How disaster victims
get fleeced

It was a pathetic sight. Thousands lining up in front of the house of Guihulngan Mayor Wenesto Reyes waiting for the relief goods, which had been deposited in the mayor’s house.

Of course, there were others, thousands of them, who just waited for a chance to grab some of the relief items bearing the slogan of Governor Roel Degamo of Negros Oriental.

That is really sickening. How the victims of the earthquakes that shattered homes and triggered landslides in several places in Guihulngan, Jimalalud, Tayasan, and La Libertad found themselves asked to give thanks to the local executives who took advantage of the trove of relief goods for their own ends.

Of course there were explanations and attempts to divorce themselves from the obviously partisan handling of relief goods for disaster victims. But that does not detract from the fact that relief agencies had been made to look silly with the politicians distributing in trickles these badly needed items.

That’s why both President Benigno Aquino III, Vice President Jejomar Binay and PNRC Governor Migz Zubiri had to appeal to politicians not to fight for the credit of having helped out the disaster victims through the use of relief items coursed through their offices.

That’s why of late, many of those willing to aid the quake victims have pledged to give their relief goods direct to the victims themselves instead of coursing them through local political leaders.

Gentlemen, the victims are already suffering. They should not be made to wait for the favors of political overlords who have virtually contributed nothing to the relief assistance. Please, in the name of God, give them the aid sans claiming credit for them.

***

While most TV viewers have been taken in by the claims and counter-claims by prosecution and defense panels of what is going on or imagined to be underhanded tactics, it seems majority may have overlooked an important signal in Tuesday’s session of the Senate Impeachment trial.

Pardon me, but I have long been a political writer. Thus, I develop some perspective than just the normal vision of the average TV watcher.

This was when Senator Franklin Drilon stood up to stress that he was opposed to the ruling of the chair, based on the majority members of the Senate, upholding or respecting the TRO by the Supreme Court on the issue of the sanctity of collar deposits.

It was out of the blue. And there was no reason other than that Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile had assured full responsibility for having issued the subpoena for alleged document of the Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Now put two and two together and you can see a subtle hint of a possible attempt to replace Enrile as head of the Senate impeachment body.

While everybody was talking about the contents of the deposit document reportedly revealing the Corona dollar deposits, the Senate virtually just took his word for it by Rep. Reynaldo Umali that he had been handed the document by a “small lady”.

Unfortunately, the more important thing is for the Senate to look into the “leak” of the document and to try and pinpoint who was the culprit. The law specifically provides penalty to whoever violates the stringent provision against leaking such documents.

Even if proved correct, the mortal sin was in the leakage of the document. Not that whether the contents were true or not.

It was Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago who railed against that document used by the prosecution to seek for a subpoena duces tecum Tuesday.

One must doff the hat off to Sen. Santiago who minced no words in criticizing the prosecution panel for having pulled the leg of the Senate tribunal by handing it a questionable document. That was an underhanded tactic that placed the entire chamber into suspicion of being partisan against Corona.

Worse, presidential spokesman Lacierda also cited the accuracy of the document not the way it had been filched and who stole it.

Now it seems that one can steal a document which is barred from public disclosure by the law and get away with it sans fear of the penal sanctions. Which makes it open for every tom, Dick and Harry to do what they think should be done provided that its content prove correct eventually.

I do have my misgivings about that law. I guess the authors had originally sought to protect depositors from unnecessary harassment by government. And, I suppose, it was primarily intended to protect foreign investors. But that is not stated in the law. It does not discriminate but seem foreigner and local depositors. Thus, the law is just that. It may be wrong, but the most important thing for us to do is to amend the law so that it will not protect for local depositors. But until that is passed, the law had been violated and the Senate should look into this theft and pinpoint who the “small lady” was.

Another thing, Rep. Neil Tupas said the prosecution panel appended the document to a supplementary request for issuance of subpoena but affixing that it was not a valid documents. But the most important thing is that the panel should have gone out of its way to validate it and try to trace the source of the leak and immediately prosecute her for giving them poison.

Not use the unverified document to pull the wool over the eyes of the Senate to give it what is needed to pin down Corona.

***

Vice President Jejomar Binay deserves kudos for reminding Tuesday’s 755 married couples to make their marriage a success.

He aptly stressed that there is no such thing as a perfect marriage. Both couples should exert effort to transcend their differences and to heal the wounds that normally occur in marriage.

They really needed encouraging words in the face of the way modern marriages are.*

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