8/8/2019 issue31vol2 of Dyaryo Magdalo

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/issue31vol2-of-dyaryo-magdalo 1/8

Vol. II No. 31 • ISSN 2094-4098 Jan. 10-16, 2011 • P15.00

To page 3 

IS IT MURDER?By HERNZ CUARE

THE $30,600 cool cash in thedeath of a United States Navylieutenant commander—andclaims that will not happenin normal human life—lead

 Dyaryo Magdalo to see he was murderedand he did not commit suicide.

Thus,  Dyaryo Magdalo indicts all the police of-cers and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)agents involved in the claimed arrest and detention of US Navy Lt. Commander Scintar Buenviaje Mejia andin the claimed initial test of the 0.03 grams of white

 powder claimed to have been found in the possession of this bemedalled military ofcer set to accept the promo-tion to full commander conferred on him by the Con-gress of the US.

In an impartial mind of  Dyaryo Magdalo, there is agreat possibility, or what is called by the prosecutors as“probable cause,” that the US Navy ofcer was mur -dered.

The mystery of $30,600 in US Navy ofcer’s ‘suicide’ 

REALLY, heroes die inmysterious ways. Onthe face, it looks in vainand pain. In the inside,it is one big gain notdrain.

Often a hero’s deathis never resolved, nev-er given justice, never given closure. As if itis the mystic that makesmagic. As if that issue isdesigned to stay forever so that heroic flamewould burn forever.

  National Hero JoseRizal’s trial has re-

IMPERFECT SUICIDE, ARROGANT COVERUP

Where is justice, my son?

Ensign Phillip Andrew Pestaño

The same neutral andreasonable mind saysthere is a great possibil-ity or probable cause thatthese policemen and thePDEA ofcers involvedconnived with each other to detain the Filipino-bornAmerican.

  Dyaryo Magdalo seesthe great possibility thatthese police ofcers andanti-drug agents had themotive of gain.

There was a great pos-sibility that they were mo-tivated to gain because theUS Navy ofcer was car -

rying $30,600 in a brownenvelope. The fact thathe was carrying this bigamount of money equiva-lent to 1.5 million pesoswas ofcially conrmed

 by the US Embassy in Ma-nila.

What added a proof tothe motive is the claim of one airport policeman in atelevsision interview thatonly $25,000 cash wasfound in the possession of the Fil-American. The dif-ference of $5,600 is equiv-alent to nearly 250,000

 pesos.Additionally, it was re-

 ported that the alleged ar-rest of Mejia occurred onDecember 26, 2010. Po-licemen in the Philippineshave been known to be no-torious for bilking moneyfrom citizens by means

of abusing the power of arrest, much more duringChristmas.

Supporting the entire  proposition of the great  possiblity that the police-men and agents were incahoots with each other to

extort is the fact that theseairport policemen claimedthat the American soldier was found to be in posses-sion of a sachet of pow-der substance that theyclaimed to be cocaine yetit turned out to be not anillegal drug.

In claiming it was co-caine, these airport police-men cited the “initial” testdone by PDEA agent, IO2Edwin Reed.

Reed, who has been as-signed at the Ninoy Aqui-no International Airport(NAIA), was said to have

found that the powder was positive for “cocaine.”

However, PDEA later announced that its con-rmatory test showedthat the white powderysubstance weighing 0.03grams was negative for co-

caine. This means that itcould be “tawas” or alum.

Moreover, it is alwayseasy to secure “tawas” to

 be used to plant on a vic-tim as purported evidenceof drug in order to compeltheir victim to give moneyinstead of getting detaniedfor a heinous crime beingdangled on the prey.

The fact that it is easyto secure “tawas” makesit very much possible thatthe cops secured it to havesomething to use easilyto compel the victim tocough out money in ex-

change for freedom.Further strengthening

the possibility of the crimeof conspiracy to commitmurder is the claim of the policemen themselvesthat the US Navy ofcer 

  passed the earlier stages

of the screening systemsin the airport. The airportis normally maintaining aK-9 dog for the purposeof snifng for bombs anddrugs. They also reportedthat the said powder sub-stance showed up onlyduring the last stage of examination before board-ing.

So, the question is:How come that Mejia

 passed the earlier searchesand failed in the last thatwas supposed to be only arepetition of the process?

This is improbable to

happen because it should  be that the rst searchesor screening are as good asthe last.

When the alleged sa-chet of white substance al-legedly cropped up in the

mained a mystery whyhe was convicted to dieon December 30, 1897

  before a firing squad.Was there injustice inthe hands of prosecu-tors, his lawyer and his

 judge?  National Hero An-

dres Bonifacio’s trialhas also remained amystery why he wasconvicted of treasonwhen there was nocountry that existed atthat time. Was thereconspiracy among Gen-

eral Emilio Aguinaldoand his ilk?

Modern NationalHero Ninoy Aquino’sdeath at the tarmacof then Manila Inter-national Airport hasremained a mystery.Who killed him? Whoordered to shoot himas he descended fromthe stairs of a planefrom the United Statesof America? His wifeCory became the presi-

dent but justice eludedthem. His son Noynoyis now the president but

  justice remains elusiveas ever.

Well, this is another story of a mysteriousdeath. Another storyof heroism so very rareamong the men andwomen who marchedout of the PhilippineMilitary Academy(PMA). The rarity islike looking for a nee-dle in a heap of soil.

Once upon a time

in September of 1995,this 23-year-old Navyensign from the “Maal-ab” Class (Batch 1993)of the country’s onlyschool for leadership insoldiery silently defiedhis father’s wish for thelove of country eventhough the son knewdeath waited for him onhis ship.

As written by Fr.James Reuter, this washow the last conversa-tion occurred for the

By TOTO CAUSING

     A     N     D

THE

Rock Dakak 

PAGE8

To page 7 

Muslim civil groups appealfor compassion aspeace talks begin

PAGE 2 

8/8/2019 issue31vol2 of Dyaryo Magdalo

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/issue31vol2-of-dyaryo-magdalo 2/8

2 

Vol. II No. 31 Jan. 10-16, 2011

L

ET there be peace!

A big groupof civil soci-ety among the

Muslim community in thePhilippines is appealingfor compassion and under-standing from the entireFilipino people in order tousher in lasting peace andmutual co-existence in amulti-cultural society.

Maradeka, a big alli-ance of pro-democracyBangsamoro people’sorganizations (POs) and

  progressive sectors in theMuslim community, is-sued this appeal as theylook forward to the resolu-tion of issues stalling theresumption of the peace

talk between the govern-ment and the Moro IslamicLiberation Front (MILF).

A reliable source toldDyaryo Magdalo that theGRP-MILF peace talkswill resume in Kuala Lum-

  pur, Malaysia this Febru-ary 8.

 Nash Pangadapun, sec-retary general of Marade-ka, said his group is ac-tively campaigning for agenuine national peace anddevelopment anchored onthe Bangsamoro peoples’right to self-determinationand the welfare of Muslimcommunities in the Philip-

 pines.

He added that the civilMuslim society is nowactively involving their selves in the peace nego-tiation because it is themand not the negotiatorswho will eventually beaffected by whatever out-come, be it war or a nego-tiated peace.

“In asserting our posi-tion, we believe that thesituation of recurrent Min-danao wars is primarily

rooted in the context of so-cio-historical, political andcultural injustices. It is notsimply an issue of violentarmed conict and extrem-ism or economic inequities

 but it is the reclaim of the  people of their birthrightto freedom and legitimatestruggle for their rightto self-determination,”Pangadapun emphasized.

He said that Maradekalooks forward that thestatement of President Be-nigno “Noynoy” AquinoIII putting emphasis ontransparency will attractthe Muslim civil society toget involved.

With this ultimate goal

of peace in mind, he saidMaradeka submitted toPresident Benigno SimeonCojuangco Aquino III a10-point agenda suggest-ing solutions to the issuesto pave the way for talks to

 begin anew.Pangadapun said the is-

sues nagging the resump-tion of the talks are aboutthe Malaysian facilitator disliked by the govern-ment panel and about thefacilitation process.

He warned that the re-cent uproars in Mindanaoare indicators of discon-tent over slow pace of the

  process, which discontent

would push hardliners tourge the pullout of MILFfrom the talks and revertto its original position of independence.

The 10-point agendawas signed by 28 headsand representatives of Ma-nila Muslim community,allied Bangsamoro civilsociety, and human rightsgroups from Mindanaoand elsewhere.

Those who joined

Maradeka on its “Ten(10) Points Positions” are:Bangsamoro SupremeCouncil of Ulama; Task Force Mindanao; ManilaGrand Mosque; JamiatuMindanao Al Islamiyah;Organization of Maguin-danao and Iranun; Alter-native Muslim MindanaoEntrepreneurial Develop-ment, Inc.; Basilan Soli-darity; Ittihadu Shabab AlMuslimeen;

Manila Peace Zone As-sociation; Rajah SolaimanMemorial Society; SalamProgressive Party; Balik-Islam Unity Congress;Maradeka BangsamoroWomen Group; Maradeka

Youth; National Aggrupa-tion of Muslim Students;Bangsa Iranun MuslimPeople Organization;Muslim-Christian Fel-lowship Movement of thePhilippines; DavaonunMuslim Community As-sociation; Ranaw PeaceAdvocates; KalilintadPDA League; and BangsaIranun Women Advocatesfor Peace.

Briey, amongthe salient features of the10-Point Agenda are thefollowing:

“1. We strongly pro-  pose the adoption of theMontesa Formula to the

Aquino government and aswell as the Moro IslamicLiberation Front (MILF)to nally break the diplo-matic impasse over com-

  plaint Philippine govern-ment over the Malaysiaas Third Party Facilitator,Malaysian Facilitator Da-tuk Othman Razak, andthe facilitation process andthe insistence of the MILFto retain the Malaysian fa-cilitator.

Muslim civil groupsappeal for compassionas peace talks begin

By JULMUNIR JANNARAL

 EXCLUSIVE SPECIAL REPORT 

“2. We demand fromthe Aquino governmentand Armed Forces of thePhilippines to stringentlyobserve the joint cessationof hostilities agreement,desist from all unneces-sary provocations and in-cendiary statements thatcan seriously impede theongoing peace processamidst the current impasseand employ as necessary

  proactive measures by:(a) Reduction or downsiz-ing of military presence inthe conict zones; (b) Lift-ing of the state of emer-gency; (c) Repositioningof government troops toa signicant level to pre-vent tension detrimentalto cause derailment of the

  peace process and there-  by the collapse of con-dence building and thewhole peace process; and(d) Disband all the para-military groups in conictzones, such as the CitizenArmy Force GeographicalUnit and the Civilian Vol-unteer Organizations.

