Probe needed EDITORIAL C 07/05/2011

Probe needed

EDITORIAL

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07/05/2011
A judicial investigative body should really look into the report of an alleged extortion attempt by a Pasay City Regional Trial Court (RTC) that handled and decided on the just compensation awarded to the Philippine International Airport Terminal Co. (Piatco) where it was found that the Supreme Court (SC)--ordered technical evaluation commission’s Final Report’s recommendation to the court on just compensation appeared to have been ignored by the hearing judge as the amount the judge awarded Piatco was nowhere near the amount the three-man commission had recommended to the judge.

From the commission’s signed Final Report that was submitted to the judge, which was obtained by the Tribune, there was no such amount of $176 million that was recommended but awarded anyway by the judge to the consortium. In fact, this amount was the earlier reported amount that the Solicitor-General had announced it was willing to pay Piatco as reimbursement for the government’s expropriation of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport 3 (NAIA-3)..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110705com1.html

Test of independence and impartiality FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 07/05/2011

Test of independence and impartiality

FRONTLINE

Ninez Cacho-Olivares

07/05/2011
It won’t be long before a new Ombudsman is appointed by Noynoy, after the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) short-listed four names for Ombudsman, such as former Surpeme Court Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales, Justice Undersecretary Leah Armamento, Presidential Commission on Good Government Commissioner Gerard Mosquera, and former Justice Secretary Artemio Tuquero.

All four in the shortlist earned the same number of votes: five, although it is likely that it will be Morales who will be appointed Ombudsman. A dark horse would be Tuquero, who is a member of the influential Iglesia ni Cristo.

The JBC voting is pretty interesting in that Morales only got five votes, even as she was publicly considered as the frontrunner in the Ombudsman’s race, which could translate to some members of the JBC being of the belief that her age could be a liability in her taking on the Ombudsman’s job..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110705com2.html

West Bank: Ancient priesthood uses past to predict future focus 07/05/2011

West Bank: Ancient priesthood uses past to predict future

focus

07/05/2011
NABLUS — In the northern West Bank city of Nablus, a small and ancient Samaritan community is managing to make ends meet by dabbling in the age-old practice of fortune-telling.

University Avenue, in the hill-ringed city of Nablus, is lined with white banners with the names of Samaritan priests, renowned among their Palestinian neighbors for astrology and divination.

Palestinians go to the Samaritans’ booths along the avenue or to their homes on nearby Mount Gerizim hoping to find answers to their most pressing problems.

The Samaritans claim to be the true children of Israel who left Egypt with Moses and consider themselves the guardians of the authentic Mosaic tradition. They say it is the Jews who over time diluted the religion revealed by Moses..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110705com3.html

Amigo / A Moment in the Sun AN OUTSIDERS VIEW Ken Fuller 07/05/2011

Amigo / A Moment in the Sun

AN OUTSIDERS VIEW

Ken Fuller

07/05/2011
Cinema-goers and readers each have a treat to look forward to in the near future. First, independent film-maker John Sayles’s Amigo, set during the Philippine-American War and mostly filmed in Bohol, is to be released in this country this month (that’s what the Web site says, anyway). Given Sayles’s progressive outlook, we can expect this to be sympathetic to the viewpoint of the Filipinos resisting the new colonial power.

Sayles is an interesting guy. Born in 1950, after completing college in 1972 he took a number of blue-collar jobs while writing in his spare time. First came short stories, then a number of novels, one of which — Union Dues, published in 1977 — told of a labor activist searching for his son who has run off to join a radical group; this was nominated for a National Book Award. Then he moved into movies. His directing credits are now approaching 20, with his best-known work including Lone Star and Matewan, the latter dealing with a miners’ strike in the 1920s..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110705com5.html

Margie’s war: For what it’s worth (1) INSIDE CONGRESS Charlie Manalo 07/05/2011

Margie’s war: For what it’s worth (1)

INSIDE CONGRESS

Charlie Manalo

07/05/2011
Ever since Margie Juico assumed the PCSO chairmanship, she had, just like a raging warrior, embarked on all-out war against her predecessors. She had accused the former PCSO officials of leaving behind a bankrupt agency with P4 billion in debt, entering with overpriced advertising contracts and supplies’ contracts, doling out donations to ghost patients, luxury vehicles to bishops, endowments and ambulances for the benefits of lawmakers’ constituency among many others.

