21st century sorcery

 

Investigators searching for body parts as evidence.

I can’t believe this story.

Here we are in the 21^st century and there still exists a sect or a cult, if you may, that practices the art of sorcery.

But what boggles the mind is that this is even happening in a Christian country like Chile and where the cult members are said to be educated.

It was recently reported that Chilean police have arrested four people accused of burning a baby alive in a ritual because the leader of the sect believed that the end of the world was near and that the child was the antichrist.

Ramon Gustavo Castillo Gaete, 36, the alleged leader of the cult, who remains in hiding, is said to have traveled to Peru to buy ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic brew plant that he used to bewitched his 12-member sect during the rite.

The 3-day-old baby was taken to a hill in the town of Colliguay near the Chilean port of Valparaiso and was thrown into a bonfire.

The baby’s mother, 25-year-old Natalia Guerra, had allegedly approved the sacrifice and was among those arrested.

“The baby was naked. They strapped tape around her mouth to keep her from screaming. Then they placed her on a board. After calling on the spirits they threw her on the bonfire alive,” said Miguel Ampuero, of the Police Investigative Unit, Chile’s equivalent of the FBI.

“Everyone in this sect was a professional,” Ampuero said. “We have someone who was a veterinarian and who worked as a flight attendant, we have a filmmaker, a draftsman. Everyone has a university degree. “

What a credulous bunch and what a shame!

Ombudsman verdict on suspended Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia

 

Cebu suspended Gov. Gwen Garcia found guilty of grave misconduct by the Ombudsman

The Office of the Ombudsman has found suspended Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia guilty of grave misconduct for approving the purchase of the 24.9-hectare parcels of lot, now famously known as the Balili property, in 2008.

Pegged at P99.7 million, the Cebu capitol allegedly already paid P98.93 million for the 11-parcel land, of which 19.7-ha is underwater.

The decision stated that the transaction was tainted with irregularities as the Provincial Government at that time had no available funds specifically appropriated for the purpose of “providing a good opportunity for the Province of Cebu to develop and cater to the needs of interested investors.”

It said 50% of the total payment made by the Provincial Government “actually came from the [P50M] budget of the province not specifically earmarked for that purpose but for site development and housing program under social services”.

The verdict, however, was meted with a caveat, when Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales said Garcia could no longer be sanctioned because of her re-election in 2010.

The country’s jurisprudence states that “a re-elected local official may not be held administratively accountable for misconduct committed during his prior term of office.”

“The rationale for this holding is that when the electorate put him back into office, it is presumed that it did so with full knowledge of his life and character including his past misconduct. If, armed with such knowledge, it still re-elects him, then such re-election is considered a condonation of his past misdeeds,” the High Court’s decision, anchored on what is commonly known as the Aguinaldo Doctrine, states.

While Garcia may be thumbing her nose at the Ombudsman over a verdict that does hold water anymore, she is still, however, facing graft and technical malversation charges before the Sandiganbayan over the same controversy.

It is not a double whammy after all. But, just the same, it does not make her least guilty of the charges.

What is even worst is that her reputation is badly tarnished and the people know her better now. This is going to be a big issue that won’t leave her at peace for as long as she is in politics.

Her political career may not be at risk, but for sure, for the Cebuanos, she is a marked woman.

 

 

A sigh of relief that Gwen is out of Capitol

A door being chained and padlocked

I do not know if suspended Gov. Gwen Garcia realizes this, but her not being able to get back to his office after sneaking out and attending a function in Oslob,  a town 117 kilometers south of Cebu, is making countless Cebuanos heave a big sigh of relief.

Indeed, it was not the most pleasant of sights seeing employees under provincial administrator Eduardo Habin chaining and padlocking doors and even nailing wooden slabs on entrances, but if this is the only way to maintain peace and order at the Capitol, then so be it.

More than peace and order, however, what was needed was sanity from the suspended governor, whom people think have gone beyond the bounds of propriety.

Not only has she continued defying with impunity a lawful order coming from no less than the President of the Philippines, but she also unscrupulously went on defiling the sanctity of the Capitol building as seat of power and authority and making it a lowly board and lodging facility for her and her supporters.