“3. We are pressing theAquino government to em-

 ploy a parallel peace initia-tive to both Moro IslamicLiberation Front (MILF)and the Moro NationalLiberation Front (MNLF)

 by arriving at a formula of convergence previously ad-opted by the Organization

of the Islamic Conference(OIC) and its MinisterialCommittee of Eight as vi-able mechanic to approachthe twin dilemma with thetwo competing Moro rebelfronts.

“4. We put forward a proposal that in the peaceexercise, the active partici-

 pation of the Bangsamoromasses must be guaran-teed and represented byits recognized and legiti-mate civil society sector and people organizationsin the peace negotiations.In respect to early ofcial

  pronouncement of HisExcellency President Be-

nigno C. Aquino III duringhis presidential inauguralspeech on transparency inMindanao peace process

 by adopting a policy of in-clusive peace in Mindanaoinvolving Moro, Lumadand Christian settlers, wedemand for the institutionof workable mechanismof representation by civilsociety sector and peopleorganizations;

“5. We demand theAquino government to ful-ly exercise its political willand presidential preroga-tives to bring to an end the

 prevalence of political pa-tronages that caused local

  politicians, businessmen,landlords, political clansand government ofcialsto obstruct peace in Mind-anao. We recall that landed

 political leaders, business-men, and warlords in Min-

danao specically in NorthCotabato, South Cotabatoand Zamboanga provincescaused irreparable dam-ages by obstructing theongoing Mindanao peace

  process during the occa-sion of peace signing of Memorandum of Agree-ment on Ancestral Do-main (MOA-AD) in KualaLumpur, Malaysia;

“6. We demand in thestrongest term the secu-rity and protection of thecivilians from harm anddestruction resulting fromthe armed confrontation

  by the contending armedforces of the government

and the MILF, so that we propose a rather more ef-fective multi-lateral peacekeeping force mandated

 by the United Nations Se-curity Council to thwartforcefully violent armedconicts and hostile ele-ments and provide emer-gency response, securityand protection, humani-tarian aid, evacuation andshelters to non-combatantcivilians instead of a lim-ited mandate of an interna-tional monitoring set up;

“7. We demand fromthe Aquino government torespect Moro civil and po-litical rights by releasing

MARADEKA PRESSCON - Convenors of Muslim civil society, Maradekahold a press conference recently at the Golden Mosque in Quiapo, Ma- nila urging President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III not to delay further the resumption of the peace talks between the Government of the Re-  public of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and also to release immediately all Moro political detainees whoare still under detention. Shown in the picture are Nash Pangadapun,the secretary general of Maradeka (2nd from left) as he listens to thestatement of Ardan Sali, representative of the Cotabato City-based Bangsa Moro Youth Leadership Forum (BMYLF), an allied civil society of Maradeka; Datu Larry Cota, co-convenor of Maradeka (3rd from left)and Prof. Yusuf Ledesma, chairman of Balik Islam Unity Congress (ex- treme right). (Maradeka Photo)

the senior MILF leader,Edward Mohandis Guerraand all the Moro political

  prisoners charged in rela-tion to political activitiesand unconditionally dropsuits against all leaders of 

the MILF and MNLF of-cials and members beforethe peace negotiation com-mences;

“8. We demand fromthe Aquino governmentto honor and abide by inletter and spirit the GRP-MNLF Final Peace Agree-ment signed in September 2, 1996, otherwise knownas 1996 Jakarta FinalPeace Accord specicallyon provisions stipulat-ing the commitment of the government to respectthe Bangsamoro right todemocratic representationin all branches of the gov-ernment ( i.e. executive

and local government, leg-islative, and judiciary) andappoint qualied and com-

 petent Muslim leaders and professionals that have theconsent and truly repre-sentatives of the Muslimcommunity; and

“9. We demand fromthe Aquino governmentto recognize direct and

  broader participation of Muslim civil society or 

 people organizations Min-danao self-governance andthereupon effect a genu-ine democratic develop-ment and participatorydemocratic governance inMindanao by: (a) insulat-

MARADEKA YOUTH- Members of the Maradeka Youth wing display a placard calling for the release of not only Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) senior leader Edward Mohandis Guerra from military detentionbut also all other Moro political detainees who are still languishing in

the different military detention centers in the country.

ing the Autonomous Re-gion in Muslim Mindanao(ARMM) or a replacementBangsamoro self-govern-ing entity from manipula-tive political control by theImperial Manila through

the ruling party machi-nation of any political

  protégés during electoralexercises; (b) strengthenthe regional political partysystem that accommodatesand guarantees participa-tion of civil society and

  people organizations andlegally appropriate sub-sidies in building their regional political partiesto eradicate clan con-trolled traditional politicsor political dynasties; and(c) institute mechanism

  by creating governmentagency that ensures to fa-cilitate, coordinate, capac-itate, manage civil society

  participation in building  political parties and sus-tain effectively regionaldemocratic development,

  participatory democraticgovernance and buildingup of regional political

 party system;“10. We demand the

Aquino government to ful-ly exercise its political willand presidential preroga-tives to bring to an end the

 prevalence of political pa-tronages that caused local

  politicians, businessmen,landlords, political clansand government ofcialsto obstruct peace in Min-danao.”

8/8/2019 issue31vol2 of Dyaryo Magdalo

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/issue31vol2-of-dyaryo-magdalo 3/8

Jan. 10-16, 2011 3 

Vol. II No. 31

 Publisher:

RONALDO E. RENTA

 Editorial:

TOTO CAUSING

Editor-In-Chief

 Design & Layout:

RONALDO B. HERICO

 Disclaimer: 

All news articles and opinions expressed by the writers

are entirely their own and do not reect 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.

MAGDIWANG

PUBLICATIONSFrom page 4 

Amend the

constitution?...

last screening, the police-men themselves claimedthat Lt. Cmdr. Mejia threwit on them and he wentwild accusing the cops of setting him up.

This actuation of a per-son vehemently protestingthat he was carrying an il-legal drug and vehemently

insisting he was framed upis consistent with the natu-ral quick reaction of aninnocent man. To the con-trary, a drug user normallysubmits quietly althoughshocked.

  Nevertheless, the copsclaimed they prevailedupon the military ofcer and they brought him toa room where he was de-tained while the powder was subjected to an ini-tiatory test being done byReed.

Mysteriously, whyReed submitted a resultthat the powder was posi-tive for cocaine in his “ini-tial” test, when the naltest by the PDEA wouldshow it was not cocaine?

This particular circum-stance betrayed Reed’sintention. This is becauseit is highly improbable for two standard tests to differ from each other as to theresults.

So that this debunkingof Reed’s test gives a pre-sumption that he manipu-lated the initial test for the

 purpose of extortion.PDEA Director III

Wilkins M. Villanuevaconrmed that the sub-stance recovered from

Mejia was not an illegalsubstance, citing the labo-ratory result prepared byPDEA’s chemist MariaTherese Anne L. Domingothat the substance in ques-tion turned out to havenegative ndings of dan-gerous drugs.

Further, it is improb-able that a US Navy of-cer presumed to be highly-trained than Philippine

  policemen and dangerousif he were indeed gettingwild at the start was es-corted only by two secu-rity guards to a comfortroom outside the cops’ofce.

Even if he were inhandcuffs, he was stilldangerous. The fact thathe was so wild from thestart, why did airport po-licemen did not ensure to

  prevent him from goingwild again by having himescorted by at least vesecurity or police ofcers?

As such, this presumesthat this is improbable to

happen as a way of nor-mal life for this connotesthat the policemen and theagents are lying.

In analyzing the inci-dent, Tom Martin fromTexas posts his commentsin the internet.

Martin asks:“Why would two

trained security ofcersallow a man who theyclaim was irrational walk ahead of them without any physical contact withhim?” “When the securityofcers found the comfort room was occupied whydid they not take him toanother comfort room?”

“It is hard for me toimagine there is only onecomfort room at the air -

  port or security ofce.They claim Mejia request -ed to urinate outside. I realize it is common for 

  Filipino men to urinateoutside, but is that some-thing an American, espe-cially an American mili-tary man would do whenhe knows it is against thelaw in every State in theU.S. and against U.S. mili-tary code?”

These are just talkingabout only the pieces of evidence gathered fromthe policemen and theagents.

  Now, if the evidencecoming from the circum-stances of Lt. Cmdr. Mejiaare to be added, the proof is overwhelming that thereis a great possibility or great probable cause thatthere occurred the crime of 

 planting of drug evidenceor murder, punishable by alife sentence.

 First , why will theFilipino-American bringalong with him a white

  powder substance weigh-ing 0.03 grams when itwas proven it was not anillegal drug or it was notcocaine? Why?

Second , even if it werea cocaine, it is less riskyand cheaper for him to buythe same in California.

Third , he was a be-medalled ofcer in the US

 Navy and these medals areaplenty and substantive for an ofcer like him to risk 

these honors to cocaineuse.

He was awarded three Navy-Marine Corps Com-mendation Medals, a Na-vy-Marine Corps Achieve-ment Medal, an Air ForceOutstanding Unit Awardwith two devices, Air Force Longevity ServiceAward, and an Air ForceTraining Ribbon.

It cannot be imaginedhow can one who has

earned so many honors ina decade of service wouldsully their name with one

  plastic sachet of powder that turned out to be notcocaine?

And if the Americanwas very sure he was notcarrying any drug and thefact that he is an extraor-dinary soldier by reason of his medals, it is more im-

  probable for him to think of committing suicide.

If he know he was in-nocent, that was proven

 by the fact that the powder turned out negative for co-caine or any illegal drug,with more reason that an

honorable man like Mejiawould chose to prove hisinnocense in court to keephis name intact rather thankilling himself.

 Fourth, actually, hewas slated to receive theconferment of his rank asfull commander for it has

 just been approved by theCongress of the USA.

 Fifth, he was reported  by the policemen them-selves to be carrying two

 passports, the ordinary oneand the diplomatic one. If he invoked the diplomatic

 protocol, nobody can pre-vent him from leavingeven if there was this sub-stance being a part of theconsulate of the US Em-

 bassy in the Philippines.Sixth, it is prohibited

to bring out of the coun-try more than $10,000 andyet Lt. Cmdr. Mejia was

 bringing along $30,600 asannounced by the US Em-

 bassy.This means that the US

government authorizedhim to carry more than$10,000. But if the Navyofcer was required toshow or register his mon-ey, it was one way for the

 policemen to know he hadthat much money.

