Piñol Communicates Better than Andanar

                                         TALE OF 2 CABINET SECRETARIES

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Reporters in Pangasinan saw recently two cabinet secretaries of the Duterte Administration graced two occasions in the same day at the Capitol Ground in the historic and capital town’s Lingayen.

After Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar and party sneaked to say hello near the rostrum where Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol was already speaking before the stakeholders of the Mango Forum at the swanky world class Sison Auditorium, I saw again the PCOO top honcho spoke before elected officials of the 47 cities and towns’ Pangasinan at the nearby Training Center. 

 Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol and Communication Secretary Martin Andanar. 

If the diminutive Piñol, former broadcaster and a Governor, emphatically spoke with gusto and spiced his speech with macho jokes before the multitudes, the six-footer Andadar seemed reserve and a snooze with his discourse before the local government executives and their communication officers.

“Dapat si Piñol ang Communication Secretary because he communicates effectively with the people unlike kay Andanar na parang boring,” I ribbed my radio tandem Harold Barcelona when we dropped by at the training center and listen to the wisdom of the PCOO's top man, a former TV-5 reporter, on the important roles of the information officers at the local government units.

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After being treated by Piñol’s side statement, er,  joke that many Ilocanos are poor but happy because after they incessantly contented themselves to over eat the slimy Saluyot (Corchorus) plant in their three square meals a day, the supper with the poor man’s vegetable was the most exciting because the spouses disappeared to the dark part of their room and indulge to sex, Andanar’s dry corporate-like talk made me reminisced about rabble rousing Abono Party list Congressman Conrad Estrella cracking jokes like that Saluyot antics  of Piñol that brought the house down.

“Sino sa inyo mga mayors ang may gusto ng Federalism, taas ang mga kamay!” Only three Pangasinan mayors raised their hands while nobody waved their hands when Andanar asked them who among the elected executives do not like Federalism.

“Paano magtataas ang mga iyan, hindi nila naiintidihan the pros and cons of Federalism,” I told the amused Rey dela Cruz, City Information Officer of San Carlos City.

“They did not understand the nuances of Federalism. They need to be informed,” quipped by Governor Amado Espino III to the Secretary after seeing the blank faces of most of the Hizzoners and the Board Members on Federalism.

Then Andanar, like a neophyte college instructor, explained the kinds of Federalism in Australia and France where in the former the prime minister (Malcolm Turnbull) was elected (Westminster System’s style – Author)  by majority party or coalition of the members of the Parliament while in the latter the prime minister was appointed by the strong president like Emmanuel Macron.

“Any comment or question?” Andanar posed to the audience.

I was tempted to go to the microphone in the center of the building because nobody wanted to speak ha ha ha but I restrained myself in giving my piece.

“Baka wala ng bumoto sa Federalism just like what happened when I gave my side during the First Public Consultation of Constitutional Reform,” I told Harold who urged me to say my opinion that I passionately cited in the radio.

I should be telling Andanar that the most divisive part on Federalism was how would poor provinces and regions pay the salaries of national personnel like those in the Philippine National Police, Departments of Public Works & Highways and the Education, and others and how these LGUs financed infrastructure projects after these local government units converge as a state, just like in the U.S, and feed themselves on the taxes used to be collected by the national government?

Poor provinces like Maguindanao, Davao del Sur, Ifugao, Aparri, Leyte, Samar would find themselves in a financial catastrophe because there will be no national government through the Bureau of Internal Revenue that collects Value Added Tax, Capital Gain Tax, Corporate Tax, Donor Tax, Percentage Tax, Documentary Tax, except "Thumbtack" and divide through the internal revenue allocation where some of these funds collected from progressive provinces like Pangasinan and Pampanga would be funneled to Maguindanao and those poor provinces I mentioned.

 I should be responding to Andanar’s poser that the economic malaise of the Filipinos could not be solved by Federalism but by amending the economic provision in the Constitution where the xenophobic law was responsible to the penury of our countrymen.

Here’s what I told early this year the congressmen led by the Committee on Constitutional Amendment’s Chairman Roger Mercado during the First Public Consultation on Constitutional Reform when I gave my piece that amending the 60-40 percent provision is the silver bullet to solve, probably partially because we still have to deal with population explosion, the economic hardship where jobs are elusive to find in this forsaken country.

