In his report to Chief Supt. Benjamin Magalong, police director of Cordillera, Senior Supt. Amando Lagiwid, Abra police director, said the yielding of the 25 PAG members was a result of their series of dialogs with various local leaders in the province.

Abra is known as one of the most troubled provinces in the country where most of the political leaders here are maintaining armed goons.

Only recently, Magalong and his staff motored all the way to this Mountain Province to grace the inauguration of a Joint Peace and Security Coordinating Center (JPSCC) compact in Bangued, Abra.

They had also met with Abra’s Peace and Order Council (PPOC) and had a dialog with reported political groups who are maintaining PAGs.

Aside from this, Magalong had also met with leaders of the biggest student fraternity in Abra (Mighty Peoples Society) and leaders of the Peace Convenors’ Group to discuss how to further make Abra peaceful.

They also met with leaders and members of bikers’ group and tricycle drivers association to discuss the Cordillera police’s project on its fight against crimes committed by motorcycle-riding criminals in the region. The project is to be launched on February this year.

One of the highlights of Magalong’s visit was the conduct of continuing separate meetings with political leaders reported to be maintaining PAGs.
http://www.journal.com.ph/index.php/news/provincial/22111-25-pag-members-give-up-in-abra

The suspect was arrested on January 12 for violation of Section 5(a) of RA 9262 or known as the Anti–violence against Women and Children Act. The warrant of arrest was issued by Regional Trial Court (RTC) branch 2 Judge Corpus Alzate of Bangued, Abra. The case has a recommended bail bond of P24,000.

The arrested person was brought at Abra Provincial Hospital for medico legal examination and was subsequently brought at Bangued Municipal Police Station for proper documentation prior to the turnover to the court concerned.

Moreover, police force of Villaviciosa Municipal Police Station also served the warrant of arrest of Dhan Simbilo, 23 years old, single, farmer and resident of Ap-apaya, Villaviciosa, Abra, for violation of Section 5(b) of Republic Act 7610 or the Anti-Child Abuse Act.

The arrest warrant was issued also by Judge Alazate, with P80,000 as the recommended bond.

The suspect was properly turned over to the Bangued Municipal Police Station for proper documentation.

Meanwhile, on the same day in Ilocos Sur, members of Tadian Municipal Police Station proceeded in Cervantes, Ilocos Sur, to serve the warrant of arrest to a person wanted for rape issued by Judge Joseph Patna-an of RTC branch 36, Bontoc, Mt. Province.

The suspect was listed as number one wanted person in the province for the 1st quarter of 2012. (Rubyloida Bitog)

Published in the Sun.Star Baguio newspaper on January 25, 2012.
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/baguio/local-news/2012/01/25/abra-cops-score-against-criminals-anew-202431

The five-day celebration from January 11 to 16 had so much fun reminiscing the past 100 years of the SSpS mission in the country which started in Tayum, Abra.



The centennial celebration was a mixed of religious and cultural festivities that started with the bamboo raft-riding at the Abra river in Sitio Guingad, Gaddani to welcome the SSpS Provincial Team led by Sr. Mary Eden Panganiban, who accompanied Mother-General Maria Theresia Hornemann based in Rome, Italy, who came all the way to the Philippines to grace the centennial celebrations of the SSpS here.

After the raft-riding in the Abra River, the visiting sisters were brought to the Holy Ghost School and then to the St. Catherine of Alexandria Church in Tayum, the Shrine of the Holy Spirit in the Diocese of Bangued where a special Holy Mass was celebrated in their honor and in commemoration of missionary sisters who have served the province in the past, with Bishop Leopoldo C. Jaucian, SVD, DD as the main celebrant.

The event was also an opportunity for the alumni of the Holy Ghost School, the first catholic school established by the SSpS sisters in the Philippines, for a grand homecoming to pay homage to their historic alma mater. Aside from the usual motorcade around the town proper after the Eucharistic Celebration officiated by the alumni-priests of the school, they also conducted on the last day of the 5-day celebrations, an outreach program of medical and dental mission and gift-giving ass their way of thanksgiving for all the blessings they received through the missions.

