Mortz Hobnobs with Philippines Presidents

ALL HAIL THE CHIEFS - Mortz C. Ortigoza

 interviewing or interacting with

 the present and past Philippines' Presidents.

CLOCKWISE from left: Political Columnist Mortz Ortigoza exchanging pleasantries with incumbent Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte; Former President Fidel V. Ramos, a four-star general and West Point grad, in an abdominal and push up contests with the pen pusher Ortigoza; Joseph Estrada before the start of the Question and Answer, and drinking wine with former President Gloria Arroyo.

EXCERPTS OF MY INTERVIEWS WITH THEM:

Former President Fidel V. Ramos

Former President Fidel V. Ramos told me the U.S and China need not plunge themselves to war because it would be mutually assured destruction for them and to the U.S allies in the East Asia Region.

“You visit your homework. I wrote about this since 12 years ago. In the 21^stCentury you don’t talked about the 19^th or 20^th Century. Nobody wants war especially World War III because of the massive destruction and the thermal radiation wave of modern weapons,” he said to me when he graced the inauguration of the satellite office of the Department of Foreign Affairs in Calasiao, Pangasinan.

Ramos cited an instance that the latest hydrogen bomb is 5000 times more lethal than the atom bomb dropped by the B-29 Super Fortress bombers at Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan on August 1945.

“You don’t need a B-29, you just pressed the button. But the U.S study says counter-strike. Somebody has to push the button with the coordination of the 38^th Parallel. With the strike and counter strike all of a sudden all that will disappear,” Ramos, who is known as FVR, said last Sunday.

He explained that a war between these military and economic powers will wipe- out the entire 7.2 billion world’s population.

I disagreed with the prognosis of the former president.

I said the Chinese is restrained to use nuclear arms because it has no capacity to counter strike and hit the U.S mainland while she is vulnerable from the bombs in the U.S bases in Japan and the Philippines and the aerial and naval armaments of the U.S in the South China Sea.

“The U.S is in the strategic location in case war explodes as a result of the brinkmanship done with each other by these two powers”.

 The most modern Chinese long range strategic bomber H-6K and its next generation bomber’s H-10 that carry CJ-10A cruise missiles with conventional or nuclear warheads, could not strike and hit the Mariannas, Guam, Hawaii, and U.S West Coast without putting bases somewhere in the Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands. The Chinese ballistic missiles could be identified by modern radars of the U.S and destroy them on air," I cited.

PRESIDENT ROD DUTERTE

ME: Sir, are you not threatened by the pronouncements that the military and the U.S will harm you?

MAYOR DUTERTE:  If God wants me to be there. If it’s destiny to be assassinated…hangang diyan lang ako!

ME: They are apprehensive because they said when you become president it means good bye to EDCA (Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement) and the military aid from the U.S would stop…?

DUTERTE: Who?! Mga Amerikano?!

ME: I read that on the community page of the military at Face Book.

DUTERTE: Let us see why? Are we dependent on the United States for our problem here?

Is the United States ready to die with us for us on the Spratly issue?

It we start war because talagang hinde na makapasok ang fishermen we are deprived of a rich fishing ground, and we declare war, is America, is EDCA useful to us? May pakinabang ba sila sa atin?

Wowed by the elite Scout Ranger attire of the Philippine President when he graced the occasion of the black panthers.
I'm presently locking horns with my analysis how economic zones catapult cities in the country. After that article, I am going to deal my lengthy interview of Marawi City's battle hero Scout Ranger Captain Jeff Buada (remember that gung ho PMYer who save the little girl?), haba ng interview ko dito makukwentuhan ko na naman kayo ng giyera para mag amoy pulbura na naman kayo sa blog ko.

Duterte's Poll Stocks Fall: Was SWS Wrong Again?

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

When the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in January 30 to March 6 this year took over the War on Drugs, narcotics proliferate again in the market thus the members of the Philippine National Police were called back to continue the fight against the peddlers. In October 10 this year President Rodrigo Duterte issued a memorandum circular pulling out again the superior in number cops and hailing the small in number PDEA’s agents.

