Damaso

The story needs no retelling.

By now, everyone knows of the infamous Damaso protest staged by Carlos Celdran.  And right now, the judge's ruling of conviction against him is equally infamous.

For the crime of "offending religious feelings" as per Article 133 of the Revised Penal Code, Carlos Celdran -- tour guide, media personality and activist -- is sentenced to suffer imprisonment of two months and 21 days as minimum, to one year, one month, and 11 days as maximum jail time.

And all for disrupting a mass.

Let's get this out straight away: Carlos is guilty. His stunt was premeditated and thought out. He even had the costume and placard at the ready. But should he be punished and jailed as a criminal? Our antiquated laws says yes, but in my opinion, such a stunt only merits a civil liability to be meted out by paying damages. Never jail time.

And like the libel laws currently in place, the punishment is too much for the "crime" committed. But then again, until early last year, our penal code can have you imprisoned for the crime of vagrancy.

Herein lies our problem: our laws are outdated; medieval, even. And even as we say that we uphold the right to freedom of expression and speech, we have libel and offense to religious feelings listed as crimes and are basically a deterrent to said freedom of expression. This is not to say that the freedom to express is absolute; you should still be civilly accountable for your actions, but no one should be imprisoned for it.

And it stinks of hypocrisy when the government claims to be non-sectarian, and then hold you criminally liable for the offence of religion.

What Carlos did was bold and sensational, and not entirely in good taste -- but he should not be imprisoned for it. After all, the bishops' stunt of going en masse to the Congress Session hall and booing the passing of the RH Bill was equally deplorable and in bad taste, and yet no one was imprisoned for it.

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Assets (2)

Assets (1)
And so we have statesmen with unbelievable assets and we only get to know about it one scandal at a time.  We lament at how they are becoming rich while the country is poor, and conclude that the people whom we elected are crooks, but we have no way of proving it.


The main problem is that of accountability.  And vigilance.  The impeachment trial, though it has its flaws, is unprecedented in that for the first time, we are demanding an accountability from one of the highest seats of power.  Finally, we are asking not why one is rich, but how one became so.  But the Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) is merely the beginning.


The main flaw of the SALN is that it doesn't paint a whole picture.  Even coupled with the Income Tax Return (ITR), it doesn't say how one has earned, but merely how much one was taxed.  If we want our leaders to give us a full accounting of how and how much they earned, then the way to do it is subject them to the rigors of Accounting.

Any partnership or corporation, for it to be considered a juridical entity, has to be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  Regardless if its equity is 100K or 100M, if you want your company to be legally recognized, then you have to register.


And once registered, you have to submit annual financial statements, that is: Balance Sheet, which states your assets, liabilities and net worth; Income Statement, which states your income sources and the expenses you've incurred; and Statement of Cash Flows, which states the movement of your cash.  You also have your Notes to the Financial Statements which further clarifies the balances stated in the three reports.


All three reports are interconnected.  The assets you have are used to create income, which in turn you use to pay up your liabilities and other expenses.  These incomes and expenses are commonly in the form of cash, and thus reported as either an inflow or an outflow.


If corporations with net worth as little as a few hundred thousand pesos are required to submit Financial Statements, why not subject our leaders to the same rigor, considering some of them have assets and net worth amounting to hundreds of millions of pesos?  And considering that amount of money they have amassed, it is not quite far-fetched that these people have their personal accountants trailing after them.  


The financial statements, coupled with the ITR, can paint a bigger picture on the earnings and spending of our esteemed leaders.  It will show us how much they are truly earning, and how much of that earnings are taxed.  Furthermore, it will show us how and why their net worth are increasing.  Because honestly, the government pays them measly change, yet they own cash accounts by the millions, which in my mind, truly does not equate.


The question now is how to impose such strict accounting guidelines to these esteemed statesmen when they can't even submit their liquidations on time.  But that is another issue altogether.






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Assets (1)

The biggest telenovela on air has is back for its second season and it's causing a stir, as expected.  What with the revelations by the Ombudsman and the subsequent prayer to block it as evidence, the requests for inhibition, and the Senator-judges' request for CJ to testify falling on deaf ears, season 2 episode 1 of the Impeachment Drama did not fail to disappoint.  Blame the politico's penchant for grandstanding; they should have let seasoned trial lawyers handle the prosecution.  We wouldn't have seen them stammer and stutter their way to the proceedings, unable to counter all blocks and objections thrown every which way by the defense. 


And now, we have the defense blocking everything with technicalities.  They're blocking the evidences by the Ombudsman because the latter has no jurisdiction over the Chief Justice.  They're insinuating that the Senator-judges are not impartial through their prayer of inhibition against one Senator whose son happens to be the Prosecution's spokesman.  And they're blocking everybody's wish that the CJ testify because they cannot be forced to produce a witness who doesn't want to testify.  Never mind the multiple pronouncements of the CJ himself that he will, in time, answer all allegations.  I guess he's waiting for public consciousness to forget about it.  


But there's one thing our esteemed statesmen may have missed.  Public positions are held in public trust, and the normal rule of "innocent until proven guilty" does not apply.  Winnie Monsod said it beautifully when she was grilling Mikey Arroyo over his assets a few years back.  She schooled the poor thing masquerading as congressman that as a holder of public office, your innocence is not presumed; rather it should be established.  And the CJ evading any and all queries about these alleged assets does not paint him an innocent.  All his legal blocks, no matter how suave and sophisticated, merely cements to the public the perception that he is one of the biggest crooks in town.






To be continued...
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New Information on President Arroyo's Assets

MANILA, Philippines - President Arroyo is facing raps from the public sector clamoring for a probe on her Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) amid speculations that there are irregularities in its preparation.

A report from the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) said that based on her SALNs, Mrs. Arroyo’s declared net worth more than doubled from P66.8 million in 2001 to P143.54 million in 2008, or bigger than the combined growth in declared wealth of her three immediate predecessors, including former President Joseph Estrada, who was convicted for plunder.

New information, however, tells a different story. "She's bankrupt," reveals a source close to the President, who agreed to be interviewed on conditions of anonymity. "In order not to lose face in the global arena, the President has been funding various government projects using her personal assets. It was all going well until a few months ago, when the peso fell depite [President] Gloria's efforts" the source said.

The President has depleted her personal assets so much, she wasn't even able to properly celebrate her 41st wedding anniversary with First Gentleman Mike Arroyo. The First Couple had to make do with a simple dinner with close friends at restaurant in New York.

Aside from funding various government projects, the President has also commissioned profit-seeking ventures to boost the economy, "at her personal expense," reiterated the source. When asked further about these profit-seeking ventures, the source revealed that the President has ventured into treasure-hunting. "It came to the President as a blow" the source reveals further, "after she failed to find treasure in the Sierra Madre property. She was so disappointed, she immediately sold the land. Finding the Yamashita treasure would have greatly boosted our economy, she [President Arroyo] told me."

As of press time, President Arroyo was out of town for comment, apparently on another treasure hunting expedition on Ilocos Norte.