Journalists in the brutal frontline

Journalism is one of the most dangerous profession.
There is no harder evidence than the recent massacre in Maguindanao where at least eighteen of the more than fifty slain victims were journalists.
The killing of journalists was literally an assault---in the deadliest fashion---on press freedom.
Journalists were deliberately killed so they cannot report what was to transpire last Monday, which was to kill the women on their way to file the certificate of candidacy of a gubernatorial candidate Esmael “Toto” Mangundadatu.
It is sad that journalists were placed in the frontline of violence.
In this case, I fully agree that the journalists were asked to accompany the groups in a bid to hopefully dissuade the rival powerful political faction from executing their planned violence.
In a way, the slain journalists were made as human shields.
It was wrong calculation.
But the killers were out to kill, whether or not they were journalists.
The killers had no respect for human dignity.
How would you expect them to have respect for the profession?
This act is condemnable.
It was inhuman.
I am not sure if the powerful people behind the mass slayings will be brought to justice.
Maguindanao is in the spotlight of election cheating.
So many of our national leaders owe tons to powerful politicians running the province of Maguindano.
As a matter of fact, Maguindanao single-handedly produced a senator.
That is why the Philippines has a senator from the province of Maguindanao, even if that senator is not from that place.
He was supposed to have lost in the last senatorial elections, but Maguindanao made him a winner.
Those who are suspected to be the brains behind the massacre last Monday may have an ace up their sleeves.
National leaders owe them a debt of gratitude (utang na loob).
That is why bringing them to justice may not be that easy.
Elections in Maguidnao is so unique.
The reason it is unique is because during elections, everything happens except the elections.
And what is magical, winners are proclaimed.
Those election cheating you witness in your locality, they are peanuts compared to the magic of elections in Maguindanao.
In that province, you witness fake ballots, lost election returns, disappearance of certificates of canvass.
Why, even their election supervisor disappears (where is Lentang Bedol?)
Yet, winners are proclaimed by the Comelec.
It’s a different kind of democracy there.
Now that the powerful politicians are being threatened by a former ally, they resort to violence.
And kill the innocent.
Journalists who sought to witness the filing of certificates of candidacies would have wanted to cover the initial salvo of the unique electoral process in Maguindanao.
The journalists did not even reach first base.
They were brutally silenced by people who kill in the name of politics.
By the way, one of those killed was a lawyer and sister in the Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals (BCBP).
Last Tuesday I received a forwarded text message from Bro Pepot Fortich (BCBP Cagayan de Oro), coming from Bro Jun Dacut (BCBP GenSan):
"Let us pray for the repose of the soul of SIS CYNTHIA AYON who was included in the SENSELESS n BRUTAL MASSACRE in MAGUINDANAO. Let us also pray for her bereaved family in this very sad moment of their lives..."
We join the call to bring the perpetrators to justice.
We should not settle for anything less.

Great article on Manny Pacquiao

I have read scores of articles about Manny Pacquiao in the internet.
But this one caught my attention.
Good read.
It was written by Springs Toledo and published on the sweetscience website
http://www.thesweetscience.com/boxing-article/7437/deconstructing-manny/


DECONSTRUCTING MANNY
By Springs Toledo

Manny Pacquiao: I’m just [an] ordinary fighter...

Freddie Roach (interrupting): –You’re not ordinary.

Manny Pacquiao: Sorry about that, master.


“He finds gaps,” said Emanuel Steward after Manny Pacquiao stopped Miguel Cotto in the twelfth round. Those three words mirror the words of a far older, far more legendary war tactician: Sun Tzu. “Strike at their gaps,” The Art of War asserted two thousand years ago, “attack when they are lax, don’t let the enemy figure out how to prepare.” The second knockdown of Cotto illustrated this theory. Cotto, a conventional boxer-puncher, was hit in the fourth round by an uppercut from the left side that went inside and underneath his guard. Pacquiao found a gap, capitalized on the momentary carelessness of an onrushing opponent, and spent the rest of the fight exploding every potential solution Cotto thought he had.