“Our problems are jobs for our people and the solution is break that 60-40 percent economic provision in the Constitution and make it 100 percent to attract more foreign businessmen to put jobs in the country,” I cited.

I elaborated that 100 percent foreign ownership made Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore a haven of foreign investors while their neighbor Philippines lurked at the economic bottom in drawing investors.

“According to the World Bank in 2015 foreign direct investors poured almost U.S $6 billion to the Philippines; $ 9,003, 516, 296 to Thailand; $10, 962, 721,673 to Malaysia; $11,800,000,000 to Vietnam; $20, 054, 270,304 to Indonesia; and $65,262,633,426 to Singapore,” I stressed.

If jobs for the millions of Filipinos are the problem, then HesusMariaHusep, why chose Federalism where foreign investors would still be hesitant to come to our shores because the local industries are still controlled by the likes of Gokongweis, Sys, Pangilinans, Ayalas, Cojuangcos, Angs, Gaisanos, Aboitizes, and other taiphans ?

Are the proponents of Federalism should be pushing instead of the breaking out of the anti-foreign investors 60-40 equity to save this country from the squalor?

(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)

This politician misleads the ignorant ?

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

The debates on the transfer and construction of the new Dagupan City Hall became “nagkakainitan na” or acrimonious as the days passed by.

What aggravate the situation were for people like Vice Mayor Brian Lim telling half of the story or concocting or exaggerating another story that inflame the emotions of a large number of gullible, stupid, and ignorant people in the City.

VITRIOL. Dagupan City Vice Mayor Brian Lim (extreme left) attacks Mayor Belen Fernandez and her family on this radio interview held at DWIZ - Dagupan City last Thursday

Here were some of his salient declarations on his more than an hour interview yesterday at DWIZ – an FM radio station owned by the Cabangons, another nemesis of City Mayor Belen Fernandez.

“Why the then administrations of then Mayors Cipriano Manaois, Libring Reyna, and Al Fernandez did not relocate to their family owned land the transfer of the new city (unlike what Mayor Belen was doing)?

MY ANSWER: Traffic congestion, the danger imposed by the rickety worn out wood made government edifice, and flooding did not pose so much inconveniences and dangers before as what they posed today. Beside, there was no Kerwin Fernandez before who has the benevolence today to donate 1. 2 hectares of land worth P400 million as situs for the new City Hall.

That’s a lot of saving for the Dagupan City’s government if she can be spared to borrow from bank just to buy a land.

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When Lim was asked about the legal opinions of City Lawyer Vicky Cabrera and the legal luminaries of the Department of Interior & Local Government and the Commission on Audit that the donation and the transfer of the deteriorating government building was not illegal, Lim cited the following:

“The opinion of Cabrera was nothing. The decisions of the COA and DILG can be bought (opinion nasalew).

So, for me, whose opinion is credible?

 As far as I know, Lim was not able to cite any jurisprudence or legal opinion from an entity to back up his charges of corruption against Fernandez.

He only said that opinion should be from the court calling it “judicial opinion”.

“Nakita ko may illegal, siguradong may illegal,” he said.

MY ANSWER: It’s Brian’s opinion versus those lawyers from the government. Many observers like me could pin point that there was no anomaly on the donation, the transfer, and the properties of the family of the mayor surrounding the location of the proposed edifice that Lim said would benefit on the presence of a government building.

Here’s my column on “My Debate with a De Venecia on the City Hall's Brouhahas”:

“I told the quite skeptical Dagupan City former Councilor Alex that the mayor said in 2013 that she divested her interest at the corporation thus she is relieved to any anti-corruption case.

“Besides, her signature of the ordinance (for the acceptance of the donation) will be ministerial as she can even refuse to sign it and the ordinance became a law in ten days, you know that as a former dad, or she can even veto the ordinance and the bill still becomes a law after two-third members of the City Council override it,” I told Alex who was a two-term councilor of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (City Council). I explained that the "Voice of the People is the Voice of God" or "Vox Populi Vox Dei" was represented by the council members who empowered the mayor to accept the donation.
Since the issue of the relocation of the city hall is divisive, Alex, a law graduate, said that a referendum is necessary to get the sentiments of the people. I disagreed because it is only lengthy and it’s only an option but not compulsory for the Council as the law did not mandate it”.

