Lapidlandia

BY LANDSLIDES, Manuel “Lito” Lapid buried all his rivals for the governorship of Pampanga: from the incumbent Bren Z. Guiao in 1995, to the crusading Cielo Macapagal-Salgado in 1998, to the quixotic Ananias Canlas, Jr. in 2001.
Of course, Lapid himself was “landslided” by now Vice President Jejomar Binay in the Makati mayoralty contest of 2007, getting less than 10 percent of the vote, if memory serves right. And his two senatorial runs in 2004 and 2010 were by no means avalanches, being mere cliffhangers.
Election landslides aside, land figures well in the public and private lives of Lapid.
This weekend past, the intrepid Tonette Orejas reported in the Philippine Daily Inquirer Lapid and wife Marissa being “sued” at the Commission on Human Rights by the Porac Foundation Inc. (PFI) over the demolition of a sports complex it built in 1978 yet.
The sports complex stood on a lot reportedly sold to Mrs. Lapid in 2006 by couple Cristina and Rodney Baloyo. The transaction allegedly involved falsified public documents and spurious land titles.
“The Lapids took the law into their own hands when they demolished the structures and improvements built by [PFI] at Porac Foundation Sports Complex, and destroyed the iron gates, padlocks and hollow blocks fence without any lawful order from the courts of law.” So the PFI claimed.
This, even as the revered Fr. Resty Lumanlan, founder and president of PFI, says: “The Lapids did all these by means of force, strategy and/or stealth ...”
“The PFI built a sports complex there when heirs of the Juico family, who are related to Baloyo, donated the land to Porac Central Elementary School.
PFI and the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS) signed a memorandum of agreement in 1977. The DECS built a gymnasium donated by then Gov. Juanita Nepomuceno, a club house, a tennis court and a track and field facility. The PFI reconstructed the complex after the 1991 eruptions of Mt. Pinatubo.” So the Inquirer reported. (It was the PFI that actually built the gym and all the other facilities.)
Among Resty, the news story furthered, said “the Lapid suit complements the cases for falsification of public documents and theft filed against the Baloyo couple, which have been pending at the provincial prosecutor’s office since 2008.”
The investigative journalist that is Tonette unearthed: “The pieces of properties were covered by two free patents issued in 1985 by the Bureau of Lands, which was under supervision of then Ministry of Natural Resources.
"The Office of the Register of Deeds issued original certificates of titles (OCT) in 1985 in the name of the mother of Rodney Baloyo, a police officer now assigned to Floridablanca town.
"The provincial environment and natural resources office said its files have no copies of free patents bearing the numbers inscribed on the supposed OCTs, an Inquirer check showed.
"Lot 966, bought for P424,500, is 4,245 square meters, while Lot 969, worth P117,000, is 1,170 sq. m. These are near the mansion the Lapids built when the senator was governor of Pampanga.
"The senator did not sign the deed of absolute sale although he was referred to as a buyer, documents showed.”
Porac folk talk of an alleged never-ending land-buying spree by the Lapid couple here: the 24-hectare farm where the mansion stands and which used to have an abbreviated golf course has now doubled to 48 hectares.
“Pati bunduk panyalwan da (They buy even the mountains).” So they alleged.
As I wrote somewhere near the start of this piece, land figures well in Lapid’s life.
The quarry scam of 1998 that led to the six-month suspension of then Governor Lapid, was – but of course – rooted in the land: the lahar wastelands that proved to be Pampanga’s most precious resource, and the Lapid’s own horn of plenty.
But the first ever – and still extant – case lodged against Lapid at the Ombudsman was a land case: the 1997 purchase of a piece of land in Barangay Maimpis, City of San Fernando purportedly for housing of Capitol employees.
Came to be known as the “Maimpis land scam,” the case – again, if ageing memory serves right – was brought about by principally two factors: 1) the absence of a sangguniang panlalawigan resolution/ordinance authorizing Lapid to purchase the land, what was passed was a resolution authorizing Lapid to enter into a loan with the Land Bank for the purchase of the land; and 2) two deeds of sale for the same land: one worth P104 million, and the other for P5 million.
