The malversation of JDF funds and the Impeachment of Hilario Davide, PART 3

There were six Congressmen who chickened out and withdrew their signatures from the impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Hilario Davide. These Congressmen gave various reasons for their 180-degree turn, but I noticed that NONE of them cited "lack of basis" on the impeachment complaint as a reason.

One said he was put off by talks of a settlement, while another belatedly saw alleged collusion between President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and business magnate Eduardo Cojuangco, founder of the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC) party whose members led efforts to pass the complaint.
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Biazon, who was the 76th signatory to the complaint, called up the Inquirer to say that he withdrew his signature from the complaint to prove that he did not receive five million pesos as some had alleged. (That's a SORRY-ASS excuse for withdrawing, BIAZON! WHAT AN IDIOT!)

Reports had circulated that congressmen who signed the impeachment complaint received five million pesos each from Cojuangco, who is chief executive officer of the beverage and food conglomerate San Miguel Corp.

Biazon explained he was disappointed with an announcement of NPC leader Representative Gilbert Teodoro that a settlement of the case was in the offing.

Biazon said he believed there was a basis to pursue the impeachment when the complaint was presented to him by Representatives Felix William Fuentebella and Mark Cojuangco.

Kaya raw siya nag-withdraw ay dahil ayaw niyang masabihan na bayaran siya, LOL!

And here's the explanation 2 left-leaning, pro-poor party-list members for taking back their support for the Impeachment complaint:

The two party-list congressmen said they withdrew their signatures after they consulted with coconut farmers and their constituents.

In separate statements, both Bautista and Magtubo justified their earlier endorsement of the complaint, saying it was meant to protect and advance the rights and welfare of the employees of the judiciary.

Magtubo said: "However, events have unfolded such that the impeachment case against Davide is not anymore merely legal but is now highly political. The merits of the case on the disbursement of JDF funds have been overshadowed by factional infighting among the elite."

Bautista said that he continued to believe that Davide must be held to account for the use of the Judiciary Development Fund but he was "constrained" to withdraw his signature.

They said the "politicization" of the impeachment process made them decide to withdraw, but they still believe that Hilario "P120,000/chair" Davide shouldn't be left off the hook that easily.

SANLAKAS, a militant, leftist group, which counts Rep. JV Bautista as one of it's members, were very supportive of the court employees fight against Davide on the JDF issue.

With some congressmen backtracking from the impeachment raps against the chief justice, court employees must persevere and pursue the fight," a militant labor group, Sanlakas, urged also yesterday.

Ironically, Sanlakas representative in Congress, JV Bautista, was one of the first to withdraw his endorsement.

Wilson Fortaleza, president of Sanlakas, said the court employees must pursue the fight for their rightful claim to the JDF should the impeachment proceeding not succeed.

"The court employees are in the best position to pursue this fight independently, specially now that the impeachment process has been reduced to a bitter infighting between factions of the elite and the major branches of government," Fortaleza noted.

He stressed that "without the court employees leading their independent struggle on the issue, their legitimate claim to the JDF will be obscured if not completely eclipsed by the far bigger and rousing issues of the constitutional crisis and factional infighting between the elite."

In short, these leftists may not like Cojuangco, but they still believe Davide screwed the poor court employees out of their allowances and benefits.

This impeachment issue is also beginning to look more and more like a fight between the Edsa Dos "Civil Society" elites supporting Davide and the poor and underpaid 25,000 court employees (w/ their families) all over the country.



The "civil" society elites want to maintain status quo and defend their edsa dos icon, Hilario "P120,000/chair" Davide, and the court employees are wondering why their differential allowances, which used to be around P9,000.00 pesos had dropped to only P2,500.00 to P1,800.00 during the time of Davide.

Here's more from a municipal court clerk:

Nene Rafael, municipal court clerk and vice president for Metro Manila of the Philippine Association of Court Employees, confirmed that employees are “surviving on starvation wages... If not for instant noodles, the court system would have long collapsed because that is the only food we can afford on our salaries.”