However, most, if not all of these allegations, as former PCSO Chairman Manoling Morato insists, are unfounded.

How, Manoling asks, could Margie say that the PCSO is bankrupt when she admitted herself the PCSO paid P2.9 billion in taxes? The P4 billion PCSO debt, Manoling said, might have included all the agency’s payables for mandatory contributions to different government agencies including the Commission for Higher Education (Ched) and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), which have accrued throughout the years..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110705com6.html

Clarification LETTER 07/05/2011

Clarification

LETTER

07/05/2011
Dear Editor:
We write to clarify the details on the Pag-IBIG Overseas Program (POP), which was featured in your paper last June 17, 2011 in the news article entitled, “Binay urges Pinoys abroad to avail selves of Pag-IBIG overseas program.”

The Pag-IBIG membership program which covers Filipinos overseas differs from the Modified Pag-IBIG II Program.

With the signing of Republic Act 9679, membership to the Pag-IBIG Fund became mandatory to all Filipino income earners working in the Philippines or abroad. These include overseas Filipino workers (OFW), whether land- or sea-based, and other individuals employed by foreign-based companies. Filipino immigrants and naturalized citizens are also encouraged to register under the POP..... MORE
Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110705com8.html

The Philippines: A Third World country forever? VIEWPOINTS Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz 07/05/2011

The Philippines: A Third World country forever?

VIEWPOINTS

Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz

07/05/2011
There were those happy times and easy days when in Asia, the Philippines was second only to Japan in socio-economic development. It would not be merely wishful thinking that the Philippines could be then considered as a “First World Country” — if the phrase were already in use. But the big misfortune came to pass that one regime after another, one government after another, and the Philippine has degraded slowly but surely into a Third World Country. This pitiful Philippine status continues to be vivid and vibrant in the mind and heart of the international community to this decade. Thus this country is accordingly treated and mistreated.

How come? What happened in the course of time? Who made it happen? How did it happen? Is the Philippines condemned to be a Third World Country — forever? Shall the Filipinos be continuously identified with poverty and misery? Will the country be consistently considered as the fertile ground of graft and corruption, of criminality and injustice, in the Asian continent? Is the Philippines then a lost — hopeless — case in the world of development and progress?.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110705com7.html

SC orders probe of Mayor Sara’s battering of sheriff By Benjamin B. Pulta 07/05/2011

SC orders probe of Mayor Sara’s battering of sheriff

By Benjamin B. Pulta 07/05/2011

There used to be just the battered wives and children, but another one may be added: Battered sheriffs. This case, however, wont just disappear as the Supreme Court has stepped in.

A probe has been initiated by the high court into last Friday’s incident where Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio repeatedly hit a court sheriff with her closed fist after the latter failed to heed her request to delay the demolition of squatter families in Barangay Kapitan Tomas Monteverde Sr. in Davao City.

Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez said he has ordered Davao City Regional Trial court Executive Judge Isaac Robillo to submit a report on the incident after seeing news reports showing Duterte attacking court sheriff Abe Andres.

Marquez and a group of sheriffs were set to meet last night to discuss the incident..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110705hed5.html

Officials deny Chinese diplomat access to DFA over ‘rude’ conduct EXCLUSIVE By Michaela P. del Callar 07/05/2011

Officials deny Chinese diplomat access to DFA over ‘rude’ conduct

EXCLUSIVE

By Michaela P. del Callar 07/05/2011

Officials have denied a senior Chinese Embassy diplomat access to the Department of Foreign Affairs for allegedly displaying rude behavior during a tense meeting at the DFA last month while discussing the China-Philippine disputes over the Spratly Islands, according to an official and a DFA memo seen by the Tribune yesterday.