“When you are going to attack nearby make it look as if you are going to go a long way,” Sun Tzu said, “when you are going to attack far away, make it look as if you are going just a short distance.” Pacquiao seems to be moving out when he’s coming in and coming in when he’s moving out. He exploits expectations with illusions. He “draws them in” and then “takes them by confusion.” Trainer Freddie Roach, himself a former professional boxer, agrees that Pacquiao is “very hard to read.” Pacquiao continues punching when his opponent expects a pause, his angles are bizarre, and he is often not where he is expected to be after a combination. Due to such unorthodoxies, this southpaw is a master of destroying the timing and rhythm of a conventional fighter. He is similar to Joe Calzaghe in that regard. Mikkel Kessler said that Calzaghe “ruins your boxing.” Indeed, Pacquiao does worse than that.

While a disruptive boxer like Calzaghe spills ink all over your blueprint and laughs about it, Pacquiao ruins your blueprint, but then adds injury to insult by crashing the drafting table over your head.

THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MANNY
Pacquiao has athletic gifts that translate well in the ring: disruptive rhythm, timing, and speed, all financed by shocking power that belies his featherweight frame. As if this weren’t enough, his whiskers safely absorbed the shock of Cotto’s left hooks. He was never hurt, which raises eyebrows. Manny, we must remember, was exchanging punches in a division forty pounds north of the one he began in. And he reveled in it, he invited it, even snarling at times and standing disdainfully in the final stanzas to challenge the manhood of the retreating Puerto Rican. Roberto Duran, 58, watched from the crowd. His coal-black eyes remembering the night he dethroned another welterweight who thought he could outgun a smaller man. Duran watched Pacquiao’s black hair flying with the force of his blows, his beard paying unintentional tribute. A smile, once sinister, betrayed his lips.

Despite the glory heaped on him by a celebrity-starved public and an island nation eager for eminence, Pacquiao is not the flawless fighter that Duran was when he handed Sugar Ray Leonard his first defeat. Pacquiao’s humanity can be sensed if not seen in his nervousness as battle commences. It takes him a round or two to find his rhythm and gauge his distance and timing. Before that happens he is prone to reach in, get off balance in range, and will often leave windows open for counters. After that happens, his opponent, any opponent, is in peril.

He can be controlled, particularly by welterweights, but it will take a trainer and a fighter who are willing to give up conventional strategies and think out of the box. Convention is broken down by revolution, and Manny Pacquiao fights like a revolution.

Alas, even the trainer who recognizes the need for a counter-revolutionary strategy is faced with another problem –the trainer in the other corner:

Freddie Roach. The formidable Freddie Roach.

Roach has Parkinson’s disease, which has burdened him with tremors, slurring, and odd pauses during conversations. Its symptoms can be as disconcerting to conventional conversationalists as Manny Pacquiao’s style is to conventional fighters; but his disability also gives him an aura of alien brilliance like Stephen Hawking.

It has had no effect on his knack for strategy.

Roach did well not to tamper with Pacquiao’s unorthodoxy. He streamlined it and added balance, deliberate feints, angles, defense, and a two-fisted attack. Like Floyd Mayweather Jr., Manny Pacquiao has a foundation in fundamentals. Unlike Mayweather, Pacquiao’s lessons occurred later in his career, while Floyd’s were drilled into him as a small child. Also unlike Mayweather who claims to disdain strategy, Manny enters the ring with a master plan or three. Sun Tzu emphasized this: “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war.” Roach spends hours and days and weeks and months in study. He deconstructs his opponent and finds patterns –“habits” as he calls them, to exploit. Then he teaches Manny to “see it as [he] sees it.”

