Aquino won’t sign waiver

President Benigno Aquino III is not waiving his right under the laws to keep his bank accounts confidential even after Renato Corona’s removal as Chief Justice for untruthful declaration of wealth.
Speaking at a news conference in Malacañang Thursday, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte confirmed that Mr. Aquino declared during the presidential campaign in 2010 that he would waive his privilege of secrecy under the country’s banking laws if elected President.
Valte said, however, that Mr. Aquino wouldn’t sign any such waiver at this time.
“Let’s go back to the context,” Valte said. “It was the accused [Corona] who issued the challenge to every Tom, Dick and Harry who was willing to take on his dare. Is it fair to put the President, who has not been accused of graft, who has not been accused of dishonesty, in the same category as the man who was just removed from his post?”
Valte was answering questions raised by Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano’s call for a new standard in his explanation for his vote to convict Corona on Tuesday.
Corona submitted a waiver to the Senate impeachment court on May 25—too late and useless, as he had already admitted keeping $2.4 million and P80 million in bank accounts that he did not report in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN).
“I ask the President to instruct his Cabinet to sign the waivers or resign and leave the government,” Cayetano said. “Lead by following, or get out of the way.”
Cayetano proposed waivers for all executive officials, members of Congress and the judiciary.
Not accused
But Valte insisted that the President was not issuing a waiver.
“You have to remember that this all came about because one man was on the stand, was being accused of something,” Valte said. “Do we put other people in the same situation even when they are not being accused of hiding anything?”
The President and the members of his Cabinet have all declared their assets, Valte said. Their SALNs have been available to the public since they were sworn into office, she said.
No dollar accounts
Valte added that President Aquino had no foreign-currency bank account.
“No one is saying that his disclosures in his SALN are incomplete or are inaccurate and the same goes for members of his Cabinet,” Valte said. “Just like Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said [Corona’s] waiver was for theatrics,” she added.
The SALN, Valte said, contains a waiver that authorizes the Ombudsman to look into the officials’ finances with help from all governmental agencies.
And there’s the bank secrecy law, which, Valte said,  provides for exceptions and these could trigger the opening of public officials’ bank accounts.
‘Lead by example’
But Cayetano said President Aquino should “lead by example,” though he was willing to give Mr. Aquino time until a system that would prevent abuse could be introduced.
In a text message to the Philippine Daily Inquirer Thursday, Cayetano acknowledged “concerns” that Mr. Aquino and other government officials might have if they followed Corona’s lead.
Cayetano called for a system that would not use waivers other than to weed out corrupt officials and employees.
“I am in favor of giving him time to sign and put these things in place,” Cayetano said.
“His presidency and programs are worth supporting so I encourage him to find ways to address (the) concerns then sign (his own waiver) and get his Cabinet to sign waivers,” Cayetano said.
Cayetano was glad about the Supreme Court’s decision to release the SALNs of all its justices.
Lesson in honesty
Speaking at a news forum Thursday, Cayetano said Corona’s impeachment should serve as a lesson in honesty and transparency in public service.
In the case of the executive branch, he said, the President could order all officials and employees to submit waivers.
“The President can say, ‘If you don’t want to sign, resign,’” Cayetano said.
Cayetano acknowledged that waivers could be used against public officials, especially with midterm elections to be held next year.
He said the waiver could also be used to producing  “fake” bank accounts to accuse officials of corruption.
But he considered the waiver a “new paradigm” in transparency and accountability, and he observed that more public officials are following Corona’s example.
Others follow
Several members of the House of Representatives have signed waivers, and the leader of the Catholic charismatic group El Shaddai, Mike Velarde, is calling on other government officials to follow suit.
“If they are not hiding anything [they should sign]. Besides, the purpose of this SALN is for the public to know what they have,” Velarde told reporters during the 6th National Catholic Charismatic Congress in Pasay City Thursday.

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Strong Indonesian quakes cause panic, not tsunami

BANDA ACEH—Two massive earthquakes triggered back-to-back tsunami warnings for Indonesia on Wednesday, sending panicked residents fleeing to high ground in cars and on the backs of motorcycles. No deadly waves or serious damage resulted, and a watch for much of the Indian Ocean was lifted after a few hours.

Women and children cried in Aceh, where memories are still raw of a 2004 tsunami that killed 170,000 people in the province alone. Others screamed “God is great” as they poured from their homes or searched frantically for separated family members.

