Impeach all: Merry Xmas!

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
12/16/2011



Except for the very sparse Christmas spirit in the air, I bet one wouldn’t even be able to tell the difference between this December season and months past. Everyone is pretty much aware of how life has progressively gotten harder each passing year. But, just when I was just about to give up on the holidays, an early and unexpected present seems to be coming our way, with the moro-moro war among the Yellow factions now getting so heated up that it’s becoming somewhat real.

Of course, the acrimony as of now involves only words, which don’t break bones. However, in the event that somebody gets pikon and starts throwing real punches, the ruffling of the feathers can lead to some blood being drawn or worse. Even if real issues, such as the widely believed power plunder conspiracy between Malacañang, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), and the oligarchs, and other similar Big Business abuses, are set aside for a while, I am hoping that enough pandemonium will manage to drag in truly vital issues into the fray.

For starters, somebody could raise the issue of the oligarchs’ control of certain members of the Supreme Court (SC), whether appointed by PeNoy or Gloria. In fact, one of the appointees of the present dispensation, Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, was the ponente of a decision favoring the ERC and the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) on the crucial approval of a 2009 Performance Based Regulation rate-setting scheme that raised power rates and Meralco’s profits — based on, of all things, a flimsy technicality of a supposed failure of consumer advocates to attend an ERC hearing.

Sereno apparently glossed over the fact that there was an oppositor present in that hearing (Mr. Uriel Borja of Iligan Light and Power), who interposed his objection and was amply prepared to present the evidence of the alleged massive overpricing of Meralco of its power rate proposals, but whom the ERC, in its usual pro-Meralco manner, gagged on the technicality that he was not registered as an “intervenor.”

As a result, the public has been penalized. They are now charged almost double the P0.90 per kilowatt-hour cost, which was shown by another petitioner, Mang Naro Lualhati, to be the rightful rate.

Moreover, as we narrated in a previous column, the ERC again apparently conspired with Meralco to confuse power consumer advocacy groups about the exact schedule of a recent hearing, hoping that the latter would be declared in default. Even while the advocates persisted, waited, and had siesta in the hearing room until the new appointed time, the issue that Mang Naro was to raise in a subsequent hearing was resolved in favor of Meralco since the ERC sent the advice for the later date to an old address of Lualhati which he, of course, never got. If this is brought to the SC, I have no doubts that Lualhati’s petition would be thrown out again.

Further, who can forget that another widely perceived Meralco-leaning lawyer was appointed to the high court by PeNoy? According to the news recap sent by Ferdie Pasion of the history of this magistrate’s appointment, “Court of Appeals Associate Justice Bienvenido Reyes, who once served as finance manager of a security agency owned by President Aquino’s family, was appointed as the newest Supreme Court justice… Reyes served as vice president and finance manager from 1987 to 1990 of Best Security Agency Inc., a security agency set up by Benigno Aquino III and his uncle, construction magnate Antolin Oreta.” But that’s not all.

“Reyes was appointed Supreme Court justice despite having been reprimanded by the high court in 2008 for signing a decision favoring Manila Electric Co. even before Court of Appeals Presiding Justice Conrado Vasquez could decide which of the court’s two divisions should resolve the case.”

The report added: “The Meralco-GSIS case exposed serious ethical issues, prompting the Supreme Court to investigate accusations of bribery. Reyes then faced a Supreme Court panel that eventually reprimanded him for simple misconduct. Reyes’ appointment filled the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Eduardo Nachura” (the former congressman who allegedly did dirty jobs for the Arroyo government as its Solicitor General).

It will be argued that such appointments passed through the Judicial Bar Council composed of politicians and leaders of the legal community. But ask any non-partisan and apolitical members of the community and they will tell you the extent of the horse trading that goes on in that body. That’s why political lackeys get appointed there in the first place. The ordinary folks and consumers will only get a better shake if we impeach all the justices of the present SC and fill the slots with a People’s Court.

That People’s Court can then also take the function of the Ombudsman and Sandiganbayan to prosecute both houses of Congress and the Executive branch, replacing them with a People’s Congress and a “participative-ly” elected Executive structure.

That People’s Democratic Government can then prosecute the dozen or so oligarchs who have been behind the sham democracy in the country and put them in prison with their darling Gloria Arroyo and all her henchmen; same with PeNoy and company for the murders at Hacienda Luisita, the continuing jueteng operations, and the plunder in Quezon City and all over government.

That would be a wonderful Xmas indeed and an even better and happier New Year!

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