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Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Editorial: Small victory
THE Regional Trial Court Branch 23 rejected the motion for re-consideration filed by the lawyers for City Hall concerning the previous ruling it issued requiring them to produce the documents for the Memorandum of Agreement on the Build, Operate, Transfer (BOT) contract for the public markets in Cogon and Carmen.
In its ruling, the court also ordered Mayor Vicente Emano, the councilors and their lawyers to pay a P10,000 fine each because it found them guilty of failing to produce said documents as petitioned by opposition lawyers.
While the ruling may be held as a victory for the opposition, it may be considered peanuts for the local administration officials since the P10,000 fine is merely a slap in the wrist for them, chump change if you will for people-whom the opposition had accused of allegedly pocketing millions of pesos before on various anomalous deals like the public market projects -- that can be paid out of their pockets.
The court decision also left open the possibility that the respondents can appeal the decision to a higher court but if the penalty is a mere fine that barely even hits the P10,000 ceiling then the damage had been minimal.
Again, the mayor had implied more than once that the judge in their case, Judge Anita Lucagbo, had reportedly shown some partiality to the opposition and had moved for the case to be handled by another court-probably someone friendly or at the least neutral.
Given these factors it is still up to the opposition figures who have pursued the project to further build their case though the RTC branch 23 ruling may be considered a victory that can open up more avenues to expose whatever irregularities the market projects may have.
And the public market projects may be used as a case by the local opposition as it gears up for its campaign into next year's elections-that is if the plebiscite into the Charter change campaign doesn't change the national political landscape first.
Accountability
Even as it continues to shirk responsibility for the oil spill that is now being compared by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to the ULTRA stampede that rocked the TV show "Wowowee", Petron still managed to score profits in the stock market.
This happened a week after the fallout of the oil spill in which Petron's shares took a sharp dive. Their case can be likened to the US Exxon case in which the oil company was responsible for the worst oil spill in US history and still managed to generate profits.
Whether this proves that oil firms are immune to public outrage over their neglect and irresponsibility cannot be ascertained. Petron had been blaming the ship captain and the shipping company for the blame, while minimizing its share and involvement in the tragedy.
It is in this light that oil companies should be held accountable for whatever their involvement in tragedies like the Guimaras oil spill. Near impossible though it may be since government is beholden to these oil firms but this must be done if only to send a message that they are not sacred cows unaccountable to anyone.
The public continually suffers from their obnoxious oil price increases even if world market prices fall down and yet they cannot apportion their wealth to extend more help in terms of rehabilitation of the damaged areas affected by the oil spill.
(August 29, 2006 issue)
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