Suspended Gov. Gwen Garcia with brother Rep. Pablo John Garcia (l) and father, Rep. Pablo Garcia

Why can’t Gwen, her family and supporters accept the fact that unless and until her case is resolved in her favor, she has momentarily lost her moral ascendancy to govern, much less continue staying at the Capitol, now that power and authority has been vested on Acting Gov. Agnes Magpale and orders emanating from her, in the course of her governance, are being accepted, followed and executed

Nobody is denying that Gwen is the elected governor, but if ever Magpale was named Acting Governor, it was not her choice, but her fate, and the position was given to her under legal grounds.

One cannot say, therefore, that Magpale is hungry for power, as Gwen’s brother Pablo John alleges. If ever there is one that hungers for power, it is the arrogant suspended governor, who thinks she is above the law.

“If the operation in the Capitol is normal, if there are no disruptions, if there is no standoff, why was it necessary to padlock the governor’s office,” asks Pablo John. “(It is because) she (Magpale) is greedy for power. She even wanted to be called governor, not only ‘acting’ (governor).”

The whole brouhaha is not about power. It is about respectability.

It is putting a stop to ones insanity and selfishness and replacing it with sound and rational thinking of an individual who has the selfless interest of the province first and foremost.

Phl senate going to the gutter

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano trading barbs with Senate President Enrile

An institution can only be as good as the individuals running it.

The same truism could be applied to the Philippine Senate. It could only be as good as the candidates voted upon by the electorate to craft laws in the upper chamber of Congress.

As far as I can remember the Senate has always been aptly described as an august body composed of respected and honorable senators.

It used to be that the senators of yore awed us with their cerebral and cultured qualities. They lived up to their portrayal as trustworthy and of good repute. Most of all, they knew when politics end and legislative work begins.

Sad to say the same could not be said of our present crop of senators – not all of them, but most of them.

The latest “Christmas bonus” controversy which was started by the high-strung Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, when she accused  Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile for his irregular, if not “uneven” distribution of Php1.6 million additional MOOE (maintenance and other operating expenses) to 18 senators except her, the Cayetano siblings and Antonio Trillanes IV, has really put the senate in bad light. (Note that Santiago and company only got P250, 000 each, which makes it uneven).

It worsened when the irascible Santiago’s blood vessel in the eye burst from hypertension after she granted a TV interview where she lambasted Enrile.

It also did not help Santiago’s condition when Lacson, coming to the defense of Enrile, called the lady senator a “crusading crook” and “a hypocrite par excellence” and added further that she “doesn’t have a single shred of integrity in her veins and moral ascendancy over any mortal on earth.”

This, of course, after Santiago called Lacson an attack dog of Enrile and a “fugitive from justice”, referring to the time when Lacson went into hiding in 2010, after he was charged for the killing of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver.

As if these were not enough reflection of the kind of senators we have voted to represent the people, the unflappable Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, yet, picked up where Santiago left off and traded barbs with Enrile on the same contentious issue.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and his chief of staff, lawyer Jessica “Gigi” Reyes

Cayetano even went further when, in the course of his attack on Enrile during his privilege speech, he included the unusual clout Enrile’s chief of staff, lawyer Jessica “Gigi” Reyes, wields in the chamber.

“We all know how you run the Senate. Or more accurately, how you and Ma’am Gigi run the Senate,” Cayetano said.

Obviously, Cayetano was insinuating that there was something more to their working relationship than meets the eye.

This did not sit well with Enrile who in turn waved on the floor a document that supposedly showed a P37-million debt Cayetano’s father, the late former Sen. Rene Cayetano, incurred while a partner in the Ponce Enrile-Cayetano Law firm that the Senate President said he had put up so the elder Cayetano could feed his family.

Even this has to be dug up! How disrespectful could one be to the dead!

Not to be thrashed, Cayetano also presented a document handwritten by Reyes giving instructions for the release of additional MOOE to all senators except him and Senators Pia Cayetano, his sister, Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Antonio Trillanes IV.