The Maimpis land has since been sold – sometime in 2001, still during the incumbency of Governor Lapid – to a subsidiary of San Miguel Corp.
“At great profit to the provincial government,” gloated the broker, then Board Member Robert David. But the Ombudsman case has remained “live.”
Porac land. Quarry land. Maimpis land. And then only yesterday, Sun-Star Pampanga reported that the sangguniang panlalawigan has ordered the filing of charges against one Ernesto Punzalan and one Engr. Cris Galang “for their alleged meddling into the lands devoted for the supposed housing for employees of the provincial government.”
Located in Barangay San Pedro Cutud, City of San Fernando, the 23-hectare Capitol-owned land was allegedly distributed to some 1,000 informal settlers.
"We have received documents that show that this Punzalan has been distributing lands to these informal settlers and these documents seem to show that he is the owner of the lands when in fact the land is the property of the provincial government.” So was Vice Gov. Yeng Guiao quoted as saying.
So what has Lapid got to do with this yet another land mess?
The land was purchased during the term of Lapid as a sort of an alternative to the botched Maimpis land deal.
“The Capitol spent millions in the initial purchase and in settling farmer claimants on the said property.” So Sun-Star Pampanga reported.
So how could private individuals Punzalan and Galang be so bold and daring as to distribute to informal settlers a property of the provincial government?
Capitol sources intimated to some mediamen that a ranking official of the Lapid Capitol allegedly dealt the land – “for P30 million” – to some private citizens.
When asked for leads to this “ranking official,” our Capitol sources could only say: “Dead men tell no tales.”
So we shall leave the land to speak for itself?

Saigon redux

THE COMMUNISTS won in 1975. But capitalism reigns triumphant in Vietnam today. So a four-day ghee-whizz digital blur of a tour of the Saigon of old made us readily, and therefore shallowly, conclude.
Bentleys. BMWs. Benzes. Audis. Lexus and Toyotas too. Most prized shibboleths of laissez faire – the antithesis, nay, the very anathema to the socialist dogma – make their ostentatious presence in the avenues and streets of Ho Chi Minh City, sharpening the economic divide with the more proletarian motorbikes.
Where the economy goes, fashion follows. The national costume for women, the ao dai – that tight-fitting tunic worn over pantaloons – is now more a fashion understatement with the prevalence of abbreviated shorts and micro-mini skirts among women of all ages. Western influence clearly at play here.
That beauty salons and spas – deemed boudoirs of decadence in communist praxis – number more than drug stores in the city is one glaring testament to a “de-socialisted” lifestyle. And where the parlors and spas are, there the best specimens of Vietnamese pulchritude are too.
And yet another socialist curse – surplus production, excess commodities beyond the necessities of the proletariat that breed the imperialist designs to conquer foreign markets in which to dump the surplus goods – booms in the capital of the once South Vietnam.
Luxurious goods – both genuine and “Class A” imitations – from Versace to Prada, Tommy Hilfiger to Dolce & Gabanna, Lacoste to Nautica, to name just the more familiar brands, overflow from the stalls of Saigon Square and Ben Thahn Market, the Vietnamese versions of Greenhills and Divisoria respectively, as well as the perfumed sections of upscale ala Rustan’s Diamond Mall, .
A hit for tourists and locals alike is North Face – the current “god” of sporting goods. In our group of seven newsmen alone, none had lesser than ten North Face products, bags and jackets, brought home.
So McDonald’s and Starbucks are nowhere but the other symbol of American enterprise, Ford, is everywhere.
Ah, sweet decadence! Pre-communist Saigon luxuriates anew!
So what has happened to the socialist ideal?
At the façade of the opera house looms a larger-than-life portrait of Ho Chi Minh, by its side are giant posters in the old socialist style paying homage and exhortations to the working class.
