STUPID MEDIA MEN

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

PHOTO CREDIT: www.hollywoodtoday.net

Bureau of Internal Revenue Regional Director Arnel Guballa, Revenue District Officer – 4 Chief  Renato Molina, and Assistant RDO-4 Chief Charmaine dela Torre should check this Mainland Chinese –owned three-storey store near the Orchid’s Hotel in Dagupan City. I just called it a store since it has no commercial signage displayed on its façade.
It does not issue a BIR official receipt or O.R, instead it gives its customer a piece of paper enumerating the goods and the corresponding prices the latter bought there.
“Under process pa po ang O.R noong papel namin kaya papel na lang po ang recibo namin na i-issue sa iyo, “ a Filipina sales lady told a man who bought a set of kitchen utensils
BIR should charge the Chinese who owned the store with either a fine of P10 to P20 thousand for failure to issue the O.R or tax fraud. The owner’s malpractices give unfair competition with their Filipino counterparts who religiously pay their dues at the tax bureau.

Some of these Chinese stores who used this underhanded business strategy have been padlocked and fined by the BIR in the past through Operation Kandado.
***

Could you still remember my columns before about a broadcaster (a pastor who accidentally became a radio commentator of a religious station) who asked the mayor of a city why the hizzoner practiced double standard on filing a corruption cases against the city treasurer, cashier, and a clerk who were found to have Prima Facie (Latin words “on the first appearance”) on the cases they allegedly committed.
“Bakit niyo kinasuhan iyong tatlo ng Anti-Graft & Corrupt Practices, bakit si Prima Facie hindi niyo kinasuhan – ano ba ang meron kay Prima Facie at hindi magalaw-galaw, mayor?” he exasperatedly posed in a press conference in San Carlos City.
Of the 30 media men who were at that conference, only three chuckled. The rest were probably as “stupid” as the broadcaster, they thought Prima Facie or Prima Fa-Sy was the older brother of Northern Times publisher Lelia Sy.
Could you still remember a lady radio commentator explaining in his program that those suspected John Doe and Jane Doe who escaped the police dragnet were probably sibling or cousins because of their similar surnames?
The Americans have a quipped for all of those boo-boos: “I’ll be damned!”

Several mornings ago, a TV reporter of a national network reported that Governor Amado T. Espino and two of his department heads had filed a Motion for Reconsideration on the administrative indictment of the Ombudsman against them on the illegal mining in 2011 of magnetite black sand they allegedly committed.
Her report was wrong unless she and her news writer perused the press release of the Ombudsman sent to us media men through our e-mails.
In that e-mail it showed that the Governor was absolved administratively because he won his reelection bid in 2013. The law says that the election of a public officials exonerate him for the administrative case or cases filed against him before he won his reelection. The logic, according to jurisprudence, is the electorates have forgiven him. We called that the Doctrine of Condonation.

Obama’s Veto Power and the Republican's Majority

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

PHOTO CREDIT: ABC 7 Chicago.com

The American voters have spoken, according to CNN.com.election as of press time it says: 53 senators for the Republican Party or the Grand Old Party (GOP) while 46 solons for the Democrats who used to control that House before the November 4 election.
In the House of Representatives, according to the same source, 244 congressmen for the GOP while 186 representatives for the Democrats.
So what’s the implication of this U.S election to legislation that will be passed by Congress dominated by the Republicans that will be signed into law by a Democrat Party President Barrack Obama?
If the president vetoes the bills he did not like, then he has to return it to Congress where each of both Houses overturned the bill by two-third votes to make it a law.
But the problem is the GOP could not muster 290 votes or two-third from the 435 members of the House or the 66 or two-third from the 100 members of the Senate to pass a law at their own volition.
Just like in the Philippines, a two-third vote of both Houses can overturn a presidential veto into a law.
Here’s the United States Constitution  and its provisions written in a plain English - attention Filipino writers who have the propensity for high highfalutin!:

Despite Exposing Binay, Why Cayetano’s Polls Stock Falls

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

A former chief of police (COP) of a city in Northern Luzon said that when he told an anti-jueteng Catholic archbishop that he could not stop the sprouting of illegal number game in the city and the indispensability of jueteng’s payolas to the police he used to apprehend criminals; the bishop told him he understood his plight.

Author in a tete-a-tete with Senator Alan Peter Cayetano

“Huwag mo lang papasukin ang mga big time na jueteng financers outside the province,” the prelate said.

Before he left he gave the COP almost a hundred thousand of pesos.

