BACKBENCHER
Rod Kapunan
10/22-23/2011
Last Tuesday, the Supreme Court, with lightning speed, issued a temporary restraining order to stop the Bureau of Internal Revenue from implementing the 20 percent final withholding tax on the P35 billion Poverty Eradication and Alleviation Certificates bond. The petition questioned BIR Ruling No. 370-2011 issued by Commissioner Kim Henares reiterating the 2004 ruling reversing the three previous rulings exempting it from the payment of said tax amounting to P4.86 billion. Likewise, it ordered the Caucus of Development NGO Networks to pay the 30 percent capital gains tax from the P1.83 billion it earned to the tune of P549 million.
The 10-year bond was contracted on October 16, 2001, or barely a year after the corrupt Arroyo administration was installed to power with the help of those leading personalities of Code-NGO, many of whom were later appointed as officials with some still hanging on to their juicy positions under the present dispensation. Because of their influence, Code-NGO, in collaboration with Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation, cornered in whole the PEACe Bonds at a discounted rate but at a cost of P10.17 billion bearing an interest rate of 12.75 percent per annum such that the original amount has now ballooned to P35 billion. Despite that, RCBC failed to reciprocate by giving the government a discounted rate of interest, but instead exacted an onerous but illegal condition of being allowed not to pay taxes.
The eight commercial banks that filed the petition for certiorari and prohibition and/or mandamus – Bank of Commerce, China Banking Corp., Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co., Banco de Oro, Philippine Bank of Communications, Philippine National Bank, Philippine Veterans Bank, and Planters Development Bank—sought to stop the BIR from collecting the 20 percent final withholding tax, and the 30 percent capital gains tax from Code-NGO. Interestingly, the purported wholesale buyer Code-NGO, which turned over those bonds to RCBC known in the vernacular as “kaliwaan” after consummating the transaction with the Bureau of Treasury, uncannily did not join the petition. Adding suspicion is the failure of the eight banks to file a third party complaint against RCBC, Code-NGO, or to both of them if truly they were guided by “good faith.” As one lawyer-tax consultant quipped, it could have been a good defense for them to get their costly reimbursement.
As BIR Commissioner Henares pointed out, Code-NGO cannot question the retroactivity of the rulings revoking the tax exemptions because of “fatal legal infirmity of the 2001 rulings” issued by then BIR Commissioner Rene Banez. As the same lawyer-tax consultant pointed out, the ruling being null and void can never be used as basis to prevent the BIR from collecting the rightful taxes due the government. They should have known that BIR rulings can be revoked anytime, it not being a law but a mere opinion of the Commissioner. Considering the huge amount at stake, the best thing the banks, as secondary buyers, could have done was to secure a court judgment. Alas, they ignored the ominous warnings amplified by the 2004 and 2001 rulings revoking that exemption.
As the same lawyer-tax consultant explained, even if we take it that Code-NGO is tax-exempt, that specific transaction was at the outset illegal because Code-NGO, in the words of Commissioner Henares, was “ineligible to buy those debt instruments,” it not being a member or accredited as a government securities dealer (GSD). In that she could surmise there was a dilemma on how they could consummate their collusion to consummate the rip-off that is now developing into a more serious crime of tax evasion. As that shoddy ruling of Banez stated, there was only one lender: RCBC/Code-NGO. In that, one could deduce that Code-NGO fronted as the tax-shelter for the scam, while RCBC fronted to make the transaction legitimate. Now that they have profited much from it without a sweat, they want to add insult to injury by not paying their taxes. They are even playing possum by leaving it to the petitioning banks to argue for them.
As explained in the 2004 ruling made by then Commissioner Joel Tan-Torres, “the issuance and subsequent distribution (exchange and treading) of government debt instruments and securities in the secondary market to other market participants, specifically the investors, is in itself a public borrowing of the government. This makes it subject to the 20 percent final withholding tax. The number of lenders was immaterial.” Thus, should the eight banks fail in their defense of “good faith,” and having failed implead RCBC and Code-NGO, that then would deprive them the possibility of getting back their reimbursement. It is not even an excuse for Code-NGO to say that the P1.34 billion it profited was donated to another NGO identified as the Peace and Equity Foundation and given as endowments, and the remaining P400 million paid as fees and commissions to its financial advisers.
