Vol. II No. 70 • ISSN 2094-4098 OCTOBER 10-16, 2011 • P15.00Page 7

By BERTENI “TOTO”

CATALUÑACAUSING

4 5 4HERNZ QUARRYby HERNANI CUARE

PRIVILEGED SPITS by BERTENI C. CAUSING

JERRY’S BLOGSby JERRY S. YAP

Call it “a petty war of pretty girls” at Cus-toms’ direc-tor’s office.

This pretty executive secretary slapped another pretty woman, who is a contractual employee, in front of Customs Intel-ligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) Director Filomeno Vicencio inside his office last October 5.

Was it over envy as to who should be the apple of the eye of Director Vi-cencio?

The pretty contractual employee, May Beltran Escoto, said in her Com-plaint-affidavit for the Office of the Ombuds-man that Jonna Cruz Mo-gueis slapped, mauled and defamed her after the former succeeded in get-ting the personal atten-tion of Director Vicen-cio, who turned 65 a few days ago to be compelled by law to retire.

In her complaint-af-fidavit, Escoto asserted that the acts of slapping, mauling and defaming her occurred right in front of Director Vicen-cio.

PETTY WAR,PRETTYGIRLS

Only shadows of nature left in ‘Ghost Region’

My jobs planif I were the President

Rep. Amado Bagatsing wants UP-PGH

syndicate grilled

Page 8

After theDream

To page 2

Chapter III Defenses in Libel

Page6

OVER ‘P5,000 PER VAN’ SECRETSas a result, Escoto

is charging Mogueis for administrative violations of grave misconduct, dis-honesty, oppression and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the public service.

at the same time, she is also charging Mogueis for committing crimes of grave oral defamation, slander by deed, physical injuries and destruction to property.

Escoto said that Mo-gueis, the executive sec-retary of Vicencio, has been shielding Vicencio from the former because the latter believed that the contractual employee would tell all about Es-coto’s discovery that Mo-gueis has been asking for or receiving P5,000.00 for every container van in exchange for the sig-nature of Vicencio lifting the alert order of imports.

Vicencio’s jurisdic-tion covers the entire country. In the Port of Manila alone, it is said that 20,000 vans are coming in every week. If only 10 percent of them are placed in alert status, then it means 2,000 vans.

If P5,000.00 each is given, it means that it is a whopping P10 mil-lion a week for Mogueis. What more can be gotten if there are other alerts from the ports in the rest of the country?

additionally, Escoto also said in her complaint that Mogueis was pre-venting the former from coming close to Vicencio because the former may disclose that Mogueis was pilfering from the salaries of Vicencio.

Escoto said Mogueis had been tasked by Vi-cencio to withdraw his salaries from the land-bank branch at the Bu-reau of Customs.

But later Escoto said that Mogueis asked her to accompany the latter in withdrawing the salary.

Escoto said that the executive secre-tary would withdraw P45,000.00 from the bank as the salary of Vi-cencio.

after arriving at their office, Escoto said that Mogueis would then ask her to be the one to hand over to Vicencio the sal-ary envelope.

But when Escoto asked how much was the content of the envelope, Mogueis instructed her to tell Vicencio that the content was P38,000.00.

Escoto even risked herself by admitting that for every work of giv-ing the salary envelope and telling Vicencio that it contained P38,000.00 Mogueis gave her P1,000.00.

Escoto said in her affidavit that she and fellow contractual em-ployee Catherine Ser-rano were eased out of the director’s office upon what she claimed as the machination of Mogueis.

She said she wanted this issue to be brought to the attention of Vicen-cio so that she tried her best to reach out to Di-rector Vicencio by means of a cellular phone.

and when she suc-ceeded, Escoto said Vi-cencio told her she can see him at his office.

At 2:00 p.m. of Oc-tober 5, Escoto said she and Catherine came to the office of the direc-tor, but there she found that Mogueis had been

“Stay hungry,Stay foolish.”

Jonna Cruz Mogueis (above), together with a certain Elith, allegedly slapped and mauled May Beltran Escoto (below) right inside the of-fice of Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) Director Filomeno Vicencio. A hard slap hit Escoto’s forehead where she felt a pointed object cut across from the left temple to the center.

blocking her from seeing Vicencio.

The succeeding inci-dent led to the slapping, mauling and defaming of Escoto by Mogueis and another employee named

“Elith.”

‘Monsters’ at the door

In her affidavit, Es-coto gave up-to-the-min-ute details of what actu-

ally happened, and these were narrated in a blow-by-blow manner.

She said that she went to Vicencio’s office be-cause he gave her a go-

NPC means“Press

Freedom”

2 Vol. II No. 70 October 10-16, 2011

Publisher:RONALDO E. RENTA

Editorial:TOTO C. CAUSING

Editor-In-ChiefDesign & Layout:

RONALDO B. HERICODisclaimer: All news articles and opinions expressed by the writers are entirely their own and do not reflect the opinion of the publisher, the management or the editor of this publication.All Rights Reserved: No part of this publication may be copied or reproduced nor translated in any language or form for commercial pur-poses without prior written permission from the publisher and its writers or columnists.

MAGDIWANGPUBLICATIONS

From page 1

TUMINGIN ka sa lan-git, kaibigan. Ang kapal at itim ng ulap. Kung babagsak yan, babaha ng napakalaki, kayang talunin Ondoy man o Pepeng.

Gumawa ka na ng paraan. Lumayo ka sa iyong kinatatayuan. Tu-makbo ka sa matataas na lugar, doon ka maisa-salba.

Iyan ang ulap ng korapsyon, ulap ng pagnanakaw, ulap ng mga ninanakaw, ulap ng kawalan ng katarungan, ulap ng kasakiman, ulap ng pandaraya, ulap ng maitim na kapangyari-han.

Lumisan ka kai-bigan. Isalba mo ang iyong sarili. Hikayatin mo ang iyong kapitba-hay, kaibigan at kamag-anak. Umakyat kayo sa mataas na lugar, doon kayo lamahok sa galaw ng pagbabago.

Lubog na ang ating bayan. Lubog na ang ating mamamayan. lu-bog na ang lahat sa atin. Pero nakakatawa pa rin ang mga buwaya. Mag-isip ka kung kaya pa ba, ang ating bayan mais-alba?

Ako’y may dalang balita, balitang pwedeng magbangon sa atin mula sa putik ng baha, bali-tang siya lamang ang sagot sa ating mga suli-

ranin, balitang unti-unting aayos sa ating lipunan, balitang siyang tanging lutas sa lahat ng ating su-liranin. Iyon ay kung ating pakikinggan.

Hinihikayat ko kayong pirmahan, itong petisyon para sa kinabukasan, peti-syong magbabago ng Kon-stitusyon, petisyong mag-papatayo ng Hukuman ng Mamamayan.

Ito ay tinatawag na Trial Jury, ito ay buuin ng mga ordinaryong mama-mayan, para hatulan ang nasasakdal kung may sala man, kahit sino pa man.

ang mga ordinaryong mamamayan, ang tunay nilang lakas sa Trial Jury makikita, hindi matatakot kahit sa anong sakuna, hindi matatakot kahit sino pa sila.

Ang Trial Jury na ak-ing inaadhika, ay siyang buuin ng magbubukid man o magkakariton, jeepney driver o tricycle driver o padyak driver man, kung saan dala nila ang kapang-yarihan, kapangyarihan ng buong sambayanan, laban sa mapang-api maging sino pa man.

ang Trial Jury ay hahatulan, kahit si Mike o Mikey Arroyo man, hahat-ulan kahit si Ping Lacson, hahatulan kahit si Glorya, hahatulan kahit maya-man man, hahatulan kahit makapangyarihan man.