“We have many employees [with] a take-home pay of P3,000 a month. If you are the breadwinner, how can your family survive on a P100 a day?” she asked.

Asked to comment on the alleged expensive curtains and chairs for the justices bought with the JDF, Rafael could only shake her head. She said that in their office, she uses a hand-me-down chair. “I bought some nails and glue to fix it.”

It's really outrageous that Mr. Davide and his son Bryan Hilary had no problems spending P120,000 for clerical chairs, luxury retirement mansions and luxury cars, because that kind of excessive spending used up most of the remaining JDF funds specifically allocated for the court employees.

The malversation of JDF funds and the Impeachment of Hilario Davide, PART 2

I guess what really made the House members more determined to pursue the impeachment case against Hilario "P120,000/chair" Davide was the chief justice's ARROGANCE and his blatant efforts to "obstruct justice" by deliberately refusing to provide the necessary documents needed by the House for it's inquiry on the JDF funds.

Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. and his associate justices may be guilty of obstruction of justice, for deliberately refusing to provide the House of Representatives documents it seeks in an inquiry involving the expenditures of the fiduciary funds.

All clerks of courts and other court personnel have been officially forbidden by the SC chief justice, with the associate justices' approval, to release any and all documents pertaining to the Judiciary Development Fund (JDF).

This was learned yesterday by the Tribune, after having obtained a copy of a signed memorandum dated Oct. 2, 2003, from court administrator Justice Presbiterio Velasco, with an attached en banc resolution from the court, signed by Clerk of Court Luzviminda Puno.

Davide's ARROGANCE backfired because more and more signed the impeachment complaint vs. Davide because House members felt that the Chief Justice was not being transparent about his misuse of public funds.

Then history was made when 88 House members (initial number) voted to impeach Hilario Davide "on charges of graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust and culpable violations of the Constitution." The pro-administration paper Phil. Daily Inquirer tries hard to portray the impeachment of Davide as Danding's Revenge against the Chief Justice, but I must say, this impeachment complaint would have never passed without the support of non-NPC 43 House members. Out of 88 signatures, 45 came from NPC, and 43 came from other parties and independents.

There were only 45 members from the Nationalist People's Coalition who affixed their signatures in the complaint, with 17 from Lakas; 11 from the LDP; two from Reporma; three from PMP, two from the Liberal Party, three Independents; four from the party-list and one from the People Power Coalition.

Without the huge support form Lakas and other groups and individiuals like LDP, Reporma, PMP, LP, independents, PPC and party-list members, the impeachment complaint would have never gathered enough votes to pass. So unlike the Erap impeachment charade, ano?

(the number of signatories increased to 93 members at one point. Although 6 endorsers backed out, the initiative gained 5 additional signatories.)

Fuentebella said the five more signatories are minority leader Carlos Padilla (LDP, Nueva Vizcaya) and Genaro Alvarez (Lakas, Negros Occidental), Vincent Garcia (Lakas, Davao City), Eduardo Veloso (Lakas, Leyte) and Tomas Dumpit (Lakas, La Union).

The five congressmen brought to 92 the total of endorsers after losing Ernesto Nieva (LP, Manila), Edgar Erice (LP, Caloocan), Mauricio Domogan (Lakas, Baguio), Ruffy Biazon (LDP, Muntinlupa), Renato Magtubo (PM) and JV Bautista (Sanlakas).

The Impeachment complaint was supposed to be trasmitted to the Senate yesterday, but our rotten Supreme Court, in concert with pro-Davide Tongressmen, used every DIRTY TRICK in the book to stop the impeachment process cold.

I'll have more on this later.

The malversation of JDF funds and the Impeachment of Hilario Davide

I believe the Daily Tribune was the first newspaper to report on the alleged misuse of JDF funds by Chief Justice Hilario Davide. The article indicated that:

Unlike other government structures, the multi-million building does not have a billboard which shows the start of construction, date of completion, its cost and contractor.