“Gamitin mo iyang pera pang gas at pang gastos sa police ninyo laban sa mga masasama”.

Ha, ha, ha, with the tax- free funds from the Catholic Church and another tax free hundreds of thousands of pesos a month from jueteng, the bad guys would be a wimp against the cops in the hide and seek game!

*** 

I asked recently the eloquent and inquisitive Senator Alan Peter Cayetano who is the worst nightmare of Vice President Jejomar Binay, why of all those incriminating charges he throws at the Vice President in the sub-committee level of the Blue Ribbon Committee his polls stock falls 5% in June to 1% September this year according to Pulse Asia.

“You have been the one doing the yeoman’s job in exposing the Vice President that cost a significant chunk of his polls stock why that happened to you, too?, “ I posed to him.

Although he is still No. 1 in the polls war, Social Weather Station showed Binay dropped by 15% or from +67 in June to +52 in September this year.

Cayetano should challenge Binay for a Debate

Binay would chew and spit the non-lawyer Trillanes

By Mortz Ortigoza

Senator Alan Peter Cayetano

I was amused when two eloquent legal eagles Senator Alan Peter Cayetano and lawyer JV Bautista clashed at the Senate last Wednesday afternoon.
When Cayetano presented the slides that Vice President Jojo Binay owned SunChamp Agri-Tourism Park as he and wife Dr. Elenita host their visitors there, JV vigorously objected. He said that that any lawyer would know that photos could not incriminate his client.
“They are not admissible in court!” Bautista protested.
“They are admissible,” retorted by Cayetano.
“They are not!” Bautista protested.
“They are..” Cayetano answered.
“We can test that..” Bautista pointing his hand to Cayetano.
Senator Antonio "Sonny" Fuentes Trillanes IV  cut Bautista “ Your 15 minutes is over”.
“No, it is not!” Bautista, with all the confidence, protested.
Trillanes, seems exasperated, told JV that he was selfish.
Gee whiz man, was it not a treat? Ha, ha, ha! We have not seen that “circus” on national TV for sometimes.

Senator Trillanes                   Vice President Binay                 

O.K, seriously what I want to point here whether or not the photos can be admissible or not as backed up by jurisprudence, was immaterial. For me to the projection of the Vice President to snare more votes on his march to the Palace in 2016 has been damaged.
Son of a gun, the Senate’s investigation, led particularly by the searching and scorching questions of Peter Cayetano, has been gnawing the significant chunks of Binay’s popularity every time the investigation ended its inquiry.
VP Binay, I bet you, is doomed to the fate of presidentiable former Senator Manny Villar when the “kaleidoscopes” of his opponents zero to his malpractices with the government.
“Di ba pinulot si Villar sa kangkungan at si P-Noy ang naging president natin noong 2010?
Sooner Binay would be “pupulutin din sa kangkungan”
By the way, is Cayetano ambivalent to run for the presidency as he is bent to run for the nursery after he talks with his wife, Taguig City Mayor Ma. Laarni, for a baby next year.
Cayetano will be coming in Dagupan City for his Presyo, Trabaho, Kita or PTK Program.
I’ll be asking him why not he asked Binay to debate with him since they are both lawyer and not Senator Trillanes who is a military man.
Binay would chew and spit Trillanes in the debate in terms of the labyrinths of commercial and corporate laws that grips the ill-gotten wealth of the former.
But with Allan Peter, it would be like watching Nicolas Walters beating the shit out of the smaller Nonito Donaire.

The Humorous Ambassador Amadito Perez, Jr

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

Just heard my hard hitting veteran radio commentator friend Ruel Camba opining that Secretaries Proceso Alcala and Dinky Soliman should be insulted after President Aquino awarded recently a  Labrador  K-9 for meritorious service on its role in the Coast Guard’s search and rescue operations in Bohol that was bellied-up by a killer earthquake last year.
"Mas mabuti pa ang aso may award!" Ruel, the Joseph Goebbels at the P.I.O during the three termed Governor Victor Agbayani Administration, pounded his radio booth at DWPR.