Patients were wheeled out of hospitals, some still lying in their beds with drips attached to their arms. And at least one hotel guest was slightly injured when he jumped out of his window.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the first 8.6-magnitude quake was a shallow 22 kilometers (14 miles), hitting in the sea 270 miles (435 kilometers) from Aceh’s provincial capital.

An alert that followed from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii advised countries all along the rim of the Indian Ocean, from Australia and India to as far off as Africa, that a seismically charged wave could head their way.

Two deadly tsunamis in the last decade — the most recent off Japan just one year ago — have left the world much better prepared.

Sirens sounded along coastlines and warnings spread like wildfire by mobile phone text messaging. Though often chaotic, evacuations began immediately with streets clogged with traffic, especially in Aceh.

The only wave to hit, though, was less than 30 inches (80 centimeters) high, rolling to Indonesia’s emptied coastline.

Just as the region was sighing relief, an 8.2-magnitude aftershock followed.

“We just issued another tsunami warning,” Prih Harjadi, from Indonesia’s geophysics agency, told TVOne in a live interview.

He told his countrymen to stay clear of western coasts.

Residents in Aceh could hardly believe it.

“What did we do to deserve this?” cried Aisyah Husaini, 47, who lost both her parents and a son in the 2004 tsunami. “What sins have we committed?”

“I’m so scared, I don’t want to lose my family again,” she said, clinging to her two children in a mosque in Banda Aceh, where hundreds of people sheltered.

Again, though, the threat quickly passed.

Experts said Wednesday’s quakes did not have the potential to create massive tsunamis because the friction and shaking occurred horizontally, not vertically. The earth’s tectonic plates slid against each other, creating more of a vibration in the water.

In contrast, mega-thrust quakes cause the seabed to rise or drop vertically, displacing massive amounts of water and sending towering waves racing across the ocean at jetliner speeds.

Roger Musson, seismologist at the British geological survey who has studied Sumatra’s fault lines, said initially he’d been “fearing the worst.”

“But as soon as I discovered what type of earthquake it was … I felt a lot better.”

The tremors were felt in neighboring Malaysia, where high-rise buildings shook, and Thailand, India and Bangladesh.

Those countries, Sri Lanka and the Maldives evacuated buildings and beaches and readied relief efforts in case of disaster.

The World Meteorological Organization said communication systems set up after the 2004 tsunami appeared to have worked well.

“Our records indicate that all the national meteorological services in the countries at risk by this tsunami have received the warnings in under five minutes,” said Maryam Golnaraghi, the head of WMO’s disaster risk reduction program.

The alert was sent out by U.S. National Weather Service, which operates a tsunami warning station in Hawaii, she said.

Indonesia straddles a series of fault lines that makes the vast island nation prone to volcanic and seismic activity.

The giant 9.1-magnitude quake and tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004, killed 230,000 people in about a dozen nations.

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Aquino assures war veterans of better health services; vows AFP modernization

ILAR, Bataan—President Benigno Aquino III assured Filipino war veterans of subsidized health services and vowed to continue the  modernization of the Armed Forces in Monday’s Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor) rites that paid tribute to Filipino and American soldiers who fought the Japanese 70 years ago.

Mr. Aquino, who addressed the elderly soldiers and their relatives gathered at the Dambana ng Kagitingan entirely in Filipino, got thunderous applause when he announced that from March 31, 599 hospitals had been accredited by Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) as regional and provincial extensions, making it easy for the veterans to access medical benefits.

“The state honors our veterans and I believe we should repay their sacrifices by caring for them,” he said.

Colonel Roberto Gacayan, 85, a war veteran from La Union province, urged Mr. Aquino and legislators not to ignore the plight of the war veterans.

“It seems that the government has been slowly forgetting what we did during the war. We hope that our benefits will be increased … We will not live long and we hope that in the remaining years of our lives, we get to feel our true worth,” Gacayan, who heads the Confederation of World War II Veterans’ Sons and Daughters Inc., said.

“If it had not been for our sacrifices, the youth will not experience the freedom they are enjoying today,” he said.

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Release of ‘pork barrel’ tightened

The Aquino administration has tightened the release of pork barrel to senators and representatives to stem its misuse especially in the run-up to the campaign in next year’s midterm elections, according to the Department of Budget.

The pork barrel, called the Priority Development Assistance Fund  (PDAF), provides funding for the pet projects of congressmen and senators. It has been known to be a source of enrichment for certain legislators who receive kickbacks from private contractors handling their projects.

Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad Jr. said the administration had “fine-tuned” the list of eligible projects for the P24.89-billion PDAF allocation this year and the release process as part of efforts to prevent abuses in the use of the pork barrel.

“The House of Representatives and the Department of Budget and Management have agreed that only one realignment will be allowed. We foresee a lot of requests for changes as we approach [the] 2013 elections with expected political alignments and realignments taking place,” said Abad in a text message. [A PADF allocation is realigned when its use is changed.]

The release of the pork barrel has been delayed because of requests by senators and representatives to change the projects they had submitted for funding “sometimes even after the special allotment release order (Saro) has already been issued,” Abad said.

A Saro is released by the DBM to advise lawmakers that funds have been allocated for their PDAF and public works funds.

A senator is entitled to P200 million and a member of the House  is allocated P70 million in PDAF yearly.

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Photos of ‘tourists’ posing with crosses on Good Friday anger Netizens

MANILA, Philippines—Anger and ridicule among netizens on Monday were targeted against women in skimpy shorts, believed to be tourists, posing with wooden crosses erected during the long Lenten break meant to remember the suffering and death of Jesus Christ.

The first to have gone viral has a woman believed to be in her late teens to early 20s posing on a cross as if it’s a tourist item.  The snapshot was attributed to photographer Maike Domingo who posted it on his Facebook account.

The second photo, taken by professional photographer-college professor Jay Javier, has two women on a jump shot with two crosses as background.

Both incidents, as confirmed by Domingo and Javier, happened on Good Friday in Angeles City, Pampanga, which, for years has been the site of various re-enactment of the Crucifixion. Some devotees went as far as having themselves nailed on the cross like Christ as part of their yearly penitence.

While the blatant disrespect of the cross was the common reactions, others relate such sacrilege to another series of viral photos of a young woman riding a dead whale shark or butanding. Others remember last year’s exhibit at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, where artist Mideo Cruz’s installation piece had the face of Christ glued with wooden phallic symbols.

Even Javier was disgusted over the blasphemous acts of these tourists. In his Facebook account, his caption for the jump shot: “Angeles Pampanga. Good Friday 3.30pm. The site of a Passion Play and the reading of the ‘Siete Palabras’. Kailangan talagang gawin ito? Even non-believers will cringe at the sight of this blatant show of disrespect and impropriety.”

There were also references on policemen posing with the damaged tourist bus after the hostage drama in Rizal Park in August, 2010.

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Senate cool to evidence on Corona owning US properties

Senators are cool to the idea of admitting evidence on alleged properties of Chief Justice Renato Corona in the United States in his impeachment trial.

Senators Aquilino Pimentel III and Francis Pangilinan on Tuesday pointed out that the defense was already presenting its evidence, which began after the prosecution had rested its case.

In resting its case, the prosecution reserved the right to present evidence on Corona’s dollar deposits. Philippine Savings Bank has petitioned the Supreme Court to prevent the impeachment court from scrutinizing the Chief Justice’s account.

“To reopen the case after the prosecution rested would be a long shot, especially when the property is not even in the name of the respondent,” Pimentel told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a phone interview.

“In basketball, it would not only be a half-court shot, but a shot all the way from the other end of the court.”

The issue of admitting new evidence for the prosecution surfaced after a blogger reported on a California property bought by Corona’s daughter Maria Charina, a physical therapist in the United States.

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Court orders arrest of ex-Palawan governor

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY—A judge on Tuesday ordered the arrest of former Palawan Governor Joel T. Reyes, his mayor-brother and a former provincial administrator in connection with last year’s killing of environmentalist-broadcaster Gerardo “Doc Gerry” Ortega here.

Reyes was charged with murder, along with Mayor Mario Reyes of Coron town in northern Palawan, and lawyer Romeo Seratubias, who served as the former governor’s provincial administrator,  following a reinvestigation of the case by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in Manila.

Judge Angelo Arizala of the Palawan  Regional Trial Court (RTC) issued the arrest warrants against 

them and denied their lawyer’s motion for bail.

Ortega, a staunch critic of  Reyes and incumbent Governor Abraham Kahlil Mitra, was gunned down inside a used clothes store on Jan. 24, 2011. The alleged triggerman, Marlon Recamata, was captured immediately.

In Manila, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima directed the Bureau of Immigration to be on the “lookout” for Reyes, his brother, Seratubias, and his former staff members, Arturo Regalado and Percival Lecias, who were the alleged contacts of Ortega’s killers from Quezon.

“It won’t prevent them from leaving. But at least we would know about their plan to depart from the Philippines,” De Lima said in a text message.

