How a Corrupt Politico Enriches Himself

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Many mayors did not only enrich themselves through the S.O.P (heck no! Not the standard operation procedure but a bastardize euphemism of the Pinoys for “cut”) given by suppliers and contractors for their local government unit. Some of these Hizzoners are smarter than their counterparts because they become the suppliers and contractors themselves through a dummy. Aside from getting the 10% to 20% cut from the suppliers and contractors, they get too the profit the same merchants would earn in dealing with the “municipio” or city hall. That’s, salamabit, a double whammy!

Photo credit: Esquire 

A mayor who used to have a big construction business told me that he no longer deals with the projects of the provincial government because his governor –patron lost in the last year’s election.

But I jocularly told him everything was not lost to him because he still has the municipio where his dummies can do businesses and give him the dough that he can give too – the crumbs - to the indigents and where he can have the wherewithal – called ‘money for vote buying - for his reelection in 2025.

Woe to those mayors who did not only lose their governor –benefactor but lose, too, the mayorship election last year. I know a Hizzoner who borrowed tens of millions of pesos to win his reelection in the 2019 poll and borrowed again and still lost the May 9, 2022 election that left him mired with his 2019 and 2022 debts. This happened because of his desire to win an election that gives only more or less a salary of P150,000 a month in the first class town.

“Nagkalugi-lugi na sila mayor tapos iyong mga contractors at suppliers na nagbigay ng advance pay doon sa supposed deal pag nanalo siya nga-nga sila,” a source told me about another chief executive who lost the election.

***

How can a miscreant mayor enriched himself in a limited turf despite losing his contracting business in the Capitol?

With the 20% development or infrastructure projects (Section 287 Local Government Code) in a P350 million 2023 budgeted town, the Hizzoner can get a cut as high as 20 percent from the contractors on that P70 million a year or P210 million or more a year in his three years’ stint.

Twenty-percent of that dirty monies is P42 million – his juggernaut to ingratiate in patronage politics and vote buying.

As what my friend Dong told me about what his wife’s uncle told him: Pag upo pa lang ng Mayor umpisa na iyan sa pag ipon ng pera galing sa S.O.P sa suppliers at contractors, sa ingreso sa jueteng (the perennial’s illegal number game), at iba pang mapagkikitaan.

His seasoned uncle-politician and a lawyer however became poorer after he retired in politics.

“Pati mga ancestral properties pinagbebenta para may pang-gastos lang sa kanyang reelection,” Dong said.

***

Aside from the corruption taken from the 20% development fund yearly, the mayor can still get his dirty monies from the following below:

-               P54. 6 million kickbacks - P1.4 million in one month or P18.2 million in year that includes the workers’ 13^th Month Pay, or P54.6 million in his three years’ term if out of the 400 public personnel half of them are “ghost” employees who received a P7,000 average monthly salary.

-          “Have you heard about a third class town with 400 workers? According to critics that 400 personnel are bigger than those workers of a city. A first class town in Pangasinan has more than 200 personnel only, how come a third class town has this scandalous number?” another mayor, who asked on conditioned of anonymity, posed to me.

-          - 10% to 20% cut in the 5% Calamity Fund.

-          - 10% to 20% cut from the total budget of gender and development (GAD).

-           Aside from the percentages that I mentioned above, the politico can still purloin some percentages on the Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) in the different offices on the supplies there where he, as the Bids & Award Committee (BAC) chairman, in conspiracy with the treasurer, the accountant, the budget officer, general services officer, and the head of office who are members jack-up the prices of a laptop computer worth P30,000 to P120,000 apiece (ala those national DepEd officials), and others and even tinker with the 2% and 1%  of the Discretionary Fund and Special Education Fund.

READ MY OTHER BLOG:

The Lethal, Costly Weapons of a Cobra

MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

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I am a twenty years seasoned Op-Ed Political Writer in various newspapers and Blogger exposing government corruptions, public officials's idiocy and hypocrisies, and analyzing local and international issues. I have a master’s degree in Public Administration and professional government eligibility. I taught for a decade Political Science and Economics in universities in Metro Manila and cities of Urdaneta, Pangasinan and Dagupan. Follow me on Twitter @totoMortz or email me at totomortz@yahoo.com.