Ambassador Amadito Perez, Jr. with his 100% unadulterated
steel made cane that acted, he said, as his third foot.
The veteran politician is in a huddle with (L-R) former
 Congressman Mark Cojuangco, former Binalonan
Mayor Monching Guico, Pozzurobio Mayor Art Chan,
Sison Mayor Mina Joy Pangasinan, and Villasis Mayor
Nonato Abrenic

Here's my funny experience with K-9 in 2011. A fellow media man who only finished high school (we in the media industry do not have a Philippine Regulatory Commission to police us who can practice and those who cannot with our profession) brought and patched me with the Superintendent of the Department of Education who mulled to sue me with libel. Here is the conversation that ensued in that office:

 MEDIA MAN: Maam ano ang pinagkaka-abalahan ninyo ngayon sa Dep Ed? SUPERINTENDENT: Ito, busy kami ngayon sa K-12. MEDIA MAN (surprised) K-12? ha, ha, ha! Kelan pa pinasukan ng Dep Ed ang mga aso? SUPT : Ikaw talaga, Carding (not his real name) hindi K-9 ang pinagkaka-abalahan namin, K-12 , Kindergarten to Grade 12, kaya K-12. MORTZ: Maam, pasensiya na kayo kay Carding, accidental media lang ho iyan. Noong inutusan ng nanay niya na bumili ng suka nakasalubong niya sila Tony Text Back and Dennis Mojares na pinasama siya sa interview sa mayor, kaya hayon nakatikim ng sobre nag media na!

***

Although he seldoms cracked jokes, but whenever former congressman and incumbent de facto Ambassador Amadito Perez, Jr. pulls one it was hilarious.

In the extended birthday party celebration he tendered to gubernatorial aspirant Mark Cojuangco at the Urdaneta City University’s gym last October 12, Perez, an octogenarian and still a rumored Casanova, told the politician guests and visitors how times fly:

 “May baston na ako ngayon. Sabi ko sa mga kaibigan ko na ang ikatatlong pa-a ko ay gawa sa bakal. Ang hindi alam ng iba na meron pa akong ika-apat na pa-a na pinagawa ko na rin sa bakal”.

Ha, ha, ha!

***

The first time Perez jested with me was after the 2010 election when his son Bobom defeated in an acrimonious contest his Vice Mayor Julio “Julie” Parayno who ran too for the mayoralty.

Here’s the excerpt of that banter that I wrote in 2010 at my Northern Watch’s column:

 “What legacies are you leaving in your city that you’re now retiring for good after being in public office since the late 1950s?” I posed in English to an English speaking hizzoner.

“I would not answer that question. That would be self-serving on my part,” he told me.

Then Vir (Maganes, fellow columnist at NW) asked him about the significant margin of votes his son Bobom got against his bitter mayoral rival and critic Parayno.

 After Perez, a last term mayor during that time finished talking, Vir asked me to shoot my second question.

Still unprepared, I shot a naughty one:

“Sir, is it true that Julie committed suicide — since he was telling everybody that he would win hands down in the mayoral derby?”

Perez was taken aback and then he smiled.

“Oh yes, Julie not only committed suicide. He even invited Ninoy (Angeles) and Ed (Ferrer) (Julie’s media PR and Perez’s harsh critics, too) to simultaneously put a noose on their neck and simultaneously jump from the chair where their feet stood. Pero matibay si Julie, ayaw mamatay-matay. Buhay pa rin hangang ngayon. Pero si Ed at si Ninoy ay sabay na nanga-matay”.

I had a guffaw to that antics complement of the irrepressible Mayor Perez.

Ambassador Says Cojuangco is Incorruptible

Lauds his No -Take Stance on Jueteng and Projects' Cut

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

SISON, Pangasinan – Have you heard about Members of Congress soiling their hands with cuts from illegal number game’s jueteng and funds for government projects implemented by private contractors?

NOT A PLAYBOY. Manila Economic & Cultural Office (MECO) 
Chair Amadito Perez, Jr. (holding the microphone)  told recently the birthday guests 
of former Pangasinan Congressman Mark Cojuangco that the latter is not a Casanova. 
Perez, a rumored Lothario, jocularly cited that unlike the incumbent mayor and former 
mayor at the presidential table, Cojuangco is a faithful husband to wife Representative 
Kimi Cojuangco (5th District, Pangasinan) (extreme left). "Matagal ko ng kasama si
Mark hindi ito malikot sa aparatus, talagang takuza talaga ito".

De facto Philippines' Ambassador to Taiwan Amadito Perez, Jr. said that when Mark Cojuangco was still a three-term congressman, he did not taint his office with proceeds from jueteng and S.O.P (euphemism for cut) by conspiring with private contractors who implement government projects in the eight towns and one city’s 5^th Congressional District of Pangasinan.

Speaking last October 6 at the birthday bash of Cojuangco, an aspirant for the governorship of the humongous province Pangasinan, held in his cloud-kissed residence here, Perez has all praises for the former solon.