“I will not go down to the gutter,” Enrile said after telling the Senate of the late Cayetano’s debt as he prepared to answer Cayetano’s questions on how the Senate funds were being used, especially the P250,000 Enrile distributed as cash gifts to all senators in December.

“You already did, Mr. President. You already went to the gutter. Your chief of staff has already gone to the gutter,” came Cayetano’s response.

Talking about rudeness, gall and the lack of appropriate demeanor as senators of the realm! What a shame!

With this crop of senators that we have, not to mention Sotto and his ilk, does one still wonder where the Senate of the Philippines is going?

To dance or not to dance in Cebu’s Sinulog Festival

Gwen dancing in the 2012 Sinulog Festival (photo courtesy of Flickr.com)

When it rains, it pours, so the cliché goes.

In the case of Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn “Gwen” Garcia, not only has she been suspended for six months last December 19 for alleged abuse of authority, which was the reason for defiantly barricading herself in her office, but her plea for the Sandiganbayan to lift the three hold departure orders (HDOs) issued against her also suffered a setback.

It will be remembered that the Ombudsman had charged Gwen with two counts of graft and one count of technical malversation over the Provincial Government’s anomalous purchase of the former Balili property in Tinaan, Naga City, Cebu.

It is alleged that she was behind the purchase of a 25-hectare lot for P98.9 million only to find out, upon verification, that a large portion of the property was underwater.

As if the above legal cases against her are not enough personal woes, now she is put in an even more unsettling situation – between a rock and a hard place – deciding on whether or not she will perform her ninth and last dance as head of the province in Cebu’s Sinulog Festival.

“I have always danced in the Sinulog as an offering to Señor Santo Niño,” Gwen said.

The streetdancing and grand parade to culminate this year’s Sinulog, Cebu’s biggest festival, will take place on January 20.

I used the word ‘unsettling’ because it could very well be so that if she leaves the premises, where she is holding herself incommunicado by her own volition, that she will not be able, literally, to go back and settle once more in her safe haven.

While I personally suggest that she goes dancing and enjoy the festivity because she really gloats over the focus and media attention that has been upon her for the last of her eight appearances, my hunch, however, is that she will continue to be holed up in her sanctuary and forgo the spiritual enlightenment her dancing for the Sto. Niño may have for her.

For Gwen, it is not spirituality that matters most. Not even in her dancing for we know all is purely ‘palabas’ (show-off).

For Gwen, it is political ambition and greed over spiritual and moral consideration.

Perhaps, President Benigno Aquino had the same anticipation of Gwen’s action that she will not leave the Provincial Capitol’s grounds, saying, she will be allowed to continue to lock herself inside her office.

“There is no need to make a martyr out of her. Because the provincial government is not prevented from carrying out its functions, we will just let her be,” Aquino said.

I could not agree with Aquino more, but what a subtle admonition it is to Gwen, and yet she is not getting it.

I happened to see my doctor yesterday, but before she started her examination she told me about the traffic caused by the Sinulog preparation. I, jokingly, asked her if there was traffic at the vicinity of the Capitol. Then she looked at me disbelievingly and said, “naunsa na mana siya oi”? (what the heck is happening to her?).

So my question now is: Has Gwen’s bearing and pride gone to the dogs?

Indeed, a pest of a question it is!

(Please see About page for more speculation.  – Quierosaber)

The scandalous Christmas cash gifts for nation’s lawmakers

Sen. Miriam Defensor- Santiago

As if our lawmakers in Congress are not awash with cash (as everybody knows) for their services as servants of the nation, now comes this eyebrow raising news that leaders of both Houses have gifted their respective members an scandalous cash gift in Christmas.

Coming from the horse’s mouth, Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago herself, I wouldn’t doubt it.

Imagine a yearly pork barrel of 200 million pesos (US$4.9 million), 2.2 million pesos monthly for staff salaries and office expenses, a 500,000 pesos annual travel allowance and an honorarium that ranges between 30,000 to 60,000 pesos a month as chair of a Senate committee. All these, on top of the regular monthly salary of P75,000.