At times, the eyes of Freddie Roach seem to focus on a higher plane inaccessible to anyone else. Perhaps he communes with the ghost of Eddie Futch. Futch was his mentor, and was among the greatest trainers of the 20th century. Futch sparred with Joe Louis and learned his trade in the company of master boxers like Holman Williams. He was the strategist behind the first defeat of Muhammad Ali by Joe Frazier, the second defeat of Ali by Ken Norton, Riddick Bowe’s defeat of the undefeated Evander Holyfield, and Montell Griffin’s disqualification win over the undefeated Roy Jones. Freddie Roach learned at his knee. Manny Pacquiao learned at Freddie’s.

The most popular boxer in the world today was catapulted into stardom after he defeated Oscar De La Hoya and then Ricky Hatton. Serious boxing fans know the truth. De La Hoya and Hatton were simply two candles on a cake already baked between 2003 and 2008 by great Mexicans from the lower weight divisions: Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales, and Juan Manuel Marquez. These are the men who tried him in fire much like Murderers' Row tried Archie Moore in the 1940s and Philadelphia tried Marvelous Marvin Hagler in the 1970s. Pacquiao has evolved bloodily into a complete fighter and then some. He is an experienced, natural athlete with power that exponentially rises with weight. He has a style that is as confusing as a hall of mirrors and as difficult to solve as Chinese math. He is a willing student with an expanding set of skills. Behind him stands a trainer with a direct link to Eddie Futch who was a product of boxing’s golden decade and rubbed shoulders with many gods of war. Manny’s pugilistic pedigree summons the gold of yesterday to overcome the iron of today.

HAIL MANNY, FULL OF GRACE
Boxing is a character sport first and a skills sport second. Manny’s character was formed in a background that is ideal for a fighter –a background set in the kind of third world poverty that Americans have not known for seventy years, but a background known to spawn fighters in back alleys amid broken bottles and broken dreams. Manny ran away from home at fourteen to spare his mother one more mouth to feed. He exchanged real poverty for worse poverty –in an act of sacrifice. This fighter has not only suffered, he also understood and embraced self-denial at early adolescence.

The toughest sport in the world is easy for someone like him. Pacquiao has something to fight for as only a poor man can, for self, for family, for country. He has the discipline to do it, and he has the perspective to transcend it. The Sweet Science is meaningful to him; his participation in it is an expression of love and loyalty, of self-actualization. So he approaches battle with joy.

And that isn’t all.

Manny believes that the hand of God himself is on his shoulder. Cynical secularism may scoff at such ancient notions, but irreverence is irrelevant here. Manny believes this –utterly. And it gives him an edge in that he is completely self-possessed and palpably unconcerned with the risks of the ring. He goes not only willingly, but happily. Throughout history, like-minded people have strode confidently into lion’s dens, climbed into kamikaze cockpits, blown themselves up at market places, sang while burning at a stake, and volunteered to die first at Nazi death camps to spare strangers. Pacquiao’s religiosity is that kind of powerful. It is a major reason why he smiles and waves on his way to battle dragons.

Boxing fans take note: his frame of mind was shared by Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali.

Emanuel Steward’s assertion that the thirty-year-old welterweight champion, now 50-3-2, belongs “up there” with Ali and Robinson was half-wrong. When Robinson was thirty, he was defeated once in 131 bouts and went on to finish his career with the scalps of eighteen world champions hanging from his belt. Manny isn’t near that. He is a typhoon blowing over structures less sturdy than those built in the golden era of boxing. But remember, he isn’t finished yet.

Like the legends before him, Manny Pacquiao sees himself as a man of destiny… a patriot fighting for a flag, a Christian laughing at lions… Such men are rarely taken down by anything except time and hubris. They are larger than their foes even when they are not.

Such men are larger than themselves.

 
 


…..
Springs Toledo can be contacted at scalinatella@hotmail.com.

What elective position is Pacquiao qualified to run for?