Seventh, he is a Fili- pino by blood and this factmade the policemen think they can easily cow himinto submission unlikeWhite or Black Ameri-cans.

 Eighth, the alleged  jumping to death of Mejiawas claimed to have oc-curred minutes after heidentied himself as an of -cial of the US Navy andafter he requested PoliceCenter for Aviation Secu-rity (PCAS) Deputy Com-mander Manuel Pintado tocall the US Embassy andsend in some representa-tives.

So that it is very much  probable that since USEmbassy ofcials werefast coming, the fact of murder must not be dis-covered so that the alleged

  jumping to death must bestaged as a coverup.

 Ninth, Planting of evidence, like prohibiteddrugs, for the purpose of extorting money is a prac-tice of authorities in thePhilippines. And extortionat the country’s premier airport is the main com-

 plaint of Overseas FilipinoWorkers, especially during

  peak season, like Christ-mas.

That is why a memo-randum was issued pro-

hibiting government per-sonnel assigned at theairport to greet passengers,“Merry Christmas.”

The US$30,600 in the  pocket of Mejia is wortha fortune to airport menwho are preying on vic-tims for easy big bucks,and this might have trig-gered the planting of evi-dence to unsuspecting USserviceman. For what’s thefuss that Mejia of bringingwith him a sachet of “ta-was?” It was a clear caseof planting fake evidenceto extract money in a veryeasy way.

What is more troubling

on this cocaine issue wasthe outright conclusion of Philippine Drug Enforce-ment Agency Agent IO2Edwin Reed who is as-signed at the airport. Uponseeing the sachet contain-ing of white substance,Reed immediately con-rmed that it was cocaine.Are government men fondof working with each other for the purpose of gainingextra fortune aside fromthe pay they received fromthe government?

When Mejia askedfor a call to representa-tives of the US Embassy

in Manila, did DeputyCommander Pintado re-ally trouble himself tomake a call? Or the callwas made only after Me-

  jia jumped or pushed tohis instant death to cover the would be US$30,600extort try?

Mejia, allegedly, whilewaiting for US represen-tatives, asked that he beallowed to answer to thecall of nature. Because thecomfort room at PCAS of-ce was occupied, Mejiawas escorted by police-men SPO2 Roberto D.Figueras and SPO1 MateoAguilas to the parking lot

to urinate.Allegedly, in handcuff 

and walking ahead of hisescorts, Mejia ran awayand jumped head rst tohis death from the 10 feethigh second oor stairwellof the airport.

This storytelling of Figueras and Aguilas isquite suspicious for theyare trained police ofcers.

They are trained to pacify and secure a victimor suspect in a crime.

Fall from ten feet cannot kill

Analyzing the circum-stances as written above,

it is too improbable for Lt. Commander Mejia tohave committed suicide bymeans of jumping to deathfrom 10 feet high.

That is, even as hewas in handcuffs whenthe jumping occurred,

  presuming that he indeed  jumped from the secondoor of the airport.

Ten feet is lower thana basketball ring that is

  placed at an elevation of 12 feet from the oor of the court.

Any fall from 10 feetis too improbable to resultin the death of the jumper.That is even if what hit

the pavement below is thehead.

  No basketball player has ever died because of a fall after having beentripped on the air whileattempting to dunk on thering. The most damagethat have occurred weretorn ligaments or broken

 bones.So that if it is too im-

 probable for death to occur  by reason of a fall from 10feet, it becomes all themore clear that the Ameri-can soldier did not commitsuicide: but that he wasmurdered before the al-leged jump.

So that in all probabili-ties, he was already dead

 before Mejia could take a jump.

American was killed inside

the holding room?

If it were too improb-able for Lt. Cmdr. Mejiato have killed himself bymeans of jumping from 10feet, the only conclusionthat can be inferred is thathe was killed inside thePCAS holding room.

For he was reportedto have gone so unrulyover the sachet of powder found in his possession, itis too probable that Mejiawent wild inside the hold-ing room that he may haveattempted to ght back 

  physically when he triedto assert his innocence.

And this assertion of innocence must have oc-curred when airport lawenforcers tried to extortfrom him.

It was very possiblefor him to assert his in-nocence mainly becausehe was strong in his faiththat he did not carry any il-legal drug and this can beattested to by the fact thatthe said powder turned outto be negative of any ille-gal substance.

So that it was also verymuch possible that whilehe was engaging airport

  policemen in a physicalght, his head might have

 been banged on a concretewall that caused him to

 pass out.Another possibility is

that the envelope contain-ing $30,600 must have

  been taken away fromhim and he fought to get

IS IT MURDER?From page 1

it back. It is possible thatin the process of wrestling

for the money they head of the American was bangedon a concrete wall, acci-dentally or otherwise.

Whatever occurred,there is no other possi-

  bility except that he waskilled in the holding roomand was taken outsidewhile he may have barely

  passed out to be droppedon the pavement on theground.

CCTV camera may be the key

It was not reportedwhether there was aclosed-circuit televisioncamera inside the hold-ing room or in the vicinitywhere the American felland from where he fell.

However, if there was aCCTV, it is the only thingthat can exonerate the air-

  port cops and the PDEAagent or conclusively

  prove that he was indeedmurdered.

The problem, however,is that it has not been an-noucned whether therewas a CCTV camera inthose two locations insidethe NAIA old terminalfrom the time Mejia wasarrested at 7:00 p.m. of December 26 up to the

time he was reported tohave jumped to his death.Unless a camera cover-

ing these areas comes outto show that the Ameri-can indeed jumped to hisdeath, the airport police-men and PDEA agents in-volved may be convictedon circumstantial evidence

  because the motive isclear: money.

Whatever, all the piec-es of evidence so far thatcan be obtained as nar-rated above are enough toconvict these airport copsand PDEA agents on gravemisconduct for violatingtheir ofcial functions.

US Navy steps in

to investigate

It has been reportedthat aside from a separateinvestigation conducted

  by the Pasay City police,the US Navy has alreadysent its team of experts toexamine the body of Me-

  jia and gather informationand documents pertaining

to the death of Lt. Cmdr.Mejia.

The investigation willnot last long if the footag-es captured by the CCTVcameras at the airport are

  provided and reviewedfrom the entry of Mejiato the Airport, the timeof his arrest at 7:00pm onDecember 26, up to hisalleged act running awayfrom his escorts and jump-ing to death.

Background

Mejia arrived in thePhilippines on December 25, 2010 to witness theFilipino traditional way of celebrating Christmas.

His ight back to LosAngeles, California onPhilippine Airlines ightPR112 was on December 26, 2010.

It was also reportedthat Mejia was confronted

 by Aviation Security Spe-cialist Jose Saul Villegasdue to a plastic sachet con-taining white substancewhich was detected by theairport’s X-ray machine.

The report added thatMejia went berserk whileshouting he was framed.He was then arrested and

  brought to the 1st PCASofce for questioning.

In the morning of De-cember 27, 2010, they saidthat Mejia asked Pintadoto call the US Embassy inManila.

They added that Mejiaalso asked that he be al-lowed to answer the callof nature, but because thecomfort room at PCASwas occupied, he was es-corted by SPO2 RobertoD. Figueras and SPO1 Ma-teo Aguilas to the parkinglot for him to urinate.

Around 5:00 a.m.,they said that Mejia ranaway from his escorts and

  jumped from the secondoor’s 10 feet stairwell of 

the airport.They added that Mejiawas taken immediately toSan Juan de Dios MedicalCenter where he died at6:45 a.m.

The US Embassy sentan attaché, Joey McGee, tocoordinate with Philippineinvestigators handling thealleged suicide incident.

What a heck of a job,men?

to charge other crimesfrom the prosecutors or scals.

To ensure rigid andfair decision, the 23

  jurors picked to servethe Grand Jury for sixmonths shall be hiddento the public so that theycannot be inuenced.

The second bodyshall be the Trial Jury.

It shall have the power to adjudge whichclaims are true andwhich are not. Com-

 posed of 12 jurors and twoalternate jurors, the TrialJury shall be kept in secret

  places until the usually-one-week trial ends in casethe accused are inuential

  persons. After decidingwho are saying the truth,the judge in their courtshall apply the law on the

  jury’s decision. Althoughat times, trial jury nulliesthe law if they felt it is aninjustice.

Fairness is assured inthese two juries because

the members shall beinterviewed and cho-sen from 150 peoplerafed off from the vot-ers’ list. The selection

  process will determinewho among those pickedfrom the voters’ list havesufcient capability todiscern what is true fromfalse and who are themost neutral or who hasno interest.

In jury, for sure theFilipinos, Muslims or not, will have no worry.

8/8/2019 issue31vol2 of Dyaryo Magdalo

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/issue31vol2-of-dyaryo-magdalo 4/8

Jerry’s Blogs

By JERRY S. YAP

Privileged spits

By TOTO C. CAUSING

4 

Vol. II No. 31 Jan. 10-16, 2011

Amend the Constitution? Make jury trial as basic human right!

Payola in IsabelaREALITY speaks thatPhilippine National Po-lice Regional Director,Chief Supt. LORETOPINELI, is not tamed bythe one-strike policy of PNP chief, Dir. Gen. RaulBacalzo.

  Non-government or-ganizatons (NGOs) are

convinced that juetengoperation being run byTony S. and Jojo C. has

  become well-entrenchedin Isabela because greasemoney has reached thehands of the mighty.

Tony and Jojo are boasting that two mayorsof Isabela have no reasonto break the bones of il-legal operations. Why,oh, why?

Is it because jueteng  payola of Tony S. andJojo C. has made themdeaf and blind?

The NGOs claimedthat jueteng has alreadyintoxicated the Province

of Isabela and that it is nowtime for DG BACALZO toteach life lessons to provin-cial policemen who chooseto forget their call of duty.

DG Raul Bacalzo, sir,it seems that gamblinglords of Isabela look at you

  by the toes. Why not givethem a sampe kick?

The power of arrogance

and the abuse by ignorance

Yes, there are men likeExecutive Secretary Paqui-to Ochoa (ESPO, for short)who fall drunk of power inshort shots.

Ochoa has been in power for only seven months nowyet he has acted far more.

How much more hecould do if he is allowed

  by PNoy to stay for moreyears?

He is not only arrogant.He is also ignorant.

He should know whatis disembarkment card and

what is Customs declara-tion card.

ESPO should knowthat these cards are hand-ed by stewards or stew-ardesses to passengers be-fore they disembark fromthe plane.

The disembarkmentcard is to be surrendered

to the Bureau of Immigra-tion as a proof that the pas-senger has arrived at theairport. The Customs dec-laration card, on the other hand, is to be shown andsurrendered to the examin-ing Customs police ofcer guarding the gate.