We are not even mentioning here that these honorable legislators are said to have been pocketing every year hundreds of millions of pesos in pork barrel kickbacks, unspent funds in their budgets, and numerous bonuses coming from secret funds

Despite this windfall, Santiago elaborated further that the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives used the  “savings” and “secret funds” as Christmas gift to the solons, which she described as a “national scandal” and “grandmama of all scandals”.

“The Constitution allows savings to be used by the office at the end of the year. But in reality, the head of office manipulates the books and creates so-called savings, by refusing to fill up vacancies, or refusing to buy essential office supplies or services, or capital equipment. These so-called enforced savings are then distributed among the highest officials in the guise of Christmas bonuses,” Santiago said.

Santiago’s public confession on the inner doings of Congress resulted from an admission by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile that he authorized the release from unspent funds the Christmas bonuses of 22 senators totaling almost P30 million.  At least 18 senators received P1.6 million each and four senators P250,000 each.

Santiago, one of the four who received only P250,000, said she returned the money. The other three were Alan Peter Cayetano, Pia Cayetano, and Antonio Trillanes, who are members of the minority party.

At the lower House, An Waray party-list Rep. Florencio “Bem” Noel, the chairman of the committee on accounts, said each lawmaker was given Php500,000 last December.

I don’t think it is because of the lesser amount she received that Santiago has come out fulminating about this odious practice in the upper and lower House of Congress. Neither is it about her sour relationship with Enrile.

It is more like saying, “enough is enough and let us stop fooling around maliciously with the people’s money.”

Santiago admitted that senators and congressmen receive P2.2 million monthly for staff salaries and office expenses and 10 percent kickbacks from their pork barrel funds.

This scandalous cash gift actually comes from what they call the maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE). It is a budget item being used to support the operations of government agencies, such as expenses for supplies and materials; transportation and travel utilities (water, power, etc.), and necessary repairs, etc.

“The senator can play around with this P2.2 million. If he does not hire staff, or does not spend for office rental and supplies, he gets to keep the P2.2 million or any residual amount for himself,” Santiago said.

Talking about “buayas” (crocodiles) vicious than Lolong!

You can find them in Congress.

They don’t eat people, but sure as hell, they starve people and in so doing the fatten themselves.

No doubt about it.

PCGG ends Marcos wealth hunt

PCGG Chair Andres Bautista

“It’s a lonely job. It doesn’t win you any friends.”

With those remarks comes the skepticism, if not apprehension, of Andres Bautista, head of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), that going after the Marcos ill-gotten wealth at, this stage, is simply an exercise in futility and becoming more as mythical as the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

Needless to say that Bautista has already recommended to President Benigno Aquino that the commission tasked to recover the alleged $10 billion stolen wealth of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, which has been going on for nearly three decades now, should cease its operation and its existence abolished.

“It has become a law of diminishing returns at this point,” Bautista told the Agence France-Press in an interview at the commission’s offices.

“It’s been 26 years and people you are after are back in power. At some point, you just have to say, ‘We’ve done our best’, and that’s that. It is really difficult.”

I could not agree more with Bautista’s candid thoughts.

It is not about giving up the fight, which, clearly, could have been won earlier had the late President Cory Aquino – she who created the commission – and the heads of government that followed her, went hammer and tongs in recovering the ill-gotten wealth, while it was still fresh in the minds of the supportive world.

Rather, it is staring at the realization now that those pursued for their abusive rule and for bleeding this country dry are back in power – wealthier, influential and arrogant as ever – and are now seen as thumbing their noses at the government’s quest for justice against them.

And they may just have all the reasons to do it for, as reported, despite numerous criminal and civil cases being filed against them, none of the Marcos heirs or their cronies, who have been accused of plundering government coffers, have so far been successfully prosecuted.

Now that three Marcoses – Imelda, Imee and Ferdinand Jr. – are in politics and, thanks to their clout, it hasn’t only become harder for the government to recover more of their hidden wealth, but it has become practically impossible to find it.

So far the PCGG has recovered 164 billion pesos (about $4 billion), some invested in prime New York real estate, jewelry, and about $600 million stashed in secret numbered Swiss bank accounts.