Coup Rumors

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

A police Colonel assigned in Metro Manila called my attention last Saturday that there was a brewing coup rumor in the country as armored personnel carriers were ubiquitous in the police camp.

“Heightened alerts ang dalawang kampo,” he told me through Messenger about the highest level of alert in Camp Crame and the nearby military headquarter's Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

TOP BRASS of the military and the police in the Philippines. From left photo and clockwise: Reappointed Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff General Andres Centino, dismissed AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Bartolome Bacarro, and national police's chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin. 

He cited that this looming putsch ensued after Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff General Bartolome Bacarro was sacked from his post without explanation. Bacarro was replaced by his Philippine Military Academy’s classmate General Andres Centino. The latter was unceremoniously booted out from his office and left in floating status in August 2022 when President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. replaced him with Bacarro.

Bacarro was rumored to be a recommendee of disgraced former Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez who resigned because of the alleged appointment- for- sale in top government positions.

A broadsheet of the Philippine Star reported that an "unsigned memorandum" from Caraga and Cordillera police offices quoted Philippine National Police Chief Gen. Arnold Azurin ordering all the cops to go on alert status "in view of the resignation of all Department of National Defense personnel at Camp Aguinaldo. All duty personnel are required 100 percent police presence and monitor movements of AFP troops."        

Because of this brouhaha, Department of National Defense officer-in-charge Jose Faustino Jr. - a former General - resigned from his post. President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. appointed to the DND  Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity Secretary Carlito Galvez.

Bacarro's appointment was a slap on the face of Centino because of Republic Act No. 11709 passed by Congress and approved during the administration of Marcos’ predecessor President Rodrigo Duterte.  The law sets a fixed term of three years for eight of the most senior AFP officers, including the chief of staff and the commanders of the Army, Air Force and Navy.

The turned over ceremony of the top brass of the AFP was deprived of pomp and pageantry of the traditional changed of command ceremony where a band and colors lead by cadets of the PMA and military where the President of the Philippines and the Defense Secretary as guest of honors at the grandstand in Camp Aguinaldo.

Centino’s reappointment – a first in the annals of the AFP – was graced by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who presided over the ceremony, and Special Assistant to the President Anton Lagdameo Jr. It was held in the Tejeros Hall of the AFP Commissioned Officers Club House.

“Therefore, to implement this law, the [AFP] needs strong and determined leaders capable of steering the organization in the direction of stabilizing unity, and ushering in a truly modern and professional Armed Forces,” excerpt of the speech Centino’s cited.

“Both unprecedented and a welcome development, justice is done to a truly deserving officer by a President who is willing to rectify an error when it is the right thing to do,” he added on the mistake committed by President Marcos on the statute.

Journalists were not even invited to the ceremony of the 144, 000 strong military.

My Colonel-source even told me that there is restlessness among the almost 1,000 police generals and colonels after Secretary Benhur  Abalos called for their mass resignation.

This was due to the deteriorating narcotics problem in the country where the law enforcers were involved.

In October last year, Police Master Sgt. Rodolfo Mayo Jr.  was arrested in Tondo, Manila and found to have amassed 990 kilos of shabu (meth) worth P6.7 billion he kept in the lending company office’s Wealth and Personal Development Lending Inc. in Sta. Cruz, Manila . The arrest led the police to investigate a general - who remained anonymous as of press time -  who was the patron of Mayo.

In December 6 last year, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency’s Southern District Office Chief Enrique Lucero, agents Anthony Vic Alabastro and Jaireh Llaguno, and driver Mark Warren Mallo were arrested by police in a buy bust operation selling P9.18 million worth of shabu inside their office in Bonifacio Street in Barangay Upper Bicutan, Taguig 

During the administration of Duterte – whose gauntlet hand approach to narcos saw the death of 7,742 civilians (ACLED) – the appalling involvement of law enforcers like that of Sergeant Mayo and PDEA Chief Lucero et al. were unheard of.

These malefactors trembled to the take-no-prisoner approach of the Davao City’s Dirty Harry while they are not deterred to the present occupant of Malacanang.

Where Indeed MacArthur Landed in Pangasinan?

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

After the new year dawned on January 1, 2023. What’s next? In my province it’s the January 9 historical landing of United States Supreme Commander for the Pacific’s General Douglas “Dugout Doug” MacArthur in Pangasinan.