Manny Pacquiao’s systematic demolition of Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto last Sunday came at the onset of the national elections.
This early, many political parties and politicians are egging Manny Pacquiao to run for a national elective office.
It seems Manny has been asked to run for all national elective position except perhaps, the presidency.
Is Manny Pacquiao qualified to run for any of the national elective positions in the coming May elections?
The answer is no, due to his age.
Manny Pacquiao will only be thirty one years old later this year.
Manny Pacquiao’s listed birthdate is December 17, 1978.
Manny Pacquiao is neither qualified to run for President, Vice President or Senator.
But Manny Pacquiao is right on the dot, in his quest to become congressman.
He is qualified to run for congressman
It think this is what he intends to do.
I also think he has better chances of winning, this time.

Constitutional qualifications 101.

Not for President (yet) for Manny Pacquiao.
Under the constitution Section 2 Article VII, it says No person may be elected President unless he is forty years of age on the day of the election.
Not for Vice President either.
I have already heard some quarters publicly endorsing Manny Pacquiao to run for vice president.
But Manny Pacquiao is also not yet qualified to run for vice president in the coming May elections.
Under Section 3, Article VII of the constitutional, it says “there shall be a vice president who shall have the same qualifications and term of office and be elected with and in the same manner as the president.”
It is clear that the candidate for vice president must have the same qualifications as that of the candidate for president.
That means, the vice president must also be forty years of age on the day of the election.
With these constitutional qualifications, Manny Pacquiao cannot run for president or vice president. Not until 2022.
Neither for senator (yet) for Manny.
Manny Pacquiao also cannot run for senator in next years elections.
Despite this, I saw many Pacquiao named flashed as one of the possible senatorial candidates for the administration party.
Under Section 3 Article VI of the constitution, it says no person shall be a senator unless he is, on the day of the election, at least thirty five years of age.
Since Manny will only be thirty one years old in May 2010, he cannot run for senator yet. Not even in 2013.
But Manny is qualified to run for congressman.
Under Section 6, Article VII, it says no person shall be a member of the house of representatives unless he is, on the day of the election, at least twenty-five years of age.
I guess Manny will be running for congressman.
This could be another victory for the boxing champ.
But it is his victory against Floyd Mayweather Jr. that excites me.
Better still, I'm would also be excited to see if Pacman get survive that knock-out wallop by Jinkee, because of Krista.

Defying court orders is bad

Recently, I wrote about a Supreme Court directive to the Ombudsman to file formal criminal charges in the Sandiganbayan against Valencia Mayor Rodolfo V. Gonzales, Jr., and his treasurer, Rolando Obanana and two private contractors.
This came after the Supreme Court ruled there is sufficient basis to hold Gonzales and company for trial for violating the anti graft and corrupt practices act.
They are to be charged because Gonzales ordered the release of public funds to a private contractor despite a previous attachment order issued by the regional trial court prohibiting such release.
Subsequently, comments were raised defending Gonzales.
Defenders of Mayor Gonzales argue that it was a damn-if-you-do-damn-if-you-don’t situation.
They said that Gonzales would have been sued either way, anyway.
If Gonzales did not release the public funds to the contractor, he would have been sued by the contractor for contractual breach, it was argued.
If Gonzales released the public funds to the contractor, he was sued for graft.
So either way, Gonzales faced lawsuits, defenders said.
This is such a tricky argument.
First. Under the rules of court, if there is an attachment order issued by the court against a certain property, there are legal ways to discharge this attachment.
The person against whom the attachment is issued, can file what is called counter-attachment bond.
The purpose of this counter attachment bond is to provide a security, to ensure that the judgment in favor of the person seeking the attachment, is satisfied.
The question now is: Did Gonzales file a counter-attachment bond to discharge the attachment? (Its not in the Supreme Court decision) If not, why not?
Why did he take the law into his own hands, and proceeded to defy the court order by releasing public funds to a private contractor despite a court prohibition?
There is no excuse to defy a lawful court order.
The real issue here is the observance of the rule of law.
If we advocate defiance of court orders, as Gonzales did, there will be chaos and anarchy in society.
Second. Why should Gonzales be afraid of a civil suit for contractual breach? Gonzales has a complete defense against a civil suit for breach of contract.
His Exhibit “1” would have been the court attachment order.
In other words, Gonzales’ ready defense is that, he couldn’t pay the contractor because he was prevented by a lawful order of the court.
Third. Which would Gonzales prefer to face, a mere civil suit for contractual breach (of which he has a ready defense), or a criminal action for graft?
Isn’t the answer clear?
Fourth. If Gonzales was not agreeable with the court attachment order, did he question the attachment order in a higher court by certiorari?
If not, why not?
He could even have asked for a T.R.O./injunction in the higher court to prevent the attachment order from being enforced. Was this done?
Fifth. By defying a lawful court order, Gonzales' behavior is contumacious.
He can be held in contempt of court for disobeying a lawful court order.
Sixth. Gonzales cannot claim good faith by alleging that he was merely following an opinion by the provincial attorney.
Which should be followed: a mere opinion by a provincial attorney, or a court order?
Is the answer still debatable, or is the answer clear?
So why did he insist in paying the private contractor, in the face of a court prohibition?
What could be the reason?
That is a 64-dollar question.
This (damn-if-you-do-damn-if-you-don’t) “dilemma-defense” being peddled to excuse Gonzales’ defiance of a court attachment order, does not hold water.
It is even insulting to the mind.
Elected officials should lead by example as followers---not violators---of court orders.
Elected public officials, should lead in the observance of the rule of law.
For if they don't, what's the use of electing them into office?