Opps, before I forgot, Lim refuted the COA and DILG opinions since the people there can be bought and suggested that the local government unit gets a judicial opinion.

Lim, as a Bachelor of Law graduate should know the jurisprudence (as seen on Nobleja vs. Teehankee (L-28790)) that says “It is not the function of the court to give advisory opinions in relation to Section 12 of Article VIII (Judiciary) of the Constitution”.

He cited that Mayor Fernandez and family “Kumita ng bilyones, umutang ng bilyones. Kita sa dalen (lands near the proposed city hall) around 1.5 billion, sa utang 1.5 billion’.

MY ANSWER: The last time I saw the accusation at Lim’s D’Dagupan Dream Face Book Community Page that the Fernandez Administration was plotting to borrow P500 million from government bank for the construction of the edifice was three months ago. Then the P500 million became P1.2 billion last month. At his radio interview yesterday, it ballooned, son of a gun, to P1.5 billion to P2 billion.

Susmariosep, where did Lim get all these exaggerated and baseless financial figures that made many people crazy and furious in the Bangus City?

Now these gullibles are threatened and afraid that they would not be drowned by the delap or flood but by the two billions of pesos of loan the vice mayor painted before their eyes.

Gold plated siguro ang dingding ng bagong munisipio kaya two billion pesos na! Next month I’m afraid Lim would say it would be P3 billion. Salamabit, that would be a budget for the construction of an economic zone where skyscrapers made by the Ayalas, Gokongweis, Sys abound.

City Councilor Netu Tamayo said that there was no such thing as hundreds of millions of pesos loan because the legislative body has not discussed it yet.

Mayor Fernandez, when I asked her about these amounts, told me a month ago that she would be looking for funding for the new city hall from the powers that be.

Here’s another talent of Lim in “fomenting unrest” to go against Fernandez:

The old city hall would be used for the business of the family of the mayor. 

Susmariosep, this was not true. I saw a proposed plan to make the old city hall, a heritage site, as a museum.

Here’s another audacity of the vice mayor to misinform the hoi-poloi.

When asked that his father sold the city owned former five star hotel seven-storey McAdore Palace for a song that disadvantaged the city, Lim said that the city government instead earned in that transaction.

That sale is now being litigated in court.

“We bought that property for P50 million, we sold it for P119 million. P119 minus P50 million equal P69 million profits we have,” he told his two interviewees as seen on Face Book’s video.

But that was half of the story, here’s the truth that many suspected greed rear its ugly head.

Mayor Fernandez said that the real price of McAdore in early 2000 when then Mayor Benjie Lim, father of then Councilor Brian, bought the property from the government owned Asset Privatization Trust was P200 million. It was fire sale sold to the City for P50 million because of the intercession of then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, whose mother was a Pangasinense, acquiesced to the request of then Mayor Al Fernandez and Albert Balingit – a family friend .

Then Mayor Lim later wanted to sell the Palace for P68 million with the local government here still required to pay the 6 percent Capital Gain Tax and the 1.5 percent Documentary Tax at the Bureau of Internal Revenue for the sale.

“Compute ko iyan sabi ko mayor hinde pa (ba) tayo nalugi diyan? Dahil iyong lupa na binigay sa atin ng mura kailangan ibalik natin at gawin nating city hall,” Fernandez, who was the vice mayor then told Lim.

She added to Lim that if he was persistent to sell it he should trade the 11,000 square meters hotel at P400 million in the prevailing market value of the real properties located at the heart of this city.

But Lim and those councilors that  included Lim’s son Brian succeeded in selling to the AMB ALC Holding  which won the bidding for P119 million or approximately P18,500 per sqm in January 28, 2013.

Critics slam that the sale as anomalous and disadvantageous to the local government because then Mayor Lim sold in 2005 his nearby 715-sqm property to Land Bank for P35, 000 per sqm.

