Sidebar
by Malou Mangahas
FACTUAL disparities, possibly errors, litter the various documents and media reports on the criminal and two administrative cases that were filed against Police Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza and his four co-accused colleagues. Bad police investigation work seems at work, at the very least.
by Malou Mangahas
IT ALL started late night of April 9, 2008 when Christian M. Kalaw was arrested by the police for alleged illegal parking and driving without license in Manila.
Two years and four months later, on August 23, 2010 one of those Christian accused of robbery, extortion, grave threats, and physical injuries commandeered a tourist bus and proceeded to hold its occupants hostage.
The hostage-taker would have an 11-hour standoff with the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team of the Manila Police District (MPD). When it ended, nine people lay dead inside the Hong-Thai tourist bus, which was parked at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila: the hostage taker himself, Senior Inspector (Captain) Rolando Mendoza, and eight Hong Kong nationals.
by Malou C. Mangahas
NUMBERS – people, cases, funds – are a messy, maddening mix in the courts. The numbers defy all myth and romance about the majesty and dread that literature ascribes to the men and women in robes, and indications are they pose a perpetual challenge for the administrators of the country’s judicial system.
Indeed, attempts of the judiciary to keep a firm grip on its budget and fiscal processes alone have already triggered periodic delays in completing audit reports, as well as caused recurring disputes on compliance with budget circulars that should apply across the bureaucracy.
Sidebar
by Malou Mangahas
AMID the relentless reticence of the justices of the Supreme Court to publicly disclose their statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN), the PCIJ launched a research into what could be their business interests and financial holdings by mining public records.
Our first stop was the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), where we found various companies listing the names of various justices as either incorporators, stockholders or board members. To verify the list, the PCIJ gathered the latest Articles of Incorporation, General Information Sheets, and Financial Statements of these companies.
Justices keep SALNs secret
by Malou C. Mangahas
GOOD GOVERNANCE is the solemn promise of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III. Transparency and respect for access to information could enable it; the rule of law, or the prosecution of cases built on evidence before the courts, could assure it endures.
In President Aquino’s epic effort to rid the government of corruption, the judiciary will perform the critical role of arbiter, judge, and guardian. Yet the judiciary itself is nurturing a black hole of information, which could swallow into nothingness initiatives to limit, if not stop, corruption.
by Annie Ruth Sabangan
The former professor of acting Justice Secretary Alberto C. Agra has finally spoken to refute his student’s claim that he was exonerated of cheating in a law subject exam, which he took 22 years ago at the Ateneo de Manila University Law School.
Atty. Avelino Sebastian Jr. said that if Agra was indeed exonerated by the school’s investigating committee that inquired into the reported cheating, how then could the acting justice secretary explain why was Agra the only one who flunked the Wills and Succession subject in 1988, out of seven students who reportedly cheated?
by Atty. Avelino Sebastian Jr.
WHEN I was asked by PCIJ to comment on the allegation that Secretary Agra cheated in an exam that I gave in Law School, I declined the request for a number of reasons: (i) I thought that Secretary Agra and I had settled this issue back in 1993 when we talked about it; (ii) I thought that this regrettable episode has no bearing on the controversy that he now faces; (iii) I do not wish to be dragged into an unpleasant and adversarial discussion; and (iv) I thought it would be unfair to drag other people into this mess since they are not involved in the reputational disgrace which Secretary Agra recklessly inflicted upon himself. However, since he fired the opening salvo by stating that I “maliciously” charged him with cheating, I am constrained to respond to his accusation.
by Malou Mangahas
SIX MONTHS AGO, the PCIJ filed a 19-page pleading with the Supreme Court requesting copies of the statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN) and personal data sheets (PDS) of the 15 justices of the high tribunal.
The pleading caps four years of a testy tug-o-war for copies of the justices’ SALNs between the PCIJ and the high court, the last bulwark of democracy and the arbiter of constitutional questions in the land.
The aggravation of Alberto Agra
by Annie Ruth Sabangan
IT’S not every day that you see subordinates publicly criticizing their boss, which is what acting Justice Secretary Alberto C. Agra is experiencing as government prosecutors assail his recent decision to absolve two members of the Ampatuan clan over the grisly killings last November in Maguindanao.
By all indications, Agra is not least aggravated by the criticisms. Yesterday, at the flag ceremony of the Justice department personnel, he declared: “I stand by that decision and the process I went through to arrive at it… I bow neither to political dictates nor to public opinion.”
by Justine Espina-Letargo
Legal experts warned of a looming crisis in the justice system after public prosecutors openly defied an order by Acting Justice Secretary Alberto Agra to drop the murder charges against two prominent members of the Ampatuan clan accused of involvement in the November 23 Maguindanao Massacre last year. Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Governor [...]