Tayum, the cradle of the Missionary Congregation of the Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit in the Philippines had produced most of the catholic priests in the province.

Tourism was at its height with the grand alumni homecoming of Holy Ghost School as hundreds of Overseas Filipino Workers arrived for the said occasion.

Relative to this, the Tayumenian International Association headed by Mr. Valentino Brillantes had given their commitment to Governor Eustaquio P. Bersamin to adopt one of the rooms in the newly constructed Abra Provincial Hospital in Brgy. Calaba, Bangued. As part of their sponsorship of the room which they will adopt, the Tayumenian Internationals will provide all the facilities that will be needed in the said room which will be named Tayumenian Ward.

The supervision and management of the Holy Ghost School is now under the Diocese of Bangued through the parish priest of Tayum, Fr. Ruben Valdez as the School Director and Mrs. Celia Flor Brillantes-Taeza as the principal. (MTBB/PIA-Abra)
http://www.pia.gov.ph/?m=1&t=1&id=72912

“I want to see the services of the JPSCC on a very professional manner that I don’t want them to be staying in an outpost that looks like a pig pen that’s why I gave priority to the construction of this outpost,” Governor Eustaquio P. Bersamin said during the inauguration of the newly constructed JPSCC outpost at Brgy. Zone 7, Bangued on January 16.

The outpost was funded by the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) in the amount of P800,000.

The JPSCC outposts carry the concept of the conventional Community Police Assistance Center (COMPAC) so that people can go in times of need without necessarily going to the municipal police station or to the provincial police headquarters.

This is manned by the PNP with the Philippine Army providing assistance.

Bersamin likewise vowed to fast track the construction of another outpost in Sinalang and to build more outposts in strategic areas in the province to maximize the visibility of policemen and to provide access for the general public to police officers whom they can run to in case of emergencies.

The new structure was blessed by Rev. Samuel Baruela. The governor then formally turnover the keys to the PNP represented by Police Cordillera Regional Director, PCSupt. Benjamin B. Magalong and to the Philippine Army thru Col. Eliseo C. Posadas, Commanding Officer of the 503rd Infantry Brigade. (JDP/MTBB-PIA CAR,Abra)
http://www.pia.gov.ph/?m=1&t=1&id=73158

The governor said he will utilize the funds from the proceeds of the Republic Act 7171 funds, otherwise known as the Tobacco Excise Taxes, for the construction of farm-to-market roads especially the provincial roads, which are the major road networks that the farmers needs to transport their agricultural produce to the provincial center or to other market outlets.

Aside from the road building projects, Bersamin also vowed to increase the support to the farmers in terms of production inputs like fertilizer subsidies, and other farming tools and equipment such as water pumps and sprayers.

Relative to this, Esmeralda G. Valera, manager of the National Tobacco Administration (NTA) – Bangued Branch, reported that the NTA had started providing flue curing barns to the tobacco growers in the province in order to sustain the tobacco production in Abra.

Valera likewise reported that there are already other upland municipalities like Sallapadan and Bucloc, which have started to engage in the cultivation of tobacco after they have seen tobacco-growing municipalities receiving their regular share from the RA 7171 funds. (JDP/MTBB-PIA CAR,Abra)
http://www.pia.gov.ph/?m=1&t=1&id=71132

_
175.    Lagayan is a town of 4,134 residents; it has 32 elected and appointed municipal hall employees. And their immediate suspect was me. Without further investigation, without giving me due process, they determined that I was the source of the offending Resolution. I could not believe that in their eyes, I am the only one in the entire town of Lagayan capable of doing that.

176.    I very well remember: on May 4, 2011,  around 4 p.m., I was on my way home from work, and when I was in the vicinity of Canan, Lapaz, Abra, I received  a call from Jendricks ordering me to immediately proceed to the Luna residence in Dangdala, Bangued, Abra. He was furious. He shouted and cursed me on the phone.