Itong Trial Jury ay

sila bubunutin, kanilang pangalan at mukha ay babalutin, para hindi makilala ng sino mang kurakot at mayayaman, para hindi sila mabibili o matatakot maging sino pa man.

ang Grand Jury ang syang maghahatol, ang maghahatol kung sino ang isasakdal, kahit sino pa man basta’t may kasalanan, kasalananan sa bayan at mamamayan.

At kung meron nang Grand Jury kaibigan, wala kang dapat pangan-gambahan, sa lahat ng hinahanap mong kata-rungan, para makasuhan ang sino na dapat kasu-han, maging si Joc-joc Bolante o Mike Arroyo man, maging si Mikey arroyo o nanay nya man, maging si Mercedi-tas Gutierrez man.

Isulong, mo kaibi-gan. Isulong mo ang Trial Jury, na siyang Hu-kuman ng Mamamayan.

Isulong mo kaibigan. Isulong mo ang Grand Jury, na siyang hahatol na kasuhan at isasakdal ang dapat isasakdal, maging si Gloria arroyo man, maging si P-Noy man, maging sinuman.

Isulong ang Trial Jury! Isulong ang Hu-kum ng Mamamayan!

Isulong ang Grand Jury! Isulong ang Taga-using ng Mamamayan!

ISULONG MO KAIBIGAN,HUKOM NG MAMAMAYAN!

PETTY WAR,PRETTY GIRLSsignal to come and have her Daily Time Records (DTR) signed by him.

So she went there along with co-employee Serrano who had own concerns with regard to assignments.

“Before finally enter-ing the room of Director Vicencio, we had to pass through the receiving room where Jonna Cruz Mogueis was holding of-fice for being the execu-tive secretary of Direc-tor Vicencio and where two other co-employ-ees, named ‘Elith’ and ‘Baby’, were also hold-ing office,” Escoto said.

at the door of the re-ceiving room, she said she was required by the “doorman” named “Jol-libee” to fill up a visi-tor’s slip and they com-plied with.

She said they were told by Jollibee to wait at the bench near the door, reasoning that Vicencio was still talking with an-other person.

Escoto said she insist-ed to Jollibee she already talked to Vicencio and

the director already told her to come and see him for her DTR.

But Jollibee said he would ask first the direc-tor, Escoto added.

after that, she said that Jollibee closed the sliding glass door of the receiving room, which door was tainted with a brown color but trans-parent enough to see through the inside.

Thereafter, she said Jollibee closed the door leaving them just beside the door.

She said she saw Jol-libee going to the table at the left of the door of the director’s office and saw him talking to Mr. Jojo Concepcion, driver of Vicencio.

She said she saw Jol-libee that while he was talking to Concepcion he waived his right hand that was understood by her as telling her to wait.

at this juncture, she said she noticed Digo, brother of Director Vicen-cio, sitting by the table at the right side of the door leading to the director’s

office. She said she also noticed Jonna sitting on her seat by the same table.

Saving grace: the direc-tor’s son

after that, she said she sat on the bench beside the sliding door and after waiting for ten minutes, she saw Teej Vicencio, son of the director, coming out of the sliding door.

When Teej saw her, she said he instructed Jollibee: “Jollibee, si May at Catherine, papa-sukin mo kay director at magpapirma yan.”

She said Jolibee an-swered “yes” but the di-rector was yet talking to another person.

Then, she said Teej gave her a thumbs-up and he left.

after three minutes, she said Digo called her and Catherine and told them: “Tisay, pumasok ka na, tinawag ka na ni Director.”

Met by fire

She said that while

To page 7

buuin ng mga tao, sa lis-tahan ng mga botante sila magmumula, kukunin sila sa pamamagitan ng bu-nutan, itatago mukha nila at pangalan, para kapakan-an nila at ng kanilang pam-ilya, ay mapapangalagaan, sa anumang pananakot at pananambang, ng mga akusadong may kapang-yarihan o kayamanan.

Panahon na kaibigan, ating ibangon ang ating bayan, mawala ang mga kurakot at pananakot, sa halip ang mga lingkod bayan ay matatakot, dahil sila ay mahahatulan, kung silay ay magpatuloy na mangungurakot.

Panahon na isulong ang malaking pagbabago, para ang ating bayan ay magbabago.

Isulong mo kaibigan, ang aking panawagan, na tayong lahat ay lalagda, sa isang petisyong isasaba-tas, ang pagtatayo ng Trial Jury sa Pilipinas.

Idagdag mo pa riyan kaibigan, pagtatayo ng Grand Jury sa ating li-punan, para kunin mula sa kurakot na piskalya o prosekyutor o taga-usig ang kapangyarihan, ang kapangyarihan sa pagsa-sabi kung sino ang dapat kasuhan, at dinigin sa Hu-kuman ng Mamamayan.

Ang Grand Jury kaibi-gan, buuin ng mga ordi-naryo ring mamamayan, mula sa listahan ng botante

she was stepping into the receiving room, she saw Jonna approaching her and saying: “Akin na yang DTR mo, ako na magpapasok, ayaw na ni director na pumasok ka.”

To this, she said: “Bakit, nagkausap na kami ni director at ako ang magpapapirma nito.”

She said Jonna shot back: “Yun nga ang sabi nya, wag ka nang pu-masok, ako na ang mag-papirma, sumunod ka na lang sa office rules. Walang pinag-aralan.”

She said she felt em-barrassed because it was heard by Catherine and two more employees she named only as Elith and Baby who were sitting

by a table where Con-cepcion was sitting while being talked to by Jol-libee.

“I insisted that I should be the one who should have my DTR signed because I was al-ready told by the director to come to him and have the same signed with me personally handling to him this DTR,” said Es-coto.

Despite her insis-tence, she said Jonna or-dered her and Catherine to sit on the two chairs where Concepcion was sitting, to which they complied with.

While sitting, Esco-to told Jonna: “Ano ba problema mo, ba’t galit na galit ka, ayaw mo akong papasukin? Secre-tary ka lang naman dito.”

To this, she said Jonna replied: “Basta sumunod ka na lang sa office rules ha! Akin na yan (refer-ring to the DTR);”

She said she refused to give her DTR while Jonna told Jollibee: “Jol-libee, halika, kunin mo, ikaw na ang magpasok.”

“I stood up and I in-sisted to go to the di-rector’s office but she blocked my way while saying: ‘Hindi nga e!’,” Escoto said.

Success and pain of en-tering the door

at this juncture, she said she saw the direc-tor open the door and she pleaded to him: “Sir, di ba po pinapunta nyo ako?”;

To this, she said the director replied: “Oo, tara pumasok ka”;

at this time, she said Jonna who was stand-ing right by her left side raised her right arm backwards and smashed the same on Escoto’s back, hitting the latter on the nape that caused her to nearly fall.

Escoto said she then raised her left arm and moved it sideways to loosen from the grip of Jonna’s fingers holding her hair.

In the presence of the director, she said she said: “Ba’t ka ba nanan-akit? Sir o, nanakit.”

To this, she said the director replied: “Oo, na-kita ko.”

She said she then stepped inside the di-

rector’s room but while walking to the table of the director, she said Jonna shouted: “Hindi ka marunong sumunod sa office rules.”

at this juncture, she said the director told them to stop and Jonna went out of office.

She said that while Vicencio was signing the DTR in the presence of Ver lopez, a friend of Director Vicencio, she said: “Sir, bakit ganoon, galit na galit sa akin si Jonna, ayaw akong papa-sukin?”

She said Vicencio an-swered: “Hindi ko alam”;

Escoto said she insist-ed: “Alamin nyo sir, boss kayo”;

She said the director told her: “Sa totoo lang Tisay (my nickname), testigo si Ver, pinapapa-sok na kita. Tapos pu-masok si Jonna at sabi, wag ka nang papasukin at kukunin na lang ni Jonna ang DTR mo. ayan si Ver, testigo. Di ba, Ver?”

