What’s this, Ping? - GOTCHA by Jarius Bondoc

Many things many voters already know about senatorial candidate Panfilo M. Lacson. His records at the PNP, PACC and PAOCTF speak for themselves. But many things many voters also don’t know, and thus must ask and expect explanations, if only to examine candidates closer under the microscope of new politics. Like, for instance, US records that reveal a property holding of Lacson in San Diego County, California.

His sworn Statements of Assets and Liabilities from 1996 onwards don’t list it. But county records show that Lacson co-owns with Alice P. Lacson, identified as his wife, real property on #1011 Laguna Seca Loop, Chula Vista City. It is described as Lot 1 of Chula Vista Tract No. 92-03, Championship Classics 1, and sketched on county recorder Map No. 13043. The assessor further records it as Title Order No. 267117-04.

Gleaning from California notarial files, Lacson mortgaged the property in March 1996, then redeemed it in July 1999. For transaction purposes, he listed his mailing address during the mortgage period as #2305 Sea Island Place, Chula Vista, CA 91915. Other notarial documents executed at the US embassy in Manila in April 1999 show that he assigned a power-of-attorney to spouses Ernani and Perciviranda E. Lacson to lease or sell the property. This time, he listed his official address as #25 Kirishima St., BF Homes, Las Pinas.

There’s nothing wrong with Filipino officials owning real property abroad. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness anywhere, anytime. But the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees requires them to declare such property under oath. Failure to do so makes them liable for breaking the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, which deems hidden property as ill-gotten.

The Code of Conduct aims for transparency among officials. It thus requires them to also declare income sources other than their government salaries. That’s to determine conflict of interest and legality of all wealth. Failure to do so opens them to questions about how they acquired such wealth. For, again, the Anti-Graft Act deems as ill-gotten any property acquired during government stints but incongruous with official salaries.

Anyone found guilty of breaking the Code and the Act may be barred for life from holding appointive or elective government position.

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While we’re at it, we might as well ask another senatorial candidate, Jamby Madrigal, if she has accounted for millions of pesos pledged in 1999 by private donors to DSWD’s Ahon Bayan project.

Records show that then-Vice President Gloria M. Arroyo launched the project in August 1998 as DSWD secretary. It aimed to educate, shelter and rehabilitate hundreds of thousands of street children. As head of Able Foundation, Madrigal led the project’s finance and logistics committee.

Ahon Bayan gathered P30.25 million in pledges in the following months, with Mardigal in charge of collecting the checks, accounting the cash, and disbursing the expenses. Among the donors were J.P. Monzon, P3 million; JAKA, P1 million; LBC, P1 million; Solid Bank, P500,000; Alabang Commercial Center, P150,000; MWL, P350,000; Agrosy Partners, P50,000; Triple-V, P1 million; Dr. R. Panlilio Foundation, P1 million; Trace Computer College, P1 million; ING Barings, P200,000; DOLES Asia Ltd., P1 million; Ayala Foundation, P10 million; and Metro Pacific, P10 million.

As of November 1999, Madrigal had yet to report to DSWD what happened to the money. With no such report, DSWD district managers couldn’t fulfill their promise to deposit P1,500 in individual bank accounts of street children as bimonthly school baon. One such manager was so distressed because she had 80 pupils waiting for their P120,000 from June-July 1999 at Manuel Roxas High School in Manila. Money never came. Another district officer never got the bimonthly P73,500 for 49 children in Pasay. With no cash for food and living expenses while in school, some of them just dropped out and returned to the streets to find work.

Two DSWD undersecretaries kept writing to Madrigal for a report. They said she ignored the letters, left the project, then launched her own personal program for street children. GMA reportedly was so disappointed because she had gone out of her way to talk to potential donors about the project to save street children from drugs, crime and abuse.

Madrigal, by the way, bills herself in campaign sorties as the "Princess Diana of the Philippines" who cares so much for street children.

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OUR WORLD. When we look at a starry sky, we see only five percent of the Milky Way’s matter. Scientists with powerful telescopes don’t fare much better. But a group of astronomers have at least found a wee segment – if one could call it that – of the other 95 percent, consisting of old, cool faded stars called white dwarfs. More on this in cnn.com/tech/space.

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