177.    I politely told him that I was on my way home. He answered back, cursing me; “Agderetso ka ditoy balay,okinnayo… ania ti inar-aramid yo”?  (You report to my house immediately you slut…what did you do?)

178.    I was shaking in fear when I reached the Luna residence in Bangued. There I saw Jendricks and the municipal treasurer talking with each other. Jendricks shoved a copy of the offending Resolution at my face and ordered me to prepare a written answer to an official query sent by the Regional Director of the Bureau of Local Government Finance for the Cordillera Administrative Region.  Then they left.

179.    The next day, at around 7:45 a.m., Jendricks called me up to ask me whether I had already prepared the written answer. I said yes.

180.    The following day, May 6, 2011, Jendricks called an emergency meeting with all the employees and officials of the town, including members of his barangay council, and people in the streets.

181.    At the meeting, all eyes were on me when he ordered me to read the Resolution.

182.    As soon as I finished doing so, Jendricks violently took the document from my hands,  put it on the table and angrily pointed at me as its author.

183.    With a finger pointed at me, he shouted:  “Sika ti makin aramid iti daytoy! Sika laeng ti makaammo ti budget ti munisipyo, sika ti nalaing mga agrekrelamo ti suweldo ken benefits manipud pay iti tiempo ni Mama (referring to Cecilia Luna) Leche ka! Okinnam, No haan mo masolusyunan dayta makarasak ka! Sulbarem dayta, no dika masulbar makaamo ka! (You authored this, you’re the only one who knows the budget of the municipality, since my mother’s time, you’re the only one who had been showing off her smarts and complaining about  salary and benefits. You’re shit, you’ re a slut! If you don’t solve it yourself, you watch out)!

184.    Though shocked by the vitriol he uttered against my person, I politely asked him to allow me to speak.

185.    He refused to give me a hearing. With a finger pointing at my face, he shouted at the top of his voice: “Haanen, nia haan mo nga aminen? Kayat mo pay la nga adda nakarkaro nga mapasamak? Okinnam, di ka la mapmapnek ti mait-ited kenka! Kayat mo pay la ti nakarkaro nga mapabainan? Okinnam! Leche ka! (Shut up. What, you don’t want to admit to it? You want something worse. You slut, you can’t content yourself with what is given to you, and instead you want greater humiliation.You’re shit)!

186.    He then threw the Resolution at my face and angrily stormed out of the meeting. I’ve never felt so humiliated in my life. After the meeting disbanded, the treasurer walked up to me and declared: “maikkatak laeng isakripisyok ti mang-hire ti pumatay (ipapapatay ka!)

187.    This was the last straw for me.  It was there that I declared to myself it is time to put a stop to all the years of humiliation and indignities. Thus I decided to speak out against the reign of greed and terror of the Lunas in Lagayan.


PRAYER


WHEREFORE, I, as Private Complainant, respectfully pray that the Respondents concerned, upon due investigation,  be charged with the violation of the application provisions of Republic 7080, the Anti-Plunder Law, as amended,  Republic Act 1379, the Forfeiture Law, Republic Act 3019, the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act,  RA 6713, the Code of Ethics for Public Officials and Employees, and the Revised Penal Code, and other such violations  of the law as this Honorable Office may see fit to charge Respondents with.  Finally, Private Complainant pray that the Honorable Office institute forfeiture proceedings against the properties, assets and financial holdings of Respondents, pursuant to the applicable provisions of RA 1379, the Forfeiture Law.

Other just and equitable relief are also prayed for.


Makati City for Quezon City.  September 12, 2011.


Affiants further sayeth naught.



    In witness hereof, I affix my signature to this Complaint-Affidavit to attest to the truthfulness of my affirmations in the preceding discussion this 13th day of September 2011.