Security is tight and people are kept out except for workers and security personnel of the high court.

Workers refused to answer the reporters questions.

The building, interiors sources said, will be lavishly furnished once completed, has been earmarked by Davide and his clique of retired and retirable justices as their vacation homes upon retirement.

The high court justices are each given a government vacation house in Baguio City, but this privilege and perks only come with the position. There are 15 huge homes for the use of each the magistrates.

The fast-rising building at the SC Compound in Baguio City is being built on government money and is meant to provide “shelter to retired Supreme Court justices on vacation,” sources told the Tribune yesterday.

Court sources claimed this was Davide's idea and a means to “keep the associate justices happy and comfortable” even when they no longer hold judicial power.

Even then, there was already growing resentment among the court officials.

A court source grumbled, questioning why these justices in the Davide court have to spend people's money for the comfort of those who have already benefited enormously from their retirement.

“What is even more insulting to court employees is that this type of housing benefit is not available to ordinary court employees, retired or otherwise,” the court insider said, adding “It was bad enough that there is an increase in the salary of the incumbent members of the Supreme Court, but now come even more freebies for the retired justices, as they are to get the same increase in their pension, but only for them, as the lower court employees are denied these perks,” he fumed.

He said that in all the years he had been with the high court justices he has never seen any batch of high courts lapping it up in luxury on government funds and giving no thought at all to the lowly court employees.

Resentment has been marked in the court employees, who are enraged that to this day, they continue to be kept in the dark on the status of the JDF and how the funds are being disbursed, insisting that contrary to the claims of the SC, they have yet to be given a copy of the fund's audit report.

This is where your JDF funds are going, court employees!

Kudos to the Tribune for getting this scoop. This story was already out since June of 2003 but I noticed that the Philippine Daily Inquirer, a pro-administration newspaper, has been ignoring the story for a long time until it was already apparent that the threat of a Davide Impeachment was imminent.

In September, the Commision on Audit came out with a report that found Justice Davide illegally diverting portions of the JDF funds to finance a retirement mansion, luxury vehicles and P120,000 chairs. The article has lots of details about where the money was spent and how much. Read this too.

Making things worse for Davide are charges of nepotism being hurled against him for having his son not only work for him as his Chief-of-Staff in the SC, but the same son is also the co-chair of the Bids and Awards Committee and is in charge of infrastructure projects financed by the JDF. Try connecting the dots and the big picture becomes clearer. Davide controls the JDF funds. His right-hand man in the SC is his son who is also BAC co-chair and has the authority to dole out contracts to favored companies and pet projects. Something's fishy here.

Davide defenders claim that the Chief Justice is an "honest" and "simple" man who lives a simple life... that they cannot see him doing anything illegal... blah blah blah. Well, I say to these blind supporters, YOU'RE NOT LOOKING HARD ENOUGH. Follow the money. Check his son out. Why is he so influential? Is DADDY looking out for him?

Again, connect the dots.

The name of the son is Joseph Bryan Hilary Davide, btw, and here's more information about him.

Bush Speech on the Abu Sayyaf and the MILF

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Now I understand why she's a "first-class citizen of the United States"

Prof. Randy David hits the nail right on the head with this comment:

None of this, of course, means anything to President Macapagal, who prides herself in being among the first heads of state to enlist in the Bush-led posse against the Saddam Hussein regime. Philippine foreign policy under her presidency has been a steady reversal of whatever progress previous administrations had made toward cutting the American umbilical cord. We are back to the days when the United States chose our presidents for us, when our people could not imagine a life without Uncle Sam.

Thus, we are treated to the sad spectacle of a Filipino President seeking an electoral mandate by shamelessly presenting herself, in the memorable words of Ambassador Francis Ricciardone, as a "first class citizen of the United States." Of the many faults that the Macapagal administration has committed in the last two years and a half, this barefaced subservience to the United States is perhaps ultimately the most injurious to the life of our nation.