She said Ver an-swered: “Oo.”

To this she said: “E ba’t ganoon sir, kayo ang boss, e secretary nyo lang sya?”;

She said Vicencio yielded: “Sige, alamin ko.”

Then she said she asked: “Sir, kaya lang pupunta ako rito di ba alam nyo naman na mata-gal ko na kayong gustong kausapin, ayaw nyo lang kaming kausapin.”

She said Vicencio re-

plied: “Hindi, hindi ko alam.”

She said she then told the director: “aalamin lang namin ang status na-min ni Cathy (referring to Catherine Serrano). Ilang linggo na kaming walang allowance kay sir Vince. Ito na lang ang DTR ang inaasahan ko. May tatlo pa po akong anak na pinag-aaral. Di ba po, sabi ko sa inyo, okay lang kami dito. Ba’t nyo pa kami pinatapon sa kabila?”

To this, she said Vi-cencio replied: “Hindi ko alam yan. Yung kay Vince, office ko pa rin yon. Sige ako ang ba-hala.”

Then she said she re-peated her concern with Jonna: “Sir, bakit po ba galit na galit sa akin si Jonna?”

To which, the director repeated he did know not about it.

at this point, she said: “alamin nyo, director kayo, ipatawag nyo po si Jonna, para habang an-dito ako, mapag-usapan natin.”

at this juncture, Es-coto said that Vicencio motioned to go out to call Jonna in but Ver vol-unteered to be the one to do it.

When Jonna came in, she said Ver went out and Jonna went directly to Director Vicencio and said: “Sir, sinisiraan ako dito. Kung anu-ano ang mga sinasabi sa akin,

October 10-16, 2011 3 Vol. II No. 70

“Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” -- Steve Jobs

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(NOTE: No one can tell his own story better than himself. So that the editor decided to post this moving and inspiring speech of the genius of Apple computer company,Steve Jobs, telling about three stories from his life. This is a tribute to this won-derful man sent by God to mankind.)

I am honored to be with you today at your commence-ment from one of the finest universi-

ties in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal.

Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for an-other 18 months or so be-fore I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological moth-er was a young, unwed col-lege graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college gradu-ates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl.

So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biologi-cal mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my par-ents promised that I would someday go to college.

and 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expen-sive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition.

after six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me fig-ure it out. and here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their

STEVE JOB’S COMMENCEMENT SPEECHAT STANFORD UNIVERSITY IN 2005

entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best deci-sions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the re-quired classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple.I loved it. and much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruc-tion in the country.

Throughout the cam-pus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand cal-ligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this.

I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typog-raphy great. It was beauti-ful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that sci-ence can’t capture, and I found it fascinating. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life.

But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh com-puter, it all came back to me. and we designed it all into the Mac.

It was the first comput-er with beautiful typogra-phy. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportion-ally spaced fonts. and since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would

have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the won-derful typogra-phy that they do.

Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear look-ing backwards ten years later.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started?

Well, as apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the fu-ture began to diverge and eventually we had a fall-ing out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him.

So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly.

I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something

slow-ly be-gan to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. and so I de-cided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being suc-cessful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world’s first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation stu-dio in the world.

In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to apple, and the technology we de-veloped at NeXT is at the heart of apple’s current

renaissance. and laurene and I have a won-derful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m con-vinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. and that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers.

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. and the only way to do great work is to love what you do.

If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. as with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, some-day you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an im-pression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” and when-ever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost ev-erything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Re-membering that you are going to die is the best

way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even

know what a pancreas was. The doc-

tors told me this

w a s a l -

most c e r -

t a i n l y a type

of cancer that is incur-

able, and that I should expect to live no lon-ger than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my af-fairs in order,

which is d o c t o r ’s

code for p r e -

p a r e to die.

It means to try to

tell your kids everything you

thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure ev-erything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your good-byes.

I lived with that diag-nosis all day. later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an en-doscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells un-der a microscope the doc-tors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the clos-est I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death

4 Vol. II No. 70 October 10-16, 2011

Only shadows of nature left in ‘Ghost Region’MOUNTAIN peaks, slides and slopes, and planes of Cara-ga Region – the dreamed mining capital and the sec-ond poorest region of the country next to the autonomous Region of Muslim Mindano – are beau-ty for the lumads that they witnessed them as blessings without an end for the eternal living of the tribe.

But Caraga’s mountains peaks disappeared. The slides collapsed. The slopes served as depository ducts of mine tailings with cyanide and mercury that rushed to farm irrigations, canals, rivers, and seas.

Mine tailings turned brown all the greens on the min-ing sites, devastat-ing the slides, the slopes, and farm-lands on planes.

Mine tailings shoved the fishes on rivers and seas. The fishermen shook their heads in dis-grace.

Once upon a time the mountains of

Esperanza, Bayugan and Prosperidad were glittering with gold. The mountain areas in San luis and that of Tandag that con-nects to San Miguel and Tago, Surigao del Sur were covered with a virgin forest. The mountain areas of the municipali-ties of Tandag, Tago, Cagwait, Marihatag, San agustin and li-anga in Surigao del Sur were heavy with gold, chromite, cop-per and coal. The Red Mountain was a high, towering mountain in the boundary of Su-rigao provinces. Now, all these mountains lost their peaks, their nakedness exposed like deserts of disas-ters.

Looking back, some 1.2 million hectares of Caraga Region were within the watersheds that support the irrigation systems, livelihood, and source of house-hold and industrial water for the rural and urban areas. To-day, only traces of the watershed areas are left for the young Lumads, to remember that once upon a time

clean water flowed naturally to their farms and homes.

Decades of min-ing wrought havoc to Caraga.

In February 2006, the region was hit by floods that claimed 13 lives, P296 mil-lion damage to in-frastructure, and P 5 0 , 6 8 9 , 5 6 7 . 0 0 worth of crops wash-ing away.

In January of 2007, the floods drowned five men and left 193,347 persons or about 41,861 families homeless.

In 2009, 68,696 persons were forced out of their homes when flash floods hit 341 barangays in 34 towns and four cities.

The multinational corporations unceas-ingly prostituted Caraga without shar-ing a pint of gold, copper, nickel chro-mite, coal and other natural wealth that the lumads should have for themselves.

Mining in Caraga started since pre-Hispanic period. It went full scale only when the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 was passed during the presidency of Fidel Ramos. His Medi-um-Term Philippine Development Plan opened the country to multinational and transnational compa-nies.

The Mining act was declared uncon-stitutional by the Su-preme Court in 1998. But the High Tribunal overturned its own declaration and up-held the constitution-ality of the said act in 2005 during the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-arroyo.

The arroyo ad-ministration was tagged as spooky to the lumads. It was during her reign when troop deploy-ment in Caraga Re-gion was beefed up in two brigades (401st and 402nd

Infantry Brigade) and six battalions (23rd, 29th, 30th, 36th, 58th and the Military Intelligence Battalion).

The Reengineered Special Operations Team (RSOT) con-centrated in com-munities believed to be strongholds of the communist movement due to the presence of people’s organizations and a strong and organized protest against the in-cursions of big min-ing companies.

Majority of the residents of the re-gion, especially those living in the mining areas, remain poor. This is so despite the rocketing profits that had been posted by the mining compa-nies.

Per record in 2009, to name one, the lepanto Mining reported a 92% in-crease in sales from its subsidiaries that include Manila Min-

ing Corporation.Oceanagold re-

ported revenue that doubled to $217.2 million or 49% in 2008. Philex Mining reported revenues of P2.2 billion for the second quarter of 2009. Medusa Min-ing, owner of Philsa-ga, reported an earn-ing of $57,252,098 in June 2009.

Caraga or Re-gion XIII (agusan del Norte, agusan del Sur, Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur and Dinagat Is-lands) is the admin-istrative region of the Philippines on the northeastern portion of Mindanao.