BERNADINE S. JOSON
Affiant
Verification


I, BERNADINE S. JOSON, of legal age, married, until recently Municipal Planning and Development Coordinator and concurrent Secretary to the Sangguniang Bayan of the Municipality of Lagayan, Abra, with address for purposes of this complaint at Roque and Butuyan Law Offices, Unit 1904 Antel 2000 Corporate Center, 121 Valero Street, Salcedo Village, Makati City 1277, hereby depose and state that:


1.    I am the complainant in the foregoing Complaint-Affidavit;
2.    I have caused the preparation and filing of the same;
3.    I have read and understood its contents and affirm that the allegations therein are true and correct of myown personal knowledge and based on authentic records.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have signed this instrument on September 13, 2011 before the Office of the Ombudsman.

There are so many dysfunctions in terms of practices in violation of existing PNP policies and regulations which were passed on to the present. The police is supposed to be apolitical but some allow themselves to be partisan and become blind loyal followers of some elected officials. This is also complicated by the non cooperation of the community and perceived animosity among some elected officials. The officers of the Police Regional Ofice -Cordillera (PRO-Cor) through the leadership of the new Acting Regional Director (ARD) PCSUPT BENJAMIN B MAGALONG are aware of such situation.

This is why the ARD is engaging the different political groups and the supposed to be stake holders/neutral group which comprises the students, youth, academe, business, tribal, and religious sectors to a seriis of dialouges to just to establish rapport a prelude to confidence building since there is a need for every one to know the issues and concerns and resolve it thru dialouges.

This are just the initial phases of the ARD's 4 phased process of conflict resolution we hope for a lasting long term solution for the "TALNA KEN KAPPIA TI ABRA". We tried so many tactical solutions but still we fail in the long run. The solution will come from the Abrenios yourselves. We have to be partners.. The community, LGU, LGA, NGO's and the law enforcers. .. We, the officers and men of PRO-Coc are trying our best to make changes..

This also to inform you that the ARD has convinced the political groups not to intervene once their allies/supporters are arrested with their firearms. This I manifest that nobody from them intervened during the several arrests and confiscations for the month of December. All of the cases were filed in court and the firearms were subjected to ballistics test for further cross-matching to the ballistics records of those that were used in previous shooting incidents..

We hope through your cooperation, the elusive Peace will soon be realized in Abra!!! We welcome any suggestions or comments that you think may improve the services of the Abra PPO especially the current peace and order situation in Abra.

Thank you and may the Abrenios attain a lasting peace in your beloved home province by 2012! To be honest, I like the hard hitting postings which were masqueraded as hilarious.

Robert Soriano
Chief of the Task Force Abra

_136.    In regard to unprogrammed projects, Jendricks would just tell me “apay haan mo mairemedyo? Isingit mo a dita inaramid mo nga plano!  So ngarud nga sika ti adda dita nga pwesto ta ammom ti ar-aramidem.” (Why can’t you remedy that problem? You can insert that item in the plan you drafted! You were appointed to your position for that purpose).
 
137.    The treasurer would then segue:  “Isu kayat na bay-amon a, maungtan ka manin no kontraem”(if that’s what he wants, let him be, or you’ll just catch his ire).

138.    So I would just nod and say “yes mayor” but would not revise the investment plan to accommodate the mayor’s wishes. To my mind, I thought it is not my responsibility to justify the projects to the Commission on Audit (COA).

139.    I also knew that the Annual Budget should also carry an Annual Procurement Plan, but the Lunas’ orders notwithstanding,I was unable to do this,simply because they did not provide me with any guidelines for executing it.

140.    There had been opportunities to acquire the knowledge and skill required to draft an Annual Procurement Plan at conferences organized by various agencies of the national government for the purpose but neither I nor the municipal engineer were not allowed to attend these conferencies. In the annual budget which I had prepared, money has been allocated for it for the most part under the item  “training and seminar expenses” for each of 13 departments of the municipality of the town of Lagayan.

141.     For instance, the allocation for training and seminar expenses for my office for  2010 is Php 60,000; for 2009, Php 60,000; for P2008, Php 30,000; for 2007; Php 30,000.00; for 2006, Php 20,000. For the annual budgets of 2004 and 2005, there were no allocations for trainings and seminars.