He's right, of course. Mrs. Arroyo has become too subservient to the US government, so much so that the relationship between the US and RP is not a partnership anymore… No, it's more like a one-sided, Master-and-Servant relationship to me.

I remember one time when US ambassador Francis Ricciardone criticized the Philippines for corruption in their courts and other gov't institutions. Very undiplomatic for an ambassador, many would say, but all Mrs. Arroyo and her officials did was smile and meekly accept the criticism from the US ambassador. Here's what Mr. Ricciardone said:

The number one barrier is "corruption, not just regarding the courts but also officials outside" the judiciary, he told reporters.

"Foreign investors have complained about that to me and to other ambassadors here (that) we have a real problem here," Ricciardone said.

"They want to make sure that foreigners and Filipinos alike and their Filipino partners can have equal access to the courts, to be assured of timely justice, that is not corrupted by people who work outside this system" or within it.

There were a few of GMA's allies who protested the US ambassador's remarks, but Mrs. Arroyo and her administration officials just swallowed their pride and told the media that Mr. Ricciardone is right and told the media that Mr. Ricciardone was right and admitted that there was massive corruption in the Philippines.

The reaction though was very different when the Japanese Ambassador Kojiro Takano "did a Ricciardone" and criticized the Arroyo administration for it's confusing business policies, corruption in high places and the peace and order situation in the country.

Mrs. Arroyo's reaction was swift and angry towards the Japanese ambassador. Mr. Takano tried to apologize for his remarks but Malacanang officials rejected the apology and proceeded to file a diplomatic protest against him.

Obviously, tameme lang si GMA kung si US ambassador Ricciardone ang bumira sa kanila, pero matapang siya kapag Hapon naman ang nagsalita. May double standard dito, diba?

Lastly, I'm not against any US military presence here and I strongly support Bush and America's "war on terror", but we really need to elect a Filipino president who is strong, independent and pro-"war on terror". We don't need a US poodle in Malacanang.

Will the US Aid benefit the Filipinos or the Corrupt Few in the military and in the administration?

The NYT has an opinion article on the Philippines today during Bush's visit to our country. It warns the US about corruption in the Philippine military and fears that the money given by the US gov't in the form of financial aid to the Philippines might be siphoned off or may end up in the pockets of the military and local government officials.

It's true that there is still collusion between some corrupt Philippine military officials and the Abu Sayyaf rebels. The Abu Sayyafs kidnap foreigners and rich Filipino locals, and their military handlers get a cut from the ransom money the Abu Sayyafs receive. In return, the military provides protection to the Abu Sayyafs. A clear example of this is the Lamitan incident, where the Abu Sayyaf terrorists were clearly outnumbered and surrounded inside a hospital compound, but they managed to "escape" the military dragnet with their kidnap victims when the soldiers guarding the area there had all been called in to a "briefing". That left the hospital compound unguarded and allowed the Abu Sayyaf rebels to walk out of the compound with their hostages unhindered.

Not surprisingly, no punishment were meted out to military officers involved in the Lamitan incident because Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the person who succeeded President Joseph Estrada, owed her presidency to the military who installed her as "president" after Edsa Dos and she fears angering the military might lead to another military coup similar to Edsa that could be fatal to her administration.

So she allowed the whitewashing of the Lamitan scandal to avoid any more troubles with her highly-politicized and adventurous military.

You could say that our military-Abu Sayyaf is similar to the Taliban-ISI connection in Pakistan. ISI is Pakistan's Military Intelligence Service.

My hope is for the US troops to stay in the Philippines indefinitely because I don't trust our own military (after their participation in Edsa dos mutiny and installing an unelected person to the presidency) and a pullout of US troops from the Philippines will only revive the Abu Sayyafs, with the help of the corrupt Philippine military, of course.

And like the NYT writer pointed out, it's better for the US to spend it's own money to help rebuild the Philippines instead of throwing money at our own local officials and letting them decide where to spend the money on… because the money will only end up in the pockets and in the Swiss bank accounts of those corrupt officials.

