Wanted: A special court to try pork scammers

For our special presentation on our talk show “Straight from the Sky,” we bring to your television screens the life and times of a great Cebuano, Atty. Augusto “Gus” Go, who is the chairman of the University of Cebu. He has turned the Cebu Central Colleges in downtown Cebu City into one of the biggest if not the biggest university in metro Cebu. In fact, we did this TV interview right in his office which has been there for a long time. UC is still very much in downtown Cebu City and is part and parcel of the socio-economic growth of Cebu.

Aside from UC sprouting in metro Cebu, Gus was very proud to talk about his UC Maritime Education Center because this center is located beside the waters that surround the South Road Properties, thus allowing Marine students to experience sailing a ship. Also in this show, our tele-viewers will learn that Atty. Gus Go is related to the Gotianuy of Filinvest Land and the Gokongwei of Robinson Land and Cebu Pacific Air.

So watch this show on a great Cebuano with Atty. Augusto “Gus” Go on SkyCable’s channel 61 at 8:00 p.m. with replays on Wednesday and Saturday, same time and channel. Replays can also be seen in MyTV’s channel 30 at 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m.

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Finally Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales is filing criminal cases against Juan Ponce Enrile, Bong Revilla, and Jinggoy Estrada. I thought that the Ombudsman would never move forward. This filing of the case will also include Janet Lim Napoles who is now under arrest for the kidnapping of Ben-Hur Luy. So the next step is, when will the Sandiganbayan issue their respective warrants of arrest for those senators? More importantly, we already know that there are more senators and congressmen involved in the pork scam, so when will be the rest of these people be indicted and eventually arrested as well?

Meanwhile, I fully concur with the request of the Office of the Ombudsman to the Supreme Court for the creation of a Special Court to exclusively try all those personalities involved in the pork scam. As the Ombudsman pointed out to the SC, “as compelling reasons the national magnitude, the complexities of the issues involved the number of accused and the far-reaching consequences of these cases.”

If I might add, the Supreme Court must find a suitable person or persons, perhaps at least five persons of known probity to try these cases. Their names must first be published to the media for the scrutiny of our people, and above all, they must be approved en banc by the Supreme Court unanimously with no dissenting opinion, as it would only bring to question the person’s integrity. Surely we can find those people in this country. Above all, their approval by the SC should not need the concurrence of the President.

I hope that the SC would fast track this special court because the nation needs it just like when then Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos created the Agrava Commission in the hope of finding out who conspired to assassinate the late Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr. Lastly, I hope that the SC would put a time cap on those cases that it would not take more than a year to finish because any conviction would still end up with the Supreme Court.

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Last Friday, I was invited to a meeting with Associated Labor Union chairman Atty. Democrito “Kito” Mendoza together with his partner Atty. Cecilio Seno. Call it a blessing that the occasion was also for ALU officials to meet with the Officer Staff of the Central Command led by Lt. Gen. John S. Bonafos of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. That meeting with the military and ALU was very significant because it afforded me to thank the military for its recent arrest of the Tiamzon couple who apparently were living in Naga City, Cebu.

Gen. Bonafos also reported to us that Roy Arboladura Erece, head of the Central Committee in Central Visayas was captured in Davao City last month and was brought to Cebu for a string of non-bailable offenses. Then a week ago, we learned that 54 members of the New People’s Army had surrendered in Malaybalay, Bukidnon, among them was Emboy Casalgayaw who had been fighting in the hills for 17 years since he was a kid.

The latest to fall was Pediong Nasyo, Secretary of the Southeast Front, Komiteng Rehiyonal-Negros of the CPP-NPA in Tanjay City. It is very clear to me that the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces has been busy fighting the true enemies of the state — the communists. But I also intimated to the Centcom officers that senators and congressmen who stole the people’s money for their personal gain are also the enemies of the Filipino people because this falls under heinous crimes!

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