It was on Febru-ary 25, 1995 when Caraga was created through Republic Act No. 7901.

With its de-nuded mountains and extracted natu-ral wealth, Caraga somewhat lives with the original mean-ing of its name de-rived from a Visayan term “kalag,” which means “ghost” or “spirit”.

The man-made and natural disasters proved former Butu-

an City Rep. Chari-to Plaza wrong. She authored the Caraga Region Act by sell-ing that Caraga is a land of the “brave spirits” ready to undertake what-ever challenges that come its way.

Last October 3, about 200 Commu-nist rebels attacked three mining sites in the region and briefly took hos-tage the employees of Nickel Asia’s Taganito Mining before burning trucks, excavators and a guest house.

The United States said that Philippines has untapped mineral wealth valued at more than $840 billion, on copper, gold and chromate deposits, easily making it among the largest in the world.

The government of President Benig-no “Noynoy” aqui-no III disclosed that it is aiming to see mining investments rise more than four-fold to $18 billion over the next five years.

Rep. Amado Bagatsing wants UP-PGH syndicate grilled

MEMBERS of the House of Repre-sentatives are mad because of a syndi-cate that siphoned off their funds at the Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH).

Manila Rep. AMADO BAGA-TSING is ponder-ing on calling for a congressional investigation to know how their funds were handled at the hospital.

He wants to hear the explanation of the UP-PGH director and other ranking of-ficials responsible for handling the hospi-tal’s finances.

He is one of the congressmen who backed the financial

allotment for the UP-PGH, a hospital that extends medical as-sistance to Manilans.

But what puzzled Bagatsing is the fact that when his office extended a guarantee letter to his constitu-ent, the UP-PGH ca-shier told the patient that the UP-PGH has zero fund.

He is wondering why the UP-PGH officials are not in-forming the Congress when the hospital fund was already on zero balance.

Bagatsing wants to know where did the allotted the UP-PGH funds go and how the officials handled the hospital funds.

How shall the congressmen know

that the UP-PGH has zero funds when hospital officials are keeping their silence?

How shall the hos-pital extend assistance to the poor patients when the UP-PGH has zero funds?

Shall the hospi-tal just drive away the poor patients because it has no as-sistance to extend?

Sonnabagan!

We hope that the Congress will contin-ue with its investiga-tion plan. The PGH is one of the country’s best hospitals. The doctors who serve the UP-PGH are mostly graduates of the UP College of Medicine

(UPCM). The UPCM almost

perfected the Top Ten record of the latest medical board exam. This proved that the best doctors of the country are now serv-ing at the PGH.

The earlier is the better it is to clear the fund issue. This is because the need for medical services can-not be postponed.

Expect my sup-port, CONGRESS-MAN AMADO BaGaTSING.

Namedroppers of Gen.

Danny Lim, beware!

Customs Intel-ligence Czar, Dep-uty Commissioner DANILO LIM, warned those who

drop his name for transactions at the Bureau of Customs.

DepCom Danny lim said he will not think twice to file charges and send behind bars those who are using his name, es-pecially in their quest for illegal collection from the brokers and importers.

actually, DepCom lim has already made true his warning.

last Friday, lim ordered the arrest of Jeff Pan and Manny Calvo for using his name in trying to mulct money from brokers.

Forget not the warning of DepCom lim: “Never use his name in illegal col-lection!”

BI ‘‘‘‘Quadro’ De Jack’’ hits Batangas!

While Immigra-tion Intel agents are operating against Indians or Bombay who stayed illegally in Davao, the notori-ous Bureau of Im-migration’s “Quadro de Jack” launched a harassment op-eration in Batangas along with one alias “Speedy Gonzales.”

The Indians were caught by surprise. They asked them-selves if there was an “Indian shake-down” in Batangas.

Is the “Indian shakedown” the idea of Immigration Intel Chief Tonette “Gaz-min” Mangrobang?

Has alias “Speedy”

has the signal of Mangrobang?

alias Speedy will never launch a shakedown on Indians in Batangas City if nobody has given him the go-signal!

Has alias Speedy already reported the shakedown to Immigration asst. Intel Chief JEROME GABI-ONZA?

Just asking!

(The column is the writer’s own and it is not the official stand of Dyaryo Magdalo. For any inquiry, you may email the author at jer-ryap888@yahoo.com.)

Jerry’s Blogs

By Jerry S. Yap

Hernz quarry

By Hernani Cuare

October 10-16, 2011 5 Vol. II No. 70

My jobs plan if I were the PresidentIF I were the Presi-dent, how will I create jobs that are more permanent at home for all?

This question be-comes life-and-death if all our overseas Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia are sent home due to the completion of its Saudization, a pro-gram aimed at mak-ing Saudis educated and skilled enough to do the works be-ing done by millions of Filipinos now there.

I even predict that the domestic work-ers’ posts would be filled in by KSA natives: our DHs would be displaced too, considering alone the move to ease out hiring of foreign maids.

Now, it is a fact of life. There is no magic wand, no school, and no hard-and-fast rule on how to resolve unem-ployment.

So how could I create jobs for the Filipinos in order to employ all who are here and to those who come back be-cause Saudi has stopped the hiring of foreigners?

To answer this, let us begin from the ba-sic idea.

First, there is work when Pedro hires Juan to do an activity for Pedro. Why Pedro hired Juan? The answer is, Pedro needs the work of Juan.

In other words, there is a need to have more persons like Pedro so that more individuals like Juan would be hired.

But how to have more persons like Pedro?

In all likelihood, Pedro needs the work of Juan because the work must have been necessary to Pedro. It may be a house that Juan is a carpenter. It may be a pair of shoes that Juan is a shoemaker. It may be a pair of pants that Juan is a tailor.

Whatever would be that work that led Pedro to hire Juan, two things are cer-tain: Pedro needs it and he has money to

pay Juan. If Pedro does not

need it, he will not hire Juan. If Pedro needs it but Pedro does not have money, he will not hire Juan.

In other words, these two things must exist to ensure the Pe-dro hires Juan.

Hence, as a basic principle of my job program, my Presi-dency will do the best it can to institute programs and proj-ects that will trigger interest in almost all kinds of goods and services so that many will be encouraged to need those goods and services and will hire people to provide those goods and ser-vices.

For example, my government may lead in super-massive cam-paign to entrench in the minds of the citi-zens why they should buy shoes, clothes, watches, hats, and other gadgets.

My government may maintain mas-sive promotion of the reasons why each citi-zen must visit at least three places, historical or tour sites, each year to spur employment of people to work at our tourist destinations.

My government will massively cam-paign for the citizens to formulate the at-titude of not hoard-ing money in banks but invest it by buy-ing shares of stocks to encourage existing companies to think of expanding and hiring more people.

This campaign is like creating a market event for something that does not exist.

To make what I mean clearer, I am citing what apple has done.

Long before the coming of cellular phones, no one need-ed them. But manu-facturers of cellular phones succeeded in inducing people to like these gadgets. These developed a core of loyal consumers now embracing them as necessities to keep abreast and in touch with friends and loved ones, considering the feeling of happiness engaging another per-son in exchanges of jokes, exchanges of

daily greetings of love and God and others. Now, because of cel-lular phone business, millions of people across the Globe are employed.

Then apple came.Before it arrived

through the genius of Steve Jobs, nobody needed any computer.

But apple launched a marketing strategy coupled with product durability, efficiency and leadership in be-ing user-friendly. It caused the effect of customers achieving their fantasies by their fingertips.

These strategies of apple has developed a frenzied follow-ing among the people of the world to buy iPods, iPads, iPhones, iMac, and Mac air. Ironically, these at-titudes among the people toward apple’s products are almost unbelievable to hap-pen: its brands were priced thrice or more of the similar products being sold by other companies yet apple soared ahead in sales at times when the USa and the rest of the world have been experiencing hard economic times.