My poser: Was Brian Lim lying just to mislead the people of Dagupan City? That’s for you readers to interpret.

(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com

CARELESS FACEBOOK'S USER SUED

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

My elementary classmate Nathaniel “Ontoy” Fabila in Mindanao frantically called me last Monday morning in Dagupan City if I know Northern Luzon Correspondent Frank Cimatu of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI).

I told him Cimatu was based at the Rappler.com Baguio City’s bureau – an almost two hour’s ride from my city.

“Why you called?” I posed to Ontoy, who is a radio bloc timer of Secretary Manny Piñol of the Department of Agriculture & Fisheries (DAF).
"Basaha bala ang Face Book's community page ni Sec Manny (Read the Face Book's community page of Secretary Pinol)," my classmate badgered me in Ilonggo.

 Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol 

When I browsed Piñol, a town mate, FB he was pugnacious and was craving for Cimatu’s blood in a libel case he mulled to file with his lawyer.

He posted that Cimatu’s post "Agri Sec got rich by 21-M in 6 months. Bird Flu pa more” was a criminal defamatory case.

Piñol stressed to exchanges with supporters at his FB account and at Cimutu’s public FB where he argued with a Cimatu’s friend, that the Philippines Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) Report was all about the Statements of Assets Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) that required public officials like him to file annually.

“The PCIJ, in citing my case said: "Across a seven-year period, a fantastic P21,956,632.23-increase was recorded in the net worth of Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol, or from P3,643,000 in the SALN he filed as of Dec. 31, 2009, to P25,599,632.23 in his latest SALN as of Dec. 31, 2016,” he said.

He cited that his assets and liabilities he declared in 2016 SALN were consistent with his Income Tax Return (ITR) with the Bureau of Internal Revenue he declared in 2015.

“In the period July 1 until today, there were no P21-M added assets, either in money in the bank or in acquired properties”.

A livid Piñol dished at Cimatu the following: “Utterly careless and irresponsible as a journalist” “You are nothing but dirty trash” “Ano ibig mo sabihin sa "bird flu pa more?" Kumita ako sa bird flu? Napaka gago mo! Magkita nga tayo para magkaalaman” since he could prove with evidences that he got a P10 million loans from a bank to start poultry breeding business and earned a profit in that six years period when he was out of the government.

Author poses with Rappler.com's correspondent Frank Cimatu (center) and Philippine Daily Inquirer's reporter Gabriel Cardinoza. Cimatu faces a Cyber -Libel Case from Agriculture Secretary Manny Pinol. Photo taken during the 3rd Children Journalism Summit held at the sprawling air conditioned world class Stadia in Dagupan City.

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My First Impression

My first impression on Cimatu’s imprudence was his patent irresponsibility in imputing maliciously that Piñol pocketed that P21 million even the former Vice Governor of Cotabato Province left his last government office in 2009.

“Was he not thinking about the legal consequences of his blunder?” I asked myself.

I was sued with libel too by a member of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (Provincial Legislative Board) of Pangasinan but unlike Cimatu I knew from the beginning that I have a legal ground against it because I just quoted in my column “ORTIGOZA: Are we criminally liablefor Libel?” the bravado of another board member.

The legislature told me and three media men that he was one of the few members of the Board who declined the P40 thousand monthly payola from the maintainer of the illegal number game’s jueteng. 

 Piñol on his  September 24 FB’s post said that upon arrival from Hungary he would talk to his lawyer and file a case at his residence in Kidapawan City, Cotabato Province.

“Malayo ang Baguio City to Kidapawan City para sa arraignment and hearings,” I told friends in the Bangus City after I arrived  last Monday morning in a rough and tumble trips through van, airplane, taxi, and bus from M’lang, Cotabato Province (20 minutes ride to Kidapawan) to Dagupan City after I got my media award there, but that’s another story.

My poser: Does Cimatu not only faces a 4 years and 2 months to 8 years conviction with civil liabilities on the moral damages he inflicted to the Secretary in Republic Act 10175 (Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012) but will be forced to travel from his residence in the Pines City to that Central Mindanao’s city?