Here BTW, is the NYT article:

A Fair Fight in the Philippines
By BRETT M. DECKER

Published: October 18, 2003

WASHINGTON
President Bush is in Manila today to visit his ally in the war against terror, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines. Mr. Bush has already announced some $340 million in aid to the Philippines this year, and President Arroyo has said she plans to request additional military assistance to fight terrorism. There's only one problem with this alliance: American aid hasn't improved the Philippine military so far, and in many ways it has benefited the Islamic militants it seeks to combat.

In August, Gen. Narciso Abaya, chief of the Philippine armed forces, made an alarming statement about the condition of his military: "I admit there is graft and corruption at all levels." A significant share of the military budget is lost to graft. Selling military hardware on the black market is another common practice. Recent raids of bases of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front have turned up caches of arms with Philippine military markings.

Even American assistance is siphoned away. Testimony before the Philippine Congress in the past several months revealed that American M-16's provided to the Philippine armed forces have been recovered in camps belonging to Abu Sayyaf, a band of guerrillas and kidnappers. Assault rifles, grenade launchers and other American arms have been used by Muslim radicals against Philippine troops — the very troops United States funds are supposed to assist.

American aid to help fight Islamic radicals is often offset by bribes soldiers take from terrorists to let them get away. Operatives affiliated with Al Qaeda have escaped from maximum-security military prisons, once using a helicopter.

If Washington and Manila are serious about eliminating Abu Sayyaf, the United States Special Forces should be given the assignment. The terrorist group consists of about 100 poorly trained amateurs. They would be no match for American soldiers already in the Philippines, but they are still eluding Filipino troops.

The Philippine Constitution does not allow foreign troops to wage combat missions on Filipino soil. It does, however, allow the United States to come to the defense of the Philippines if the islands are attacked. Such an action can be justified in the present case because the terrorist groups get foreign money.

The mission could win support on Capitol Hill because the situation in the Philippines is precisely what the one in Iraq is not: there is a known enemy of limited ability and numbers on a few small, isolated islands with scant local support. There is minimal risk of escalation because the country is only about 5 percent Muslim. Perhaps more important, fellow Filipino Muslims do not support Abu Sayyaf. Separatist Moros view them as a for-profit gang of thugs rather than a religious movement to defend Islam. The provincial governor of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao ordered his security force to cooperate in the hunt for Abu Sayyaf.

Unless the integrity of arms transfers to the Philippine military can be guaranteed, which is not likely, the United States should consider cutting off military aid to the Philippines and replacing it with economic support to help develop the poor Muslim islands in the south.

There has been some success in winning local "hearts and minds" already. After building a few roads, bridges, sewers and wells last year, American soldiers were cheered by appreciative Muslims as the troops pulled out of Mindanao. More aid for infrastructure could go a long way to soothing centuries of resentment derived from being shut out of the national economy.

A reorientation of American aid would have the added benefit of helping bolster Philippine democracy. The military has instigated coups in every administration except one since 1965. Withholding support from the Philippine brass sends the message that Washington — the nation's most important ally — expects the military to keep its hands off the civilian institutions of government.

The White House should carefully assess what course will best help stabilize one of its most reliable allies in Asia. Despite the inevitable complications, the Philippines is worthy of American assistance.

Ninez is vindicated. You Can't put a good woman down!

Two months ago, Malacanang's goons tried to silence and bully the Tribune's Ninez Cacho-Olivares by having her arrested (and arraigned 19 TIMES!) for exposing the PIATCO extortion attempt by Malacanang officials.

(Read it all here, here, here, and here. UNBELIEVABLE, no???)

But there is justice in this world and we are now finally seeing the truth coming out on the PIATCO scandal involving Mr. Villaraza and his Malacanang friends.