142.    The Lunas however would not allow us to attend any of these conferences on the preparation of the Annual Procurement Plan. I could not only hazard a guess that the reason for this prohibition has something to do with the fact that it is the Commission on Audit (COA) that conducts this training in partnership with the Department of Budget and Management and the Department of Finance.

143.    The treasurer would just tell us “magtanong ka na lang sa mga kasama mong MPDC”, which I did not do, out of embarrassment, because, on top of the fact that we were not allowed to attend the necessary training conferences, the mayor, Jendricks S. Luna, would brag that Lagayan has plenty of funds, not to mention that his mother was also a member of the House of Representatives, with access to a substantial pork barrel.

144.    Budget preparation time was always a big headache for me.

145.    What else can one do when all that Lagayan can show from 1998 to 2008 in its annual investment plan are repeat projects for rehabilitation, reopening or concreting of roads? And it was a bigger headache for me to write our annual accomplishment report. All I could do was write down that the ghosts projects had been completed.

146.    The Executive Summary of the 2007 report of the audit made by the COA  states of six major accomplishments reported by the municipal government – all of which are road projects –  that: “the municipality had reported various accomplishments … which were not verified and validated for failure to submit copies of programs of works, contracts,purchase orders as basis in  conducting inspection.”

147.    The Executive Summary of the 2008 report of the audit made by the COA makes the same statement of 11 major accomplishments made by the municipality, all of which pertained to road projects:  “the municipality had reported major accomplishment projects. These were not verified and validated due to its failure to submit copies of the Program of Work, Contracts/Purchase Orders as basis in conducting inspection.”

148.    The Executive Summary of the 2009 report of the audit made by the COA says the same thing of the nine major accomplishments reported by the municipality of Lagayan (four of which are road projects, three of which are repairs of classrooms and one of which is the purchase of machines and equipment): “There were not verified and validated due to its failure to submit copies of the Program of Work, Contracts/Purchase Orders as basis in conducting inspection.”

149.    The 2010 COA audit report on the municipality of Lagayan is not yet available from the website of the Commission but I am sure its findings will be no different from its findings of the previous years.  Meanwhile, COA Audit reports for the years before 2007 all say the same thing although these are no longer available on the website of the Commission and I do not have copies of these reports covering the stated years. This Honorable Office can readily issue a subpoena to the Commission for all these pertinent records.

150.    I always told our treasurer, Mrs. Donato – incidentally a second cousin to Cecilia Luna – that if the money allocated for road projects were actually used for the purpose, the entire Lagayan would have already been paved over many times by now.

151.    The irony to it is that the Lagayan Municipal Hall has remained in a state of disrepair. The roof leaks in many places and whenever it rains, employees had to put up pails and basins on the floor to catch the leaking water. Too, year in and year out, appropriations are made for the purchase of equipment and supplies but many times, municipal hall employees had to buy themselves equipment and supplies so they could perform their functions.

152.    For many years, the municipality of Lagayan did not own a single vehicle.  In October 2010, on my own initiative, sometime in October 2010, I prepared a Sangguniang Bayan Resolution requestingthe Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) for a donation of an ambulance for the use of residents of the municipality. A month later, the ambulance arrived. This is the only vehicle to date that can be said to belong to the municipality. It is not even registered yet to the name of the municipality of Lagayan.

153.    And yet, from 1998 to 2011, money was allocated in the Annual Budget of Lagayan for repair and maintenance, gasoline, oil and lubricant in a virtually non-existent municipal motorpool.

154.     From available records: in 2003, the allocation for this purpose was Php 250,000; in 2004, Php 250,000; in 2005, Php 350,000; in 2006, Php 500,000; in 2007, Php 500,000; in 2008, Php 600,000; in 2009, Php 700,000; in 2010, Php 700,000; in  2011, Php 700,000, for a total of Php 3,850,000 over a span of eight years.