When he was ap-  proached by the Customs  police ofcer for his Cus-toms declaration, he misin-terpreted it as an uncourte-ous act.

A standard operation  procedure (SOP) is to ex-amine the card and the bag-gage.

But in his case, ESPO

was just asked to submitthe Customs card with-out examing whatever he

 brought into the country.He misinterpreted the

favor given him by theCustoms policeman as aninsult.

After that incident, theCustoms police ofcer was

ordered out of his post.If it is true that PNoy

will revamp his cabinet, thePresident should ax ESPOrst, Carandang second,De Lima third, and De Je-sus fourth.

But it is better to chopthem all off the chopping

 board!The country will go to

naught if the affairs of thestate are left in their handsof these people.

GOD bless us, Filipi-nos! This is according toour reader identifying him-self as Lucas Pacascas hav-ing email address “ispong-klong@yahoo.com.”

You can email Lucas atthis address, Mr. President.

Arrogance of SSS Lucena

guards and cashier

A cashier and securityguards at the SSS ofcesin Lucena City might haveforgotten that their salaries

are paid by SSS membersreligiously paying their re-mittances.

According to com-  plaints that reached us bymail, the cashier at theLucena City SSS branchis hard to approach andthe security guards are ar-rogant.

The complaint saidthat these persons act as if they are the bosses at that

 branch.The complaint contin-

ued that there was one un-forgettable incident: whenthe queue number of anSSS member was called,she failed to immediately

report to the counter.After a while, the mem-

 ber approached the cashier.To her surprise, she wastold to return to the line andget a new queue number.

The guards told her itis the SSS branch policyto toe the line from the far-thest. She was further told

she’s free to leave if shewould not agree.

Just a reminder: SSSLucena cashier and securi-ty guards, plant this seed of truth that SSS MEMBERSare paying your salariesthey are your rightful boss!

Shy away from Index Juan

Luna (in front of Jollibee)

One of our bloggerswent to INDEX to avail of the beauty salon’s hot oilservice. Of course, to beau-tify her hair for a beauty rest.

Instead of feeling re-laxed, her blood ran high.It seems that a chemical

for hot oil was spilled tocover the nakedness of her hair without a simplehead massage.

Aside from that, sheobserved that the beautyequipment were a mess,dirty, really hard to spell.

The beauty attendantsassiting her also lacked

courtesy.Contrary to beauty

 premises, instead of feel-ing relaxed, her beautywas disgusted by the

 beauty service of INDEX(beauty) Parlor on Divi-soria’s Juan Luna St. in-front of Jollibee.

  Now, do you stilldream of relaxing byavailing the beauty ser-vice of INDEX?

Index may email mefor their side.

* * *For reactions, sug-

gestions, complaints, text09278989991 or email

 jerryap888@yahoo.com.

EVEN the best of prin-cipled men cannot beangels forever.

With this premise Imake, I echo a clarion

call crying for the needto change the presentConstitution twenty-three (23) years after itwas ratied on February2, 1987. Leading thecharge for a big changeis former Supreme CourtChief Justice Reynato S.Puno.

But let me be clear.Amendment is enough.

We don’t need todump the present Consti-tution altogether if onlyto make it tuned to needsof the present and opento the metamorphoses of tomorrow.

Allowing totalchange will only risk thecountry’s future in thehands of the unscrupu-lous whose agenda arealways hidden if not hardto detect.

The former Chief Jus-tice was empathic aboutthe fact that the presentconstitution is unrealisticin setting the people freein choosing their leaders,

  pointing out the expen-sive electoral processthat requires enormousamount of sums to win.He suggested a unicam-eral system of lawmak-ing.

Justice change:

Most important

The most importantchange that must hap-

 pen is in the justice sys-tem. Strong justice sys-tem will cause all other aspects of governanceto fall in good order,including the systemof elections, of makinglaws, of implementinglaws, and of others.

  No form of govern-ment will ever succeedif it has loose justice sys-tem.

A communist sys-

tem will never succeed if the justice system is onethat cannot go against thewishes of ofcials of theusually one-party system

under communism. A par-liamentary rule will never succeed if the justice sys-tem serves only the inter-est of the ministers andmembers of parliament.A federal form of govern-ment will never succeed if the justice system cannotstand against politicianswho happen to commitcrimes and corruption.

The present presiden-tial form will still be thesame if we will not changeour 110-year-old scal-

  judge system that has notdeterred the powerfulfrom continuing with their wicked ways.

History of failures

History shows that justice in our country willonly be dispensed with incases involving big men if the President wills it.

The Ampatuans whohave been said to havekilled many in a decade of rule in Maguindanao hadnever been held for trial.They got arrested onlyafter their protector wascompelled by outragingdisgust from all over theworld due to the massacreof 33 journalists to decide

to handcuff them.  Nani Perez had not been charged by the Om-  budsman before the San-diganbayan for so manyyears because of the wom-an in the Palace. When theOmbudsman did it duringthe time of MerceditasGutierrez the case wasalready ripe for dismissaldue to the right to speedydisposition of cases.

Joc-joc Bolante whowas said to have stolenmore than a billion pesosfrom fertilizer funds hasnever been charged incourt, until now.

Comelec Commission-

er Virgilio Garcillano hasnever been charged by theComelec for crimes of ma-nipulating election resultsin 2004.

Ex-general Carlos Gar-cia is now laughing awayafter he was said to havestolen P303 million fromthe Armed Forces of thePhilippines (AFP) by justreturning P135 million andserving about ve years in

 jail.The justice system be-

ing unfair to the poor is thereason almost all convictsyou see in our peniten-tiaries and jails are poor 

 people.

Strong justice system

assures peace,

provides better chances

for prosperity

With strong justice sys-tem, we are far more as-sured those who wrong are

 brought to trial.When full trust sets

in to the effect that ev-erybody has no doubtthat no offender can es-cape the long arm of thelaw and that all laws are

faithfully observed andimplemented, small peo-  ple will begin to think that their votes are notrigged, their small invest-ments in corporations arenot swindled, their small

 businesses will not be runover by big rivals, their entries in public biddingsor private dealings aregiven fair chances, their applications to appointiveofces are adjudged onthe merits, their promo-tions in ofces are basedon performances, theycan sleep at night withoutgetting burglarized, andmany others.

Strong justice system

debases foundationsof rebellions

The root of rebellionis discrimination, borne

 by the union of greed and bias, and fertilized by lack of justice.

Lack of justice is weak   justice system. Greed isthe natural desire for pow-er, wealth and glory. Biasis inherent in any man de-veloped out of ignoranceor false teachings.

We have so many lawswhose purposes are for thegood of everybody. Butthe weak justice systemallowed discrimination bythe rich and the inuentialagainst the poor, and bythe Filipino Christians andtheir leaders against broth-ers who don’t worship likethem.

Agrarian reform pro-grams are for the landlesswilling to till the land. Butthe weak justice system

  permitted greed and biasfor landlords to keep hun-dreds of hectares for plan-tations and haciendas.

This bred a class rebel-

lion in the oppressed poor.The people of Mindan-

ao, Sulu and Palawan have  been crying for recogni-tion that they own theseislands by native title that

 predated the coming of theSpaniards.

They are crying for allwho died in the invasionsstaged by the Spaniardsusing natives from Luzonand Visayas as soldiers.They suffered thousandsmore deaths in the handsof Americans. They suf-fered further deaths in thehands of natives of Luzonand Visayas who haveruled Malacañang and har-

  bored discrimination outof bias to their religion andgreed to take all the landswithin their sovereignty,like the sultanates of Suluand Mindanao, establishedlong before Lapu-Lapu

 became the rst to thwartforeign invasion.

The Christians refuseto honor the basic or fun-damental right of anygroup of people who sharecommon beliefs and ide-als to establish their owngovernment. The Filipinosforgot they themselvesdemanded the same fromSpain and the USA.

Those deaths will al-ways be fresh in the mindsof every new Moro borntoday and tomorrow: it istoo hard to take out anger from their minds. Whenthese angers explode theyare given the name “rebel-lion” or “terrorism” in thecase of Abu Sayyaf.

The government maynot be willing to let theMoros to separate for ithas already invested somuch blood and honor.But it can rethink and offer an equivalent deal that will

nally give them the iden-tity they want, a kind of self-determination accept-able that does not amountto a separation as one newnation.

The acceptability of the offer was proven whenthe MILF agreed to thecreation of BangsamoroJuridical Entity (BJE) toshare with the governmentthe management of all ar-eas within it.

Sadly, that solutioncontained in the Memo-randum of Agreement onAncestral Domain (MOA-AD) was shot down pre-maturely by the Supreme

Court’s Temporary Re-straining Order (TRO).

If only explained to allFilipinos, the Christianswill surely understand

that painful concessionsare indispensable for their 

  brothers to agree to livewith them, love them, andmake them as their broth-ers’ keepers.

Whatever solutionsthat may be arrived at, allgains can be amplied by astrong justice system.

If leftists and Moroscan trust a justice systemfor fairness and rigidityeven if their opponents arerich or Christians and the

  judge is of a rich clan or a Christian, or even if theopponent is the govern-ment, they are likely to laydown arms and le their claims in court.

With this, Muslims canle claims for reparationsfor all the lands seized bythe government and givento Christians from Luzonand Visayas, claims for 

  payment for all lives lostto government actions,demands due respect to Is-lam, and others.

The wounds are rootedso deep but a strong justicesystem will slowly heal.

What kind of justice system?

But what justice systemshould be put in place?

I strongly recommendthe jury system all over the Philippines, includingall Muslim areas wherethe Shar’iah courts may

  be peopled by jurors of Muslim residents to de-cide on issues of whathappened and the judge todecide questions on whatand how the Shar’iah lawshould apply.

My argument rests onthe fact of success of thecountries that have em-

  braced this system andfailures of the countriesthat rely on prosecutor-

 judge system.Look at the USA, the

United Kingdom, Aus-tralia and other partsof Europe. These haveexisted for centuries un-der the jury system and

not one power grab hasoccurred. Most impor-tantly, these countriesare rich.

To the other side, fail-ures preoccupy countriesthat have no jury system.In Latin America, manycountries there experi-ence power grab, includ-ing Venezuela. On Janu-ary 14, 2011, Tunisiansstaged people power tooust their dictator. ThePhilippines has experi-enced power grabs, too.

The story of jurysystem in the USA for more than 240 years nowconquered discrimina-tions, paving the wayfor greater acceptanceof the Blacks as Ameri-cans and now electingits rst Black Presidentin the person of Barrack Obama.