“There is still a lot of mystery surrounding the fabled wealth, and my sense is there is still much more out there,” Bautista said.

But if there is no more money to be recovered, then the best option the government should take is make money out of the jewelries presently locked in a vault at the central bank, which international auction house Christie’s estimated to fetch up to $8.5 million.

Keeping the jewelries for tourist attraction, as planned by the Department of Tourism, is a cockeyed idea as it will only leave it vulnerable for the unscrupulous to plan evil with it. Because Imelda is fighting tooth and nail against having the jewelries auctioned, it could only mean that she thinks the 150 carat giant Burmese ruby, the diamond tiara and the other gems still belong to her.

To me, having the Marcoses back in power and not being able to succeed in recovering all of their embezzled wealth is a national fiasco and we only have to blame our short memories and our penchant of idolizing the notorious.

Cebu governor defies suspension order

Defiant Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia

Defiance seems to be an attitude that Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia learned to apply adeptly in politics.

This attitude that Gwen possesses is what defines her as a person, a politician and a leader.

Unfortunately, this attitude that she is so identified with is what has brought her to her present predicament.

That the governor committed grave abuse of authority when she herself hired employees of the Office of the Vice Governor and the Sangguniang Panlalawigan although the appointing power is lodged with the Office of the Vice Governor, is clearly defying the rule of law.

That she refused to release the budget of the complainant, the late Vice Governor Gregorio Sanchez Jr., only to give it to his successor upon his death, is definitely rudeness and defying the sense of propriety and sensibility.

Gwen has also shown utter disrespect and brazen defiance of authority when she, reportedly, appropriated tax payer’s money and ordered surreptitiously the refilling of the controversial Balili property to make it appear now that it is dry land that the provincial government bought instead of seawater submerged land, notwithstanding that the case against her has already been filed in the Sandiganbayan and the property in question should have been left unchanged.

And now, she is defying Malacañang’s order for her suspension, daring authorities that forcibly removing her could only happen “over my dead body”.

Blame the suspension orders to politics and whoever else, and for whatever reason more, but can’t Gwen be sensible and reasonable enough to respect the rule of law, if indeed she is a worthy leader, which she claims to be?

It is not as if she is being penalized and not being given the chance to clear herself from the accusations that resulted to her suspension.

Gwen says the suspension was ill-timed. Why, would her attitude been different had the suspension order been issued a month before or after the holidays? As the well known cliché goes – hard to teach old dogs new tricks.

Power and arrogance makes a person defiant, no doubt about it. It’s a combination that makes for a despotic leader.

Power has corrupted Gwen’s mind and arrogance has negatively modified her attitude.

The two quotations below, relative to arrogance, can very much apply to Gwen.

“Arrogance is a creature. It does not have senses.
It has only a sharp tongue and the pointing finger.”
― Toba Beta

“Arrogance is in everything I do. It is in my gestures, the harshness of my voice, in the glow of my gaze, in my sinewy, tormented face.”
― Coco Chanel

Chinese man divorces wife after bearing him ‘incredibly ugly’ baby

Jian Feng’s wife, before and after plastic surgery

Halloween is over, I know, but with this kind of bizarre story it looks like Halloween continues.

Divorcing a wife won’t raise anybody’s eyebrows now-a-days, but what makes Jian Feng’s case against his wife freaky is that he also sued her later, accusing her of cheating, claiming that she got him to marry her under false pretenses and all these must have convinced the judge that the case was ruled in Feng’s favor, granting him $120,000 for damages.

Now, how did it happen and how was he able to win the case?

Apparently, Feng met this beautiful girl, whom he felt so in love with and decided to marry her. Soon, as normally happen, the wife became pregnant and gave birth to a baby girl.

What started as fine and dandy soon became a nightmare to the husband, Feng. For how could he have such an ‘incredibly ugly baby’ when his wife was good looking, and presumably, he, too, was? Needless to say, that the baby resembled neither of her parents.

This bothered Feng no end that he demanded to know who the father was, because obviously Feng thought that the only reason for it is that the wife has been unfaithful. (This reminds me of a Spanish adage that goes: “Hijo mio,  pero cara del vecino” (He is my son, but he has the face of my neighbor).

