Justice demands that the law must be enforced
Last Saturday I read with great interest a report that said, “A civil society group on Saturday announced a P1-million bounty on former lawmakers tagged in the killing of three people in Nueva Ecija. At a press conference, Citizens’ Crime Watch said informants will be rewarded with P250,000 each for any leads on the whereabouts of National Anti-Poverty Commission chair Liza Maza, former agrarian reform secretary Rafael Mariano and former Bayan Muna party-list representatives Satur Ocampo and Teddy Casiño.”
This report came from a Nueva Ecija court about the arrest of Maza, Mariano, Ocampo, and Casiño in relation to the murders of farmers Danilo Felipe, Carlo Bayudang, and Jimmy Peralta in 2001 and 2004. Of course the folks in that list say that the charges were trumped up and there is political persecution against them. So how will we know that these charges are trumped up unless they surrender to the authorities?
Representative Carlo Isagani Zarate (Bayan Muna) said the bounty on the four former solons was a “cheap political stunt and vendetta by sycophants who wants to claw their way to power.”
So will the PNP implement the law without fear or favor, even if this involves politicians? PNP Director General Oscar Albayalde said that the PNP welcomes the reward money offered by a civilian group for the arrest of the former lawmakers as well as Vicente Cayetano, Delfin Pimentel, and Emeterio Antalan. The seven are wanted for the murder of four famous personalities linked with partylist organizations and militant cause-oriented groups.
***
I fully agree with the Sandiganbayan’s decision not to allow the extradition of Janet Lim Napoles to the United States (for money laundering) until the termination of her case if fulfilled. Indeed, many Filipinos want Napoles to be extradited to the US simply because they know that American justice system performs with dispatch. Just imagine Napoles being tried in a US district court and she’d list down all the Congressmen whom she dealt with, she would cause a great stir in the Philippines.
So it is far better for her to be tried in the Sandiganbayan so that she can spill whatever kind of beans she can spill to get the other criminals in Congress to be indicted with her. Yes, I wrote the word “criminals” because this is what my good friend Tony Lopez of Biz Asia wrote on Aug. 20, 2013 that Congress is the biggest criminal syndicate in the Philippines. Of course this is not an indictment of all members of Congress in this country, but those who appear in the list of Janet Lim Napoles who until today has not yet been indicted by the Sandiganbayan.
***
It was good my fellow columnist Atty. Josephus Jimenez wrote in his column “What matters most” about the richest congressmen in Cebu. I won’t discuss it here how they got rich but rather just list it down as reported by Atty. Jimenez. The richest according to the published list is Cebu City South District Representative Rodrigo Abellanosa with a net worth of P69,721,309.75. This is followed by Deputy Speaker Gwen Garcia from Cebu’s Third District with P50,697,469.38.
Third on the list is Benhur Salimbangon of the Fourth District with no figures attached and he is followed by Cebu City’s North District representative Raul del Mar at P26,067,991.06 with no liabilities. Fifth is Representative Jonas Cortes of the Sixth District also with no figures attached and sixth is Representative Peter John Calderon of the Seventh District with P21,721,309.75. Seventh placer goes to Representative Ramon Durano VI of the Fifth District of Cebu with P21,398,310.00.
Eighth is Representative Gerard Anthony Gullas with P19,820,000 and the ninth placer is Representative Willy Caminero with P17,919,525.00. Tenth place goes to Representative Aileen Radaza with P16,538,417.31. I’m not making any positive or negative comments as I’ve only read this in Atty. Jimenez’s column. Perhaps the only comment I can make is simply run for public office and get rich! Perhaps Atty. Jimenez should complete the figures from all representatives because other representatives do not have their figures. Thanks Atty. Jimenez.
- Latest