155.    Moreover, the annual budget also contained an item for equipment outlay, which I understood to be intended for the purchase of vehicles: in 2003, the allocation for this purpose was                  Php 248,165.70; in 2004, Php 379,159.18; in 2005, Php 379,159.18; in 2006, Php 1,763,884.17; in 2007, Php 956,312.08; in 2008, Php 1,554,348.44; in 2009, None; in 2010, Php 1,464,252.60; in  2011,                     Php 628,658.97, for a total of Php 6,745,281.35  over a span of eight years.

156.    The Lunas are known to own at least 20 vehicles of various makes. Jendricks himself, in 2010, bought a late model silver BMW Z3 roadster, with a retractable top. His brother Ryan owns a white bullet-proof van, which he acquired when he was just a barangay captain of Barangay Dangdangla in Bangued, Abra in 2009. Jendricks also gave to his mother Cecilia a black Porsche during her birthday in March this year.

157.    Cecilia is also said to have been the source of a Red Innova AUV (plate number ZEZ 120) now being used by the the municipal treasurer, Marissa G. Donato and registered in her own name.  Jendricks also gave as a gift to the municipal engineer a second-hand Red Mazda car and a second-hand Red Toyota pickup to municipal Engr. Osborne Dolaoen.   Both vehicles are registered in Dolaoen’s name. 

158.    What I also find laughable is a report sent by the municipal accountant, Meno C. Dickenson, to the COA in 2007 stating that the municipality purchased various pieces of furniture in the amount of Php 5 million from ALZEN furniture in Bangued, Abra.  I wonder where these pieces of furniture are because we had to buy our own chairs to use in our offices at the municipality.


An election loss and a senseless river diversion project

159.    There was only instance when I acceded to the mayor’s orders and this was about his River Diversion Project. But I did it only because I was so scared that a bloodbath would result if his wishes were not followed.  I inserted in the Annual Investment Plan for 2011 the amount of Php 1,050,000 for the River Diversion Project.

160.    In last year’s 2010 elections, his mother Cecilia, whom he had succeeded as mayor, lost in the congressional race. Voters from the municipalities of La Paz and Danglas gave her a resounding rejection in the ballot and it angered Jendricks so much.

161.    Now, these municipalities are located in the lower reaches of the Tineg River while Lagayan is upstream.  To avenge his mother’s loss in the congressional elections, Jendricks blocked the river channel and diverted its flow to another municipality, using the funds of the municipality for payment of rent of a back hoe and a grader, purchases of gasoline and salaries of drivers. No one could stop him, because he deployed around 100 of his armed goons to guard the diversion.

162.     Publicly, he stated that the diversion was necessary because every time the river overflowed its banks, the ensuing flood would wash away a sizeable portion of Lagayan’s agricultural lands.

163.    Yet the agricultural lands in question were a kilometer away from the river’s banks.  But Jendricks ordered me to prepare antedated resolutions of the barangay officials of Pulot and Poblacion and Resolutions of the Sangguniang Bayan supporting his actions.  He also asked me to prepare the affidavits of landowners purportedly supporting his claim that their agricultural lands had been washed out as a result of the recent overflow of the river’s banks.

164.     What the Municipal Assessor and I did is to locate the tax declarations of the nearby agricultural lands and asked the owners for their signatures.  Some of the landowners had been dead for years but Jendricks instructed us just to ask anyone to sign for them.  Some tenants commented that their areas are very far from the river and these had been eroded in flooding a long time past. We explained to them that we were doing it on Jendricks’ orders. 

165.    The result of the diversion was catastrophic to the municipalities downstream: rice just planted on middens along the river’s banks withered, and fishponds and fish pens dried up. In just two months (December 12, 2010 – January 16, 2011), agriculture in the three municipalities sustained an estimated P50 million in losses, I heard Mayor Joseph Sto. Niño B. Bernos of La Paz, Abra say over a radio program at the height of the controversy.

166.    Another town – Dolores – which was not among the targets of Jendricks’ ire, suffered as “collateral damage,” as it sat next to La Paz town. The town mayor there is Jendricks’ second cousin, Robert Seares Jr., whose father is a first cousin of Cecilia Seares Luna. Cecilia did not lose in that town.