Sued with felony son of a gun in Face Book and not on his Rappler’s reporting, Cimatu would be obliged to travel round trips in a hearing by shelling out roughly P7 thousand plane either in cheap airlines and bus ticket rides every time the Office of the Prosecutor and later the judge there calls him for a hearing.

And we are not yet talking about the lawyer’s fee he coughs up every time he appears in those offices in Kidapawan.

But on the September 27 post of the Secretary of DAF, I saw him with two of his lawyers filed the case at the prosecutor’s office in Quezon City.

They probably read the jurisprudence on Bonifacio vs. RTC of Makati (G.R. No. 184800, 5 May 2010) where the Supreme Court said that If the offended party is a public official, the criminal case can only be filed in either of two places, namely: (a) in the place (whether in or outside Manila) where he holds office at the time of the commission of the crime; or (b) where the alleged defamatory article was printed and first published.

“Another case, this time the civil aspect of the crime which would demand damages, would be filed next week in Kidapawan City, North Cotabato,” the Secretary however posted last September 27.

Lesson for Everybody

The Cimatu’s brouhaha would be a lesson to us media practitioners and even those who unwarily post at social media Face Book to practice prudence because Cyber Libel carries more weight than Ordinary Libel. Ordinary Libel as seen on the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines carries only up to prision correccional medium (2 years, 4 months and 1 day to 4 years and 2 months as seen on Article 355) jail time. But the convict ain’t got to go to prison because of Probation Law if his or her conviction by the RTC was a first offense. But the government is harsh on those convicted by the Cyber Crime Law because he or she soldiers on till the Supreme Court convicts or exonerates him.

 If sentenced in a litigation that runs to 10 to 15 years  from the lower court to the SC, the accused would be “maghihimas ng malamig na rehas” in the slammer in Muntinlupa that goes up to eight years.

Deplorable!

(You can read my selected intriguing but thought-provoking columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)

Q & A: South Korea continues to give weapons to Ph – Envoy

Political Columnist Mortz Ortigoza interviewed South Korea Ambassador Kim Jae Shin on the military aid to the Philippines  by the Korean government to fight her enemies, just like what the United States and Japan have been doing.

Ortigoza, a son of a Philippine Expeditionary Forces to Korea (PEFTOK) veteran, inquired in the recent 18^th Korean War Veterans Memorial Day at Fort Bonifacio to His Excellency if South Korea would still be as prosperous as today or be as impoverished as North Korea if the Philippines and the 15 nations did not come to her succor in the early 1950s after she was invaded by the Communist North Korea and patron China. Excerpts:

 Political Columnist Mortz Ortigoza  (Center) interviews South
Korea Ambassador Kim Jae Shin (extreme right) 

Mortz C. Ortigoza: Filipino Korean veterans are decreasing in number. What can you say about their contributions in that war in the early 1950s that Communist North Korea and the Chinese nearly conquered your country?

Ambassador Kim Jae Shin: Yes we thank the contributions. In the second part as I said earlier the Korean country was happy as put in history the contribution not only (of) the Philippines but the other 15 countries (or a) total (of) 16 countries who sent troops to defend us for democracy. So we always appreciate.

Executioner cries how fellow cops kill criminals

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

A retired police colonel, known as a berdugo (executioner) among police circle, smirks on those cops who overzealously and summarily executed suspected criminals like dope pushers.

“It could not be counted how many crime delinquents I ordered kill. But I have a standard where I discussed with my men if the target was needed to be executed,” he told me recently.

He said he asked his hit men if they were “morally convinced” that the subject was riped for execution after they apprehended him or assassination if they chanced upon him in an opportune place.

“Makakatulog ba kayo nito pagkatapos ninyong patayin? Makakatulong ba itong kamatayan niya sa pagbaba ng crime rates sa area natin?” he told me his posers to his men.

He lamented the bravados nowadays of policemen in even crashing in the prison cells and houses of suspected narcotics pushers known for their notoriety and peppered them with bullets without considering the procedures mandated by laws.

“Remember may 20 years prescription ang murder. Iyong mga nagyayabang na madami silang pinatay, remember President Duterte's term will end in 2022. Di sila nakaka siguro na makakasuhan sila ng murder (non-bailable and metes a life sentence) after that year,” he explained to me what will happen to those behind the murders who were not pardoned by the president.