For sure, even only addressing the aspect of developing inter-ests in consumers to spend their monies for goods and services to result in hiring oth-er people, and even without yet launching massive programs to empower those who love to buy but do not have sufficient cash in their pockets, my Presidency can rea-sonably expect that at least 25% of the popu-lation have sufficient money to do the buy-ing and they alone can be sufficient to make the transactions move in super-dizzy paces.

again, when trans-actions are by the mil-lions a day, these will naturally give birth to separate sets of broad and complex consum-er-seller relationships.

Then how should I empower more people

to have financial ca-pacities to buy in order to make the buyers’ size ten folds or more?

My presidency will push emergency laws in the Congress di-rected at encouraging lending to those who want to buy but have nothing in their pock-ets.

One such law I would propose is to lower the legal limit for borrowing interest rates to 4% per year and set up government lenders to lend with the lowest possible interests in order to at-tract borrowings from those who want to buy but having insufficient cash sources.

I will also certify to the Congress for a law that will give tax deductions to those private lenders who would risk lending their monies without collateral securities. as a protection for the borrowers, the law shall require credit limits and that those who would be allowed to take loans should only be those who have sound and stable repayment proposals.

I would also ask the Congress to pass a law that gives lenders the right that they do not need to go to court to get payments but only to go to the employ-ers and debtors of the lenders and present loan documents for them to get direct de-ductions from salaries or from these debtors.

These empowered buyers whose popu-lation numbers more than the wealthy and the middle class will surely hire people for services and buy goods that in turn re-quire workers to fab-ricate or make. Ad-ditionally, it will give massive birth to sepa-rate sets of broad and complex consumer-seller relationships.

I will also work for the removal or modi-fications of laws that create natural fears on whether to invest or not among the minds of the moneyed sector.

Many wealthy per-sons prefer to put their monies in the bank and let it achieve a stagnant growth that can be giv-en by the bank. They have natural resistance to invest because they see also uncertainties on top of fears.

But if tens of thou-sands more of these potential investors would earn sufficient courage to invest, they will hire people by the millions.

One major head-ache of businessmen is the minimum wage law that has become so high upon the the-ory advanced by labor sectors that the bar is high for their basic needs. So that I will work for the removal of minimum wage law and let the employ-ers and employees set their own terms and wages based on shar-ing the balance after deducting from the gross sales the cost of raw materials, rent-als, utilities and other necessities to produce goods or services. af-ter determining the balance, the employ-ees get 50% and the employer get 35% while the remaining 15% shall go to the government as income tax.

I will also work for laws that drastically reduce income taxes from 32% to 15%. This I do because I recognize the psycho-logical being that any man becomes more honest if he knows that tax to be paid by him would only be much lesser. So that all taxpayers honestly pay for the cost of taxes is minimal. Fol-lowing this line, no one would cheat the taxes to be paid and that would mean more amounts of revenues

I will push in the Congress the lowering of all income taxes to 10% or 15% of the to-tal income of all, be it persons as individu-als or corporations or partnerships or sole proprietorships.

assuming we have

30 million working in-dividuals and 5 million entities as juridical persons, and assuming the average tax pay-ment for one year for each is P30,000, this will mean a revenue collection of P1.05 trillion.

What may be lost in terms of collections due to the loss in per-centage compared to the 32% income tax that we have now will be compensated more by the honesty that makes everybody hap-py to pay true taxes.

add to this income of the government are the much bigger sales taxes that can be col-lected from every sale of goods or services.

With the spurred economic activities because my Presiden-cy managed to change the mindset of the buy-ers to become frenzied consumers like those people who queued like snakes in wait-ing for the opening of Apple stores to buy new apple products, and doing the same to sellers when acting as buyers for other goods and services, I can ex-pect up to 500 million transactions occurring each day.

If the government earns an average of P5 for every sale, this means that my gov-ernment earns at least P2.5 billion a day from sales alone.

If we multiply this by 365 days in a year, my government ex-pects to earn P912.5 billion in one year from sales taxes alone.

a total from the in-come taxes and sales taxes is about P2 tril-lion.

So that sufficient money can go to my government even without expecting an income from Customs duties that run now at P300 billion a year despite widespread dishonesty among its ranks, income from fees charged by of-fices for licenses and fees, fees charged by the courts and quasi-judicial bodies as docket fees, my ad-ministration will not suffer any deficit and to the contrary it will even end up in sur-plus or excess funds as against the budget of P1.8 trillion that we

have now.Having seen this

as sufficient, I will then work for the Congress to abolish capital gains taxes on shares of stocks to encourage more buying and selling of stocks to make stock market exchange lively and full with capital on any given day. I would also work for the aboli-tion of the 6% capi-tal gains tax on sales of land and other real properties to encour-age more selling of lands and discourage the Filipinos from getting too attached to the lands they own.

I will also work for the establishment of Agriculture Stabi-lization Fund for the purpose of financing the buying of agri-cultural products at fair prices to pre-vent scheming trad-ers from manipulat-ing the buying price of grains, eggs and other animal pro-duce and protect the farmers and produc-ers of farm goods. I will also work for the establishment of agriculture aid to finance those who register to plow and raise animals for our food. I will also work for the estab-lishment of a solid insurance fund to give funds to farm-ers if their crops or animals are wiped out by disasters. These programs will encourage those who are dropouts from schools to see good future in farming and animal husband-ry. Of course, I will add with an inspira-tional message that Bill Gates became the richest in the world although he is a dropout from Har-vard University, and that Steve Jobs who invented Macintosh computers, iPhone, iPad, iPod, and iMac is a college dropout.

With these things I do if I were the President, I can see the beauty even without considering other aspects of pos-sible sources of eco-nomic activities.

Tell me my friend if my jobs formula is doable.

Privileged spits

By Toto C. Causing

6 Vol. II No. 70 October 10-16, 2011

Simplified Libel Lawin the Philippines

By BERTENI “TOTO” CATALUÑA CAUSING

THIS book does not teach how to prosecute libel or how to make sure an accused or a de-fendant in a libel case is imprisoned or made to pay. This is because the author campaigns for a totally free press in the Philippines and

elsewhere.Rather, the author expounds on all kinds of de-

fenses available for every man or woman, journalist or not, so that he or she can have an ability to defend against libel suits.

It is a vision of the author to see all Filipinos well-informed of all the happenings or the goings on in the government and in the communities, so that they are intelligent in exercising their original powers or sov-ereignty.

The citizens who are fully knowing will know how to vote intelligently, will know how to attack corrupt activities in their midst, will know that jury system is a much better kind of justice system than the pres-ent fiscal-judge affair that has nurtured impunity due to unfounded immunity the law breakers enjoy from judges and prosecutors who have remained fearful and bribable since the year 1901, will know that the brutal killing of people, including at least 33 journalists, in the unpopular Ampatuan massacre resulted from lack of will not existing in people acting on their power to judge and not the judge, will know if a criminal punishment is still necessary for libel, among others.

This vision cannot be realized if the press is muz-zled. If the writers’ hands are handcuffed they cannot write. If the broadcasters’ mouths are sealed they can-not talk. Under this situation nobody would tell the people the truth about incidents affecting them and the issues that developed from those facts.

Now, the time needed to reach this vision can be accelerated if the liberty of expression is also exer-cised actively by proactive citizens. The non-jour-nalists have the moral obligation to contribute to the society through blogs of articles and photos, postings of discovered anomalies or irregularities by anyone in Facebook, Multiply, WordPress, Blogspot, Youtube, U-stream, and other internet media.

So to speak: EVERYBODY CAN BE A JOUR-NalIST. after all, the freedom of expression, of speech, and of the press is written in the constitution for all people, not only for journalists.

And to hope for the press to grow healthy, like any plants, it needs a fertilizer of knowledge of how to keep and defend the right to press freedom and how to become truly free. This is always desirable.

