Chavit son faces life term for HK drug smuggling BLURBAL THRUSTS Louie Logarta 07/29/2010

Chavit son faces life term for HK drug smuggling

BLURBAL THRUSTS

Louie Logarta

07/29/2010

\"What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander” is an old-fashioned English expression that suggests if a particular course of action (say in the courts) can be applied to one individual then in like manner it can also be applied to another. In other words, parity which according definitions we have looked up is a legal concept used in “codecision procedure” disallowing one institution from making a decision before securing consent from the other institution engaged in the procedure. Simply stated — being fair to both sides.

All things being considered, it would be the height of naivete to assume that lawyer Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel, topnotcher in the 1990 Bar exams and presently a professor in the University of the East College of Law, is unaware of such a basic principle.

However, if we were to go by Pimentel’s recent pronunciations to his friends in the print and broadcast media, it would appear so. This is in connection with the three-year-old protest he has with the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) after being edged out by some 20,000 votes by his rival Zubiri for the 12th and last spot in the winner’s circle for the senatorial derby during the May 2007 polls, despite having led throughout the vote counting supervised by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Pimentel was all the more incensed when he saw the slim lead he had been enjoying over 13th placer Zubiri since the start of the counting on the precinct level overhauled in a snap when the Supreme Court (SC) in an en banc ruling in June 2007 permitted the Comelec to include the ballots from the province of Maguindanao, a known administration bailiwick, in the canvassing. He had been trying to stop the Comelec from counting the ballots from Maguindanao where he alleged wholesale fraud had taken place, but to no avail.

But the SET, which is made up of three SC Associate Justices and six members of the Senate, would have none of it and in the interest of fairness voted 7 to 2 to give way to Zubiri’s counter-protest that included a request to open over 50,000 more boxes from places where he claimed to have also been cheated.

Pimentel is throwing caution to the wind and is courting a contempt citation by the SET for violating an earlier gag order to refrain from discussing in public the merits of the technical issues of the protest; but while Zubiri had dutifully complied with said order, he went amuck in the media and even linked the Senate presidency issue to the SET resolution..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100729com4.html