Winston Churchillsaid the jury is the “su-

 preme protection invent-ed by the British peoplefor ordinary individualsagainst the state.”

Thomas Jeffersonsaid: “I consider Trial byJury as the only anchor yet imagined by man, bywhich a government can

 be held to the principles

of its constitution.”

Kind of jury system

We propose a jurysystem of two bodies— American style.

The rst body shall be the Grand Jury.

It shall have the  power to have the -nal say as to who shall

  be charged in court. Itshall take back the pow-er charge the corruptfrom the Ombudsman,the power to charge for election crimes from theComelec, and the power 

To page 3 

8/8/2019 issue31vol2 of Dyaryo Magdalo

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/issue31vol2-of-dyaryo-magdalo 5/8

Hernz quarryBy HERNANI CUARE

JannarallyspeakingBy JULMUNIR I. JANNARAL

Jan. 10-16, 2011 5 

Vol. II No. 31

They came, they sawthey never conquered

Computerization of municipalities

GETTING in touch withthe past in relation to the

  present, I say the Tau-

sugs of Sulu who formthe Nation of BangsaSug are just like wavesthat go to many changesand the changes makeus realize that to someextent we the are differ-ent for we have a uniquehistory in this country.

This columnist hasno authority to speak on behalf of other tribalMuslim groups in thePhilippines although Ifeel I have some rightsto make my observa-tions known. So I limitthe discussions to myown tribe, the Tausugsof Sulu belonging to the

once sovereign Sultan-ate of Sulu and NorthBorneo (Sabah).

“Tausug” literallymeans “man of the cur-rent,” or “people of thecurrent” talking of themas a group.

Their place is bet-ter known amongst usas “Lupah Sug”: somewriters put the alterna-tive name “Sug” derivedfrom the Arabic term“Souk,” which meansoutdoor Arab market or Arab market place.

The Sulu Archipela-go per se consists of thegroup of islands from

Basilan and to Tawi-Tawi.It is the home of a number of tribes form the “nation”

called “Bangsa Sug.”The people of the cur-rent, according to manyhistorians, are staunchwarriors, superb sailors,and skilled craftsmen.

Based on the recentstatistics, there are morethan a million Tausugs inthe archipelago, 500,000in Sabah in Malaysia towhere they were forcedto migrate because of thearmed rebellion in the1970s launched by Moro

  National Liberation Frontheaded by Chairman Nur Misuari against well-equipped Armed Forcesof the Philippines.

The sovereignty of the Sultanate of Sulu and

  North Borneo (Sabah),now headed by SultanFuad A. Kiram the 1st (the35th De Jure ReigningSultan), once extendedfrom the Philippine prov-inces of Basilan, Sulu,Palawan, and Tawi-Tawito the eastern part of theState of Sabah that wasillegally annexed by Ma-laysia to its federationin 1963 without inform-ing the legal owner thatwas—and is—the Sultanof Sulu.

Historians noted thatthat Sabah and Palawan

were gifts by the Sultanof Brunei to the Sultan of Sulu in 1658.

From the standpointof history, starting 1565,Spain conquered most of the lands making up themodern-day Philippines,including the group of islands of Luzon and Vi-sayas.

But take note, theSpaniards were not suc-cessful in their efforts tosubjugate the Muslims of the South, including theTausugs of Sulu.

In his book, “TheSwish of the Kris: TheStory of the Moros,” pub-lished in 1936, historianVic Hurley wrote: “They

  proved too strong for the

Spanish conquistadores.“In his defense of the

religion and customs of Islam against the militant

 priests of Spain, the Moroset a new historical prece-dent. He survived,” Hurleyadded. “Sturdy and intact,their religion still ourish-es on the shores of Sulu.The conquistadores came,fought vainly, and retired.The Moros remain.”

Peter Gordon Gowing,an American author fromMassachusetts, U.S.A.wrote the book “MuslimFilipinos- Heritage andHorizon” that was pub-lished in 1979, where he

said the people of BangsaSug proudly declared: “Wewere never conquered.”

If the Bangsa Sug wasnot conquered, are we theTausugs can still be clas-sied as Filipinos?

This question was an-swered point-blank bya Christian friend whoasked anonymity fromthis columnist. He saidand I quote: “You are nota Filipino.”

He emphasized thatonly those people whoseterritories were conqueredor subjugated by Spain inthe name of King Philip IIare classied as Filipinos.

That included, he said,the Tagalogs and other 

  people in the north who

the Spaniards called “Fili-  pinos” in reference to aslave name.

Signicantly, he addedthat the Tausugs and other Moros never referred tothemselves as Filipinos.

 The Unconquered Kingdom

Are we that indolentand colonized?

This friend said theanswer is likewise a big“NO.”

He said that the factthat Spain was forced tomake treaties with theSultanates in Sulu and

  parts of Mindanao dem-

onstrated that there never was a historical territorycalled the Philippines and

certainly never one thatgoverned over the south.In fact, the Royal

Hashemite Sultanate of Sulu & North Borneo(Sabah), a Kingdom since1405 to this day, is better known as “The Uncon-quered Kingdom.”

However, the UnitedStates gradually replacedSpain as the dominant

  power in the regionthroughout the 19th cen-tury.

Just like what Spaindid, the US also signedtreaties with the Sultanateof Sulu and North Borneo(Sabah).

His Majesty SultanJamalul Kiram II signedthe “Kiram-Bates Treaty”on August 20, 1899 thatrecognized the Sultanateas a sovereign nation and

 placed the kingdom under the US protectorate whileat the same time guaran-teed its sovereignty as asovereign “Kingdom for the Bangsa Sug.”

It is signicant to notethat the US did not signtreaties with the sovereignPhilippines.

It was sad enough thatthen US President Theo-dore Roosevelt unilater-ally terminated the “Ki-

ram-Bates Treaty” withoutinforming the Sultan of Sulu.

Any legal luminarywould tell you that whatPresident Roosevelt didwas a willful disregard or violation of treaties with-out just cause and is beingfrowned upon by the soci-ety of nations.

Quoting former Su-  preme Court AssociateJustice Isagani A. Cruz,an expert in InternationalLaw, said this case is amatter of pacta sunt ser-vanda, which means thattreaties must be observedin good faith despite hard-ship on the contractingstate. Hence, as a generalrule, a party must comply

with the provisions of atreaty and it cannot ig-nore or modify the termswithout the consent of theother signatory.

It can also be said thatthe Sultan of Sulu in gen-eral and the Bangsa Sugin particular were further 

  betrayed by the USA:without the required

  plebiscite and consent of the Bangsa Sug nation itannexed the Sultanate of Sulu to the Philippines in1946, clearly breachingthe United Nations Char-ter of 1945.

To sum it up, the Mo-ros, to include the Bangsa

Sug nation, have indeednever been conquered.

I end this column

with what Gowingwrote:“…As a matter of 

historical fact, theywere involuntarily in-corporated to the Phil-ippine nation. Armedinvaders---Spaniards,Americans, Japanese,and Christian Filipi-nos---have always out-gunned the Moros andhave generally paradedacross their territorywhenever they would.But the invaders never succeeded in breakingthe indomitable spirit of the Moros. They never subjugated the culture

of the Moros. Theynever vanquished thereligion of the Moros.

Every day thou-sands upon thousandsof Moros to include the

  people from BangsaSug nation in severalhundreds of mosquesand countless homesfall on their knees andtouch their foreheadsin abject surrender toAllah.”

* * *For comments and

suggestions, e-mail theauthor at jannaral69@gmail.com or contacthim at +639167957154.

RICOJUDGE Ech-everri is really fastand cunning in

courting and makinghis way up.

After conclud-ing his controversialwin as president of the Liga ng mga Ba-rangay in CaloocanCity, Echeverri haswon the nod of JoloRevilla, son of Sena-tor Bong Revilla, torun as his runningmate in the Liga ngBarangay nationalelection.

At rst, the Re-villa clan was un-doubtful of lettingJolo run because of the thought that it

might only serverethe clan’s rift withthe Palace. But Ech-everri has been in-sistent.

Echeverri’s suc-cessive calls eventu-ally won Jolo’s nodafter assuring theclan that President Noynoy Aquino hasapproved Jolo asexecutive vice presi-dent of Echeverri.

Yes, Echever-ri has once more  proved his unmea-sured inuence,stretching in the cor-ridors of power.

* * *It can never be

displaced that thesupport of the Presi-dent is essential for 

the success of nation-al and local projects.Without the support of 

the President, a projectinvolving a foreign aidis quite impossible toattain.

The help of Presi-dent Noynoy Aquinowas not personallyasked by League of Municipalities Na-tional President May-or Strike Revilla of Bacoor, Cavite for therealization of his pet project – computeriza-tion of all municipali-ties nationwide. Butthe way I figured histone in talking aboutthe President, he waslonging for PNoy’s

support to turn hisdream to a reality.

Political colors  play a big role in theunhealthy relation be-tween PNoy and Re-villa.

PNoy is a Liberal party man while Revil-la is a Kampi man, the  political party of theformer administration.

In laying his grand  plan of modernizingthe municipalities, Re-villa said he is seekingfunding from the US-AID or United StatesAid. His computer-izaton project will costP50 million for Bacoor alone.

As the country iscomposed of 1,500municipalities, P50

million times 1,500 isP75 billion. This is thefund needed to realizethe project nationwide.

This is a large sumof money. It will notcome from the govern-ment if Revilla winsthe sympathy of for-eign nanciers. Thismoney, according tohim, can be cut short if softwares are alreadyinstalled in Bacoor.

Only computer hardwares are needed by other municipalitiesfor the softwares can  be downloaded fromBacoor.

But this dream of Revilla is yet a dream.He divulged that heis yet to submit to theUSAID his feasibilitystudy for this project,although he has ver-  bally shared it to theagency.

If only his rela-tion with P-Noy is nottainted with politics,Revilla can easily ask the Palace to push itwith the USAID.

In a lonely tone,without voicing ill-feelings, Revillaopined that the Presi-

dent is not supportiveof his leadership of theLeague of Municipali-ties.

He felt the indiffer-ence of PNoy when thelatter never showed upat the national conven-tion of the league lastyear.

Anyway, I hopePNoy will not take  personally the colorsof the nation’s vari-ous leaders and look atthese for the benets of the project needing his push. This moderniza-tion project for all mu-nicipalities is one.

We are already liv-ing in a modern worldwhere life is incom-  plete without comput-ers. Knowing howimportant it is for thespeedy delivery of ser-vices, the municipali-ties hunger for it.

