Use JELAC to fight injustice and corruption!

Wow! What a country! The video scandal that plagued the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) has now erupted into a territorial or jurisdictional dispute between the Department of Health (DoH) and the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas. Deputy Ombudsman Pelagio Apostol rightfully believes that there should only be one agency conducting the investigation simply because it is very possible that either of the agencies might come up with different conclusions. I fully agree with this observation and so it is now for the Deputy Ombudsman Apostol to extricate himself from this investigation simply because it is not a case of graft and corruption!

I have criticized the Office of the Ombudsman many times for their inefficiency in bringing to fore all the graft cases that many people have reported because they’re so loaded with cases. This is why I was surprised why the Ombudsman entertained this celebrated case when it is not a case of graft and corruption? We can only reckon that the Ombudsman “entered the dragon” because of the publicity it was getting. The DoH is the right agency to conduct the investigation on this and no one else! I hope this is very clear.

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The newly signed memorandum of agreement creating the Judicial, Executive, Legislative Advisory Council (JELAC) is a very welcome and timely move by the Philippine government especially at a time when many things in this government isn’t working as they should, thanks to a host of problems plaguing all the three branches of the government, principal among them is corruption in all levels.

But in truth, I don’t really know how this newly-created body can work together because all of them are busy in their own respective turfs. But may I suggest to this body that if they concentrate in using JELAC to fight corruption, then this is a great place to start. We’ve already written before that the case of those so-called “Rogues in Robes” Judges in the payroll of unscrupulous characters like the Chinese Mafia operating in Cebu should be stopped at all costs. These characters are well-funded and well-connected!

I have not just written about this group in the past, I have also reported this to the Justice Department because the Philippine government is losing millions of pesos from court rulings detrimental to the government. In the end, tax money earmarked for development projects end up in the pockets of corrupt judges and hustlers who are financed by the Chinese Mafia. As we’ve said before, the Philippine National Police (PNP) are gaining headway in the fight against petty criminality like bank robberies or the like. But big time criminal syndicates or the so-called “Untouchables” have yet to be exposed and sent to jail.

Back in the 1920s during the prohibition years in the US, gangs and warlords lorded it over in Chicago with mobsters like Alphonse “Scarface” Capone terrorizing the city. I’m sure you’ve seen enough of the tv series “The Untouchables” to know what happened in those years. But Al Capone was jailed not for his crimes like the St. Valentines Massacre, but for tax evasion. If they use JELAC for this purpose, then there’s hope for the country!

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There goes Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) again on her pardoning blitz! This time, she agreed to pardon the nine Junior Military Officers who took part of the 2003 Oakwood Mutiny as recommended by outgoing Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon. Let me reiterate my call for our legislators to enact a law that any pardon can only be granted if a request is made only after a year of conviction so that whatever sentence has been meted, at least the convicted person tasted a year in jail.

 But there is a difference in this Presidential pardon vis-à-vis the pardon of convicted former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada in the sense that Pres. Estrada was convicted of the crime of plunder, where he never tasted a single night in a real jail. We all know that he was under house arrest. Worse, Erap never openly asked for pardon, he demanded it as if he deserved it.

 In contrast, the nine Junior Officers participated in an ill-fated coup attempt that was thwarted by troops loyal to the President and the chain of command within the AFP. Since she’s the Commander-in-Chief, then it is truly the prerogative of the President to grant this pardon to the soldiers. Call it a gift for the outgoing AFP Chief, but at least it keeps the AFP intact. I just hope that in their terms for the pardon, there’s a clause that would immediately put them back in jail if ever they joined another coup.

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