May 25, 2007, The Philippine Star, Op-Ed, Mga Chicklet Gang ng Cavite, by Ben Tulfo,

May 25, 2007, The Philippine Star, Op-Ed, Mga Chicklet Gang ng Cavite, by Ben Tulfo, 

Gilbert Pallogan was one of tens of poll officers across the land who bafflingly vanished at the height of the vote canvassing. As in other towns similarly vexed, what should have been non-stop tallying in Meycauayan, Bulacan had to recess when Pallogan abruptly left without word Friday. The 36-hour waiting period to search for a person reported missing lapsed Sunday dawn, yet the police did not bother to look for him. His clerks went about their work as if it was usual for the supervisor to disappear just when all eyes were on him. On Monday Pallogan returned with no explanation and simply proceeded with the much-delayed counting. All the Bulacan police chief could do was heave a sigh of relief that the man had reappeared.

Just like that. The cops never grilled Pallogan, in case the Comelec that deputized them asked for a report.

That same time in Metro Manila other cops were as cool about crime. A court had commanded them to rescue Carol Castañeda, earlier abducted by eight men from her condo parking lot on orders of estranged husband, former congressman Mark Jimenez. Before that, battered Carol had secured a writ preventing Jimenez from coming within 200 meters of her. She was in fact on her way to a court hearing on the marital abuse when kidnapped in front of her sister. Jimenez, on the other hand, had rambled to the press that Carol was insane and needed treatment. It was clear from the chain of events that she was being held against her will at Silvercrest Rehab Clinic of Jimenez’s niece, on pretext of drug addiction. A puny gatekeeper insolently refused entry to two-dozen SWAT men. A call came from a general. The commandos retreated, mission shamelessly unaccomplished.

Fearing that unwanted drugs might be forced on Carol, Jimenez’s six children by a first wife and three by Carol pleaded with authorities to save her. An angry Jimenez sued the three eldest of them for fraud in allegedly selling one of his companies without his consent while he was in Florida prison three years ago. As soon as the charges were filed with a prosecutor who has yet to evaluate whether or not to elevate it to court, the justice department forthwith issued a hold-departure order on the children.

Still in Metro Manila as all this was happening, another court granted bail to murder indictee Antonio Leviste, a real estate billionaire and former Batangas governor. Months ago in the heat of argument, Leviste had shot dead his long-time aide. He quickly pleaded self-defense. Coroners found the victim to have been shot twice in the face, and once each in the top of the head, nape and palm. Self-defense simply did not compute. Neither did the grant of bail in a no-bail case of murder.

The past week witnessed the breakdown of justice all over. Nothing new. it is but the continuation of a six-year crime wave. Journalists, judges, prosecutors and militants are being killed or kidnapped with impunity — and the government is doing nothing about it. To date, investigators have yet to turn up something concrete on the abduction inside a mall last month of Jonas Burgos, son of the late anti-Marcos freedom fighter Joe Burgos, by crew-cut men.

Election officers going “missing” during the canvassing is no longer news. Every election, they are either terrorized or bribed into abandoning their posts so that politicians’ goons can tamper with election returns. In Maguindanao, teachers deputized as poll watchers were ordered by local warlords on election eve to fill up ballots with the names of administration senatorial candidates. In Sharif Kabunsuan and Lanao del Sur, the election officers simply didn’t report for work on Election Day, forcing the balloting to fail.

The Comelec brass in Manila is challenging the terrorized teachers to file charges against the warlords. They will do no such thing, of course; they cannot expect protection from retaliation — not from a Comelec that produced a Garcillano and a crooked automation deal. The brass also said they will resolve if the Lanao and Sharif officers abandoned their duty. It’s as if they don’t know that those officers are the same Garcillano operatives who have rigged elections since 1995.

The Jimenez story shows that justice is only for the rich. Virgilio, one of the sued sons and a lawyer in America, was surprised that the police can ignore a court order to liberate a kidnap victim. Also, that a hold-departure order can be issued against somebody without getting his side on patently false charges. The justice department reportedly has barred Virgilio from leaving Manila. This is the same department that allowed Jocjoc Bolante to flee from a congressional inquiry into billion-peso fraud. This is the same department that frees Chinese poachers caught in inner Philippine waters.

Leviste’s story is as tortuous. Jurisprudence holds that in case there is no eyewitness — Leviste’s office staff had rebuffed investigators, prompting the NBI to charge them with obstructing justice — the law must lean towards the accused. Yet the law is also about common sense, says the prosecutor on case. And it’s common sense for someone defending himself to use only necessary force to stop an attacker. With four gunshots to the face and head, the attacker here certainly had to surmount tremendous self-defense.

And so it goes....