167.    The governor stepped in, ordering Jendricks to rechannel the river back to its original flow. But Jendricks –at this time he was merely a barangay captain and president of the town’s Association of Barangay Captains (ABC) – would not be pacified. He dared anyone to oppose him. When negotiations broke down, the governor called for help from the Philippine Army and the Philipine National Police, to reopen the river.  That did it. It was quite a sight to see around 100 riot policemen from Manila arrive in Lagayan to oversee the return of the river’s waters to its original course. 

168.    This capricious, whimsical – and not to mention environmentally damaging – use of governmental resources by Jendricks should have been investigated by authorities.  In fact, he should have been prosecuted for it; but as far as I know, he has not been held into account for what he did to the river channel. 

169.    At the very least, he should be prosecuted for violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, RA 3019, sec.3 (3), which states thus:

(e) Causing any undue injury to any party, including the Government, or giving any private party any unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference in the discharge of his official administrative or judicial functions through manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence. This provision shall apply to officers and employees of offices or government corporations charged with the grant of licenses or permits or other concessions.


170.    What he did is also punishable by dismissal from service as a violation of  RA 6713, the Code of Ethics for Public Officials and Employees, which provides norms of conduct for workers and officials in the public  service, in particular, Sec. (4) of the law, which states that:


SECTION 4. Norms of Conduct of Public Officials and Employees. — (A) Every public official and employee shall observe the following as standards of personal conduct in the discharge and execution of official duties:

(k)    Commitment to public interest. — Public officials and employees shall always uphold the public interest over and above personal interest. All government resources and powers of their respective offices must be employed and used efficiently, effectively, honestly and economically, particularly to avoid wastage in public funds and revenues.
(l)      Professionalism. — Public officials and employees shall perform and discharge their duties with the highest degree of excellence, professionalism, intelligence and skill. They shall enter public service with utmost devotion and dedication to duty. They shall endeavor to discourage wrong perceptions of their roles as dispensers or peddlers of undue patronage.
(c) Justness and sincerity. — Public officials and employees shall remain true to the people at all times. They must act with justness and sincerity and shall not discriminate against anyone, especially the poor and the underprivileged. They shall at all times respect the rights of others, and shall refrain from doing acts contrary to law, good morals, good customs, public policy, public order, public safety and public interest. They shall not dispense or extend undue favors on account of their office to their relatives whether by consanguinity or affinity except with respect to appointments of such relatives to positions considered strictly confidential or as members of their personal staff whose terms are coterminous with theirs.

171.    I also mention this to show whois truly in control of Lagayan town, even if on paper, someone else is the incumbent mayor.

172.    I pity my townmates. For so long, they had been ruled by fear. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at descriptions of Lagayan as one of the most peaceful towns in the Province of Abra.  It is a big lie, perpetuated by no other than Jendricks himself, who has given instructions to the local police not to report to higher authorities any crime incidences in the town.  Killingsare not recorded nor reported by the police. The Lunas have a bevy of goons with guns, and with them, they rule Lagayan with an iron hand.

  The Power of Impeachment however, is a double edged sword and can, by itself, be an act of tyranny. A case in point is the recent impeachment of the Chief Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court. Generally, under the Constitution, a citizen with an endorsement of a member of the House of Representative may file an impeachment complaint. The House Committee on Justice will decide by majority vote if the complaint is sufficient in substance and in form. If there is probable cause, the House of Representatives then will vote to impeach the official for which a one-third vote is required.

Put simply, impeachment proceedings generally requires a public inquiry into charges against an official, and it involves fact-finding at hearings. It is only after adducing all the evidence that the House votes on whether or not to impeach. In the impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona, the Executive, through the President and the Legislative, through his political allies in Congress, blatantly conspired to railroad the process to impeach the head of the Judiciary, a co-equal branch of government. There was no fact finding, there was no hearing, there was no presentation of evidence.