Finally, identifying those hustlers, one could say indeed there was in that instance a union of corrupt personalities from the public and private sectors, mostly made up of self-righteous and religious hypocrites. The alibi of DSWD Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman that she already left Code-NGO before the scam was consummated is flimsy. Her husband, Atty. Hector Soliman, assumed the post of first corporate secretary of PEF and took charge in managing the proceeds from the bonds after she left. It was also an all-family affair because their son, Sandino Soliman, is the current project assistant of Code-NGO.
There was also Maria Socorro Camacho-Reyes, the sister of Arroyo’s former finance secretary Isidro Camacho. She actively pursued the consummation of the deal, and presided in the issuance of all the bonds. Among those suspected to have obtained their “rightful share” of the fees and commission for their role as financial advisers included Red Mayo of Capital Advisors for Private Enterprise Expansion (Capex), Inc., Bobby Guevarra and Juan Victor Tanjuatco of SEED Capital Ventures, and Danilo Songco, the former executive director of Code-NGO, and later appointed DBP board member. Finally, although Bureau of Treasury head Sergio Edeza “questioned” Code-NGO’s eligibility to bid, and even “rejected” its initial proposal to purchase those bonds on a negotiated sale, he however ended up employed by RCBC to head its treasury department.
In that, one could see how Code-NGO used its influence and saliva to exact concessions from a notoriously corrupt government. Nothing could amplify that than the truth that those bonds were issued just to allow it to generate huge profit without batting an eyelash that what it did was contrary to its objective, for in the end, it pushed the Filipino people a notch deeper into debt.
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Saturday, October 22, 2011
It's not Lite Work getting back to Work!
YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW
Linggoy Alcuaz
10/20-22/2011
Back to the Salt Mines from Dreamland and Sugarlandia.That is how I felt a week ago after a week each of Dreamland and Sugarlandia. Since we launched OpinYon Lite on Monday, August 22, up to the weekend of September 24 – 25, writing four columns a week started to feel like working in the proverbial salt mines.
Something had to give and it did. After our editor Luchie Arguelles left for the USA, I failed to write and submit my columns for both the Regular and Lite editions of OpinYon, as well as my Friday (Sept 30) and Monday (Oct 2) columns for Diaryo Pinoy. In all my absences, I did excuse myself, although a bit late in the game.
Since my vehicles are either out of service or coded on Thursdays, I used to have an enforced stay at home period from 3 – 7 pm on Thursdays. This gave me more time to write. It suited me in relation to our old deadline during the time when all we had was the once a week regular OpinYon. Our official deadline then, was Wednesday. Our actual deadline was Thursday. If you missed both the official and actual deadlines but still wanted to come out in the following Monday to Sunday edition or issue, you had to submit by Friday or at the very, very latest, Saturday morning before our editor woke up.
With the advent of our OpinYon Lite, I knew that I would have a difficult time meeting deadlines. I wanted to write for OpinYon Lite because I felt that it was a challenge to be able to write two very different kinds of columns. Never mind the fact that sometimes you cannot match your mood to the upcoming deadline. It has happened that I wrote a lighter column for the Regular edition and a heavier column for the Lite edition.
I thought of giving up one of my two Pilipino columns for Diaryo Pinoy. However, I did not want to lose my Complimentary copies. My friends in media and in our daily kapihans would miss the copies that they religiously get from me. Moreso, I pitied the traffic aides, security guards, watch your car boys and waiters who would miss receiving a second weekly copy from me.
And so, I continued my pace. My four deadlines were bunched up together on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. My Sunday to Tuesday nights, were my rest nights from writing. My Monday nights were reserved for our Couples for Christ (CFC) Household prayer meetings. We had reduced our frequency of meetings from once a week to every other week. However, lately, we have tended to reschedule our meetings from Mondays to Wednesdays. Then, my Thursday afternoons and early evenings got filled up with a series of meetings for a whole month.
It soon became the rule rather than the exception that I got to submit my Regular columns two days late on Saturdays rather than Thursdays. In like manner, I was submitting my Lite column later and later, until Sunday evening.. Whenever I was running late, I would text or call Luchie to advise that I was not yet finished and would submit late. I would wish that she would just tell me that it was too late and that my column could no longer be included in the next issue. But no matter how late it was, my column could still be accommodated. When your publisher, editors and colleagues are so good to you, you cannot quit, no matter what.
Then, the week after Luchie left for the USA, it all piled up. I gave up. I called or texted my editors to advise them that I was too sick to finish my columns and submit them. I was beset with some kind of computer sickness. My eyes, my back, my upper legs, my lower legs, virtually everything ached. My editors absolved me and wished for me to get well soonest.
