Loot

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BY NEIL HONEYMAN
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Tuesday, September 5, 2017
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I AM ALWAYS suspicious of entities which have self-congratulatory titles. Countries which are described as “democratic” are usually profoundly not so. North Korea, for example. Similarly, an organization which is described as “good government” immediately raises doubts. Disbanding the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) creates the possibility of having an instrumentality which does what PCGG has manifestly failed to do.

To disband PCGG and to give the role of retrieving Marcos loot to the Commission on Audit seems appropriate. The loot is spread far and wide so that the cooperation of other countries is necessary. For example, many of the paintings acquired by Imelda are now housed in an air-conditioned room in Brooklyn, New York. Who is paying for this?

Representations to Ambassador Kim, now the US Ambassador to the Philippines, should be made so that hopefully the valid claim of the Philippines to the ill-gotten gains of the Marcos regime is recognized. Then, hopefully, the paintings can be retrieved. The media make much of Imelda’s jewels but the value of these is peanuts compared to the artwork.

Which brings us to Andres Bautista. Thanks to the information provided by Patricia Bautista, there is now a prima facie case relating to inaccurate SALNs (Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth) provided over several years by the Commissioner on Elections (Comelec). I believe that the unexplained wealth was obtained during Bautista’s stint at PCGG (2010-2015) and not subsequently when Bautista was responsible for the Commission on Elections.

As an aside, it is regrettable that Vice President Leni Robredo is put in the position of having to defend her election from the challenge of Bongbong Marcos. Surely his complaint should have been directed at Comelec and not Robredo.

Those who suffered during the martial law period of 1982-1986 have not been properly recompensed as far as I know. Republic Act 10368 specified a fund of P10 billion which was to be allocated to those who had a provable case that they did, indeed, experience maltreatment. I do not know how much of the P10 billion fund has actually been disbursed but I am not aware of the full implementation of this fund. I hope the representatives of the Negros Nine will come forward and explain whether there has been any redress.

There is discussion as to whether the Comelec chairman should be impeached. It is hard to make a valid impeachment claim as to his Comelec conduct.

Recent impeachment suggestions are always based on SALN creativity. Does this really “betray public trust?” What the public is interested in are the other causes of removal from office “culpable violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, graft and corruption, and other high crimes.”

Chief Justice Sereno is the focus of attention for a possible impeachment case. If this ever progresses, I hope the focus of attention will be on her job performance. There is the suggestion that she did not show judicial independence by not addressing petitions relating to the K-12 Act and not agreeing with Miriam Defensor Santiago that ratification of the “Enhanced Defense Cooperation Act” (EDCA) should have been passed by Senate.

But the Chief Justice is only primus inter pares (first amongst equals).  She is only one vote out of 15. Surely she is not going to be impeached for being allegedly overpaid for her past legal services./PN
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