|
Remember how unctuously Gen. Hermo Esperon drove away
the military retirees at the Navy and Jusmag compounds in Fort
Bonifacio, saying junior officers needed the place? Even before the
reversal of decisions favorable to the retirees, Hermo harassed the
veterans who could not afford to live in plutocratic enclaves. He
used more than a thousand soldiers in full combat gear, with APCs,
doing the dirty job in the wind and rain.
Now there are widely published
announcements that bidders are being invited by the BCDA like Ayala,
Megaworld, Robinsons, etc. The BCDA could have carved one hectare
for the few retirees involved seeing that it has 83 hectares all in
all.
Even more sanctimonious is
Secretary Ronnie Puno who used Hermoesque tactics in Iloilo as he
sniffed: “We at the DILG will be guilty of dereliction of duty if
we do not obey these orders from the Office of the Ombudsman.” He
is not a lawyer, with all due respect. He is GMA’s enforcer.
One is not bound by an illegal
order. He should follow the Supreme Court.
May the Ombudsman remove elective
local officials?
Only the courts can, not any
other, and certainly not Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez.
Section 60 of the Local
Government Code is clear. “An elective local official may be
removed from office … by order of the proper court.” Invoking
it, the Supreme Court ruled in 2002 in Pabico v. Villapando that
only the judiciary has such power.
“Verily, the clear legislative
intent to make the subject power of removal a judicial prerogative
is patent from the deliberations in the Senate quoted as follows:
“Senator Pimentel: This has
been reserved, including the issue of whether or not the Department
Secretary or the Office of the President can suspend or remove an
elective official.
“Senator Saguisag: It seems to
me that instead of identifying only the proper regional trial court
or the Sandiganbayan, I would like to suggest that we consider
replacing the phrase “Proper regional trial court or the
Sandiganbayan” simply by “Courts …”
“Senator Pimentel: ‘Or the
proper court.’
“Senator Saguisag: ‘or the
proper court.’
“Senator Pimentel: Thank you.
We are willing to accept that now, Mr. President.”
On the basis of this edifying
exchange, we were not surprised that the Supreme Court ruled: “It
is beyond cavil, therefore, that the power to remove erring elective
local officials from service is lodged exclusively with the
courts.”
“Exclusively” is just that.
Ronnie and Mercy should apologize for ignoring the Local Government
Code—the DILG’s Bible—and the Supreme Court, which interprets
laws so authoritatively that even its errors become the law of land,
as the joke goes.
We do not expect that it will say
“on second thought, Messrs. Pimentel and Saguisag, what you
really meant is the way the Ombudsman and the DILG read and
implement it.”
Erasing the mandate of a
duly-elected official is a very serious matter.
Courts hear you out, which
process the Ombudsman may not be able to tell from a hole in the
ground. In court, you can confront and cross-examine anyone who
would dare nullify the people’s will expressed through the ballot
box.
On the other hand, try going to
the Office of the Ombudsman. It is like going to Fort Knox. Yet, it
presumes to destroy and monkey around with people’s reputation
sans due process. The Supreme Court itself is so much more
accessible to the public.
I think Senator Nene and I knew
what we were saying and doing. And we do not have a case of first
impression, either. The Supreme Court has spoken.
No Ombudsman can presume to
overrule Congress, which passes a bill; the chief executive, who
signs it into law; and the judiciary, which has applied, not even
interpreted it. Mercy’s sad effort to put herself above the three
and everybody else is an invitation to impeachment.
The Nuremberg doctrine was again
rejected in the sorry trial of Saddam Hussein, perhaps arguably in a
case of victor’s justice. Between the Supreme Court and the Office
of the Ombudsman, can Ronnie not see who is higher? He can consult
his father, a legend, an oracle of the law, or his siblings, who are
lawyers.
As to Mercy, it may be time to
test squarely Nards de Vera’s fascinating proposition that the
Ombudsman can in fact only recommend to suspend. Being Ombudsman
elsewhere is shorthand for prestige, and one’s word is taken as
law, as it were, if not the word of God. Such standing is the source
of the Ombudsman’s power, not the law or the robotic goons
following Hermo and Ronnie.
She should not join Hermo and
Ronnie, with their reputations for being easily known to be lying:
their lips move.
|