As soon as I got well physically, I started to write again. However, I could not think fast enough. I could not easily get my hands on the difficult, serious and tough subjects. I had to go through a warm up period before I could be my old self again.
And that is the rub. Could I be my old self ever again. The iron had turned cold. If it can be said that Years mellow a person, a year of writing had mellowed my writing. In my Regular column last week, I devoted just two paragraphs to criticizing P Noy:
“While we were taking a well-deserved though enforced break and rest, P Noy was going bananas. The island of Luzon was struck by two typhoons – Pedring and Quiel. P Noy had just flexed his tourist muscles. First, he went to the USA. There he succeeded in not having a hot dog, pizza or play station photo op. Just back from his transpacific sojourn, P Noy went to Japan. There, he donated a million dollars for the victims of the March 11 Japan earthquake and tsunami.
“When he came home, P Noy disappeared from view. Maybe, like Linggoy, he got exhausted from his travels and took a break. However, Linggoy only has to answer to his Publisher and Editor. P Noy has almost a hundred million bosses. Several millions of them were in distress due to the floodwaters caused by Pedring, Quiel and the monsoons. They were waiting for P Noy or at the very least, his relief goods and rescue efforts. P Noy is the President. Linggoy is only Linggoy.” (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow by Linggoy Alcuaz, OpinYon Regular, Isyu # 13, October 10 – 12).
I now realize that I am doing what I predicted a month ago:
“Observing the time, space and prominence, or lack of the above, given by both broadcast and print media to the topic, I tried to reflect, analyse and conclude on the: “Why?” and “How come?” “Manhid na ba ang tao sakapalpakan ni P Noy?” That is it! During the first year of P Noy in office, the people’s expectations of his performance and the trust in him based on his being the son of his parents, Ninoy and Cory, were so high that he had no way to go but down in the approval ratings in so far as performance and trust were concerned.
“However, by the time period (August 20 – September 2) of the Pulse Asia (With a cousin of P Noy, Rafa Sumulong Lopa involved as stockholder and/or officer.) Survey, people had gotten so used to P Noy’s Ka… ’s and kapalpakans that expectations were so low. As far as the majority of people are concerned, that is it. Period. He can’t do much. Let him be. Let us just muddle through till 2016. We can’t help it and we can’t complain. We had no other choice.” (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow by Linggoy Alcuaz, OpinYon Regular, Isyu # 9, September 19 – 21).
And so, it’s very tough getting out of a vacation, a hangover with Dreamland and Sugarlandia. See you next week.
Linggoy Alcuaz
10/20-22/2011
Back to the Salt Mines from Dreamland and Sugarlandia.That is how I felt a week ago after a week each of Dreamland and Sugarlandia. Since we launched OpinYon Lite on Monday, August 22, up to the weekend of September 24 – 25, writing four columns a week started to feel like working in the proverbial salt mines.
Something had to give and it did. After our editor Luchie Arguelles left for the USA, I failed to write and submit my columns for both the Regular and Lite editions of OpinYon, as well as my Friday (Sept 30) and Monday (Oct 2) columns for Diaryo Pinoy. In all my absences, I did excuse myself, although a bit late in the game.
Since my vehicles are either out of service or coded on Thursdays, I used to have an enforced stay at home period from 3 – 7 pm on Thursdays. This gave me more time to write. It suited me in relation to our old deadline during the time when all we had was the once a week regular OpinYon. Our official deadline then, was Wednesday. Our actual deadline was Thursday. If you missed both the official and actual deadlines but still wanted to come out in the following Monday to Sunday edition or issue, you had to submit by Friday or at the very, very latest, Saturday morning before our editor woke up.
With the advent of our OpinYon Lite, I knew that I would have a difficult time meeting deadlines. I wanted to write for OpinYon Lite because I felt that it was a challenge to be able to write two very different kinds of columns. Never mind the fact that sometimes you cannot match your mood to the upcoming deadline. It has happened that I wrote a lighter column for the Regular edition and a heavier column for the Lite edition.
I thought of giving up one of my two Pilipino columns for Diaryo Pinoy. However, I did not want to lose my Complimentary copies. My friends in media and in our daily kapihans would miss the copies that they religiously get from me. Moreso, I pitied the traffic aides, security guards, watch your car boys and waiters who would miss receiving a second weekly copy from me.
And so, I continued my pace. My four deadlines were bunched up together on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. My Sunday to Tuesday nights, were my rest nights from writing. My Monday nights were reserved for our Couples for Christ (CFC) Household prayer meetings. We had reduced our frequency of meetings from once a week to every other week. However, lately, we have tended to reschedule our meetings from Mondays to Wednesdays. Then, my Thursday afternoons and early evenings got filled up with a series of meetings for a whole month.