DFA officials accused Chinese Embassy First Secretary and Director of Political Affairs Li Yonsheng of verbally lashing out at Asia-Pacific Affairs Executive Director Meynard Montealegre before Philippine and Chinese officials, prompting them to recommend that Li be barred from future meetings with DFA officials “for exhibiting conduct unbecoming of a diplomat.”

Incensed by Li’s behavior, the DFA’s Asia-Pacific Affairs (ASPAC) division said in a June 23, 2011 memo signed by Assistant Secretary Cristina Ortega, that it has informed the Chinese embassy “it is no longer dealing with Li, also known as Andrew Li” and that he was “no longer welcome at ASPAC.”.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110705hed4.html

Luisita leader dies without seeing TRO lifted by SC By Charlie V. Manalo 07/05/2011

Luisita leader dies without seeing TRO lifted by SC

By Charlie V. Manalo 07/05/2011

He waited for more than half-a-century to finally lay claim to a portion of the 6,000-hectare of Hacienda Luisita which had been promised to him, his family and other tenant-farmers of the sugar estate.

Last Friday, Federico “Tatay Pedring” Laza, 68, succumbed to a lingering kidney problem without seeing the 6,000-hectare sugar plantation owned by the family of President Aquino distributed to farmers.

Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) secretary general Danilo Ramos described the older Laza as “one of the key leaders of the peasant movement inside the Cojuangco-owned Hacienda.”.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110705nat1.html

Psalm’s plan to hire PR firm, publish coffee table book opposed 07/05/2011

Psalm’s plan to hire PR firm, publish coffee table book opposed

07/05/2011
Why would a government agency like the Power Sector Assets Liabilities (Psalm) Corporation hire a public relations firm and publish a coffee table book?

This was the question raised by Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone yesterday following reports that the agency tasked to privatize the government-owned National Power Corporation is planning to hire the services of a public relations firm.

“The reported plan of Psalm to hire an international PR and publish a coffee table book should be exposed and opposed. These moves are anti-consumers. It will only adds to the unnecessary expenses of Pslam which will be passed on to the consumers by way of rate increases,” Evardone said yesterday..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110705nat5.html

Tolentino tells DPWH to build flyover instead of underpass By Pat C. Santos 07/05/2011

Tolentino tells DPWH to build flyover instead of underpass

By Pat C. Santos 07/05/2011

Before starting the construction of P430 million underpass project at the intersection of Araneta Avenue and Quezon Avenue, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Francis Tolentino wants the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to reconsider changing its design.

According to Tolentino, the site Araneta Avenue-Talayan being a flooded area if completed may turn out to be a basin of flood waters during heavy rains as the location has been identified as flood-prone when heavy down pour hit.

Tolentino said that he had already informed DPWH Secretary Rogelio Singson on the apprehension if the P430 million four-lane underpass project at the intersection of Quezon Avenue/Araneta Road would push through may pose problem as the Araneta-Talayan is one listed as the flooded area during heavy rains.

Based on the available data, Tolentino recommends that instead of underpass it is better to have a flyover bridge which is much feasible to motorist because of its natural ground elevation..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110705met2.html

Bill seeking to prohibit ‘animal crush’ video filed By Charlie V. Manalo 07/05/2011

Bill seeking to prohibit ‘animal crush’ video filed

By Charlie V. Manalo 07/05/2011


Buhay Party-list Rep. Irwin Tieng has filed a bill seeking to stop the perverse and unusual practice of Filipino women who inflict animal cruelty while clad in their underwear and who sell the viewing of it to foreigners for as much as $1,000 (about P43,000) per show.