Ortega’s widow, Patria Gloria, expressed relief at Arizala’s issuance of the arrest warrants.

“We have been waiting for this opportunity to face Joel Reyes in court. He has managed to get a pass for over a year because of his sheer clout and influence. We ask him now to submit to the mighty rule of law and face this case squarely,” she said.

Second DOJ panel

On March 13, the DOJ issued a resolution indicting Reyes and the others after a second panel of prosecutors reversed the  finding of a three-member panel and found “probable cause.” It, however, excluded former Marinduque Governor Antonio Carreon from the charge.

A murder case was filed against the former governor and the two others in the Palawan RTC on March 14.

Reyes’ lead counsel, lawyer Demetrio Custodio, had told the Inquirer that he would question the validity of the second DOJ ruling, claiming that the panel “exceeded its authority” in deciding on the case.

Judge Arizala also issued arrest warrants against Rodolfo Edrad Jr., Reyes’ former bodyguard and confessed organizer of the assassination team, and Armando Noel Jr., Arwin Arandia and Dennis Aranas, the alleged lookouts.

Edrad became a lone state witness after surrendering to authorities and confessing to Reyes’ role as mastermind. The former governor has repeatedly denied involvement in the killing.

Lookout bulletin

In her two-page memorandum, De Lima directed Immigration Commissioner Ricardo David Jr. “to instruct all immigration officers to be on the lookout for” Reyes and the four others.

She clarified that her “lookout bulletin order” did not prohibit the accused from flying out of the country.

“We will just be alerted or notified by immigration authorities should the subjects show up at an airport or seaport,” she added.

Reached by the Philippine Daily Inquirer Tuesday night, Reyes’ lawyer, Ferdinand Topacio said De Lima’s order would have the same effect as a watch-list order. “It’s the same dog with a different collar,” he said over the phone.

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Joker Arroyo, lawyer differ on correcting ‘erroneous’ SALNs

If Chief Justice Renato Corona made erroneous entries in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN), does this constitute an impeachable offense?

Sen. Joker Arroyo on Tuesday raised this question, noting that the law requiring public officials to file SALNs allows the correction of errors in their declarations.

Arroyo noted that prosecutors were attempting to pin Corona down for culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust for allegedly failing to include several high-end properties in his SALN.

“Does the filing of wrong entries amount to an impeachable offense? That is a question that will confront the senators at the moment of truth,” Arroyo said in a phone interview.

“If wrong SALN entries constitute an offense, is it elevated to a level that would merit (Corona’s) removal from public office or is it just an ordinary misdemeanor? We note that not every offense is impeachable, like jaywalking or a little slander,” he added.

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47% in poll say Corona guilty

Close to five in every 10 adult Filipinos have found Chief Justice Renato Corona guilty even if a majority of them have little or no knowledge of the impeachment case against him, results of a Pulse Asia survey released on Tuesday showed.

The nationwide survey was conducted from Feb. 26 to March 9 before lawyers of Corona started presenting their evidence in the Senate impeachment court.

Of the 1,200 respondents, 47 percent said Corona was guilty while 43 percent were undecided. Only 5 percent believed Corona was innocent. Another 5 percent said they didn’t have enough basis to make a decision.

The noncommissioned survey used face-to-face interviews and had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3 percentage points at the 95-percent confidence level. Estimates for Metro Manila, the rest of Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 6 percentage points.

Sixty-six percent of the respondents who said Corona was guilty formed their opinion in the course of the impeachment trial, while 34 percent said their opinion was formed even before the trial began.

Among the regions, Mindanao accounted for the biggest percentage of respondents (54 percent) who found Corona guilty. Corona was also found guilty by the majority of those in the socioeconomic class ABC (52 percent).

Half of the respondents in Metro Manila said the Chief Justice was guilty. The same opinion was shared by 48 percent of the respondents in Luzon outside the metropolis, 37 percent in the Visayas, 48 percent among Class D and 45 percent among Class E.

When broken down, those who said Corona was innocent were as follows: 1 percent among Class ABC; 3 percent among Class E and in the rest of Luzon; 4 percent in Metro Manila and the Visayas; 6 percent among Class D and 9 percent in Mindanao.

Those who could not say whether Corona was guilty ranged from 31 percent to 48 percent across all geographic areas and socioeconomic classes.

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Santiago: There is no hell

This was how Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago countered on Monday a statement by a priest that she should be consigned to the fires of hell supposedly for calling as “fool” the prosecution team in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

“Under Vatican 2, there is no hell; but even if there is, there is nobody there,” Santiago said in a statement.