Fraport slams GMA-Pancho extort try before WB body
GLORIA GOV’T WANTED CHENGS OUT, PRESIDENTIAL CRONIES IN ON PROJECT

The complaint lodged by Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide (Fraport) before the Word Bank arbitration body in Washington DC served to confirm the "tens of millions" extortion attempt made on the German investor by presidential aides, Gloria Tan-Climaco, presidential adviser on Strategic Projects; Presidential legal counsel Avelino "Nonong" Cruz; and his former partner and President Arroyo's personal lawyer, F. Arthur Pancho Villaraza.

Pressure was being brought to bear on Fraport by the presidential aides to kick out its Philippine partner in the Philipppine International Air Terminal Co. Inc. (Piatco) Terminal 3 project, the Cheng family, to ensure the takeover of the Cheng's shares by the presidential cronies of the project.

The German investor in the controversial multibillion-Piatco Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 confirmed the alleged extortion try by personal lawyer and aides of President Arroyo, whom it also charged of committing "unlawful acts."

The earlier reports on the Villaraza-Climaco-Cruz $70-million extortion try is the subject of numerous libel charges leveled against Tribune publisher and editor-in-chief Ninez Cacho-Olivares who wrote a series of articles on allegations involving at least three Palace personalities namely former Presidential Adviser on Strategic projects Gloria Tan-Climaco, presidential legal counsel Avelino "Nonong" Cruz and Mrs. Arroyo's personal lawyer F. Arthur "Pancho" Villaraza.

The reports were based on a taped conversation of Fraport officials and lawyers where millions of dollars were mentioned as the deal being brokered by Villaraza and others to Fraport, to ensure that the airport project, under certain conditions, one of which was the ouster of the majority shareholder and Filipino partners, the Cheng family, would not be messed around with by the Arroyo presidency.

The complaint from the German investors confirms the extortion attempt made by Vilaraza and the presidential aides.

Congratulations, Ninez Cacho Olivares for your courageous work in exposing these crooks. Nagpa-aresto ka pa para lang ilabas ang katotohanan. Now, it's time for Villaraza and his ilk to go to jail. LET THEM FRY!!!

Jose Pidal and Jose Velarde

A must read 3-part series on "Jose Pidal" and "Jose Velarde" Part I, Part II and Part III. It summarizes everything with lots of information vital for those people who are not familiar with the 2 Joses -- Pidal and Velarde. Very well-researched.

Hmmm...

Maybe COMELEC can answer this... why is the COMELEC's Voter Validation Center headquartered at Rufino Tower in Makati? Jose Ma. Rufino, who is a high-ranking member of LAKAS-CMD and a close political advisor of Mrs. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, owns Rufino Tower.

GMA: All-American Girl

Tuta kaya ng kano si GMA? Ito kasi ang sinabi ni US Amb. Francis Ricciardone eh:

"As far as I know, President Arroyo is a first-class citizen of the United..." Ricciardone said, cutting off the sentence and laughing it off.

"I think we admire her so much we might make her an honorary citizen," he joked.

I wonder if GMA wasn't a least bit offended by that joke by Ambassador Ricciardone. ANYWAAAYYSS, what's she gonna do about it... tell her boss off?

EXTRA: Here's the trascript of Amb. Ricciardone's Q and A with the Foreign Correspondents.

Arno Sanidad

I watched the Dong Puno Live show last thursday, where the topic was about the Kuratong Baleleng case. The guest on Dong's panel that day included Lito Banayo, Frank Chavez, Mon Tulfo, one of the Fortun lawyers working for Lacson, a USEC DOJ secretary and Reynaldo Wycoco.

The show was doing okay and was kinda entertaining until Mr. Arno Sanidad, one of the original guest that backed out at the last minute, called in to whine about Lito Banayo. He was complaining about something Mr. Banayo said about him.

Frankly, I was watching the whole show and never did I hear anything Banayo said that was outrageous or offensive to Mr. Sanidad. Overreacting lang si Arno. Banayo did not say anything that would warrant that a phone call from arno on the show berating him (w/ mock anger pa-effect).