This landing however is still being disputed by historical buffs in Dagupan City and Lingayen who want to claim the glory in hosting the “first step” on their beach of the gung-ho man in a khaki's Pershing cap.

DUGOUT DOUG RETURNED. United States Supreme Commander for the Pacific’s General Douglas MacArthur (center, leading the group) and his entourage wade the shore of Pangasinan in January 9, 1945 after disembarking from the U.SS Boise, his command ship, during the invasion of Luzon. Photo credit: National Museum of American History.

His presence liberated a subjugated country from the brutality of its invaders’ the Japanese Imperial Army.

Let’s go back to what happened before and in January 1, 1945:

 After the military alliances of Great Britain, Soviet Union, and the United States bludgeoned and defeated the Axis power led by Germany and the butcher Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, the Japanese - another Axis power in the Asia Pacific - knew that it lived on a borrowed time as the military juggernaut of the huge naval armada of the richest country of the world’s U.S.A invaded with vengeance the islands of the Philippines like Leyte.

Remember, the Yanks were defeated by the Japs in April 9, 1942 at Bataan and yielded Corregidor to them on May 6, 1942 where the “Dugout Doug” moniker of MacArthur was given after President Delano Roosevelt ordered him, his family, and staff in March 11, 1942 to abscond to Australia with a phrase in mind probably: A person who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day. Another source said the moniker started when he visited only once the besieged troops in Bataan where they derisively called it an act of cowardice.

MacArthur declared in the Aussie Land to all and sundry his iconic promise to the Filipinos: I shall return.

He returned indeed!

After defeating the Japanese Navy, the Americans sailed to Pangasinan as a prelude to the liberation of Manila where 17, 000 evil Japanese Naval soldiers under their barbaric commanding officer’s Rear Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi, tortured, raped and slaughtered 100,000 Filipinos in the second worst damaged city after Stalingrad (presently Volgograd, Russia).

General Douglas MacArthur in an LCVP (landing craft vehicle, personnel) getting ready to go ashore in Lingayen Gulf Blue 1 landing beach (color tagging of Dagupan? -MCO), Luzon, Philippines, January 9, 1945. Note Chief of Staff Lt. General R.K. Sutherland besides him. Photo credit: U.S Navy 

 In the early morning of January 6, 1945, a large Allied force commanded by Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf began approaching the shores of Lingayen Gulf where the U.S and Australian Navies pounded with their ships’ big guns those Japanese positions in the coast of the area. On "S-Day" January 9, the U.S 6^th Army landed on the beachhead at the base of the Lingayen Gulf between the towns of Lingayen and San Fabian.

On the silent film produced by the British Pathe, a ramrod straight, tall, and strong Douglas MacArthur helped with his both hands Philippines Commonwealth President Sergio Osmena disembarked from his ship to the landing craft vehicle, personnel (LCVP)  that would bring them to the place being disputed by history conscious residents of Dagupan City and Lingayen in Pangasinan.

As MacArthur and his entourage trotted the knee deep water of the Gulf, he proceeded to the West Central Elementary School’s two-storey Economics building in Dagupan he used as a command post for three months.

In this headquarter, the General – book author William Manchester called the “American Caesar” - was seen to meet American and Filipino military officers and local luminaries.

Conflicting Versions

Incumbent Lingayen Mayor Leopoldo Bataoil cited that Agriculture Minister Condring Estrella said that Life Magazine’s photographer Carl Mydans who took the iconic photo told the Cabinet Minister from Rosales, Pangasinan where the iconic and photo-op landing ensued: “it was near the American inspired provincial capitol”.

Estrella met Mydan when he joined MacArthur in his 1961 sentimental journey in the Philippines.

“Initially, I relied on the statement of the late Minister Conrado Estrella which he revealed in his talk with Gen. Douglas MacArthur during his return to Lingayen. When asked where exactly did he land. Minister Estrella said, McArthur asked where was the Capitol, and then pointed towards an area at vicinity of Urduja (the residence of the Governor of Pangasinan a spit distance to the Capitol Building – MCO),” Bataoil – a former general - said. 

Retired Police General Sonny Verzosa, the PMYer (military college’s alumnus) scion of the capital town’s former Hizzoner Mariano C. Versoza, Sr. joined the passionate discussion on my Facebook's board.