“In theology, hell is not a geographical place, but is a metaphor for distance from God,” she said, reacting to Fr. Catalino Arevalo, who took a swipe at her during the weekend.

Santiago then went on attacking the priest, who she said sounded like a “publicity hound.”

“The priest is saying that he is close to God, and I’m not. I say to the priest, judge not, that you shall not be judged,” she said.

Santiago said she was told that Arevalo had approached certain journalists to make sure that his homily would be reported in the print media.

“It is like St. Paul writing letters to the Corinthians, and begging them to publicize his letters.  This priest sounds very much like a publicity hound.  And I thought humility in spiritual matters is a virtue.”

Under Vatican 2, Santiago said, the Catholic Church no longer clings to the monopoly on truth.

“Under Vatican 2, priests and nuns should be treated like everyone else.  They are not special people just because they have joined a religious community.  It does not make them any more smarter or holier than you and me.”

Instead of meddling in politics, Santiago said the priest should spend his energy fighting pedophilia within the Catholic Church.

“That priest should spend his energy fighting pedophilia within the Catholic Church, instead of meddling in politics and serving to divide church practitioners,” she said.

The senator also criticized Arevalo for making a literal interpretation of the Bible.

“Under Vatican 2, the story of Genesis is no longer a historical fact but a myth.  The Bible should not be read literally, but should be read in its Aramaic context.  Unfortunately, some of the religious refuse to accept the changes started by Vatican 2,” she said.

“I can engage in a public debate with the priest, and we can exchange quotation for quotation from the Bible.  But that would be foolish, because the Bible can be interpreted in as many ways as there are Christian churches,” Santiago added.

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Santiago blasts priest over ‘hell’ warning

She isn’t the type who would back down when challenged by a fellow politician or by a fellow lawyer. Neither would she when confronted by a man of the cloth.

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago on Sunday came out firing against a Catholic priest who criticized her for repeatedly scolding prosecutors over their supposed incompetence in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Santiago took exception to a remark by Fr. Catalino Arevalo in his homily suggesting she could be “worthy of the fires of hell,” particularly for referring to the prosecution team as gago (fool) during a trial session last week.

“The Constitution provides for a wall of separation between Church and State. A priest cannot violate the law in the guise of criticizing a senator-judge with the ulterior motive of promoting his own political agenda,” Santiago said in a statement.

Arevalo, a Jesuit in his 80s who is close to the family of President Benigno Aquino III, quoted Matthew 5:20 in taking a swipe at the mercurial senator: “But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgement. And if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council. And if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the fires of hell.”

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Key defense witness is lawyer-accountant

Defense lawyers are gearing up for a crucial phase in the proceedings, putting “finishing touches” on the testimony of a key witness who will “lay the groundwork” for Chief Justice Renato Corona’s likely appearance as the “climax” of the impeachment trial.

Describing Article 2 of the impeachment complaint as the real “battleground,” defense counsel Ramon Esguerra said the witness—a lawyer and a certified public accountant (CPA) —would discuss in detail that “there is every justification for the entries” in Corona’s statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN).

Esguerra said the Chief Justice would then explain the sources of money declared in the SALNs, including those used to purchase properties mentioned in the documents.

“The emerging consensus is he will take the stand,” Esguerra told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in an interview shortly after Corona met with his 12 lawyers for around three hours in Makati City on Friday afternoon.

Asked how soon the Chief Justice would testify, the defense counsel said: “I think logically, he should be the last to take the (witness) stand because it would be anticlimactic if he would come first.”

Trial will resume on March 12 with the defense presentation after the prosecution rested its case last week.

Article 2 alleges that Corona failed to publicly disclose his SALNs and thus, committed a culpable violation of the Constitution.

Esguerra (no relation to this reporter) said Corona made it clear to his lawyers that he had “no problem” testifying in his own impeachment trial. “It cannot be foreclosed,” he said.

In the defense panel’s list of witnesses and documents submitted to the impeachment court on January 31, the CPA-lawyer was not named but was described as an “expert witness” who would “testify that CJ Corona did not violate the Constitution and pertinent laws on the SALN, and that (his) assets came from legitimate sources and the values he used thereon have legal basis.”

The testimony will be backed by documentary evidence purportedly showing that Corona “also received allowances and other emoluments as justice of the Supreme Court” and that “he and his wife have the lawful means to acquire the alleged properties.”

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