He deplored the way those three cops dragged and executed the 17 years old Kian delos Santos in Caloocan City.

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He cited policemen should practice prudence in killing their targets and not to be swayed on their carelessness by the “quota system” given by their superior because another police station had killed a lot of malefactors.

He also said the cops should not be overconfident about being pardoned by the president because there is still an International Criminal Court, where the ICC tried those even given presidential mercy based on its criteria, to go after their scalp.

When he was a chief of police in local government units, this colonel did not brag to any body the “police characters” he and his men exterminated.

He told me that when the chief of the Philippine National Police, a four-star general, called a conference in the region and incidentally asked the whereabouts of those notorious criminals, the soft-spoken colonel, known for his humble demeanours, told him that as far as he knew these people including those notorious Muslim drug peddlers have just disappeared without any traces.

“Ito ang gayahin ninyo mga chiefs of police, nagkakawala-an ang mga criminals at di na rin makita ang mga katawan nila,” the chief of the national police lighted up in a dull conference.

In some of my interviews with police officials, most of them wanted that the cadavers of those they ordered killed should be covered by the media.

“Our purpose there was deterrence. Para matakot ang mga snatchers ng cellphone, akyat bahay, pushers, robbers o holduppers na pamarisan,” one of them told me.

But this colonel chose to work silently with his death squad.

“Kahit di niya pinagyayabang, nalalaman din ng mga media kasi iyong ibang hepe kinukuwento iyong mga feats niya how he and his group in the intelligence community almost wiped out a gang in the Visaya when one of them was arrested in Manila,” a broadcaster - who sensationalized the “take no prisoner policy” of the colonel in his program - cited.

According to the commentator, when the colonel was still a captain, he and his men tortured a kidnapped- for- ranson gang member. When they psychologically controlled him, they goaded him to call in a phone another gang member to meet with him with a promise that he (first gang member) would go scott-free after the arrest of his companion.

“But we did not fulfill our promise. One of my men choked to death with the rope the squealer who was seated in a car while we arrested his companion at a bar. We did what we do with the first gang member to the second member until almost all of them fell in our hands and die like pigs with the same bait,” he told the radio commentator.   

 “His being a silent worker was deafening and reverberated to the sanctuaries of the members of the syndicates and bad guys who shievered after hearing his presence in their area,” he cited.

These phenomena of a berdugo should be a bench mark for fool hardly cops to emulate so you can, salamabit, avoid being in a bind someday. 

(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)

Nonsense, Basketball Shorts of Kian could not hold a 2 kg Handgun

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Policemen were already summarily executing crime delinquents and other notorious criminals even during the time of President Benigno Aquino III. One of the police officials told me that when he was a major his superior a Superintendent (Lieutenant Colonel in the military) asked some of his men – where the major was not part – to target a narcotics peddler.

 “They found him going to the basketball court when they pumped bullets that killed him,” my source said.

 A Catholic student, Kian delos Santos, 17, one of the youngest
victims of President Duterte's war-on-drugs. Text and Photo by
thesummitexpress.com

But he was not impressed with the operation; the situation of the corpse was the same as that murdered sensational teenager Kian delos Santos.

The police “planted” a hand gun beside the cadaver that was clad with a basketball shorts.

Basketball shorts, for everybody’s knowledge, is made of polyester with garter that holds it to the waist line.

"How can, salamabit, the short carry a tucked .38 revolver that weight from 1.59 kilogram to 2.26 kg with bullets without the handgun falling to the ground for everybody to see?” he told me with with incredulity.

HesusMariaHusep, after I saw the police in Caloocan City declared to the media of Kian wearing a shorts (some called it as boxer shorts)

I shook my head with disbelief.

“How can a .45 caliber weapon carried by a garter tightened shorts without the 2 kilogram handgun not falling?” I posed to myself.

Kian was murdered when he was knelling apt for that term “Death Knell” or he was just herded in a corner and treacherously killed when he was looking to the ground.