Sinabi lang ni banayo na bakit sobrang concerned si Arno sa kuratong baleleng case when there were other human rights cases that deserved equal or more attention. Where's the slam or "dis" from banayo there?

Besides, Arno Sanidad was invited to Dong Puno's show but he chose not to participate. Sabi niya hindi raw niya style yung pumunta sa tv shows at pagusapan ang kaso na hinahawakan niya... na he's just a private person that doesn't want the spotlight.

But lo and behold, I saw Arno Sanidad on 2 government controlled stations 4 days later talking about KB (one on Jarius Bondoc's show, the other on ch. 9). Aba, akalo ko ba ayaw niya ng too much attention at publicity? akala ko ba sa korte na lang raw niya idi-discuss ang Kuratong case?

What a PHONY!

BTW, this arno sanidad was also chavit singson's laywer vs. erap and was the one who handled Ador Mawanay and prepared his affidavit. So make no mistake about this guy, he is an anti-erap, anti-lacson partisan. Arno claims he's a "human rights" lawyer. But Joker Arroyo's a "human rights" lawyer too and we all know what a HYPOCRITE he is. I guess hindi na masyadong kahanga-hanga ang "human rights" lawyer tag unlike before. Nowadays, he only helps those who are "victims" of Mrs. Arroyo's enemies, but he refuses to lend his support to those who are victimized by this corrupt administration or those who are perceived to be anti-GMA or not part of Edsa Dos.

Forum Shopping on the KB case

So, the government prosecutors wants the Kuratong Baleleng case transferred to another court because they don't like Judge Theresa Yadao, the original judge who handled the KB case and the one who was tasked to try the case again after re-raffling.

It's really funny, this. They keep changing the rules -- just to get lacson jailed. Sobrang halata na, mga pare ko.

The prosecutors wants the case transferred to a Family court raw, LOL! That's REALLY weird, because a HEINOUS CRIMES court, like Judge Yadao's Branch 81, should be the one handling the case.

Common sense, right? But not to these overeager prosecutors who wants to deliver Lacson's head on a plate to her majesty, Mrs. Arroyo.

Besides, aren't the family courts tasked to handle cases which involve only minor victims who are still alive?

Fortun said R.A. 8369 or the Family Courts Act of 1997 provides that family courts will handle cases which involve only minor victims who are alive.

He said the intent of the law is "to protect minors from trauma brought about by cross examinations and examination of evidence."

It is for this reason, he added, that family court judges and prosecutors undergo special training on handling victims who are minors.

It's really odd to see a "Family court" handling this case instead of a "Heinous Crimes court", but whatever makes the prosecutors and GMA happy, eh?

Anyways, my advice to judge Yadao is to dismiss the case posthaste OR announce that she is willing to not handle the case anymore and instead have the KB case transferred to a family court if that's what the prosecutors want.

In a related news, Sen. Franklin Drilon, Sen. Tito Sotto and Sen. Nene Pimentel issued a joint statement calling the transfer bid "desperate antics of the Arroyo administration."

"The Department of Justice is acting in desperation with its motion to transfer the case, this time to a family court on a very narrow and flimsy argument that two members of the Kuratong Baleleng were allegedly minors.

"This recent move is a clear indication that the prosecution feels threatened. The case was already raffled to Branch 81 of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, pursuant to the decision of the Supreme Court. They were present during the raffling of the case, signed the attendance sheet, and yet they did not object to the proceedings.

"This is a clear case of forum-shopping which is a punishable act.

"Why are they floating the issue only now? What are they afraid of?

"The prosecutors of this administration are pulling all possible stops in an attempt to control the outcome of the case. They are running out of tricks, and are bent on stretching the provision of law to their advantage.

"By this apparently desperate and legally dubious act, the prosecutors, in fact, undermine the very system of justice they are sworn to uphold."

Plus: Ducky Paredes comments on the KB case