Revilla contendedthat computerizationcan be utilized as atool to trim down if notto totally end graft andcorruption.

But can it really bea solution to the ram- pant graft and corrup-tion?

A question occu-  pied my senses whenRevilla further claimedthat computerization iseffective against graftand corruption for itoffers not only a built-in transparency benet but also prompt deliv-ery of services.

Hearing this con-tention of Revilla, Irecollected many na-tional agencies claim-ing the same years ago.These agencies – theDepartment of ForeignAffairs, Bureau of Im-migration, Bureau of Customs, etc. -- havecomputerized their operations. But untilnow, graft and corrup-tion is ruthless to their veins.

These governmentagencies claimed thatcomputerization willdefinitely speed up  public transactions.But reality provedthem wrong. Untilnow, transacting busi-ness with these agen-cies is at snail pace.

Pile of documentsand queue of hot bod-ies are observed in andout of government of-

ces. No change.Why?Simple.

It is because com- puters are operated bymen. Corrupt men haveunaccounted ways to  press and unpress thekeyboard keys. Com-  puters also have “de-lete” and “overwrite”commands. It has con-gurations that changethe outcome of thegame: Look at the CFcards used in the lastPCOS elections.

Anyway, let’s giveRevilla’s foresight a benet of the doubt.

Revilla says thatspeedy processing of documents, like may-

or’s permit, will defi-nitely lure the publicto directly transact  business thru thecounter.

In this, I agree withhim. The transacting  public will evade x-ers and insiders if their  papers are processed inminutes or hours. Notdays, or weeks, likewhat is happening atthe DFA where public-clients are queuing for days standing as easy  preys under the hun-gry eyes of xers in allcorners.

Further, with re-gard to speedy transac-tion, do you know thata simple request for travel records at theBureau of Immigra-

tion will take three tofour days for clear-ing alone?

All the requestsare centralized at theofce of Immigra-tion Acting Com-missioner RonaldoLedesma.

Sometimes wecall this as “central-ized collection.”

The same is truewith the DFA stick-ers that pronounce:“No Fixers allowed.”

The stickers at-tract attention to thewalls of BI build-ing. But beside eachstand one or two x-ers boldly lurking for  preys.

To top it all, mostof the xers are BIemployees.

With regard totransparency, Revillaexplained that allmunicipal transac-tions are to be postedon the internet andcan be viewed by the public.

The processingof papers, from theling up to the last,will be timed and theconsumed time will be the basis to knowif there is any unholytransaction along the process.

I hope so, Mayor Strike Revilla.

* * *These are my

quarries, for now

8/8/2019 issue31vol2 of Dyaryo Magdalo

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/issue31vol2-of-dyaryo-magdalo 6/8

6 

Vol. II No. 31 Jan. 10-16, 2011

father, Felipe Pestaño,and his son, Philip An-drew Pestaño.

“Please, son, resignyour commission. Giveup your military career.Don’t go back. We wantyou alive. If you go

 back to that ship, it will be the end of you!”

“Kawawa ang bay-an!” This, the youngman uttered the last onthe eve of his death heknew was coming.

Yes, “Kawawa ang  bayan!” was the lastsentence uttered witha burning passion bythe ensign, as if it wasthe shortest version of the “Mi Ultimo Adios”

  poem that was spokenof the soul of Rizal.

It was the same sub-stance spoken by thenational hero whenhe wrote that patrioticgoodbye on the eve of his death he knew wascoming, which in origi-nal Spanish languagereads:

“Adiós, Patria ado-rada, región del sol querida,

“Perla del mar deoriente, nuestro perdido

 Edén!“A darte voy alegre

la triste mustia vida,“Y fuera más bril -

lante, más fresca, más florida,

“También por ti ladiera, la diera por tubien.”

In English, it wastranslated by EdwinAgustin Lozada as fol-lows:

“Farewell, belovedCountry, treasured re-gion of the sun,

“Pearl of the sea

ESSAY WRITING TILTON JURY SYSTEM

FOR FILIPINOS All persons, of all political and religious afliations, rich or poor, professionals or 

students, retirees or professionally active, are invited to the 2011 Jury Essay Contestsponsored and conducted by Hukuman ng Mamamayan Movement, Inc. (HMMI).

Berteni “Toto” Cataluña Causing, HMMI president, said the theme for thecontest is “WILL JURY SYSTEM WORK FOR FILIPINOS?”

The contest is being staged to commemorate the rst anniversary of HMMI,founded on January 29, 2010 for the purpose of education all Filipinos about thesystem of justice where the people themselves are exercising the power to judgeand leaving the judges and prosecutors with the work of implementing what they

 people have spoken.Entries are expected to tackle concepts, benets, viability, and capacity of the

 jury system of justice and on how it can affect the Filipino society.

Essays of at least 1,500 words should be creative in the presentation of howthe jury system composed of two bodies can drastically reduce corruption andother crimes, steeply increase obedience to the rule of law, dramatically reduceinequalities and discriminations, substantially provide solid platforms to convincethe rebels to lay down arms and give peace a chance, rapidly form good habitsand culture as well as raise standards of ethics and morality among all governmentofcials and professionals, among others.

It is required that participants must submit their entries by email bearing their complete names, addresses, cellular phone or other contact numbers, email ad-dresses. They may also submit by snail mail and address their pieces to Toto Caus-ing, HMMI, Ground Floor, National Press Club Bldg., No. 1 Magallanes Drive,Intramuros, Manila.

The criteria shall be as follows: (1) content, 60%; (2) style 20%; (3) grammar & composition 10%; and (4) creativity, 10%.

There are two categories: English and Filipino, provided that those who havesubmitted entries in one category can no longer submit for another.

Prizes for rst 10 placers are yet to be announced. The deadline for submis-sion is January 29, 2011, provided that with respect to entries submitted by mailsshould be postmarked with the date not later than the deadline date.

For more details, contact Berteni “Toto” Cataluña Causing at his email address,totoacusing@yahoo.com; cellphone, 09178834254; landline,: 0632-3109144.

Where is justice, my son?From page 1

of the Orient, our lostEden!

“To you eagerly Isurrender this sad andgloomy life;

“And were it bright-er, fresher, more florid,

“Even then I’d giveit to you, for your sakealone.”

Looking a bit at thelast line of the firststanza of the poem, hewas referring to thecountry when he wrote

“you.” That he offeredhis life to his country.“To you, for your sakealone. “

Correlating to Phil-ip’s circumstances, hetoo was offering his

 best life and career as amilitary officer for thecountry alone. Thisis encapsulated in hiswords: “Kawawa ang

 bayan!”Thus, it is very clear 

that Ensign PhillipPestaño died a hero’sway.

Never-ending searchfor justice

So many accounts of various writers on theissue are one in say-ing that since the offi-cer died on September 27, 1995, the father of Ensign Phillip and hismother, Evelyn, havenever stopped searchingfor justice insisting hedied not by suicide butthat he was murdered.

Published accountssaid that the parentsnever stopped press-ing for justice even if Admiral Pio Carran-za warned them they

would lose their busi-

ness with the Philippine Navy if they would notstop.

Carranza was thecommander or the Flag-Officer-In-Commandof the Navy at thattime.

The parents never stopped even after the

  National Bureau of In-vestigation, the WesternPolice District, and oth-er investigating agen-cies officially ruled that

it was a case of suicide.His classmates at the

PMA wrote then SenatePresident Marcelo Fer-nan (formerly SupremeCourt Justice). T h i sled to a Senate inves-tigation that producedSenate Report 8000. Itfound that Phillip wasmurdered; debunkingthe findings of the NBI,the Navy and the WPDthat he committed sui-cide.

This gave spirit tothe fighting parents.But the Ombudsmanwas never coming totheir side.

  Nevertheless, armedwith the Senate report,Felipe and Evelyn filedtheir complaint beforethe Ombudsman. Noth-ing happened.

One Enrique Ange-les helped the Pestañocouple to file a com-

 plaint before the United  Nations Committee onHuman Rights.

The UNCHR ad-opted its resolution of the issue on March 26,2010, finding out thatPhillip was bludgeonedto death and he did notcommit suicide.

Despite this find-

ing of the international body and the finding of 

the Senate, the Officeof the Ombudsman dis-missed the complaintfor murder and gravemisconduct filed byPestaño parents againstseveral Navy officers.

The Ombudsmanruled that there wasno sufficient evidenceto arrive at a fair andreasonable resolutionthat the crime of mur-der was committed andthat those accused werelikely guilty thereof.

The decision was re-leased August 2, 2010,

  just after the Pestaño  parents filed an im-

  peachment complaintagainst OmbudswomanMerceditas NavarroGutierrez.

Thus, it was said thatthe dismissal of the casewas a retaliatory act byher.

With the manner the  parents of the victimhave been fighting for,it is expected that theywould fight tooth andnail until the SupremeCourt to seek justice for their son.

  Nevertheless, this isso painful. After morethan a decade of look-ing for vindication and

after seeing two chanc-es in the reports of theSenate and the UNCHR,they would only findtheir desire stopped bythe Ombudsman.

This must have  prompted the father of Phillip to say: “Whereis justice, my son?”

The background

Prior to the death of Ensign Pestaño, he wasreported to have dis-covered that the cargothat was being loadedto BRP Bacolod in-cluded logs illegally cut

down and 50 sacks of flour that was said to beshabu worth billions of 

 pesos.The young idealist

disapproved the cargo.His superiors told him:“Please! Be reasonable!This is big business. Itinvolves many impor-tant people. Approvethis cargo.”

He never signed theapproval.

It was also reportedthat his parents gottwo phone calls tellingthem: “Get your son off that ship! He is going to

 be killed!”Phillip was given a

 pass to go home. It wasthereafter that the lastconversation with hisdad occurred.

As said above, hisdad incessantly beggedto him to resign fromthe military and never to go back to the boatagain. But he rejectedhis father’s love in fa-vor of the country. Heinsisted: “Kawawa ang

 bayan!”

Findings contrary tosuicide

The Senate cannot

 believe it was suicide. Itreasoned out that there

was no trace of bloodsprays on a white wallor the bed.

The Senator Mar-celo Fernan report alsonoticed that there wasno bone tissue or anyhuman tissue that wasfound on the bed, theoor, or the wall.

The report concludedthat Ensign Pestaño waskilled somewhere elseand brought inside hiscabin.

“Absence of bloodspatters, bone fragmentsor other human tissues is

  physical evidence moreeloquent than a hundred

witnesses,” the senatereport said.Substantially similar 

are the ndings of theUNCHR.