It soon became the rule rather than the exception that I got to submit my Regular columns two days late on Saturdays rather than Thursdays. In like manner, I was submitting my Lite column later and later, until Sunday evening.. Whenever I was running late, I would text or call Luchie to advise that I was not yet finished and would submit late. I would wish that she would just tell me that it was too late and that my column could no longer be included in the next issue. But no matter how late it was, my column could still be accommodated. When your publisher, editors and colleagues are so good to you, you cannot quit, no matter what.
Then, the week after Luchie left for the USA, it all piled up. I gave up. I called or texted my editors to advise them that I was too sick to finish my columns and submit them. I was beset with some kind of computer sickness. My eyes, my back, my upper legs, my lower legs, virtually everything ached. My editors absolved me and wished for me to get well soonest.
As soon as I got well physically, I started to write again. However, I could not think fast enough. I could not easily get my hands on the difficult, serious and tough subjects. I had to go through a warm up period before I could be my old self again.
And that is the rub. Could I be my old self ever again. The iron had turned cold. If it can be said that Years mellow a person, a year of writing had mellowed my writing. In my Regular column last week, I devoted just two paragraphs to criticizing P Noy:
“While we were taking a well-deserved though enforced break and rest, P Noy was going bananas. The island of Luzon was struck by two typhoons – Pedring and Quiel. P Noy had just flexed his tourist muscles. First, he went to the USA. There he succeeded in not having a hot dog, pizza or play station photo op. Just back from his transpacific sojourn, P Noy went to Japan. There, he donated a million dollars for the victims of the March 11 Japan earthquake and tsunami.
“When he came home, P Noy disappeared from view. Maybe, like Linggoy, he got exhausted from his travels and took a break. However, Linggoy only has to answer to his Publisher and Editor. P Noy has almost a hundred million bosses. Several millions of them were in distress due to the floodwaters caused by Pedring, Quiel and the monsoons. They were waiting for P Noy or at the very least, his relief goods and rescue efforts. P Noy is the President. Linggoy is only Linggoy.” (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow by Linggoy Alcuaz, OpinYon Regular, Isyu # 13, October 10 – 12).
I now realize that I am doing what I predicted a month ago:
“Observing the time, space and prominence, or lack of the above, given by both broadcast and print media to the topic, I tried to reflect, analyse and conclude on the: “Why?” and “How come?” “Manhid na ba ang tao sakapalpakan ni P Noy?” That is it! During the first year of P Noy in office, the people’s expectations of his performance and the trust in him based on his being the son of his parents, Ninoy and Cory, were so high that he had no way to go but down in the approval ratings in so far as performance and trust were concerned.
“However, by the time period (August 20 – September 2) of the Pulse Asia (With a cousin of P Noy, Rafa Sumulong Lopa involved as stockholder and/or officer.) Survey, people had gotten so used to P Noy’s Ka… ’s and kapalpakans that expectations were so low. As far as the majority of people are concerned, that is it. Period. He can’t do much. Let him be. Let us just muddle through till 2016. We can’t help it and we can’t complain. We had no other choice.” (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow by Linggoy Alcuaz, OpinYon Regular, Isyu # 9, September 19 – 21).
And so, it’s very tough getting out of a vacation, a hangover with Dreamland and Sugarlandia. See you next week.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Paguia: A shining exemplar
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
10/21/2011
As the country’s elite reveled in the Edsa II mania back in January 2001; as Metro Manila got herded into “legitimizing the illegitimate,” three bright and fresh young UP law graduates (Sabrina Querubin, Ana Rhia Muhi and Charisse Gonzales-Olalia) spelled out the reasons the swearing in of a usurper as “acting president” by the then Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice, who went to the Edsa Shrine to administer the oath and packed the rest of his fellow magistrates to witness it, was patently unconstitutional. That, of course, hit a sour note to their jubilation.
But no one knew that it was going to take one single lawyer, possessed of immense moral courage, to send out a shock wave so loud and ear-shattering that it would eventually jolt the SC (and the powers-that-be) out of their wits.
Even before he became a counsel to the ousted President Joseph Estrada, lawyer Alan Paguia already hammered on the unconstitutionality of the removal of a legitimately elected president who was neither dead, incapacitated, convicted in an impeachment court nor had ever executed a resignation letter, and denounced the SC’s participation in a manifestly partisan political activity.