Odol Gonzales Jr. faces criminal raps in Sandiganbayan

Sayang. Bad timing.
Just as the elections are up and coming, the venerable and honorable Valencia mayor Rodolfo “Odol” V. Gonzales, Jr. will be facing criminal charges before the Sandiganbayan for graft and corruption.
This came through a now-irreversible order of the Supreme Court.
Together with Gonzales, also facing the same criminal raps are his municipal treasurer Rolando B. Obanana and two private contractors Alex and Dominador Abelido.

The nature of the criminal raps

The criminal charges against Gonzales and company, stems from his release of what is called “retention money” (peoples’ money) to a private contractor, even if this was prohibited by the regional trial court, through an order called a writ of preliminary attachment.
Under the anti-graft and corrupt practices act, the penalty for corruption is only ten years maximum imprisonment, and perpetual disqualification from public office.
Procedurally, after the criminal information is filed, a warrant of arrest would likely be issued.
But not to worry.
This crime is bailable.
Just as we hear that the promising Valencia mayor, is being talked about to be a vice-gubernatorial candidate in next years elections, he now has this impending criminal charge in the graft court, the Sandiganbayan.
But we still hope, that whoever the gubernatorial candidate picking mayor Gonzales as running–mate will be, would overlook the fact that he will be having a vice-gubernatorial partner with a pending criminal case before the Sandiganbayan for graft and corruption.
Hopefully, voters would not see mayor Gonzales as “political baggage”, with the pendency of his corruption charge.

The parties to the case

What is this criminal case involving Rodolfo “Odol” Gonzales Jr.?
The facts of the case can be gathered from the Supreme Court website in this address: http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/jurisprudence/2009/jan2009/169338.htm
The case (G.R. No. 169338) is entitled New Bian Yek Commercial, Inc. versus Office of the Ombudsman (Visayas), Rodolfo V. Gonzales Jr., Rolando B. Obanana (municipal treasurer of Valencia) and Erwin Vergara, the provincial attorney, Alex and Domindor Abelido, the private contractors.
This was decided last January 20, 2009.
A motion for reconsideration was filed, but was denied in March.