The daily headlines are replete with accounts of the brazenness of the blitzkrieg attack. First the President, without regard to common decency and decorum laid the ground work by making unprecedented and unpresidential attacks not only on the Chief Justice but on the Supreme Court as a whole. Through his declarations, he made his intentions manifestly clear. And though denied, it is patently clear that as Commander-in-Chief, he gave the marching orders to his political leaders at the House of Representatives to impeach the Chief Justice. According to the Chairman of the Committee of Justice, in three sleepless nights, the Complaint was hastily prepared.

On Black Monday, in a matter of 5 hours, 188 Congressmen and women, without even having a copy of the complaint, much less, having read the contents thereof, and under the veiled threat of “either you are with us or against us,” signed the impeachment complaint. And having secured the signature of more than one third of the members of the House of Representative, the Speaker of the House declared the Chief Justice impeached! And by his admission, he then immediately reported the extraordinary feat to his Commander-in-Chief who joined the joyous victory celebration the following day and continued his attacks on the Chief Justice. Indeed, the Constitution provides a mode of impeachment through the signature and endorsement of one third of the full membership of the House of Representatives.

But although constitutionally sanctioned and no matter how noble the President’s motives are, and how popular the cause is, the manner by which the impeachment was achieved is very disturbing and alarming to say the least. Of material significance in this sorry state of affairs is that in an impeachment case, the Constitution requires the filing of a verified complaint which means that the complainants swear under oath that they have caused the preparation of the complaint and that they have read the allegations contained therein and that the same are true and correct of their personal knowledge. In this case, 188 supposed to be Honorable Members of the House of Representatives signed the complaint but by their admission, most of them were clueless in last Monday’s caucus and what was presented during the signing was a powerpoint presentation instead of an impeachment complaint.

Put simply, except for Congressman Tupas and a few others, most of the complainants could not have caused the preparation of, nor could have read the complaint, much less know the veracity of the allegations therein of their personal knowledge. Moreover, it would be safe to assume that what was done during the caucus was the signing of a roll call because between 2 pm to 7 pm on Monday, it would have been a physical impossibility for each and every complainant to have properly verified the complaint before a duly authorized person who could do a proper verification.

Glaringly, there was a mockery of the impeachment process and a blatant and culpable violation of the Constitution. Considering that the high official charged is no less than the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who heads a co-equal branch of government which represents the rule of law and proper dispensation of justice, propriety demanded that a modicum of respect be accorded to his person and the institution that he represents, and that the basic tenets of the rule of law and procedural fairness be adhered to. What transpired in Congress on that Black Monday, obviously upon the orders of the President, was an arrogant show of force and display of dominant power by the Executive and Legislative against the Judiciary, a co-equal branch in government.

With the pending impeachment case against Justice Castillo and threat of impeachment against two other Supreme Court Justices, this was clearly an attack with a chilling message not only the Chief Justice but on the whole judicial institution he represents. Worse, the callousness with which it was implemented showed utter disrespect of the Chief Justice and the Judiciary and utter disregard of the rule of law. It is noteworthy that prior to the unprecedented and unpresidential attacks of President Aquino against the Chief Justice, the Supreme Court rendered a decision on the long running Hacienda Luisita case.

It is well known that for decades, despite numerous attempts at land redistribution during a long line of presidential succession, Hacienda Luisita remained firmly under the control of the President’s family. Under his watch however as President, the Supreme Court dared finally to end the President’s family’s control over Hacienda Luisita. Against this backdrop, there is reason to believe that the impeachment of Chief Justice Corona is a payback of a vindictive President.

Whatever the motivation is, in this instance, the President showed a tyrannical disposition to impeach Chief Justice Corona through whatever means fair and foul. The House of Representatives on the other hand, imposing its tyranny of numbers, showed its subservience and sacrificed its independence and the integrity of the impeachment process at the altar of political expediency. Put bluntly, the impeachment of Chief Justice Corona was, on the part of the President and his cohorts in Congress, an act of tyranny!