Astonishingly, theOmbudsman ruled theother way.

That is, despite thefact that material piecesof evidence led DyaryoMagdalo to opine therewas clear probable causethat the crime of mur-der was committed andclear probable cause thatthe those accused by thePestaño parents, andthose who were not in-cluded in the complaint

afdavit, committed thecrime of murder thatthey must be brought tothe court for trial.

On the part of thenSenator Alfredo Lim,he delivered a privilegespeech saying: “Thenwho did?”

Lim named one Lt(jg) Carlito Amoroso(PMA class ’94), whomoonlighted as a close-in security for AdmiralCarranza, as the mostlikely who did the act of actually killing Pestaño.

“Strong evidencelinked him (Amoroso) tothe crime as the possible

gunman,” Lim declared,

although Amoroso wasnot a crew member of BRP Bacolod City.

Lim said that Amoro-so became scarce sincethe death of Pestaño andhe noticed that the Navywas not interested in lo-cating him.

“To date, as likethe others, (Amoroso)got off scot-free,” Limfumed. “Was there anintelligence ofcer whoalso boarded in Cavite?”

Lim protested heav-ily why Ensign JoselitoColico was not evencharged administrativelyafter admitting that hewiped the ngerprintson the .45 caliber pistol.

“This tampered with evi-dence,” Lim protested.Lim further revealed

in his privilege speechthat the ship command-ers, Capt. Ricardo Or-doñez and executiveofcer Lt. Cmdr. RubenRoque, already left the

  Navy. Obviously avoid-ing any liability.

Lim also said thatPetty Ofcer 2 ZosimoVillanueva, the one whotipped Pestaño about theshabu inside 20 sacks of the rice aboard the ship,was reported to have

  been washed away in asea tragedy a week after 

Pestaño’s murder oc-curred.

Lim also said that En-sign Alvin Parone diedin an unsolved murder after he was scheduledto talk to Pestaño’s par-ents.

Lim said that the ves-sel’s radio operator, Pet-ty Ofcer 3 Fidel Tagay-tay, vanished whensummoned to testify.

“Alam ko po maramisiyang alam kasi siyaang duty operator, (“Iknow sir he knew a lot

 because he was duty op-erator”), Tagaytay’s wifeLeonila wrote then De-

fense Secretary Avelino

Cruz.To the contrary, it

was ofcially declaredthat Tagaytay had goneAWOL (absent withoutleave).

Dyaryo Magdalo’s ruling

At 8:10 in the morn-ing of September 27,1995, his ship, BRPBacolod, was to dock at the Headquarters of the Philippine Navy onRoxas Boulevard after a one and a half hour of voyage from Sangley,Cavite, which normallytakes half an hour.

Aboard were eightofcers and 42 enlisted

men. It was said thatsomebody noticed thatdeck and cargo ofcer Pestaño was not at his

 post so that Ensign Col-ico was ordered by Lt.Cmdr. Ruben Roque tolook for him.

It was reported thatColico knocked on thecabin of Pestaño but no-

  body answered, compel-ling the former to openthe door with a master key and he found Phillipdead.

When seen, Phillip’s body was lying perpen-dicular or across his bedwith his two feet resting

on the oor.A pistol without a

magazine was found  between his feet. Themagazine clip was found

 beside the gun.There were a few

  blood stains seen be-neath his head. Dropsof blood were also seenin the left corner of the

  bed, the corner nearestthe door.

On the oor area lo-cated at the foot of the

  bed in the said corner were seen other drops of 

 blood.There was no pooling

of the blood that was no-To page 7 

8/8/2019 issue31vol2 of Dyaryo Magdalo

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/issue31vol2-of-dyaryo-magdalo 7/8

Jan. 10-16, 2011 7 

Vol. II No. 31

AFFIDAVIT OF SELF-ADJUDICATION (EXTRAJU-DICIAL SETTLEMENT OF THE ESTATE OF SUSANAANDRES COLLADO) – Being the sole heir of Susana

  Andres Collado of No. 2 Mt. Everest St., Filinvest I,Batasan Hills, Quezon City, CASIMIRA ANDRES COL-LADO PASCUAL adjudicated unto herself the personalproperty of the Estate of SUSANA ANDRES COLLADOconsisting in all the amount deposited in the ForeignCurrency Deposit at Metrobank under Bank AccountNo. 032-2-03200261-1. Notarized under the notarialregistry of Notary Public Dervin V. Castro as the NotaryPublic for Manila, specically Document No. 294, PageNo. 155, Book No. 2, whose acknowledgment is regis-tered under the same notarial book as Document No.295, Page No. 155, Book No. 2, all dated December 31, 2010. (This is the publication for this issue of Janu-ary 10, 2011, Monday, the second day of issue of thisweekly newsmagazine.)

ticed under the head or anywhere in the room.

If Ensign Pestañowas indeed killed or re-ally killed himself insidehis cabin, heavy pool of 

  blood should develop  below his head. It is because it is but naturalthat when the person isdead, the pressure actingon the blood is dictated

 by the law of gravity andno longer by the pump of the heart. So that blood

should drift out heavilyon the exit point and en-try point of the bullet inhis head.

  Now, both hands of Phillip were stretchedout straight touching

  both sides of his bodywith the right hand’sedge resting on themiddle just below hiswaist. It is what hap-

 pens with the hands of acadet when he stands inattention while his righthand is placed hang-ing in front of his body.This alone is inconsis-tent with the normallyoutstretched hands away

from the body after avictim has shot himself in the head or on histemple.

  Now, another unex-  plainable circumstanceis the place where thespent shell was found.

The empty shell wasfound on the bed, at theright side of the body of Pestaño. The shell waslying about three feet

  perpendicular from theright side of his waist.

  Now, what was be-ing tried to be impressedwas that Ensign Pestañowas sitting rst on theedge of his bed with his

  back directed across the bed.

And if he is right-handed, as he is, and hewould shoot his righttemple while he would

 be facing away from the  bed, the chamber holeof the pistol must befacing in the directionaway from the bed, too.This is because the holewhere the empty shellthrows off after a live

 bullet is fired is alwaysin the right side of any

 pistol.Such that if the right

side of the gun is facing

away from the bed, it isimpossible for the spentshell to y to the bed. Itshould y away from the

 bed and land on the oor.With the downward tra-

 jectory of the bullet as ittraveled Pestaño’s head,it is improbable that hewould hold the gun withthe bottom of the grip di-rected to the ceiling.

Another circum-stance that makes sui-cide claim impossibleto happen is the locationwhere the pistol and themagazine were allegedlyfound.

The gun was reported

to have been found lying

with its right side touch-ing the oor. Now, themagazine was not foundinside the gun. Themagazine was located

  just about three inchesaway from the pistol’sedge farthest from the

 bed.The rst question

here is this: Was it possi- ble for the magazine clipto remove itself from thegun after the pistol isred?

 No way!The second question

is: Why was it that therewas no more live bulletinside the magazine?

The third question is:Was it possible for the

  pistol to drop betweenthe feet of the suicidevictim after the gun isred?

Highly improbable!Under that posi-

tion, while it would be  possible for the gun toloosen out of the handof the suicide victimwhile sitting and pull-ing the trigger, the onlything that would happen

should be that the gunrecoil back to fall to the

 bed as it would slightly  be pulled towards the  bed by the hand of thesuicide victim while thevictim would be fallingon the bed.

  Now, there was no blood tissue, or bone tis-sue, or esh tissue thatwas found. This is con-trary to the natural lawor physics that as the

 bullet exits in the other end of the head it will

  bring along some bloodand some esh to besprayed on the wall. Thewall was clean whiteand there was no singledroplet of esh tissue or 

 blood that was found.If the bullet was

tested for presence of ahuman tissue, DyaryoMagdalo bets its reputa-tion that nothing can befound therein. Instead,it is the opinion of thisweekly paper that thesaid bullet found in thecabin was a simula-tion shot and did not hitany part of the body of Pestaño.

  Now, Dyaryo Mag-dalo again bets its namethat this bullet was red

  by pressing the muzzleof the pistol on a thick   pillow, the reason whyvery ne strands of ber was found clinging tothe nose of the bullet.

And if the bulletwould be subjected toDNA test, it will surelyshow that it will not givea trace of blood or eshin it.

These circumstancesare very clear to de-clare without reasonabledoubt that murder wascommitted.

Another thing, thehandwriting in the al-leged suicide note is

clearly different from

the records of handwrit-ings of Ensign Pestaño.

One more thing isthat: Why is it that fo-rensic result shows thatthe trajectory of the

  bullet from the righttemple to the left ear isdownward, while the de-formed spot on the steeldoor jamb caused by a

 bullet is located horizon-tally in the same level of the head of Pestaño if hewere sitting? Remember 

that the temple is alwayshigher than the ear whenthe head is in an upright

 position.Is it possible for a

  person resolved in kill-ing himself to tilt hishead to the right so thatthe bullet would enter the right temple and exit

 just beneath the ear?Or, is it possible for 

a person to raise the gunwith the muzzle lower than the level of the r -ing pin?

 Now, another puzzle.Why Pestaño had

injuries on his left ear where the bullet exited?

Still another: Why isit that none of the handsof Pestaño had no gun

  powder when subjectedto parafn test?

Also, why was thereno powder burns on theentry point of the bullet?

And the clincher thatsolved the jigsaw puzzleto know where Pestañowas killed: Why is it thatthere is a bullet hole inthe most bottom layer of a three-drawer studytable placed in the adja-cent cabin?

Pestaño’s cabinshared one toilet withthe adjacent cabin andthere is a door for ev-ery side of the toilet for each cabin. This meansthat one can go from onecabin to another by pass-ing through the toilet.

So that when Pestañowas found inside his cab-in, his body must have

  been dragged theretofrom the adjacent cabinthrough the toilet.

As to the question of whether there was prob-ability that those ac-cused by Pestaño’s par-ents were likely the oneswho are guilty, DyaryoMagdalo answers in the

 positive.

First, this is just aquestion of probabil-ity and not one conclu-sion beyond reasonabledoubt.

Second, the law re-quires only sufcient

  probability to justify l-ing of a case in court andto hold the accused for trial.

Third, the motivecould be proven by thefact that Carranza threat-ened the parents to drop

their bid at justice.Fourth, it can be es-

tablished from the booksof the ship that therewere logs that were load-ed and discharged eventhough the 20 sacks of shabu disguised as our cannot be found. Andif these books were lost,this fact adds up to the

 proof that the ofcers of the boat were guilty for no one could have theaccess to steal the bookswithout the knowledgeof the captain or his as-sistants.