There is no doubt that to reach this vision, there is a need to urge the journalists and the rest of the citizens to dare or challenge any perceived wrongdoings, in calling for their vindication, solutions, and non-repeti-tion, and demanding from any government officials to shape up and think they are only slaves of the people.

There are many ways of how to encourage the at-titude, habit, tradition, and culture among countrymen to become talkative about sensible and substantive matters affecting them.

and one way to inspire courage among the journal-ists and citizens to exercise press freedom is to teach them how to defend themselves or how to avoid libel

convictions.Following this premise, the discussion now

proceeds to the discussion of all kinds of de-fenses available to all who love freedom in writ-ing and speaking.

Lack of an element

The fundamental defense against libel suits is to make sure that at least one of the four elements of the crime is not present. This is what I said in the con-clusion of Chapter II of this book.

To understand this, let it be re-peated that there are only

four elements of libel

and these are: (1) Defamation; (2) Identification; (3) Malice; and (4) Publication.Again, remember the word “DIMP” taught in Chapter II.If one of them is absent, there is no libel. If there is no publication there is no

libel. If there is no defamation, there is no libel. If there is no malice, there is no libel. If there is no identification, there is no libel.

The most important thing to remember, in writing articles for publication is to make sure any one of the elements is not present in what you will publish.

a later chapter will expound on this.

“GIJUMO” Theory

This theory is a general defense that has the effect of a conclusion that there is no malice that can be presumed.

“GIJUMO” is actually another acronym invented by the author to make recall easy.

It stands for “Good Intention and Justifiable Motive.”Of course, how can one say there is malice to destroy another’s name when the

intention is for the good and the motive is justifiable.And when there is no malice, we return to the first defense (lack of an element)

to apply the law on libel.“GIJUMO” theory will be expounded in detail in succeeding chapter.

Private communication

When an article in question is actually a private communication addressed to a person other than the one that is the subject of criticism, and that the person to whom the letter is addressed has the moral or legal duty to act on the matters being brought up in the said private communication, there is no libel.

Aside from the fact that this is clearly stated in the law on libel as an exemption to the presumption that there was malice, lack of malice is the effect of making the criticism a private matter between the author and the person who has the obligation to act on what is being written.

This is because, the intention of writing is in accordance with a legal or moral or social duty as it is clearly an act of calling the attention of another person to examine the points raised and mete out sanctions so that an irregularity or an anomaly is ar-rested or corrected.

Additionally, if malice were intended the author could have published it in news-papers or blogs, but he or she chose to do it quietly to avoid harm to the reputation of the person subject of the private communication.

Qualified privileged communication

Another defense in libel suits consists of assertions that the publications or the broadcasts are “qualified privileged matters.”

This is called by jurisprudence as the “doctrine of qualified privileged commu-nications.”

If an article is a qualifiedly-privileged matter, it means that it cannot be presumed there was malice in the published article or broadcast utterances.

Recall that the law on libel already puts it that there is always malice for every imputation that destroys another’s honor. This is what is called as “presumed malice.”

If an article is proven as a qualifiedly-privileged matter, the “presumed malice” is removed and the one who filed a suit for libel must give a proof of malice, legally referred to by jurisprudence as “actual malice” if he wants to prove there was libel.

Actual malice, in turn, is too difficult to prove.As will be discussed later, “actual malice” is defined as the act of publishing a

defamatory imputation that is false or a lie and the one who published it knew before publishing that it is false, or an act of publishing a defamatory imputation or a claim that is false or a lie that the one who published it did not know it was false or a lie but he was so placed in a situation that it was somewhat foolish or stupid or unbelievable to believe in the claim or the imputation.

The first class of actual malice is therefore what the author calls as the “knowl-edge malice.”

The other class of actual malice is called by the author as the “reckless malice.” Notice that by being reckless it means that there was no intention and this should have not been classified as malice that basically means intention. The word “reck-less” means more of negligence or lack of foresight.

Actually, the author is protesting this “reckless malice” doctrine espoused by the Supreme Court of the US and of the Philippines. It is because it is contrary to nature and another principle of criminal law.

The basic principle why an act is considered a crime per se is the consciousness in doing that act.

If you are not conscious yet an act happened then it must be because you commit-ted it by accident, recklessly or not.

Any accident is called accident because the actor was not conscious that it hap-pened. and if there was no consciousness, the actor did not have any intention to commit that act. And if there was no intention, then there is no malice because mal-ice is defined as a conscious doing of a prohibited act.

If the legal thinkers in the Highest Tribunal insist that recklessness must be a crime, then it must be a crime that is called “criminal negligence” where the penalties are drastically reduced to uselessness under Article 365 of the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines.

Ergo, reckless disregard should be classified more as a form of “criminal neg-

Chapter IIIDefenses in Libel

ligence,” like reckless imprudence resulting in homi-cide as in a car accident, and not as a regular crime per se.

Under a principle of Revised Penal Code, there are only two types of crimes as to the way an act is com-mitted or done: “dolo” and “culpa.”

By “dolo,” a latin word, it means there was an in-tention or malice to commit a crime.

By “culpa,” a latin word again, it means that there was no intention or no malice to commit a crime. Un-der this situation, a crime happened because of acci-dent by negligence.

This classification as to the manner of commission is important because the penalty for a “criminal neg-ligence” act is much, much lesser than the same act committed with intention as commanded by Article 365 of the Revised Penal Code.

Nevertheless, included in the class of qualifiedly-privileged matters are those articles that belong to the categories of Public Figures Doctrine and Fair Com-ments law.

The Public Figures Doctrine is further subdivided into three classes: (a) publications involving public offi-cers; (b) publications involving private persons who are notoriously or pervasively or popularly known in the community where publications occurred; and (c) pub-lications involving private persons on issues that they voluntarily joined or started and that the subject matters of the publications are within these range of issues.

Former Philippine Supreme Court Justice Josue Bellosillo spun off another qualifiedly-privileged communication class: commonly known as “Fair Comments Doctrine.”

In writing his decision in art Borjal vs Court of ap-peals, G.R. No. 126466, January 14, 1999, Bellosillo wrote that any commentary on a public interest cannot be said to have malice if the comments were deduced fairly from the reasonable supposition of facts, even if these reasonable supposition turns out to be false later.

although this idea is novel, the author is not com-fortable with it because opinions are but opinions or an expression. Then, there is no such a thing as false opinion. Why? An opinion can only be correct or in-correct. Only a claim of facts can be false or true and actual malice is an intention to publish false facts and not wrong opinions.

Absolutely privileged communication

another defense, which is the strongest of all, is the doctrine of “absolutely privileged communica-tion.”

Under this doctrine, whatever damaging words published or broadcast cannot be used to convict the accused criminally or to adjudge against a defendant damage awards in a civil case.

This is so because there is a law or a rule or a con-stitutional provision specifically saying these kinds of defamation cannot be a basis of any civil or criminal suit.

One kind of absolutely privileged communication is a privileged speech of a senator or a member of the House of Representatives. It cannot be used as a basis

To page 7

October 10-16, 2011 7 Vol. II No. 70

to charge him criminally or hold him civilly liable.

Another absolutely privileged communica-tion is a complaint or a petition or some other kinds of a pleading or a motion filed in courts or quasi-judicial bodies.

all honor-damaging statements found in a complaint or a petition or a pleading or a mo-tion cannot be used as a basis to hold the author criminally or civilly, as long as those statements are relevant to the issues at hand.

This is a policy of the Supreme Court to encourage the complain-ants and defendants to tell the truth for better understanding of the is-sues and for coming to correct decisions.

If there is a liabil-ity for stating defaming words in a complaint, then many will be afraid

to tell the truth and judg-ments based on things that are untrue are injustices in themselves.

also, this policy is an invitation to the citizens not to just cry in silence but fight for the interest of keeping orderliness and justice.