 “Sir when my dad was the Mayor he invited to Lingayen the American photographer (Life Magazine’s photographer Mydans - MCO) who took the monumental picture of the Lingayen Gulf Landing. This was during the time when my dad and mayor Manaois of Dagupan City was hotly contesting the exact landing site of McArthur. He presented to my dad the picture where McArthur and his staff were wading through the shore and enfaced on it his dedication ‘To Mayor Verzosa, photo I took right at the back of the capitol’. I gave the original copy to the secretariat of the Gulf Landing Celebration then chaired by Sir Espines (moniker of former nine years’ Governor Amado T. Espino, Jr – another PMYer - MCO) and I think it is one of those photos on display at the Veterans Park”.

World War II veteran Alejandro Balolong, who was 91 years old in 2018, narrated however his personal account of the arrival of MacArthur in Bonuan Gueset, Dagupan.

“Nen January 9, 1945… ed oras ya manaalas-dose ed kaagewan…imuna ak ya nanalagey ed gilid na kalsada diman ed Catacdang, nen unlabas si General Douglas MacArthur ya akalugan ed military jeep. Et binabayabayan mi. Kasumpal to man, four months later, labin lima kami ya … taga diya ed Bonuan Gueset ya inrecruit ed US Navy,” Balolong said in the dialect how he saw at noon of January 9, 1945 the five-star General riding in a military jeep.

U.S. warships faced an onslaught of suicide Japanese Kamikaze pilots and their planes with bombs and gasoline off Luzon during the second great American amphibious landing at Lingayen Gulf, Pangasinan in the Philippines during World War - II. (Photo Credit: USNI.ORG)

Advocates of MacArthur landing in Dagupan City like Councilor Jigs Seen cited to me the 2014 exhibits of the Philippine Veterans.

“Gen. MacArthur landed in the Bonuan Blue Beach but upon being informed that the bridge in Bonuan Catacdang leading to the West Central School (that became his headquarter for three months – MCO) was impassable, he went back to his ship and decided to land in Lingayen Beach that leads him and arrived at his destination by land at West Central Gabaldon Building,” Seen – the brother-in-law of the present city mayor, disclosed how Dagupan should own the glory of the “right of first step” my play of words on the law of contract’s principle the “right of first refusal”, hahaha!

Asst. Prosecutor Ferdinand Parayno commented on my earlier blog: “If Gen. MacArthur first landed in Lingayen as claimed by residents of that capital town, then why did he choose to use a building inside the West Central School in Dagupan as his official residence/office during his stay? I don't think that would be a sound tactical decision on his part. And then there are pictures of the General personally inspecting downtown Dagupan. Why would he do that if he first landed in Lingayen town? I think our history books should be re-written and Dagupan should be given the distinction that has wrongly been given to another municipality, for being the City where Mac Arthur had landed”.

So what say you readers, where indeed Dugout Doug landed?

(Please send comment to totomortz@yahoo.com) 

He Lives Like King but Dies like Pauper

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

In a huddle with a seasoned former mayor, he told me that an ex- city mayor, after several attempts to reclaim his post, lives now in a financial distress.

The former Hizzoner and his favorite contractor for nine years live in an economic agony.

The misery of the veteran politician was aggravated by his addiction to casinos while the contractor – one of the biggest in the province before – could not even pay the two million pesos he promised to my former mayor friend when the latter interceded to sell a land to a government agency.

A poor man waits for his death.

“Wala na kasi ang mga mayors na kaibigan niya kaya naghihirap na siya ngayon,” the former Hizzoner told me.

Material wealth is not absolute. These people I mentioned live the life of opulence before where they threw monies to anybody as if there would be no tomorrow.

***

I remembered Pangasinan’s Jueteng Lord Bong See (real name: Bong Cayabyab) of San Carlos City.

When I was new in the media profession I was in the city covering an event of the mayor there when I saw village chiefs (Kapitans in the vernacular) and media men milling and ingratiating with Bong See at the rear part of the public gym.

“Who’s that white Chinese looking guy,” I asked veteran broadcaster Harold Barcelona and a friend of the Gambling Lord.

“He is that Bong See I told you”, Harold told me about See who would just give wads of bills at a drop of a hat after conversing with those folks he rubbed elbow.

The gambling czar who was a Lothario told me in the early 2010s he gave as an average twenty thousand pesos to a beauty contestant of Manila in a tryst in a hotel in Dagupan City.