The facts of the case

The writer of the decision, Justice Renato Corona, narrated the facts like a news item.
Very simple.
On August 13, 2000, the municipality of Valencia Negros Oriental awarded to Legacy Construction (Legacy), a corporation owned by respondents Alex Abelido and Dominador Abelido, the P14.6-million, 300-day-contract for the improvement of its waterworks system (Valencia project).
In connection with the Valencia project, Legacy, the contractor , through its project engineer, Jaime Lu, bought from petitioner New Bian Yek Commercial, Inc. pipes worth P2.8-million.
As payment for the pipes, Lu issued two personal checks to Bian Yek, which bounced or were dishonored.
Because Legacy had already received a significant portion of the contract price from the municipality, Bian Yek demanded payment for the pipes (amounting to P1,766,950) on December 11, 2002.
Legacy, however, ignored petitioner’s demand.
On April 15, 2002, Bian Yek requested mayor Rodolfo V. Gonzales, Jr., to pay for Legacy’s obligation using the retention money withheld by the municipality for the Valencia project.
Unsure (kuno) of what to do, Gonzales referred the matter to Negros Oriental provincial attorney, respondent Erwin B. Vergara.
On January 29, 2003, Bian Yek filed a complaint for sum of money with a prayer for the issuance of a writ of preliminary attachment against Legacy, Alex Abelido, Lu and the municipality of Valencia in the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Dumaguete City, Branch 44.
On February 4, 2003, Vergara issued an opinion to Gonzales’ query favoring the release of the retention money by the municipality to Legacy.
Meanwhile, after conducting the requisite hearing, the RTC found that Alex Abelido had left the country.
There was a balance of the contract price (amounting to P3 million) which was the only fund Bian Yek could run after to recover Legacy’s liability.
Thus, in its February 7, 2003 order, the RTC ordered the issuance of a writ of preliminary attachment.
The court prohibited Gonzales or his agents or representatives from releasing any payment (including the retention money) to Legacy.

But what did Gonzles do?

Despite the prohibition by the court, Gonzales adopted Vergara’s recommendation and instructed the municipal treasurer Rolando Obañana, to release the retention money to Legacy on March 12, 2003.
This prompted Bian Yek, on November 19, 2004, to file a criminal complaint against mayor Gonzales, his treasurer Obanana, and the provincial attorney Erwin Vergara, and the contractor in the Office of the Ombudsman.
Bian Yek alleged that Gonzales, Vergara and Obañana allegedly violated Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (RA 3019) when they released the retention money to Legacy in spite of the February 11, 2003 writ of preliminary attachment
It was alleged that they conspired with the Abelidos in depriving Bian Yek of payment for Legacy’s just obligation.

Ombudsman dismissed complaint

Surprisingly, on March 10, 2005, the Ombudsman dismissed the complaint against Gonzales and others because they were acting in good faith in following the opinion of the provincial attorney Vergara.
So Bian Yek went to the Supreme Court to question the Ombudsman dismissal.

Ruling of the court

The Supreme Court reversed the dismissal by the Ombudsman.
Contrary to the ombudsman’s view, the Supreme Court said there is basis to believe that mayor Gonzales and treasurer Obanana unduly injured Bian Yek when they released the retention money despite a prohibition by the regional trial court.
In effect, by releasing the retention money even with the prohibition by the regional trial court, Gonzales and Obanana gave unwarranted benefits to the contractor Legacy and the owner Abelido.

Ombudsman: grave abuse of discretion

The ombudsman committed a grave abuse of its discretion in dismissing the complaint of Bian Yek, the Supreme Court ruled.
As a result mayor Rodolfo Gonzales Jr, treasurer Obanana, and the contractors Alex and Dominador Abelido will have to face corruption charges.
The provincial attorney was absolved, because he rendered his opinion favoring the release of the retention money, before the prohibition for its release issued by the regional trial court

The accused triumvirate ---the mayor, the treasurer and the contractors---are entitled to be presumed innocent until proven otherwise.
In the meantime, Gonzales, as an accused, can still run for public office while the criminal case is pending before the Sandiganbayan.
We wish the accused well, and the best of luck, and the best of health.
They will need it.