In filing House Bill 4595 entitled “An Act To Prohibit Animal Crush Video and Providing Penalties for Violations,” Tieng pointed to the fact that Filipinos have been found to be involved in a growing world fetish for “animal crush videos” which are shown in websites and social networking sites.

“The crush videos which visually depict the abuse and killing of animals cater to sexual fetishists who want to watch and hear animals being crushed to death. The hapless victims are mostly dogs, cats, rabbits, monkeys, snakes, and frogs, depending on the specification of the patron. The video features Filipino women perpetrating the torture who are scantily clad either in lingerie, two-piece bikinis,” Tieng said in the bill’s explanatory note..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110705met3.html

Psalm’s napalm DIE HARD III Herman Tiu Laurel 07/04/2011

Psalm’s napalm

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

07/04/2011
The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) Corp. is getting ready to drop the deadliest napalm of all electricity rate increases — the Universal Charge. It’s even hiring an expensive foreign PR firm to assist in softening the blow for the Philippine power consumers’ “kill.”

Weber Shandwick, “a leading global public relations agency with offices in 74 countries around the world” will be contracted supposedly to produce a coffee table book on Psalm; but only God knows why the public power agency needs a coffee table book, much less a PR outfit.

Psalm is seeking a P75-billion loan for its operations, on top of the $18-billion National Power Corp. (Napocor) debts it still has to pay and its push for Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and Joint Congressional Power Committee approval of a P0.39/kWh power rate hike for 25 years to cover P139 billion in Napocor “stranded costs” for $18 billion, or around P800 billion worth of debts that resulted from several independent power producer (IPP) contracts signed by the Cory, FVR and Arroyo administrations. But that’s only the beginning. The balance of P640 billion will still have to be settled which, translated, means P1.60/kWh more in future rate increases.

While these are happening, the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has just obtained a rate increase for its third Performance Based Regulation (PRR) rate of P1.58/kWh, or around P0.80 over the original Return-on-Rate Base (RoRB) price standard of P0.70/kWh.

Such radical increases in the ERC-approved rates for Meralco must be tremendously boosted by that part of Meralco’s capex (capital expenditure) budget called “Regulatory Liaison” amounting to P437 million (as uncovered by our colleague Butch Junia) submitted to the ERC and included in the charges to its five millions customers.

Yes, dear readers, based on this thoroughly lopsided PBR scheme, we power consumers advance our hard-earned money for the capital of Meralco, which under normal circumstances ought to be shouldered by its so-called “investors.”

With a P437-million fund extracted from our advances to Meralco, the power company should have no problem “liaising” with the four ERC commissioners.

But where did all the privatization proceeds of Napocor and its National Transmission Co. (TransCo) spin-off go? In the first half of 2009, Psalm, which was created to take over, manage, and privatize Napocor assets, reported $10.5 billion in proceeds from privatization. Two years later, with over 80 percent of Napocor’s power plants having been sold, and with some reports saying that the sale has already reached $18 billion, they still expect us to believe that the debt today stands at $16.5 to $18 billion, practically unchanged from 10 years of the Electric Power Industry R(D)eform Act’s frenzied privatization, which was railroaded in Congress supposedly to wipe out Napocor’s debts?

The latest Ibon Foundation study reports that “Psalm has already shelled out $18 billion to settle the obligations of Napocor from 2001 to 2010… (with) $6.7 billion (going) to principal amortization; $4.3 billion for interest payments; and $7 billion for obligations to independent power producers (IPPs).” Oh yeah… and we still have all this debt. What magic, what scam is this?!

Ibon explains, “the financial bleeding of Napocor continued under Epira because the law legitimized the onerous contracts signed by Napocor with the IPPs such as the take or pay provisions.” It must be said again that Epira was approved by a Sonny Belmonte lameduck Congress under the power-grabbing Gloria Arroyo regime. It was a law egged on by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) which dangled some $300 million for its approval. The result: 10 years and $16.5 to $18 billion of our lost resources.