“Noong panahon ng teng-jue (jueteng) hindi tumatangap si Mark iyong para sa mga congressmen binibigay sa kanya, hindi ko na sasabihin kung sino ang nagbibigay tinatangihan niya. Magbigay ng kontrata sa mga contractors  bibigyan siya  pero “huwag na, huwag na! Hindi ko na kailangan iyan idagdag ninyo na lang doon sa project” (he said).Ganyan siya”.

A source who asked anonymity said that the hands off stance to shenanigans like these by Cojuangco has been continued without fan fare by his wife Kimi - the incumbent congresswoman of the district.

(When Kimi was the mayor of this town, many police officials shunned to be assigned here because a chief of police was not a weekly recipient of proceeds from jueteng - thanks to the mayor's illegal gambling -free policy.  – AUTHOR)

TETE-A-TETE. Birthday Boy Mark Cojuangco and wife Congresswoman Kimi in a tête-à-tête  before the start of the  press conference cum natal day celebration held last October 6 at their residence in the cloud-kissed Barangay Labayug, Sison in Pangasinan while Pangasinan's politicians are in the background. MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

“The Cojuangcos are very strict about the implementation of government projects. They do not like that contractors and the officials of the Department of Public Works & Highway allow roots of trees to remain underneath the pavements before they started cementing the highway. These roots would become ampaw (hollow) and would destroy the cement in the near future”.

Fat Philippines' Police Generals

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

It was pathetic to see the sight of four Police District Directors who were all star ranked in Metro Manila sacked by Secretary  Mar Roxas of the Department of Interior & Local Government and Police Director Alan Purisima.

Just like their chief at the Philippine National Police, they look like a toad with their beer belly.

What happens to the 35-inch waistline limits’ PNP Physical Fitness Program vigorously implemented during the time of then national police chief Panfilo Lacson ?

I am green with envy every time I see physically trimmed police officials like Lacson, Police Regional Office Director Chief Supt. Roman Felix, and Pangasinan Police Provincial Office Director S/Supt. Rey Biay. These officers and gentlemen probably maintain a strict physical or diet regimen.
Look at General Felix,with all those well toned body like PC General Job Mayo I met in Mindanao, you would mistake him to be in his mid-40s.

Iyan ang dapat hindi lang sa mga generals kundi sa mga colonels, Lt. Colonels, and majors whose "handsome dividends" in their post as chief of police could really make them stout.

***

Talking about good physique and athleticism one can cite former Urdaneta City's Chief of Police Supt. Pat Pinol, a British trained Royal Marine Commando and former trainor of the elite Special Action Force. Sannamagan, he can still jog 21 kilometers with regularity in my Province Cotabato. I could cite also former president Fidel V. Ramos (USMA 1950) who challenges any captain or major for 100 push up or abdomen flexing contest.

He once challenged me, although I was only a lowly tanod (watch man) of our barangay then, for 100 pushed up and abs flexing on the river cruise at the pristine Dawel River of Dagupan City.

I stopped at 95 in both the two contests in deference to the man who fought along side with my father against Mao-Tse Tung’s Chinese and North Korean Communist troops in the Korean War in the 1950s.

***

But a good example of athleticism, I told police colonels and majors who treated me with booze, was Army Four Stars General David Petraeus (USMA 1974).When the jogging buff Petraeus, whose body looks like a 35 years old man according to Bob Woodward’s book Obama’s War, was the commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A), every colonels who wants to confer with him could find themselves running and discussing with him in a 5 miles (8 kilometers) speed jog that the general has been doing regularly. Petraeus, however, was, disgraced as  CIA Director because of a tryst with a pretty West Point alumna who was a writing her dissertation for her Harvard studies about him.

***

As what Chris McDougal of The Daily Beast (successor of Newsweek Magazine) described the run-till-you-drop exercise regimens of Petraues in 2010:” At 57, the newly minted leader of the U.S. efforts in Afghanistan still likes to start his day at sun-up with a five-mile run, blazing out each of those miles in under six minutes. Then it’s straight to the weight room, where he ignores all those cushy-seated machines and heads for his torture device of choice: a single iron bar, lag-bolted eight feet overhead. A Petraeus pull-up is nothing as simple as hoisting your own body weight up and down a few dozen times. Instead, he slowly jack-knifes from the hips until his shoelaces are level with his face. After 20 of those babies, he drops to the floor for crisp 100 or so pushups. And to recover from these self-imposed beatings, the general treats himself to a total of one meal per day and four hours of sleep. This was from a guy who a year ago was being treated for prostate cancer and survived getting shot in the chest when a soldier tripped during a live-fire drill”.