As it turns out, Feng’s wife didn’t cheat, but, in fact, crowed over the fact that she had spent $100,000 on intense plastic surgery to drastically change her appearance before she met him.

Either the wife wanted the ‘mystery’ to be kept secret or she felt this was immaterial to the relationship.

Either ways, it cost the wife a failed marriage, a costly settlement, and, most likely, sole custodianship of the baby, for after she revealed this to her husband, Feng felt betrayed, divorced and sued her.

One can’t help but feel sorry for the child who is simply a victim of both vain parents.

Is there a moral lesson to this post-halloween story?

Sure, there is – have your head checked out first if the screws are all tight inside!

Duterte’s fearless handling of criminals

Vice-Mayor Rodrigo Duterte

Davao City Vice-Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has been featured in the news again lately and for the same reason – his fearless handling of criminals.

Then, as mayor, and now as vice-mayor, his mantra to criminals and more especially to drug lords has always been the same – if your intention of staying in Davao is evil, then get out of my realm fast or face serious consequences.

The last time Duterte was in the spotlight was a few months back when he made a swindler eat a piece of document for ripping off some innocent people of their hard earned money by selling them bogus land titles. This con man had a record of victimizing below-middle class workers hoping to own a land of their own. When asked by reporters what the suspected criminal was chewing, Duterte answered, ‘gum’, because the guy had bad breath.

This made me chuckled, appreciating Duterte’s wry sense of humor. In fact, this humor did not sit well with the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), as if it bothered the dauntless city official at all.

Quipped one resident about this incident: “mabuti nga hindi siya binigyan ng appointment ni Vice-Mayor kay Lord. (Good thing he wasn’t given an appointment with the Lord by the Vice-Mayor.)”

Suspected car theft syndicate leader Ryan “Baktin” Yu

This time around, Duterte seems to be setting up an appointment with the Lord when he didn’t hide his displeasure and anger in announcing a bounty for the capture, dead or alive, of Ryan “Baktin” Yu, suspected leader of a car theft ring operating in Mindanao.

The enraged Duterte offered P2 million if Yu was brought to him alive; if dead, it’s double the amount.

“And if you can hand over to me his head, preserved in ice, I will shell out an additional P1 million in reward,” he said.

Apparently, Duterte got riled up by reports attempting to link Yu to his son, Paolo, current chair of the Association of Barangay Captains of the city.

Duterte said he received a call from Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas asking about reports that Paolo had brought in untaxed luxury vehicles, including a Hummer, through Yu. Duterte said he confronted his son, who denied the reports.

Yu, according to Duterte, is known to drop the names of local and national officials, using these as “gate pass” for his criminal activity. Yu is also known to have his photograph taken with politicians to pass off the pictures as proof of his influence, said Duterte.

The city has been having problems with car theft and when authorities, recently, searched a warehouse believed to be owned by Yu, they found at least 14 stolen cars from the area.

Duterte claims that Yu enjoys the support of authorities from the Bureau of Customs and the Land Transportation Office.

Other people may find Duterte tyrannical and opprobrious in dealing with criminals, but I don’t.

How I wish we have more provincial and city executives like Davao’s Duterte. In fact, how I wish he is made, and accepts the position of a crime czar for this country.

It takes a public official, like Duterte, to empathize with the victims or families of those victimized by criminals, regardless of the kind of crime committed, to understand how it feels to be at the receiving end of an offense, be it against property or person.

This is the kind of leadership we want in the province and in the cities. It is making the place safe and sound for every law abiding citizen to roam around without fear that danger is lurking somewhere.

Justice for the victims and their families from any atrocious act inflicted on them is worth fighting for. But letting justice take its normal course for criminals who have neither conscience nor qualm  in prying at the vulnerabilities of people and doing them evil things deserve the poetic justice, Duterte-style.

Maintaining peace and order in the area is the best way to serve the people and is marked of a responsible leader.

Davao City residents are lucky to find a refuge in Rodrigo Duterte.