Across the opera house is a building – in the classic French provençal – housing Louis Vuitton, the very embodiment of haute elitism.
The unrepentant communist in me raged at this in-your-face slur on our revered Uncle Ho. Oh, how he must be turning in his grave.
So what has happened to the socialist ideal?
But then, if the people of his eponymous city – after the ravages of a war of American aggression and the triumph of communism in 1975 – can still see no contradiction between a socialist political system and a liberal market economy, who even revel and apparently prosper in such a fusion, what ideal am I talking about.
Taking in Ho Chi Minh City for only four days and I am now wondering if it’s time I heeded the wife and burn the Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital.
Maybe I should go to Pyongyang, North Korea next time, if only to try re-immersing myself in the red ideals of my bygone days.

Oca for laughs

SO WHAT’S wrong with Mayor Oca?
So what’s wrong with him? Returned I the query of a coffee confederate at Starbucks Marquee Mall.
He showed me Monday’s issue of Sun-Star Pampanga which bannered Mayor Oscar S. Rodriguez, as League of Cities of the Philippines president, endorsing recounted-out-in-2007 and avalanched-in-2010 Eddie T. Panlilio to a post at the Department of the Interior and Local Governments.
Sheer speculation on Rodriguez’s part to claim in the news story that “Malacañang would surely want the services of Panlilio as his efforts and sacrifices in public governance would not be wasted.”
Pure conjecture for Rodriguez too to utter: “Maybe he can join Jesse Robredo at the DILG or the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority. I think he could handle being appointed to such positions.”
Strong conviction though for Rodriguez to commit his “support (to) any move to appoint Panlilio to a government position (as) he believes in the ability of Panlilio in handling grassroots concerns as well as social programs.”
So what’s wrong with Mayor Oca endorsing Panlilio to the DILG or to any appointive position in government?
Nothing. So what’s wrong with being comical ala Dolphy? Or being satirical ala Mister Shooli?
Sorry, but that’s how Rodriguez – in this instance, at least – appears to me.
For how could Rodriguez ever be considered serious in talking of Panlilio’s “efforts and sacrifices in public governance” empowering him to “handle being appointed” to the DILG? Absolute nullity there.
As a matter of course, Rodriguez should be one of, if not the, last to talk about Panlilio’s public governance “ability.”
For one, Rodriguez knows only too well how his beloved confederates in the Institute for Solidarity in Asia gave up on Panlilio right after their very first meeting on the prospect of enrolling Panlilio’s Capitol in the Public Governance System that Rodriguez embraced like a most prized mistress, his city having been institutionalized in the system.
More important in this issue at hand, Rodriguez seems to have easily forgotten, and readily forgiven, lapses of the then-Governor Panlilio and his putative provincial administrator in inter-local government protocol, if not basic good manners, that personally impacted on him.
On September 26, 2008, we discussed here how Panlilio practically lambasted Rodriguez for giving a rally permit to the dismissed quarrymen of the Biyaya a Luluguran at Sisikapan (Balas) task force at the Arnedo Park fronting the Capitol.
Panlilio’s letter to Rodriguez which we liberally quoted here then oozed with bile, to say the least. A sampling:
“For more than a year in office now, I have considered you and your city as my friend. You have in the past expressed your support to my administration. For this, I am deeply grateful and appreciative…However, recent events confound me on the extent of the said expression of support…
“The Macario Arnedo Park is within the Capitol compound and is owned by the provincial government of Pampanga. The Capitol compound might be located within your city but administration and governance over it is lodged within the provincial government.
“Granting arguendo that its declaration as freedom park is legally tenable, a permit is not necessary for people to hold a rally or express their grievances…(the provincial government) asserting that permits should not be issued by your (Rodriguez’s) office to any applicant who wish (sic) to make use of the Macario Arnedo Park for whatever purpose they intend to utilize it…
“The rallyists are very noisy and their streamers are libelous and defamatory. Their sound system should be toned down and their defamatory and libelous streamers should be put down by your office being the one who allowed them to do so…I expect your prompt response to this simple request.”