Going by the Psalm plan, which it hopes will remain unnoticeable, the P0.39/kWh increase will be staggered every so often over the next decades until our grandchildren’s children will still be paying for that wretched Universal Charge. This burden on the national economy will continue to scorch our future, not unlike the US ’ napalms in Vietnam that still render large tracks of that country’s mountains and countryside inhospitable.
I am one with Ibon’s conclusion, “The only way out of this debacle… is to cancel the onerous debts of Napocor and halt its privatization by repealing the failed Epira.”

Unfortunately, another group in the struggle against this power piracy, the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), was more dilute in its recent summit. Though condemning the Epira’s dire consequences, its official press release said: “FDC (is) still in the process of putting the finishing touches to the summit recommendations. The group said (it) will seek an audience with (BSA III) and the Joint Congressional Power Conference once the proposals are finalized.” This is the problem when a supposed NGO has a collaborationist alliance with a government that is clearly in cahoots with the ruling oligarchy.

While we have high respect for our colleagues there such as Wilson Fortaleza, Bobby Diciembre et al., the influence of the Akbayan heirs of Etta Rosales (Gloria Arroyo’s congressional sidekick in her 2004 “witching hour” election proclamation) is warping the group’s perspective.

The Filipino people must demand for the return of the nation’s power generating assets — from fossil fuel, to geothermal, to hydro — back to their fold. They, the People, will then reimburse those so-called investors’ expenses with whatever profits and (in the same manner as the assets were privatized) on installment basis — but only after all the real costs are assayed. Then, the basis for setting electricity rates will have to be brought back to the old RoRB and should never be higher than the median rates in Asia . New power projects shall likewise be borne by the State, capitalizing on the $30-billion Special Deposit Account held by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) that is only lying idle while it is being milked by the IMF (International Monetary Fund)-World Bank, ADB, and BSP “banksters.”

(Tune in to Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m., and Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)

(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Herman Tiu-Laurel)

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110704com5.html

When wolves smell meat EDITORIAL 07/04/2011

When wolves smell meat

EDITORIAL

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07/04/2011
When Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago blew her top during the heated exchange of accusations between supposed whistle-blowers led by businessman Joey de Venecia and former government executive Jun Lozada and the accused brokers of the lucrative National Broadband Network (NBN) deal led by former Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Benjamin Abalos, she said that the controversy was nothing but an argument over kickbacks.

De Venecia and Lozada supposedly squealed on the NBN kickbacks after they lost out on the contract that Abalos bagged for a Chinese supplier..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110704com1.html

Public enemy #2 FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 07/04/2011

Public enemy #2

FRONTLINE

Ninez Cacho-Olivares

07/04/2011
Today, Noynoy’s public enemy number two appears to be the Catholic bishops who are now being excoriated by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) for its grant of several bishops’ requests for sports utility vehicles, which granted requests are now being interpreted by the Aquino PCSO and the Yellow media as bribes to bishops along with the Malacañang’s charge that this is a violation of the Constitution on the separation of Church and State principle, adding, with that holier than thou air again, that no one but no one is above the law, as if charity grants and donations from government to religious groups were a crime.

Interestingly enough, the so-called exposé from the Aquino PCSO came after Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos in an interview, called for Noynoy to step down from the presidency to save the nation from his incompetence and his being unfit from the job..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110704com2.html

Jury consultants provide winning edge in court focus 07/04/2011

Jury consultants provide winning edge in court

focus

07/04/2011
FASHINGTON — It will be his word against hers, a legal battle royal that will pit a rich and powerful politico against the working class housekeeper accusing him of sexual assault.
Though prosecutors said Friday the hotel maid accusing Dominique Strauss-Kahn lied to a grand jury, the former International Monetary Fund chief still faces charges and the judge vowed the investigations would continue until all the facts are brought to light.