Experts said the bullet trajectories were pumped by the .45 hand gun, created for its lethality because of the Moro Insurrection in the U.S –Filipino War, of a cop who was standing behind him while the third bullet that pierced his left ear was the coup’ d’grace (means a final blow or shot given to kill a wounded person for the understanding of those who are trike drivers, plumbers, others who read this column).

I didn’t have issue with recidivists and notorious criminals like drug pushers being waylaid to death by cops in some dark alleys as they were effective deterrence to criminality, but for Christsakes, they should practice prudence in snapping on their prey.

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Kian, as many Filipinos believed, was innocent.

Police laboratory experts found him to be negative with bullet powder burn in his hand.

These outraged did not only ensue in the streets but even in the two Houses of Congress that even the supporters of President Rodrigo Duterte – the purveyor of death to dope pushers - were scandalized.

“Tama na po, may test pa ako bukas” begged by the 17 years old Kian, as recounted by a witness who saw the three cops who mauled him, would reverberate to the consciousness of the generations to come - just like South Vietnam's National Police Chief Nguyễn Ngọc Loan gained international attention when he right temple shot in 1968 handcuffed prisoner Nguyễn Văn Lém, a Việt Cộng member who killed the wife and six children of a South Vietnamese military officer as front cover of Time Magazine.

I was outraged when Kian was murdered thus the lyrics of this song I scribbled after his death.

(The four stanzas of this song were “robbed” from the melancholic melody of “You Never Give Me Your Money” composed by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, while the chorus was a “snatched” from Folk-Rock Singer-Composer Neil Young and his band Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young or CSNY’s “Ohio”.

Ohio, according to Wikipidia, was a protest song and counterculture anthem written and composed by Young in reaction to the Kent State shootings of students of May 4, 1970, and performed by CSN&Y.

The shootings were committed by members of the Ohio National Guards.

 29 guardsmen fired approximately 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis.

Please bear with my composition he he he:

Bakit si Kian Pa?

(Di naman siya Parojinog Espinosa)

Pag umuwi daw siya ng bahay

Ibang daan ang tinatahak niya

Dahil sabi ng nanay niya may mga adik

  sa kalsada

Dahil sa naglilipana na mga pushers

Gusto daw ni Kian maging law enforcers

Para pagbibit-bitin itong mga pushers

CHORUS

Bakit si Kian pa ang pinaslang nila?

Hindi naman siya Parojinog Espinosa

Paano kung si Kian anak kapatid ninyo?

Ano ang gagawin ninyo?

Pero ano ang nangyari?

Si Kian ay binitbit ng mga enforcers

Rason siya daw ay isa sa mga pushers

Bakit nagkaganito General Bato?

Pati inosente ay kinakatay ng tao niyo

Di ba dapat ang inaaresto iyong mga nagbebenta ng shabu

(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)

Not All Members of Congress Are Intelligent

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

For the past days I was glued at You Tube catching up with the Houses of Senate and Representatives on how the P6.5 billion shabu (Methamphetamine Hydrochloride) was sneaked before the eyes of the personnel of the Bureau of Customs through the Green Lane (where shipments are not required to undergo inspection) and found its way to a warehouse in Valenzuela.

“A tip of the iceberg, sannamagan,” I told myself when I arrived from work while I sipped my coffee and watched our congressmen questioned, chided, rebuked, and whatchamacallit their guests.

Let’s cut the chase. In these hearing in aid-of-legislation and in aid-of-grandstanding as people around the world watch some of these Senators and Congressmen strutted their stuffs, I just learned that not all solons were intelligent and not all the lawyers had the savvies of the law.

“Anong klaseng tanong iyan ?!” I cried on a certain Congressman Sarmiento's poser to a regular Customs honcho who was not appointee of Faeldon if the latter policy was effective when he took the helm of the Bureau.

Salamabit, what kind of poser was that?

Of course the threatened Custom official would affirm in a positive way Faeldon’s style of running the BoC otherwise he would be undermined.
I’m not talking here about Congressman Sarmiento because I did not meet him yet.

But it should be a lesson for us lesser mortals that not most of those elected in Congress are intelligent. These sonnafabitch became congressmen or senators because they have monies (where most if not some were stolen from the coffer) that catapulted them into power.