Fifth, the call to the parents can add up to the

evidence to establish thatthe motive of the kill-ing was connected to thecargo.

Sixth, these circum-stances if proven areenough to prove beyondreasonable doubt thatthose who controlled theship are guilty.

The degree of proof when it is considered be-yond reasonable doubtshould only be enough tosay that the judge in con-science is convinced.

Seventh, the admis-sion of Ensign Colicowas enough to convicthim of at least obstruc-tion of justice and for 

  being accessory to thecrime.

And when Colico is  pressed, he will likelysqueal who ordered himto wipe the gun clean of fingerprints.

So that these circum-stances are enough to

 prove that the Office of the Ombudsman, par-ticularly Overall Depu-ty Ombudsman OrlandoCasimiro and Gutierrez,evaded their positiveduty, enough ground for impeachment for theculpable violation of the Constitution.

Zakat economy is timely -- Maradeka

 January 12, 2011

 JULMUNIR I. JANNARALColumnist 

 Dyaryo Magdalo Intramuros, Manila 

 Dear Brother, 

 Assalamu Alaykum! This is in reaction to your column “My second birth and Zakat Economy”

where from the point of view of Maradeka as a Muslim civil society, the topicon the Zakat Economy is very t imely and serves as an eye opener for us Mus-lims to perform our religious obligation.

  Indeed, the payment of Zakat which is akin to a religious obligatory tax

can be a parallel program vis-à-vis the poverty alleviation program of the government just like the cash allotment program for the poor. However, Zakat is being collected from the rich or afuent Muslims out of their wealth or 

 properties and distributed among the poor Muslims. 

 Zakat is actually an inherent function especially of the Islamic government. But of course here in the Philippines, the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) headed by Secretary Bai Omera Dianalan-Lucman should be in the lead role of encouraging afuent Muslims to share an amount of their wealth and properties to the poor by regularly paying the annual Zakat.

  In so doing, the NCMF can help alleviate the plight of the poor Muslims

and lessen poverty as well.

 Likewise, the NCMF by exercising its mandate that takes care of the wel - fare of the Muslim Filipinos should also encourage Muslims in the business sector to put up Zakat institutional fund mechanism in accordance not onlywith their religious duties and obligations but as a humanitarian or a chari -table act for the benet of their poor brethren.

 Sincerely, (SGD.) NASH PANGADAPUN Secretary General, MARADEKAManila, Philippines

Fearless but fair Dyaryo Magdalo

 January 14, 2011 JULMUNIR I. JANNARALColumnist, Dyaryo Magdalo

  Dear Brother in Islam, 

 Assalamu Alaykum Warahmatullahi Taala Wa Barakat Tuhu! This has reference to your column that you discussed regarding the Zakat 

 Economy in Dyaryo Magdalo where Zakat is the major economic means for establishing social responsibility and leading the Muslim society to prosperityand security.

  At the outset, I would like to congratulate you for discussing the topic on

 Zakat, which is the 3rd pillar among the Five Pillars of Islam. Most of all, I would like also extend the greetings of Islam to the manage -

ment of Dyaryo Magdalo headed by its editor-in-chief, Atty. Toto Causing for coming out with the “Jannarally Speaking” column that touches among oth-ers about the teachings of Islam.

  As our fellow Mindanaoan and fellow alumnus, Atty. Causing who is also

one of the alumni of the College of Engineering of the Mindanao State Univer -

 sity System here in Marawi City deserves the highest commendation among MSUans for coming out with this fearless but fair Dyaryo Magdalo weeklynews magazine.

 With my best wishes and we hope that your weekly news magazine will be

circulated too in this part of Muslim Mindanao, where we believe that what the daily broadsheet won’t dare to publish your small but mighty paper is al -ways ready to print it for the sake of fair play, truth, and justice for all whether Muslims or non-Muslims alike.

 More power to your publication. 

Very truly yours, (SGD.) ALEEM SAID AHMAD BASHER

 Alumnus, Al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt &Chairman, Imam Council of the PhilippinesMarawi City

 Re a d e r  ’

s  Co r n e r 

Where is justice,

my son?From page 6 

8/8/2019 issue31vol2 of Dyaryo Magdalo

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/issue31vol2-of-dyaryo-magdalo 8/8

8 

Vol. II No. 31 Jan. 10-16, 2011

     A     N     D

THE

Rock 

Dakak I 

was blessed to have time and money to go for a three-day vacationin the world-famous Dakak Beach Resort in the historic City of Dapitan in the province of the faraway Zamboanga del Norte.

Dapitan is the place where the last romance happened for Jose Rizal,our national hero. He fell in love with a pretty girl from Brussels named

Josephine Bracken, who, he fondly called “Dulce Estranjero.”from the dam made byhim about 50 meters upin the direction toward themountain. Beside the dam,Rizal lined up brick pipeshe made to deliver drink-ing water to his home andto the nearby community.

Today, the pipe, though  broken at the top, is stillthere present; it is covered

  by an inch-thick concrete put around it by men igno-rant of the beauty of his-tory instead of keeping theappearance of a brick pipe

 by replacing them with an-other of the same diameter.

That’s how amazingmy hero is. He was alsoexpert in masonry works.In fact, pasted on a wallin the mausoleum is a pic-ture of a wooden mold for 

making of brick blocks, anidea he taught to the origi-nal Dapitanons.

That dam of water andthe brick pipeline lay be-side the house of the herothat is made of woodenoors, two wooden stairslocated on both sides par-allel to the brick pipe, el-

evated balconies locatedon three sides of the house.

Ten meters away infront of Rizal’s housestands tall the tree planted

  by Rizal when he estab-lished foothold in this

  place. Now, the diameter at the bottom of this treecan be circumscribed byfour men with all their arms spread wide andholding each other. Itsheight is nearly a hundredfeet to the topmost leaf.

About 20 meters awayfrom the other side of the

  pipeline are located two

nipa-wood structures thatserved as the operatingrooms of Dr. Jose Rizal. Itwas in one of that roomsthat he operated on theeyes of his mother.

From that operatinghouses, going to the direc-tion parallel to the pipelineand the streams supplied

  by that dam is located“casa cuadrada,” the boysdormitory of the studentsof Rizal. I asked the old-est man I saw in Dapitanwhether there still were

left alive from among his students and hesaid all of them are dead now. Probably,these disciples of Rizal were born in thelate 1880s.

The inside of the house of Rizal is foundone room with an old style bed of rattanooring and Narra posts, each of them six-foot high and carved all over with old de-signs. On the headboard stands his portrait.

These are the prominent sights thatlinger to my mind about Rizal’s history inDapitan where he spent some of the bestyears of his life.

I toured the estate of Rizal after myitineraries at Dakak, where I was invited

to deliver a speech on behalf of the presi-dent of National Press Club, Jerry S. Yap.Humbly aside, I was cheered and so praised

 by the audience composed of more than ahundred publishers and journalists from all

 provinces and cities of the country. We werethere for the event dubbed “15 th NationalPress Congress,” organized and staged byPublishers Association of the Philippines,Inc. (PAPI).

If I were to describe Dakak, I love to sayit is a paradise hidden by two landmasses

 placed 200 meters apart of each other andextending half a kilometer to the sea fromits shores. The trapped beach inside is of white sand, although not so white as Bo-racay’s, and the shallow water extend far outward to make bathing and swimming a

 perfect experience.From the beach tip at low tide, the land

gradually rises until it takesa drastic rise to host a thick forest of centuries-old trees.In some little clearings arelocated log-cabin-type cot-tages serving as ve-star rooms for visitors. Outsideall these sleeping quartersand the concrete pathwaysare green ne grasses thatmake the place a completely

  beautiful garden facing thewhite-beach.

In the middle, rightabove the beach front, is lo-

cated the restaurant and bar and the lobby area of Dakak Beach Resort.

During important nightswhen visitors are aplenty,the beach serves as a din-ing area while diners watchcultural songs and dances

  performed by ne sing-ers and dancers. They sangCebuano songs and originalnatives’ hymns whose lyricsonly them can understand

 but the souls are enough tomake the date romantic.

Just beside the restau-rant, parallel to the beach, islocated the rst swimming

  pool deep enough for chil-dren. Going deeper into the

direction of the forest is the conventionhall that stands beside another swim-ming pool that is heart-shaped.

The owner of the Eden enclave,Romeo “Nonong” Jalosjos, spoke tothe press congress participants prid-ing Dakak as his personal lifetimeachievement. He said he exudes con-dence that Dapitan’s treasure as thecradle of history and Dakak’s unique-ness in beauty combine to bring life to

the small city of nature.He said that Dapitan has small in-

come but it was conferred by the Con-gress the status of a city in honor of thefact that Rizal spent the most qualitytime there.

He also exhorted the press con-gress participants to focus on advocat-ing for the growth of local tourism. Hereasoned out that in many years sinceZamboanga’s image was tarnished bykidnappings, bombings and raids bythe separatist rebels, it has been the lo-cals who have kept it growing.

So that he said that the governmentmust develop tourism consciousnessamong Filipinos for them to visit their own sights to enliven the economy of 

 places relying on tourism.Additionally, Jalosjos is batting for 

the full development of history tour-ism. He pointed at the shrine of JoseRizal as the best visitors drawer whenthe place is developed, lamenting thatthe National Historical Institute has

  been neglecting the place where thenational hero left one of the most im-

 portant imprints for the Filipinos.After delivering his speech, the for-

mer congressman gave to each of usa copy of his writings about Rizal, a

 book of all letters written and received by the national hero.

I have gone to many cities of thePhilippines and I have never found oneas nature as Dapitan. It is surrounded

So that if I want to go back againto this almost virgin place of Dapitan,I will never forget “The Rock” and“Dakak.”

Despite the lack of the blessing of the Span-ish-controlled CatholicChurch in Dapitan becausethe Greatest Pepe on Earthrefused to abandon hisideals and principles, the“Sweet Stranger” who re-turned to Dapitan despitehaving left the serene andgreen town for Hong Kongagreed to live in with himin the estate bought byRizal after winning a lot-tery prize of P20,000 thathe shared with two Span-ish ofcials who broughthim there in 1894 for the

four-year exile.My hero and Josephine

 pursued their love for eachother by celebrating their own marriage ceremoniesupon their own terms and

  prayers. They did this bykneeling side by side atopa big rock.

This rock, as big asa modern military tank,formed the most substan-tive design of the poolmade by Rizal beside the

 beach front of his estate.This pool draws water 

By TOTO CAUSING

The writer infront of the nipahouse where our National HeroJose P. Rizal once lived,in Dapitan.