quiason -- who suggested certain long-term and short-term actions and policies. (If this sounds like legal gobbledygook, please bear with me. That's how they express matters in the judiciary).

The flurry of activity and yesterday's en banc resolution were intended to make clear that the Davide Court would countenance no detail which could taint the integrity of the 1999 exams. The resolution itself announced that "this Resolution is without prejudice to any further action that the Court may deem appropriate to take under the premises."

This en banc statement on the part of the 13 Justices of the High Court evidently referred to what action it might take on the "sacked" Bar exams chairman, Justice Purisima, for not disclosing, until the en banc session of last Thursday, that a son of his brother was a Bar examinee. It is strict court policy that any of its members has to decline the chairmanship of the Bar examinations -- which, incidentally, involves a hefty compensation -- if a close kin is an examinee. Even the examiners in the eight subjects concerned are also expected to do the same thing.

Well, I guess, we now have several hundred new lawyers. Some say that we already have too many, anyway -- what with something like 45,000 heat-seeking attorneys and members of the Bar already practicing law. This year's high "mortality" rate is no guarantee that those who flunked won't try, try again. They might even, in the end, become judges.

In the 86 years that the Supreme Court has conducted examinations for admission to the practice of law, there have been only three occasions when the integrity of the most prestigious government-conducted exams was disgraced. There was, for example, the Ericta "scandal" which occurred under the Fernando Court (the tenure of former Chief Justice Enrique "Iking" Fernando). This scandal led to a revamp of the High Court.

Speaking of Bar exams, I'm reminded of the remark of Lord Gardiner (born 1900), a former Lord Chancellor of Great Britain: "I really went to the Bar because I thought it would be easier to go on stage after failing at the Bar than to go to the Bar after failing on the stage."

Is this why there are almost as many movie actors and actresses, or singers, who are politicians today as politicians who are lawyers? No wonder Our Lord Jesus Christ exclaimed: "Woe unto you, lawyers!"

Charles Macklin (1697-1797), an Irish actor and dramatist, had the last word: "The law is a sort of hocus-pocus science, that smiles in yer face while it picks yer pocket."

The stunning victory of opposition underdog, Chen Shui-bian, in the Taiwan presidential elections just goes to show that Beijing can't dictate to the stubborn Taiwanese how to choose their leader. Perhaps Chen's 39 percent victory over his two rivals (both from the Nationalist Party or Kuomintang which had ruled Taiwan with an iron hand for over half a century) was provoked in part by the warning issued by China's Prime Minister Zhu Rongji earlier in the week that if Chen were elected it would mean "war."

What's equally stunning, I think, is that the 22 million Taiwanese and the watching world knew who had been elected within less than three hours after the polling precincts had closed last Saturday! In the Philippines we ought to hang our heads in shame. It takes more than a month to six weeks of painful and protracted counting and tabulation for us to learn who's been elected President!

I can only add three cheers to the widespread rejoicing among Taiwanese that former Taipei Mayor Chen Shui-bian (who had been defeated in his re-election bid last year by cash-rich and overbearing Kuomintang who fielded a polished, Harvard-trained Ma Ying-jeou, with the full backing of the incumbent President Lee Teng-hui). Chen's loss of City Hall proved a blessing in disguise, since it freed him to spend all his time launching and promoting his bid for the Presidency at the head of the Opposition Democratic Progress Party (DPP).

Outgoing President Lee's bet, his Vice President Lien Chan, came in a poor third. The candidacy of a renegade former Kuomintang stalwart, ex-Taiwan Governor James C.Y. Soong, who had been expelled from the KMT last November and competed as an "independent" (suspected of being Beijing's boy) further damaged the KMT's fortunes, when Soong came in a distant second in the polls.

We can only rejoice at the defeat of the arrogant KMT, whose President Lee Teng-hui, 77, has no love for the Philippines (he used to be an officer in the Japanese Imperial Army and his older brother died in the Philippines as a member of the Japanese Army of occupation). No wonder we've been getting such vicious treatment from Taipei with regard to the battle between Philippine Airlines and the two Taiwanese Airlines, China Airlines (which is owned by the Kuomintang) and EVA Air.