No doubt various public forums soon sought Paguia out to shed light on these issues. But the Hilario Davide Supreme Court would have none of this free exercise of democratic space. It said in its resolution punishing Paguia:
“On the 7th Sept. 2003 issue of The Daily Tribune, Atty. Paguia wrote to say—‘What is the legal effect of that violation of President Estrada’s right to due process of law?... There was no fair play since it appears that when President Estrada filed his petition, Chief Justice Davide and his fellow justices had already committed to the other party — GMA — with a judgment already made and waiting to be formalized after the litigants shall have undergone the charade of a formal hearing’… Unrelentingly, Atty. Paguia has continued to make public statements of like nature… has not limited his discussions to the merits of his client’s case within the judicial forum; indeed, he has repeated his assault on the Court in both broadcast and print media… By his acts, Atty. Paguia may have stoked the fires of public dissension and posed a potentially dangerous threat to the administration of justice…
“WHEREFORE, Atty. Alan Paguia is hereby indefinitely suspended from the practice of law… for conduct unbecoming a lawyer and an officer of the Court. Let copies of this resolution be furnished the Office of the Bar Confidant, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and all courts of the land through the Office of the Court Administrator. SO ORDERED. Davide Jr., C.J., Puno, Vitug, Panganiban, Quisumbing, Ynares-Santiago, Sandoval-Gutierrez, Austria-Martinez, Corona, Carpio-Morales, Callejo Sr., Azcuna, and Tiñga, JJ., concur. Carpio, J., no part.”
First of all, a court’s partiality is always at the heart of every case. Paguia’s recounting of the facts, which he neither embellished nor invented, as these were self-admitted by then SC Justice Artemio Panganiban in his own book (which was later pulled out from the bookstores so as not to incriminate anyone’s sorry ass), is merely par for the course.
Secondly, in all of Paguia’s deliberations, never did I come across any vulgarity or personal assaults heaped by the lawyer against the high court — which is a stark contrast to how currently retired Chief Justice Davide comported himself when his pet “Truth Commission” was struck down by the SC, with him reportedly saying, “(This decision) clearly proves beyond doubt that the Court has become a protector of some people.”
Last Oct. 11, Alan Paguia’s suspension from the practice of law was finally lifted. After almost eight long years, his tribulation surpassed President Estrada’s incarceration, which lasted six years and six months, and was a bit longer than the seven years and five months endured by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV — all unjust privations imposed on conscientious individuals.
Some legal luminaries may argue that the SC’s impositions were legal; but we contend that these injustices were merely part of the political persecution countenanced by the Establishment to maintain the status quo.
In the case of Paguia, almost everyone in the legal profession I have broken bread with contend that while the suspension was unjust, it was still the law. But doesn’t the law become just only when those who interpret it stand up for its moral precepts themselves?
From what I have seen, only Paguia has deemed it worthwhile to stand by that principle even at great sacrifice to his family’s primordial needs. For this, Alan Paguia stands as the perfect, shining example of what our law practitioners should be — a legal eagle with a keen discernment and an unwavering moral certitude. He is truly the kind of lawyer I will tell my son to emulate (if he ever pursues the profession).
As of this writing, Paguia is already preparing his papers to return to his primary vocation, the teaching of law. He likewise announced that he will now be active in public interest cases, such as the suit being prepared by our group on power issues with the likes of Bono Adaza, Mang Naro Lualhati, Jun Simon, Jojo Borja, Butch Junia, et al.
Parallel to this, I believe that we should raise this bright and shining example of legal illumination to greater heights in our national life, one, as a delegate to a constitutional convention or to the Senate where he can elevate the quality of legislative work, among other possibilities.
But for now, we say: Thank you, Atty. Alan Paguia, for keeping honor, dignity and principle alive through our nation’s Dark Age. Thank you for keeping the light burning even when black became white; evil became good; greed was grace; and the illegitimate was legitimized. You are a shining exemplar in the dark night. Mabuhay ka!
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “Quezon City Hall’s Corruption and Greed”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
10/21/2011
As the country’s elite reveled in the Edsa II mania back in January 2001; as Metro Manila got herded into “legitimizing the illegitimate,” three bright and fresh young UP law graduates (Sabrina Querubin, Ana Rhia Muhi and Charisse Gonzales-Olalia) spelled out the reasons the swearing in of a usurper as “acting president” by the then Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice, who went to the Edsa Shrine to administer the oath and packed the rest of his fellow magistrates to witness it, was patently unconstitutional. That, of course, hit a sour note to their jubilation.