“Meron pa nga nirito sa akin maganda raw. Noong pumasok ako sa hotel di ko type. Ginawa ko binigyan ko ng biente mil (P20,000) at binigay ko na lang sa body guard ko,” he told me with a chuckle.

He was an accountancy undergraduate who was jailed in the national penitentiary in Muntinlupa. Upon his released from the slammer he became the gambling boss of the forty- four towns and four cities province.

He gave generously to solicitors like police brass, politicians, reporters, and the indigents.

Bong See’s house near the justice hall of the 86 barangays’ San Carlos was secured by armed body guards.

Media men regularly go there to get their allowance to buy their silence.

Harold told me that when Bong See and the Mayor of the city occupied the second floor of the Warehouse Club in Dagupan City for booze with nursing students of one of the universities in the city, the gambling lord and the Hizzoner quaffed an expensive Remy Martin’s champagne-cognac. Their female friends were wide eyed in the endless delivery by the waiters of finger foods (pulutan) and San Miguel Beer Lights on their tables till the wee hours while the body guards of the duo at the corners watch the surrounding.

***

When the power in the province got a new gambling czar, life for Bong See went south. He died not only of ailment but his family’s incapacity to bring him in a good hospital and provide him with effective medicines.

The late Guardian Newspaper Editor Lorna Hermogeno –whose genius was mistaken for lunacy – of San Carlos City told me: Mortz, Bong See lived like a King but died liked a Pauper.

To rephrase a word of my English speaking (yes Virginia, media men of yore speak with each other Shakespeare’s language unlike the present crop) friend Lorna – a magna cum laude at the University of Pangasinan – for those average I.Q readers of this column, she cited the gambling czar lived like a king but died like a very poor person.

His misfortune could be similar with the former seasoned city mayor and his contractor I mentioned earlier: They lost their connection to the power that be.

Filipinos as Infamous Cheaters

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Many Filipinos have been scandalized about the cheating bravado of international renowned boxing referee Carlos “Sonny” Padilla on the match of the then unheralded Manny Pacquiao and Australian Nedal Hussein as shown on his video interview. This was a day before his August 2022 induction at the iconic Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame in the United States. The Fame honors those individuals for their efforts, achievements, and contributions to one of the Americans favorite pastimes.

BELEAGUERED retired international boxing referee Carlos "Sonny" Padilla in his recent induction to the renowned Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame. Padilla - a former actor - stirred a hornet nest in the world of boxing when he told the interviewer in a social media's Q&A a day before his induction that he cheated twice to see fellow Filipino Manny Pacquiao won against Australian Nedal Hussein for the international WBC Super Bantamweight's tilt.

I first saw Padilla in boob tube when he refereed the classic boxing rubber match or third fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier dubbed Thrilla in Manila held in October 1, 1975 at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City. It was for the heavyweight championship of the world.

The collision between these two mammoth personalities of the heavyweight was death defying. Padilla stopped the brutal fisticuff in the 14^th Round because the still gung-ho Frazier could no longer see in his both swollen eyes due to the punches of Ali.

Louisville Lip’s Ali nearly gave up, too, on that merciless slugfest.

"It was like death. Closest thing to dyin' that I know of," the battle scarred pugilist said later of the hell he and Frazier fought amid the Philippines' scorching daytime 125 degree Celsius aggravated by the heat emitted from the bodies of the sea of humanity in the coliseum that overpowered the air conditioning system.

Padilla's fortune shined on that marquee fight because it was watched by one billion viewers around the world.

When Padilla - the actor-father of actress Zsa Zsa Padilla – met World Boxing Council’s President Jose Sulaimán in a confab held in the U.S, the latter told him he was impressed about his performance in the Thrilla in Manila. From thereon there was no turning back to the fame of the son of Philippines Olympic pug Carlos Padilla, Sr.

He became the third man in the high-profile classic global boxing matches like those of Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Roberto Durán - 1, Thomas Hearns vs. Roberto Durán, Julio César Chávez vs. Ruben Castillo and Salvador Sánchez vs. Wilfredo Gómez. He refereed his final bout on October 14, 2000, between Manny Pacquiao and Nedal Hussein in the Philippines. This fight would haunt him and his family 22 years later.