I hope that with a new, hardworking -- and indeed the youngest man to ever assume top leadership -- President Chen, 49, we'll get friendlier treatment and a better deal. Chen Shui-bian will assume office next May 20. But don't think we'll be getting rid of the irascible Mr. Lee so easily. He remains chairman of the KMT which is still the majority party in the Legislative Yuan (parliament) for the next two years.

Chen, who spent his entire career struggling against the Kuomintang, won't be entirely in command yet. He will still have to cope with a KMT-dominated military and security apparatus and a KMT-dominated parliament. What Chen has going for him are tenacity and courage. Born to a poor farming family in the south, Chen graduated topnotcher in law from the prestigious National Taiwan University in 1974.

As a two-fisted young lawyer, he defended dissident leaders accused of sedition over what is known as the 1979 "Formosa Incident" in Kaoshsiung, in which a mass demonstration turned violent, resulting in 140 military policemen injured -- and 50 demonstrators slapped in jail. The demonstrators who were arrested included Ms. Annette Lu, who has now been elected Chen's "Vice President" and will take office along with him.

In 1985, Chen was himself sentenced to one year in jail for "libel" over an article in Formosa Magazine accusing a local professor of perjury. If you noticed the pretty lady in a wheelchair sitting beside Chen last Saturday during his "victory" announcement, that's his wife Wu Shu-chen, who was paralyzed from the waist down when she was run over by a truck while campaigning for her husband (who sought a magistrate's post in 1985). Since the truck went back and forth over Wu's prostrate form three times, it was suspected that this was no accident, but a murder attempt.

Chen's saga can be capsulized in the Latin maxim, ad astra per aspera (through adversity to the stars)!

Since his Democratic Progressive party is identified as a pro-independence-for-Taiwan group, Beijing has been engaged in non-stop vilification of Chen in the past week. On the other hand, Chen tried to wave the olive branch -- during his campaign and in the hour of triumph. He invited China's leaders, particularly his expressed nemesis, Prime Minister Zhu Rongji, to visit Taiwan and said that before he assumes the presidency he was willing to go to mainland China to begin peaceful and constructive dialogue.

May I suggest he go slow on this kind of pledge? If he goes to China, rashly, they may decide to clamp him in irons. So, beware. Surprisingly, on the other hand, China's rhetoric with regard to Chen's victory has been relatively mild. Beijing is saying that it will wait and see -- instead of launching an immediate missile and aerial attack as some quarters feared. But again, you can never tell. The smile on the face of the Dragon is always enigmatic -- the sunnier it is, the more cautious you have to be.

Taiwan's armed forces total only about 376,000 men, with 1,657,500 in reserve, but they are among the most modern and well-equipped in Asia. China's 2.82-million- member armed forces, and her 1.2 million reserves are awesome in size and clout, but do they have the capability to storm across the narrow Taiwan Strait? We'll have to see what happens next.

Chen Shui-bian is Taiwan's "Mr. Clean." For years he was David battling the Goliath of the Kuomintang, assailing its corruption and "black money" politics. The KMT, which has traditionally wedded the depredations of the gangster Triads and Big Business, reached the apex of its kleptocracy and prosperity during the 12-year tenure of President Lee Teng-hui. So violently-inclined are the Kuomintang gangs that disgruntled KMT supporters are now thrashing the cars and headquarters of their own party, and stoning the losing KMT candidates with such yells as "How dare you lose the elections!" Sanamagan, what rascals and hoodlums they are!

Chen was an effective and popular Taipei mayor. He curbed prostitution and clamped down on crime, cut bureaucratic red tape, and got rid of most of the legendary traffic jams. He has, however, no experience in running a country and maneuvering on the world stage. But, I'm sure, he'll learn.

For all the recent and acrimonious feuding, our fortunes are closely tied up with what happens in Taiwan. In its ASIA 2000 YEARBOOK, the Far Eastern Economic Review reported that: "As of November, there were 280,000 foreign contract workers on the island, mostly Filipinos, but also Thais, Indonesians, and some Malays. Electronic companies complained about the reduction (last October in the total quota of foreign workers) since they depended on Filipino workers for their English-language skills in reading computer programs."

The English language? It will soon be a forgotten language here.