What now my Judge...
As a frustrated songwriter, I can’t help relate songs to some of the topics I write about. For instance, the song “What Now My Love” keeps playing in my mind as I write about a complainant or plaintiff that sued the MMDA and won a TRO in Mandaluyong City.
After being interviewed by an ABS-CBN reporter, we learned that the complainant was a former security guard of a cigarette company whom he claims, more than offered to post his bail of P100,000.
Either he was mesmerized by the reporter’s good looks or he decided to embrace his two minutes of fame, but for some inexplicable reason, he decided to tell all. In the interview, he alleged that he had conspired to intentionally smoke in public so that the MMDA would arrest him, and the cigarette company and their lawyers would then come to the rescue.
Within 24 hours after his Self-exposé the decoy complainant could no longer be located and all inquiries are now being addressed by his would be lawyer who in turn claims that the decoy complainant was overwhelmed by events and did not know what he was talking about.
Since all of this is on “tape” and has been aired several times by ABS-CBN, the question; to the tune of “what now my love” comes to mind:
What now my Judge, Now that you’ve found out.
You’re complainant, is a stinking fraud?
Watching the tape make us look like asses,
Turning our laws into one big joke.
Now that you’ve seen, how do you feel?
Where are the bums, that made up this scheme?
They talked at night with but one goal
To pollute our lungs, our hearts, and our souls
What now my Judge, now that they’ve tricked us,
Do you feel the whole world, staring down on you?
Here comes the media, lurking around you,
Everyone asking, what you gonna do?
What now my Judge, now that they’re gone
We’d be fools to let them, go on and on and on
No one would care, nobody would cry,
If you would send them, to hang and then fry.
What now my Judge, now that its over
Nothing is left; no one is talking, not even a goodbye.
* * *
Yes, Your Honor, what now?
Do we simply agree with the lawyer that his client was a blabbering ninny who did not know what he was talking about and move forward? Or should the Judge in the case, call for a judicial inquiry concerning the matter.
I personally believe that no less than Chief Justice Renato Corona should call for a judicial investigation to determine if the plaintiff and the cigarette company really conspired to entrap MMDA officers and willfully misled their own lawyer and a judge into issuing a TRO and to get the judgment into the books.
After the Self- expose’ by the complainant, the Judge has every reason as well as responsibility to call in the “suspects” and determine if he was tricked into making the decision and if the suspect made a mockery of the law.
It is one thing for people to manipulate the court of public opinion, but it is unacceptable for anyone to allegedly manipulate and humiliate officers of the courts and the laws of the land.
Considering this is somewhat unheard of even Congress should investigate the matter in order to make laws that would stop this potential kind of perjury and criminal conspiracy.
* * *
I remember a speaker who once said: “In every crisis there is opportunity”.
From there he shared how they took advantage of the “SARS” epidemic in order to sell their product which was nothing more than a gelatinous form of alcohol. He told the audience how they tweaked their advertising to intentionally sow fear and borderline paranoia about SARS.
He of course was not bragging about their foul deed or the profits they raked in. he was actually using it as an example to “motivate” his audience into realizing that not all bad situations are “Bad” and that with the right attitude, you can always find opportunities.
As the lecturer, his intentions were certainly good, but in an ethical society, his conduct as a vendor or entrepreneur was predatory. Unfortunately he is not alone.
After a whole week of news reports on how critical the situation is concerning the Dengue outbreak, I found myself taking a special trip to the grocery just to buy insecticide. Faced with a choice between the traditional formula and the water-based formula, I became curious about the price difference.
That’s when I realized that consumers or buyers of canned insecticide are being taken for a ride and being ripped off. One would assume that the water-based formula would be much, much, cheaper since it does not use the standard petroleum or kerosene base. But it isn’t!
But what really got my attention is that the price of the traditional insecticide has more than doubled in about a year or so. What use to cost 115 to 120 pesos for a 500ml spray can is now 226 pesos at our neighborhood grocery.
At a time when insecticides would be in great demand, the last thing consumers need are predatory pricing schemes or artificial inflation at the grocery.
I fully understand that inflation happens and that the Department of Trade and Industry can only step in when prices of essential goods are under threat. However, it may be time for DTI Secretary Greg Domingo to make his people do some research and studies on the actual cost to manufacture and pricing history of products that have become as important as essential goods.
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