In his interview uploaded by the WBC last October 6 in YouTube, the animated retired Ref answered the posers of the interviewer’s WBC President José Sulaimán Chagnón - the son of  Jose Sulaimán.

He described Hussein as tall, younger, stronger, and a dirty pug. In the fourth round he knocked down Pacquiao who could not get up immediately as his eyes crossed (naduling in the vernacular).

 The 88 years old Padilla, whose blabber could be at the league of Gen. George “faux pas” Patton, said: “I am Filipino, and everybody watching the fight is Filipino, so I prolonged the count. I know how to do it. When he got up, I told him, ‘Hey, are you okay?’ Still prolonging the fight. ‘Are you okay?’ ‘Okay, fight!” he proudly told the interviewer.

The Ref –  the grand dad of prolific actresses Karylle and Zia Quizon -  ordered a point deducted from Hussein for pushing Pacquiao to the floor since he felt the Pinoy fighter had no chance to brawl until the end of the 12^th Round.

Padilla declared Pacquiao's head butt on Hussein as a legal punch. The mestizo looking Ref initially did not let the doctor take a closer look at the cut because he said it was not serious.

“When the doctor was approaching (Padilla’s moved sideways his left lower lip as signal to stop the fight) hahaha!” he said on the later round.

The doctor sensed what he meant examine the cut to the head of the Aussie and signaled to the public the end of the match on the tenth round.

Hussein, a salesman now, in a statement in the social media called the WBC to take action on the case.

"They should be held accountable for the sport we love," he wrote on Instagram.

With that bombshell that could taint all his feats in boxing, Padilla and the Doctor should be condemned and reprimanded on their chicanery. The Hall of Fame should strip off its conferment with the beleaguered Ref. The offense he committed could not only ruin him and his family but the entire Filipino nation inhabited by miscreants and knaves who were notorious in not only cheating in countless public posts held in an election but in the beauty and baseball tilts  as shown by the Manila Films Festival’s scandal in 1994 where the winners were rigged by celluloid screen personalities like Lolit Solis, Ruffa Gutierrez, and Gabby Concepcion and the cheating by Filipino officials that saw baseball players from Zamboanga won the championship against the athletes from Long Beach, California in the Little League World Series held in Aug. 29, 1992 in the United States. Two of the excerpts from the prestigious Washington Post said:

“It turned out that only six of the 14 team members came from Zamboanga. Philippine Little League officials had substituted eight ineligible players, plus an ineligible manager and coach, from other places across the Philippines to create an all-star national team in violation of Little League tournament rules”.

“There were also allegations -- so far unproved -- that some of the players were over the age limit for Little League. The tournament requires players to be under 13 on Aug. 1”.

  These rigging brouhahas were widely covered by international media at the expense of the reputation of us Flips, er, Filipinos. And now here comes Sonny Padilla shooting himself on the foot with his big mouth, salamabit!

Bantag could Suffer the Fate of Mafia’s Boss Al Capone

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Former Bureau of Corrections Director General Gerald Bantag was caught lying through his teeth when exposed by Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla that he ordered the excavation through a deep hole and a tunnel at the compound of the BuCors to foray for the fabled Yamashita Treasure.
The beleaguered Bantag told the media in November 11 he ordered the excavation to build a swimming pool because he is a “master scuba diver.”

A horseshit we learned later.

BELEAGUERED suspended former Bureau of Corrections Chief Gerald Bantag (left, photo) and Chicago's Mafia Boss Al Capone.

Those who vigorously believed - like his fellow Cordillerans - that Bantag was an upright man and did not mastermind the murder of acerbic tongue Percy Lapid and Cristito Palaña would have a second thought about his credibility after his rebuffed from Remulla.

 Can you still remember the legal Latin maxim: Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus (False in one thing, false in everything)?

With and without his credibility, Bantag for me, however, can still weather the storm on the double murder cases he faces.

The criminal charges filed by the law enforcers and consolidated by the prosecutors at the DOJ have holes.

 Bantag could be exonerated by the Supreme Court if ever he would be convicted by the Regional Trial Court and the Court of Appeals.

Without his alleged butcher (berdugo) SJ02 Ricardo Zulueta – absconded because he was accused to order the three gang leaders to kill Palana who ordered the murder of Lapid – exposing Bantag as the master mind, the Court of Appeals (CA) or the Supreme Court – after five to seven years of litigation will absolve Bantag in case the judge of the Regional Trial Court ordered his arrest and eventually convicted him.