Which side ultimately prevails in the trial may hinge on the makeup of the pool of jurors, who must unanimously agree on Strauss-Kahn’s guilt to convict him.

In high-stakes cases like this one, lawyers from both sides usually seek to enlist the services of a consultant specializing in jury selection..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110704com3.html

Awakening C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S Jonathan De la Cruz 07/04/2011

Awakening

C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S

Jonathan De la Cruz

07/04/2011
Getting into his second year in office, P-Noy is in for a rude awakening. From hereon, the criticisms will be more pointed and probably more venomous. These will also be laden with more solid facts and figures about the administration’s failures, quirks and foibles which are guaranteed to make life more difficult than they have been for P-Noy and his crew. The teflon engendered by P-Noy’s personal integrity and folksy ways which early on somehow eased the public’s anxieties over his handling of the affairs of state will start to wear off as problems continue to pile up and the solutions, instant or otherwise, get harder to come by. If the protests, in and out of the streets, in the runup to P-Noy’s “Ulat sa Bayan/Pilipinas Natin” are any guide opposition to the administration’s ways and practices will get even louder and possibly even stronger. Such is the nature of the beast, so to speak..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110704com4.html

House, Senate eye separate probes on Pajero bishops By Gerry Baldo and Angie M. Rosales 07/04/2011

House, Senate eye separate probes on Pajero bishops

By Gerry Baldo and Angie M. Rosales 07/04/2011

The controversy swirling about the donations made by the Arroyo government to leaders of the Catholic Church has reached both chambers of Congress which separately plans to hold an inquiry into the anomaly.
At the House of Representatives, Minority Leader Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman pushed an independent investigation into the issue.

Lagman said that a probe is in order to get into the bottom of the allegations supposedly involving seven bishops who received Pajero luxury vehicles from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to spare innocent members of the clergy.

“The revelation that some Catholic bishops received motor vehicles and cash gifts from the PCSO has shattered the moral ascendancy of the clergy. The varying defensive responses of the bishops from contrived denials to deodorized admissions have aggravated their fragile position,” Lagman said.

The Senate is also moving for an investigation into the controversy. Sen. Panfilo Lacson who moved for the conduct of an inquiry in the Senate by the blue ribbon committee starting Wednesday said documents he had culled and which appear to be also in possession of the panel chairman, Sen. Teofisto “TG” Guingona III, indicated that of the numerous charges of alleged irregularities hurled at her during her incumbency as president, former President Arroyo might be pinned down this time on supposed PCSO funds misuse as documents showed her approval on its purported releases. .... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110704hed2.html

NAIA-3 RTC judge’s extort try on Piatco bared EXCLUSIVE By Ninez Cacho-Olivares Editor-in-Chief 07/04/2011

$10M DEMANDED FOR OK OF TECHNICAL BODY PAY SCHEME

NAIA-3 RTC judge’s extort try on Piatco bared

EXCLUSIVE

By Ninez Cacho-Olivares Editor-in-Chief 07/04/2011

For a consortium’s refusal to be blackmailed into meeting the demand of Pasay City Regional Trial Court Branch 117 Judge Eugenio de la Cruz for a $10-million payoff for him to approve the Supreme Court-ordered commission’s technical evaluation report which gave Piatco $376 million plus seven years of interest due the Philippine International Air Terminals Co. (Piatco), the consortium ended up being awarded a pittance of what the consortium invested in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport 3 (NAIA-3) with the judge awarding Piatco a mere $176 million which was what the Solictor-General said government was willing to pay the consortium for the expropriation of the airport terminal.

A witness to the judge’s extortion try, through a source, told The Tribune yesterday that he was present when Judge De la Cruz demanded a $10-million payoff, if Piatco wanted him to award it with the amount the court-appointed technical commission’s report to the Judge stated as just compensation which was $376 million plus interest for the past seven years..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110704hed1.html