Ain’t that an insult to the intelligence, if not the person, of Rodriguez?
Even more biting insults on Rodriguez coming from Panlilio’s Capitol we discussed here on March 17, 2009 under the head Dabu on top to wit:
PUTATIVE SHE may be as provincial administrator, Atty. Vivian Dabu is de facto governor of the province of Pampanga. No, make that on top of the governor, her authority already abutting on the enforcement of justice.
She accuses: “... the trucks of your office were hauling and transporting quarry materials, without permit, receipt or even tarpaulin securely covering their contents.”
She lectures: “Please be reminded that your office or your people are not above the law. The Philippine Mining Act specifically requires that permit must be secured prior to extraction and/or hauling of quarrying materials. Based on our records, your office did not secure any permit for extraction and/or hauling. In fact, in no instance did your office inform the provincial government thereof... Also transport without receipt of quarry materials is being penalized under Ordinance 1-93.”
She enjoins, but with corresponding judgment : “Lastly, may we invite you and your representative for a meeting on 13 March 2009 at 9:00 a.m. at the office of the undersigned for us to discuss the settlement of your violations.”
So was Dabu, as instanced above, communicating with a lowly subordinate?
No, she was writing to the Honorable Oscar S. Rodriguez, three-term congressman of the 3rd District of Pampanga, currently on his second term as mayor of the City of San Fernando, and, 3rd runner-up in the World Mayor search a few years back.
With that letter dated March 9, 2009, Dabu has overinflated her stature as provincial administrator – putative at that – and arrogated unto herself that of the governor, reducing Rodriguez – duly elected and mandated by the people – to the lowly level of a government clerk.
So what’s wrong with Mayor Oca endorsing Panlilio to a DILG post despite these insults to his persona, despite these clear manifestation – on Panlilio’s part – of ignorance, if not incompetence, in simple administrative matters?
Nothing. If Rodriguez is doing neither a Dolphy nor a Mister Shooli, then he must be doing a Kristo, not necessarily in a Lenten senakulo, of turning the other cheek, of loving those who insult him.
No, I don’t believe Rodriguez is ripe for dotage.

Tortured tales

A NAKED, bound, emaciated man doubling up, grimacing in pain at every tug of the string tied to his genitals.
Tuesday’s footage of ABS-CBN of the torture chamber that was identified as a police precinct in Tondo, Manila, the berdugo reported to be the commander himself opened a floodgate of chilling memories long frozen in the deep recesses of my mind.
I was about seven, in Grade 2, in the somnolent town of Sto. Tomas when a carabao rustler was caught in flagrante on the paddies at the back of our school.
Swift backwaters justice was done: jefe instructed one cabo to bend the suspect’s left knee and tied one end of a string to his big toe, another cabo to tie the other end to suspect’s genitals. Then, the left leg was pushed at the knee to make it straight, again and again and again till the cries of pain of the suspect were stilled by his loss of consciousness.
The suspect had to be carried to the municipio’s tiny jail where for weeks he could not even manage to sit.
In the Great Ferdinand’s martial law regime, the tales of torture filled volumes. Student activists who were rounded in the first swoop at the break of dawn of September 23, 1972 had uniform stories of torture, varying only in their brutality.
Small, thick-spectacled but thin-framed Ka Dario of the Kabataang Makabayan had two ribs cracked on top of the “water boarding” he was subjected to.
Water boarding goes thus: A person is strapped to an inclined board, with his feet raised and his head lowered, his arms and legs bound, his face – the nose and mouth, particularly – covered with a piece of cloth or towel. The torturer then repeatedly pours water onto the person's face, giving him a drowning sensation, the water choking him.
Another activist, Ka Roy of the Samahang Demokratiko ng Kabataan talked of being made to sit – naked – on blocks of ice inside a windowless air-conditioned cell with an electric fan directed at him. This after being tied spread-eagled and naked on a table, wax from lighted candles poured all over him even as he was made to sing Lupang Hinirang.