This is also in line with the policy of the Su-preme Court to encour-age all clients to tell the truth to their lawyers. To make sure that clients tell the truth, they are pro-tected from divulging the clients’ secrets acquired in relation to the lawyer-client relationship.

In the case of a client, he cannot be sued for libel just because he or she told his lawyer about allega-tions that destroy reputa-tions.

Lack of jurisdiction

another very good de-fense against libel suits is lack of jurisdiction on the

part of the court trying the libel suit involved.

There are two kinds of lack of jurisdiction situa-tions.

The first kind is as to the venue of the court where a particular libelous statement should be filed in accordance with article 360 of the Revised Penal Code.

When lack of jurisdic-tion is shown, the court cannot hear the case and it must dismiss the com-plaint. Otherwise, the decision of the court is null and void and has no effect.

The second is lack of jurisdiction as to the sub-ject matter.

The second type sim-ply means that the com-plaint is not actually a libel suit but something else. Maybe, the complaint is actually all about defama-tion that is not published so that it is but a slander or oral defamation.

While the jurisdiction

over libel is with the Re-gional Trial Court, oral defamation is within the province of the Metro-politan Trial Court or Municipal Trial Court or the Municipal Trial Court in Cities or the Municipal Circuit Trial Court.

Prescri ption

Prescription is a le-gal term for end of the time within which a libel complaint or case can be filed in court.

article 1147 of the Civil Code of the Phil-ippines specifically de-clares that civil libel suits can be filed only within one year. Beyond that period, it can no lon-ger be acted upon.

Article 90 of the Re-vised Penal Code, upon the other hand, states that a criminal complaint for libel may be filed only in one year.

legally, this is called “prescription of action.”

From page 6

PETTY WAR,PRETTYGIRLS

Chapter III: Defenses in Libel

was a useful but purely in-tellectual concept: No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. and yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. and that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best in-vention of life. It is life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions

drown out your own in-ner voice. and most im-portant, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Ev-erything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing pub-lication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart

Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960’s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with type-writers, scissors, and po-laroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paper-back form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great

notions.Stewart and his team

put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age.

On the back cover of their final issue was a pho-tograph of an early morn-ing country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words:

“Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. and I have al-ways wished that for myself. and now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

“Stay hungry, stay foolish” ...From page 3

sabi ni Marie (Escoto does not know who this Marie is). Hindi lang ako umiimik.”

To this, I reacted: “anong sira? at sinong Marie?”

at this juncture, Es-coto said Jonna repeated what she said: “Sinisir-aan ako nito Sir.”

Escoto said she an-swered: “Ikaw na nga yung mapanira. Marami ka ngang kaaway. Alam nyo ba sir? Lahat dito sa office, kagalit nya.”

The slapping and mauling began

Escoto said that as she was about to continue talk-ing facing Vicencio, she was turning her head to the left when a hard slap hit her on the head, feel-ing that a pointed object cut across her forehead from the left temple to the center.

She said her eyeglasses fell crashing to the tile floor to move and stop right beneath the table of Vicencio.

Then, she said she saw Jonna launching new as-sault but she blocked it by her two hands to push the latter backwards.

“as I was pushing her hard away although my view was blurring as I had no more eyeglasses, Jonna grabbed my hair with her two hands,” Escoto said.

“In my effort to loosen my hair from her grip, I pushed her harder back-wards until her back hit the door of the director’s of-fice,” she continued.

Then, she said Jonna grabbed her collar and pushed her back, in the process her necklace broke into halves and fell on the tile floor.

Being stronger and a little bigger than her, she said Jonna succeeded in

pushing her until she fell to the sofa inside the office.

While struggling, she said another person smashed a clenched fist on the back of her head and pulled her hair.

Then, she said she heard this person at her back shouting and she rec-ognized the voice as that of Elith’s.

Then, Escoto said she turned her head to the back and had her right hand push Elith away while her left hand was pushing Jonna away.

Then, she said Elith kicked her repeatedly, hit-ting her on the back just above the waistline.

at this point, she said she noticed many persons rushing over and pulled them away from each other.

Then, she said she saw “Maili” in front of her and telling her: “Tama na, Ti-say. May sugat ka.”

She said: “Hindi ma’am

pinagtulungan nila ako e”;But at the same time,

she said that Jonna shouted at her: “Walang pinag-ara-lan!”

at that point, she said Vicencio told her: “Pas-ensya na, may sugat ka, ipagamot mo na yan.”

She said she refused to leave immediately be-cause she was looking for her shoes, eyeglasses and necklace.

She said Catherine handed to her the shoes, eyeglasses and the DTR.

Thereafter, she said she left while telling Catherine: “Catherine, yung DTR ko hawakan mo at ang neck-lace ko hanapin mo.”

Just outside, she met her common-law husband to whom she complained: “Mahal, sinakatan nila ako, pinagtulungan nila ako.”

She said her husband told her to go directly to the

police while he would go to the director’s office to con-front her attackers.

She arrived at the Ospi-tal ng Maynila about 3:30 p.m. of that day where she was examined, injected with anti-tetanus and the wounds were cleaned with

betadine and bandaged.She said she was direct-

ed by the doctor to have a CT-scan due to the pulps on her head.

Fight to the end

Escoto vowed that

she will never stop until Jonna is removed from the Bureau of Customs.

She stressed that peo-ple like Jonna are not fit for public service and must be cleared out if the government wants to stop smuggling.

Escoto show-ing the extent of her wound

allegedly inflicted by

Mogueis

8 Vol. II No. 70 October 10-16, 2011

NPC IS STILL DEFINEDAS ‘PRESS FREEDOM’

ByHERNZ CUARE

RUMORS 59 years ago had it that a social club would tow-er over other

professional groups that mastered their fields.

Those rumors turned to dream. The dream became real. On October 29, 1952 the National Press Club of the Philippines, Inc. was born.

Those were the days when reporters enjoyed the tak-tak-tak and voices in feasting tones.

The NPC was founded to uphold the freedom of the press and maintain professionalism among journalists. It adopted the Walter Williams Journal-ists’ Creed, a journalistic code of ethics, as a stan-dard of conduct for its members, which include both print and broadcast journalists.

Yes, it was 59 years ago when the NPC spread its wings. It has become for others to see, lean on, and go to as the last bul-wark when official re-pression and suppression would come lashing out. It was here that former NPC vice president Satur Ocampo escaped from the raiders sent by Marcos. It was here the left Zumel once spent some of his best times.

In recognition of the role played by the NPC to the society, the Philippine Congress passed Repub-lic Act No. 905 donating a 5,184.7-square-meter of land in the heart of Manila that is Intramuros. The parcel of lot is located on Magallanes Drive, beside Jones Bridge on the bank of Pasig River. The do-nation was implemented by then President Elpidio Quirino.

Thanks to the pioneers. They must have been commanding a very high respect that the Congress relented into legislating just so they get their wish for a half-hectare land for their head-

quarters . We

The concept of this theme, “NPC @ 59: WE DE-FINE”, stands on the following ideas of what the NPC will do for one year from now:

“We Define” is going in rhyme with “Press at 59” and we will massively and continuously disseminate this to all media outlets, all our websites and blog-sites, will issue one-page pamphlets on this defining what NPC will do for one year, will have this topic as the first to be discussed in all seminars that may be conducted for the whole year, will have this theme printed for all the letterheads of NPC to be used for the whole year and for all t-shirts that will be printed and issued for the whole year; all these efforts are geared at making this concept understood and ab-sorbed as a pride by the members, and to convey a good impression upon the minds of the students of journalism and the community;

“We Define” means NPC is taking the lead over all other press issues and over all press organizations in all matters that should be taken cognizance of by the NPC;

“We Define” means NPC will define the respon-sible and fine practices of journalism in the country, including the definition of what should be the re-sponsible way of working as a media man;

“We Define” means NPC will exhort and will al-ways remind all its members to abide by the ethics of the vocation or profession to set as examples to all other journalists;

“We Define” means NPC will give guidance to all journalists on how to fight enemies of press freedom;

“We Define” means NPC will take the lead in the fight for justice for all slain journalists with the end view of instilling fear in the mind of the enemies of press freedom that the law will catch them up even if they kill reporters and broadcasters;

“We Define” means NPC will try its best to in-crease the trust of the public in the NPC and all prac-titioners of press freedom;

“We Define” means NPC will instill a new cul-ture of respect for all media persons, NPC members and non-members alike, from the courts, from the politicians, from the government offices, and, most importantly, from the people.