But no one knew that it was going to take one single lawyer, possessed of immense moral courage, to send out a shock wave so loud and ear-shattering that it would eventually jolt the SC (and the powers-that-be) out of their wits.
Even before he became a counsel to the ousted President Joseph Estrada, lawyer Alan Paguia already hammered on the unconstitutionality of the removal of a legitimately elected president who was neither dead, incapacitated, convicted in an impeachment court nor had ever executed a resignation letter, and denounced the SC’s participation in a manifestly partisan political activity.
No doubt various public forums soon sought Paguia out to shed light on these issues. But the Hilario Davide Supreme Court would have none of this free exercise of democratic space. It said in its resolution punishing Paguia:
“On the 7th Sept. 2003 issue of The Daily Tribune, Atty. Paguia wrote to say—‘What is the legal effect of that violation of President Estrada’s right to due process of law?... There was no fair play since it appears that when President Estrada filed his petition, Chief Justice Davide and his fellow justices had already committed to the other party — GMA — with a judgment already made and waiting to be formalized after the litigants shall have undergone the charade of a formal hearing’… Unrelentingly, Atty. Paguia has continued to make public statements of like nature… has not limited his discussions to the merits of his client’s case within the judicial forum; indeed, he has repeated his assault on the Court in both broadcast and print media… By his acts, Atty. Paguia may have stoked the fires of public dissension and posed a potentially dangerous threat to the administration of justice…
“WHEREFORE, Atty. Alan Paguia is hereby indefinitely suspended from the practice of law… for conduct unbecoming a lawyer and an officer of the Court. Let copies of this resolution be furnished the Office of the Bar Confidant, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and all courts of the land through the Office of the Court Administrator. SO ORDERED. Davide Jr., C.J., Puno, Vitug, Panganiban, Quisumbing, Ynares-Santiago, Sandoval-Gutierrez, Austria-Martinez, Corona, Carpio-Morales, Callejo Sr., Azcuna, and Tiñga, JJ., concur. Carpio, J., no part.”
First of all, a court’s partiality is always at the heart of every case. Paguia’s recounting of the facts, which he neither embellished nor invented, as these were self-admitted by then SC Justice Artemio Panganiban in his own book (which was later pulled out from the bookstores so as not to incriminate anyone’s sorry ass), is merely par for the course.
Secondly, in all of Paguia’s deliberations, never did I come across any vulgarity or personal assaults heaped by the lawyer against the high court — which is a stark contrast to how currently retired Chief Justice Davide comported himself when his pet “Truth Commission” was struck down by the SC, with him reportedly saying, “(This decision) clearly proves beyond doubt that the Court has become a protector of some people.”
Last Oct. 11, Alan Paguia’s suspension from the practice of law was finally lifted. After almost eight long years, his tribulation surpassed President Estrada’s incarceration, which lasted six years and six months, and was a bit longer than the seven years and five months endured by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV — all unjust privations imposed on conscientious individuals.
Some legal luminaries may argue that the SC’s impositions were legal; but we contend that these injustices were merely part of the political persecution countenanced by the Establishment to maintain the status quo.
In the case of Paguia, almost everyone in the legal profession I have broken bread with contend that while the suspension was unjust, it was still the law. But doesn’t the law become just only when those who interpret it stand up for its moral precepts themselves?
From what I have seen, only Paguia has deemed it worthwhile to stand by that principle even at great sacrifice to his family’s primordial needs. For this, Alan Paguia stands as the perfect, shining example of what our law practitioners should be — a legal eagle with a keen discernment and an unwavering moral certitude. He is truly the kind of lawyer I will tell my son to emulate (if he ever pursues the profession).
As of this writing, Paguia is already preparing his papers to return to his primary vocation, the teaching of law. He likewise announced that he will now be active in public interest cases, such as the suit being prepared by our group on power issues with the likes of Bono Adaza, Mang Naro Lualhati, Jun Simon, Jojo Borja, Butch Junia, et al.
Parallel to this, I believe that we should raise this bright and shining example of legal illumination to greater heights in our national life, one, as a delegate to a constitutional convention or to the Senate where he can elevate the quality of legislative work, among other possibilities.
But for now, we say: Thank you, Atty. Alan Paguia, for keeping honor, dignity and principle alive through our nation’s Dark Age. Thank you for keeping the light burning even when black became white; evil became good; greed was grace; and the illegitimate was legitimized. You are a shining exemplar in the dark night. Mabuhay ka!
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “Quezon City Hall’s Corruption and Greed”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
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