Then there was the kuryente: electrodes taped on the nipples and genitals and electric current passed through them
No, I was not tortured when it was my turn to be interrogated at the Pampanga Constabulary Command. The nearest I got to it was via romanza militar: getting slapped at the back of the head and on the cheeks at every reply to questions my interrogators deemed as wrong; having my face shoved between iron bars of cells where other activists were detained as the interrogator asked them if they knew me.
In the anti-insurgency campaign of the ‘80s, torture took some other forms as this “novelized” account in my 2004 book Brigada 45:
Samyo ng pritong manok at matinis na halakhakan ang gumising sa kamalayan ng nakabaluktot na si Dolfo. Higit sa mga pasa at sakit ng kalamnan, damdam niya bigla ang kalam ng sikmura sa kagutuman, ang hapdi ng lalamunan sa uhaw. Matapos bugbugin kamakalawa pa, minsan lamang siyang binigyan ng pagkain – kalahating mangkok ng pansit, at inumin – isang tasang tubig-poso.
...Biglang pasok si Major Catap, kasunod ang isang pulis na dala-dala’y dalawang malalaking supot ng tinapay, tatlong lata ng Hunt’s pork and beans, Reno liver spread at Philips sausage.
...Lalong sumidhi ang kalam ng sikmura ni Dolfo nang makita ang pagkain. Hindi niya napigilan ang paglatak ng laway nang maamoy ang bagong lutong tinapay. Sa tindi ng gutom, bumigay ang tigas ng damdamin. Hangos na dinaluhong ang nakahain...Halos mauubos na niya ang isang supot ng tinapay nang bigla itong mabilaukan.
...Hawak ang isang pitsel ng malamig na tubig, ngising aso si Major Catap na inilapit ito sa mukha ni Dolfo, at patuyang: “Manigas ka, putang ina mo!”
Himas ang lalamunan, habol ang hininga, umuungol na nagmakaawa si Dolfo.
“Lumambot ka rin. Heto, ubusin mo.”
Pagkabigay ng pitsel, nilagok, sinaid ni Dolfo ang laman nito. Kagyat, naramdaman niya ang paglobo ng tiyan. Halos mapugto ang hininga sa sobrang kabusugan.
Mabilis ang kilos ni Sgt. Ganibe. Muntik nang tumiwarik sa pagkakaupo si Dolfo nang bigla siyang sinabunutan mula sa likuran . Sabay pisil sa ilong. Nagliliyad si Dolfo sa pag-apuhap ng hangin. Pulang-pula ang mukha. Tumitirik ang mga mata.
“Kakanta ka ba o kakantahn ka ng Ave Maria?”
Tatlong sunud-sunod na tango, bago tuluyang nawalan ng ulirat si Dolfo.
“Hindi ka nakuha sa bugbog. Sa takaw ka lang pala bibigay.”Tubig at tinapay, pantawid ng buhay. Gamit torture ng militar.
Yes, systematic torture is a matter of national policy and practice in police states. As much a universal given as a universal wrong.
Yes, systematic torture is practiced by the state police. A travesty of the respect for human rights in a democracy. Thus, the universal condemnation the Tondo incident is getting now.
“Such actions do not have any place in an organization that espouses respect for human rights...Any form of brutality and abuse of authority by PNP personnel will not be tolerated and will be dealt with swiftly and decisively according to our own disciplinary rules and internal policy.” So declared Philippine National Police Director-General Jesus Verzosa in expressing his own condemnation of the incident.
So what has the PNP done?
Relieve the whole precinct and ordered that the relieved personnel be subjected to neuro-psychiatric evaluation, and be made to undergo the 30-day Character and Aptitude Development Training program at the PNP Values and Leadership School in Subic.
Yea, great. Velvet glove treatment for such grave misconduct as torturing suspects.
It makes us really wonder what sense of values the PNP leadership is impacting in the rank and file with actions like this. The public can’t help but be afraid. Be very afraid.