“The rumorsturned to dream and the dreambecame reality.”

can see this respect when the newly-organized law-making body under the blessings of America’s in-dependence grant on July 4, 1946 passed Republic Act No. 53, the law that protects journalists from compulsion to reveal their sources of news.

Today, no matter how loud the present NPC members cry, no matter how hard they try to lob-by, they could only wish for bills: like the libel de-criminalization bill and the freedom of informa-tion bill.

adding prestige, the NPC succeeded in con-structing a towering four-storey build-ing on the donated lot. One of the modern and first earth-quake-proof structures in the Philip-pines that time, the edifice was designed by the late Angel E. Nakpil and inaugurated in 1955 by then President Ramon Magsaysay.

Its rock was first rocked when strong-man Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law on September 21, 1972 by virtue of Proclamation No. 1081.

That time, the NPC lived in deafening silence. The government seized newspapers, television and radio stations, and gagged the journalists. It spared those who did not show dissent.

Until February 1986, the NPC played coy with Marcos. Journalists still managed to do their trade without offending the pleasure of the dictator.

When Marcos was gone, the NPC thought he was the last breed to de-base freedom o f speech , a n d

o f

the press. It was wrong: Gloria Macapagal-arroyo rose to power in the most dubious way twice over, in 2001 and in 2004. The last saw the emergence of “Hello Garci” tape that de-tailed her voices talking to then election commission-er Virgilio Garcillano in a secret tone meant to engi-neer vote-counting fraud in a catastrophic proportion never heard before.

leadership not founded on genuine faith will al-ways be vulnerable to envy and distrust. Many rose to confront Gloria. Right af-ter then National Bureau of Investigation deputy director Samuel Ong came

public with the CD of the recordings of the conver-sations between Gloria and Garci, Susan Roces spewed out the venom: “You stole the Presidency, not once but twice!”

In almost all attempts of the shaky leadership to keep on, the press is al-ways a victim.

Thus, 30 local and for-eign journalists were ar-rested by the police during the Oakwood mutiny that shook the leadership of Arroyo on July 27, 2003. It was so named because it was staged by 321 armed soldiers who called them-selves “Magdalo” at the Oakwood Premier Ayala Center (now Ascott Maka-ti) in Makati City.

On November 29, 2007, the group of Senator antonio Trillanes marched from the Makati court trying his Oakwood rebellion case and seized Manila Pen-insula Hotel.

Many

media persons rushed in to cover the unfolding of a historic moment, to end up 50 or so of them hogtied, arrested and released later after the NPC through the voices of its then president Roy Mabasa expressed disgust to what had Glo-ria’s men done in tram-pling the press in an ex-ceedingly disgusting and insulting manner.

The NPC during the leadership of Roy Ma-basa branded the arrests as “unconstitutional” and deplored their “chilling effect.”Eventually, the NPC won the case filed before the Commission on Human Rights. It was

a victory in pronounce-ments only. CHR’s rec-o m m e n -dations to charge the police gen-erals and others for the crimes commit ted against the

press have not been imple-mented, until now.

arroyo imposed a state of emergency on February 24, 2006. She did it as a solution to a coup attempt said to be led by then Scout Ranger Battalion Com-mander, then Gen. Danilo lim, who featured in the 1989 coup d’etat against Cory aquino and who now sits as the Deputy Director of Customs Intelligence af-ter having been appointed by her son, P-Noy. Many calls for her resignation were reported by the jour-nalists. again, the press became one of the victims.

The NPC new breed of members wagged no tails. It slammed the proclama-tion and challenged its le-

gality. The state of emer-gency eventually lost its urgency.

Then there was another from Gloria.

Concerting with his wife to silence the press, Jose Miguel “Mike” Ar-royo filed libel charges against 45 journalists, a number unprecedented in the Philippine history, who met his ire because they wrote corruption stories involving the then First Family.

Without fear, the NPC joined reporters, colum-nists, editors and publish-ers, and other press orga-nizations in filing a class suit against Mike Arroyo on December 28, 2006. It was led by the group of National Union of Journal-ists of the Philippines. The class suit asked for P15 million in damages for the anxiety, loss of income and other inconveniences Mr. Arroyo’s libel suits caused. They also argued the libel cases sent chilling effects on press freedom.

But then the ampatuan Massacre came to become as the gravest assault to press freedom. But the NPC tried its best to fight off. It never shirked from its pledge.

On November 23, 2009, the NPC led by the president Benny antiporda spoke in tears, in outrage with eerie calls reverberat-ing to demand justice that meant arrest of men clos-est to the heart of the per-son who had the primary obligation to order the ar-rest. When the smoke of confusion vanished, the Maguin danao Massacre blackened the day, con-firming 33 journalists were killed in a single assault to press freedom.

For the speedy delivery of justice to families of the slain massacre victims, the NPC asked the Supreme Court to create the Quezon City Regional Trial Court branch that was trying it as a special court han-dling only the ampatuan Massacre trial and noth-ing else. The NPC also filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to install a video monitor outside the court for all to see because that courtroom was small, which petition was an al-ternative if live coverage cannot be had. The High-est Court granted the peti-tions of the NPC.

Then another event nearly debased the recti-tude of the press.

On August 23, 2010, the ethical standard in live reporting by the jour-nalists came under siege. Nine Hong Kong nation-als were killed in a hos-tage drama at the luneta Park when former police Senior Inspector Rolando del Rosario Mendoza commandeered the bus and took 25 people hos-

tage, including 22 Chinese nationals.

The government and the public blamed the me-dia as the root cause why the bloody incident oc-curred. They reasoned out that the live reports were monitored by the hostage taker on the TV inside the detained tourist bus.

This gave a somewhat popular justification for the government to regu-late media coverage in crisis situations. But the NPC opposed. Thanks God, the issue died down in a stalemate.

Today, while the NPC is fighting for the pas-sage of the Freedom of Information Bill and the decriminalization of li-bel, it is fighting against another bill, the Right of Reply Bill that seeks to compel the editors to pub-lish the replies of any per-son, even a public officer, to any article and that the replies shall be published in the same space with the same length or aired in the same program with the same length of time.

aside from the control of the substance of press freedom that the Right of Reply will cause, it also seeks to confiscate the me-dia spaces for free. It is an

unjust enrichment on the part of those who feel their egos or honor were assault-ed although the fact of life shows that in most cases they have no honor at all.

The story of the NPC from its beginning is sto-ried. It has been a checker of darkness that has come too often to provide a complete contrast to gloriousness. The NPC proved it has survived even under extreme repres-sion and suppression. The means employed may look unethical but it could be understood to be the best diligence it could do under the circumstances, still fit-ting the totalitarian idea espoused by populist phi-losopher John Stuart Mill. Indeed, the end justified the means.

In the faces of these ups and downs, all uncer-tainties, all threats, and all chills, one assault after another came and died. But the NPC has remained standing, no matter how battered.

Yet there is still com-fort to make a political and social statement, that even in all aridity and dis-enchantment, one thing is arguable.

The National Press Club is still defined as “press freedom.”