President Rodrigo Duterte. Photo Credit: RMN

Evidently, the decision of the president was anchored on the Social Weather Station polls that showed his popularity rates cascaded to 18 percent after some policemen were charged executing innocent individuals like Kian delos Santos and Carl Arnaiz and other adverse issues that haunted his administration as played to the helm by the acrimonious Philippines media?

Was Duterte impulsive to drag out the PNP despite survey outfit Pulse Asia poll bannered “88% of Pinoys support war on drugs; 73% say EJKs happen—survey” by Philippine Daily Inquirer 's issue last October 16?

Would the war on narcs weakened as the PDEA has only 2000 personnel nationwide while the police have 175,000 men literally implementing the “long arm of the law”?

Here was my comment at Face Book after Pulse Asia showed its polls taken almost on the same dates with that of its rival SWS:

Anong nangyari?

 SWS Duterte’s 48% popularity versus Pulse’s 73%.

SWS 23-27, 2017 polls showed President Duterte got 67% (Satisfied) 14% (Undecided), 19% (Di -satisfied) or 67 minus 19 equals 48% net Satisfaction rating. Pulse Asia’s 80% (Satisfied) 13% (Undecided), 7% (Dissatisfied) or 80% minus 7% equals 73% net Satisfaction rating. 48 % and 73% ran smack on that days issues, as stated by SWS, issues like the Senate probe into the shipment of P6.4 billion worth of shabu from China, in which the President’s son, Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte, and his son-in-law, Manases Carpio, appeared. Both denied allegations they were involved in smuggling.
Another was the “revelation” of Duterte that Sen. Antonio Trillanes 4th had a secret bank account in Singapore, which the senator disproved. The President later admitted that he just “invented” the bank account numbers that he had announced in public supposedly to “bait” his critic.
The killings of teens Kian delos Santos, Carl Arnaiz, and Reynaldo de Guzman also dominated the headlines in August and early September, fanning public outrage and criticism of Duterte’s war on drugs, and others.

Who was telling the truth in these two poll outfits?

Read my blog/column:  PulseAsia more credible than Social Weather Station

*** 

I recently rubbed elbows at the meeting of the Vice Mayors League of the Philippines –Pangasinan Chapter new Urdaneta City Vice Mayor Julio F. Parayno III and new Pozorrubio  Vice Mayor Ernesto Salcedo.

The gathering was held at Jeck’s in Dagupan City.

I said the duo were “new” since Parayno became the second most powerful man in the Cattle City when he assumed office in June 30, 2016 while Salcedo, the highest vote getter alderman, was catapulted to the vice mayoralty after the town mayor Artemio Chan was sacked by the Ombudsman and replaced by Vice Mayor Ernesto Go, a perennial rival, for the mayorship.

Parayno answered my query if he will run for the top post of Urdaneta City after mayor Amadeo "Bobom" G.E. Perez IV bowed out as his third term expired in the 2019 election.

 Parayno, a young law graduate of Saint Louis University in Baguio City, told me that in the next election it would be a tandem of Perezes versus the pair  of Paraynos clashing in the burgeoning city. 

“Paano maging Paraynos versus Perezes?” I posed in the vernacular.

He said the probable bets would be former Ambassador Amadito Perez, Jr. and daughter Councilor Tet Perez- Naguiat (wife of former PAGCOR Chair Cristino Naguiat) and him and his nephew Jimmy D. Parayno the present councilor of the city.

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Parayno told me that his deceased father former Vice Mayor Julio Parayno, a man of the masses, should be the mayor of the 132, 940 populated (2015 census) city but gave way to kin Dr. Rodoldfo E. Parayno. He cited the latter ran for the mayorship and won as the quintessential politico Amadito Perez ended his third term and became the congressman of the 5^th District.

Parayno told me he can also seek reelection while Fifth District Congressman Amado T. Espino chooses to run versus the "ole man" Perez, his bête noire, for the mayoralty seat.

Parayno said to us media men that it is the dream of the solon, who told him, to be a mayor of the 34 villages city.

Espino and Amadito Perez had a legal rift being heard by the court after then Governor Espino sued with libel the octogenarian (or was it nonagenarian?) Perez after he defamed Espino at the meeting de avance of gubernatorial candidate Mark Cojuangco at Lingayen Plaza in 2016 Election.

Cojuangco was defeated heavily by the son and name sake of Espino on that election.

