Go ahead, Chief Justice Puno
"The people should support the decision by the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Reynato Puno, to investigate corrupt men in the judiciary. Hoodlums in robes—these are the men who sell their power to the highest bidder. They should be unmasked.Many Filipinos know there is corruption in the judiciary. But they are difficult to ferret out because corrupt judges deal only with their close friends in the profession—law school classmates—or relatives. If there are a few judges (or fiscals) caught receiving money in exchange for a favorable decision on a case, it is only because of indiscretion.
We look forward to the investigation of the 12 members of the Court of Appeals based in Cebu—the so-called Dirty Dozen—who have been suspected of selling temporary restraining orders (TROs). By the way, TROs have a price because it provides relief to a client—he or she can buy time enough to fix a case.
With the Supreme Court at the head of the investigation body, we should not expect a whitewash on the case. No less than the Chief Justice has showed interest in the problem of the Dirty Dozen.
The Court’s decision to press the investigation is supported by leaders of Cebu, including Rep. Antonio Cuenco. He said: “For all we know, the alleged sale of TROs by 12 CA justices dubbed the Dirty Dozen may just be the tip of the iceberg. This cleansing process is long overdue. Let the ax fall on the hoodlums in robes.”
Solving water and energy problems
We always love to scare ourselves. The latest evidence of this is the headlines about the potential crisis in the supply of water and energy. The best way to solve these problems is to call for a meeting of LEDAC which coordinates the work of the Palace and the legislators.
Sen. Chiz Escudero has an input on what he calls the looming energy crisis. He said that this problem needs to be addressed immediately to “abate falling into the pitfalls of the same problem in the early 90s where the country resorted to the so-called power purchase adjustment [PPA].”
“PPAs proved to be grossly disadvantageous to the people and the government. The price is always more than what is right and is needed, and up until now we are still paying for it. If we do not heed to the urgency of this matter, we might be falling into the same trap again.”
Escudero wants Senate to immediately constitute the Committee on Energy amid the alleged imminent power crisis. “We are not here to implicate anyone but if someone out there is responsible for this trouble, we will not hesitate to run after their heads.” By the way, negotiations are still ongoing on who will head the several committees in the Senate.
The senator said the Committee on Energy needs to get down to work to look closely into the root cause of this problem and immediately identify stopgap measures. “We would like to know what went wrong. Was it something that could have been avoided? Was it artificially created?”
Artificially created? Coming from a senator, that should be intriguing. We should go to the bottom of this—whether there are interests involved in this looming shortage. Baka may kumikita na diyan?