The C.A or the Supreme Court will acquit Bantag due to the cardinal principle of “Proof beyond reasonable doubt”. It means the evidence presented by the prosecution must produce in the mind of the Court a moral certainty of the accused's guilt against any cloud of doubt.

Without Zulueta who had the personal knowledge that Bantag allegedly ordered him to do those dastardly acts I mentioned above, the case will not stand on the cold neutrality of a competent judge.

***

Mafia’s Boss Al Capone

Even if he would not be convicted eventually, he could still suffer the fate of U.S Mafia’s Boss Al Capone.
Known too as "Scarface", Capone attained notoriety during the Prohibition era (illegal selling of alcoholic beverages) as the co-founder and honcho of the mafia’s Chicago Outfit. His seven-year reign as a crime boss ended when he went to prison at the age of 33.
When Capone replaced syndicate’s godfather Johnny Torrio – after he was almost killed in a rival gang’s ambush -- the former expanded the bootlegging business through violence against his nemesis.
He was responsible for the killing of more or less 100 persons that interfere with his vice and gambling houses in Chicago.

One of the milestones of his infamy, Capone helped the victories of Republican mayoral candidate William Hale Thompson in the 1927 electoral derby. Thompson supported the reopening of illegal saloons that made him a recipient of the mafia's boss $250, 000 election contribution. Thompson beat William Emmett Dever.
The mafia chief backed up to the hilt the mayoralty bet through his bomber James Belcastro. The factotum bombed to death 15 of Thompson's opponents. Belcastro was accused too of murdering lawyer Octavius Granady, an African American who challenged Thompson for the African American votes.
Capone was accused too of the 1926 murder of Assistant State Attorney William H. McSwiggin, the 1928 murders of chief investigator Ben Newmark and former mentor Frankie Yale.
The end of his infamous career started when he was suspected for ordering the massacre of seven rival gang’s members dubbed as the 1929 Saint Valentine's Day Massacre.
In the wake of the carnage, Walter A. Strong, publisher of the Chicago Daily News, asked his friend President Herbert Hoover for federal intervention to mitigate Chicago's lawlessness that went haywire.
The federal authorities became intent on jailing Capone and charged him with 22 counts of tax evasion. He was convicted of five counts in 1931.
The Scarface – whose life story became a model of mafia flicks like his snazzy coat and tie dressing - was jailed in May 1932 at Atlanta U.S. Penitentiary and in August 1934 at the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary off the coast of San Francisco, California.

***

Now! Where’s Gerald Bantag on this Al Capone’s equation? Not on the number of killings in the slammer because the mafia boss’ 100 people killed would be a child’s play on Bantag's 3,002 dead con men - many mysteriously - from his 2019 to 2021 stints at the national penitentiary in Muntinlupa.

Incase Bantag escapes conviction in the murders of Lapid and Palaña, he can be convicted and be jailed – through direct witnesses like Remulla – that he ordered the illegal digging at the expense of the government.

Here are some of the law provisions that can be used against him:

- Any provision of law to the contrary notwithstanding, treasure hunting in government properties or portions of the public domain shall not be allowed, except upon prior authority of the President of the Philippines, according to the Marcosian Law in the 1980s (Presidential Decree No. 1726-A – Providing Guidelines on Treasure Hunting).

- The Anti-Graft & Corrupt Practices Act provides:
 (a) Persuading, inducing or influencing another public officer to perform an act constituting a violation of rules and regulations duly promulgated by competent authority… (Section 3).

Causing any undue injury to any party, including the Government (paragraph e, Section 3)

h) Directly or indirectly having financial or pecuniary interest in any business, contract or transaction in connection with which he intervenes or takes part in his official capacity, or in which he is prohibited by the Constitution or by any law from having any interest (Section3).

Section 9. Penalties for violations. — (a) Any public officer or private person committing any of the unlawful acts or omissions enumerated in Sections 3, 4, 5 and 6 of this Act shall be punished with imprisonment for not less than six years and one month nor more than fifteen years, perpetual disqualification from public office, and confiscation or forfeiture in favor of the Government of any prohibited interest and unexplained wealth manifestly out of proportion to his salary and other lawful income.