In case Espino runs for mayor, political pundits see the District would be seeing outgoing Urdaneta Mayor Bobom Perez clashing with outgoing Binalonan Mayor Ramon “Mon-mon” Guico III for the eight town and a city’s Congressional District.

“Nobody is more viable to run in the district with these two names,” Edwin Bautista, a media practitioner, said.

***

Edwin, my student in political science at Lyceum Northwestern University, is the pet peeve of Pozurrobio Vice Mayor Salcedo who told us that he could not forget Edwin suing him at the court because he accused the then No.1 Councilor for rampant vote buying in the 2016 election. Edwin was No. 9 or a hundred of votes shy to the No. 8 Councilor.

“A vacancy in No. 1 post means I’ll be the No.8 dad in the town that could put a stop on my series of failed streaks in the post,” Edwin told then his best friend broadcaster Harold Barcelona about his plan, strategy, and chutzpah.

But Murphy’s Law had its way, son of a gun, Salcedo became Vice Mayor after the Ombudsman fired Mayor Chan for allowing somebody to solemnize marriage and pulled up by operation of law Vice Mayor Go and Salcedo to the top two posts of the local government unit.

Now Edwin’s fellow media man and fellow perennial losing candidate for the councilor's post Blas Ople’s factotum and Marcos Era Journalist and book author Mel Jovellanos was recommended by the new vice mayor, an independent bet, to be the No. 8 dad.

“How can Mel be the No. 8 when he was a tail ender and I got thousands of votes in that election than him?” Edwin, as Harold narrated, wildly, er, emphatically posed to friends.

“He who caused the vacancy recommend through his party or the Sanggunian if he is independent,” I quipped to Publisher Ronel de Vera, a law graduate, the legal dictum in the Local Government Code of 1991 I taught to the classmates of Edwin while he was taking a pee in the comfort room away from my lecture on that topic while Salcedo gave us media men, Manaoag Vice Mayor Domie Ching, and Vice Mayor Parayno a smirk of a smile of “Sweet Revenge” to Edwin where the former could not forget telling the Municipal Trial Court’s judge that Salcedo flooded the villages with “sets of palanggana or plastic basin.

Susmariosep, this how luck and fate ensued in local politics a politics where my favorite House Speaker, not the rabble rousing Joe de Venecia nor the arrogant Pantaleon Alvarez, but the non-pareil  Tip “All Politics is Local” O’Neil (Democrats) whose anecdotes loaded book "Man of the House with William Novak" gave me a view point how politics could make or unmake a person.

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

Filipino Folk Rock Singers in Makati

Southern Man by Folk Rock Singer Canadian Neil Young excellently played especially the guitar riff and strum by Loloy of Davao City and Jun Lahi.
 They warmly welcomed me at Makati Avenue because I wrote a blog on them titled Anatomy of a Folk Rock Singer.

"The lyrics of "Southern Man" are vivid, describing the racism  towards blacks in the American South. In the song, Young tells the story of a white man (symbolically the entire white South) and how he mistreated his slaves. Young pleadingly asks when the South will make amends for the fortunes built through slavery when he sings:

I saw cotton and I saw black,

tall white mansions and little shacks.

Southern Man, when will you pay them back? (Wikipidea)

"The song also mentions the practice of cross burning.

Young was very sensitive about the song's message as anti-racism and anti-violence. During his 1973 tour, he cancelled a show in Oakland, California because a fan was beaten and removed from the stage by a guard while the song was played (Wikipidea).

Geez, my video when I sang at the folk-rock house Cuervo Makati. My favorite watering hole whenever I am in this effing jungle asphalt.
Mortz Baby singin' Don Henley's Desperado while the White Apes Caucasians from North America and Europe applauding his antics buttressed by Philippines best crooners Loloy of Davao and Jun Lahi. I wrote a blog on Loloy and Jun titled: "The Anatomy of Filipino Folk Rock Singer" thus their warm hospitality whenever I am at their bar.

JUST THE WAY YOU ARE By Billy Joel and sang by inebriated (hindi pa naka toma') Political Columnist Mortz Ortigoza. Gamot pa lang sa high blood at Vitamin iyong nainum niya diyan when he sang with Dagupan City's best band Bossing.

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.