City Hall is public office
Most Filipino politicians view public office as the only source of livelihood for their big family. There’s a constitutional reminder that it is a public trust, that “public officers and employees must at all times be accountable to the people, serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty ... patriotism ... and lead modest lives.” In Makati they overdo it by pitching tents for the poor, giving them free food, free movies and entertainment to protect them and prevent process servers from the Ombudsman and Department of Interior and Local Government from reaching local officials under preventive suspension for six months.
White flag
This is the same process that was served on the PNP director general who is now under preventive suspension. When the Comelec disqualified the governor of Laguna for overspending he attempted to set up a barricade, but he was personally advised by Uncle Erap NOT to defy the law and he raised a white flag and stepped down.
According to the Assistant Ombudsman, the order of preventive suspension takes effect even if it remains unserved and the vice mayor automatically functions as the mayor. But a TRO from a higher court can stop the vice mayor from assuming office as mayor. If there’s no order from a higher court – Court of Appeals – stopping the suspension, the vice mayor may start acting as mayor for six months.
Was tax money spent for entertainment?
The show in Makati may not last long enough and the Ombudsman has the power to inquire into the expenses for the food served and the entertainment/ movies shown and the fact that public service has been interrupted. This can lead to another preventive suspension of all local officials responsible for spending public funds for strictly unofficial/ private purposes.
Awesome powers
The Constitution booklet devotes two pages to the Office of the Ombudsman and its awesome powers to deal with public officials facing charges of corruption, graft, and dishonesty. The Ombudsman and his deputies shall serve for a term of seven years without reappointment. The Ombudsman may be removed from office only by impeachment.
Powerful politicians facing plunder and other anti- graft charges filed by the Ombudsman are now under detention without fail. The list includes former President Arroyo, Senators Ponce Enrile, Revilla, and Estrada and a few police generals. Lately an incumbent governor and a former congressman were added to the list of detainees without bail.
Defiance is temporary
In 2001, President Erap was charged with plunder by the Ombuds- man and was placed under house arrest for about six years before he was finally convicted but freed on full pardon.
Defiance of legal orders is a temporary matter which law enforcers face every now and then from politicians who view public office as object of ownership. City Hall is a structure built with tax money and not subject to claims of ownership by any local official.
Still serving a long sentence
In the 1990s, a defiant town mayor in Laguna threatened to resist arrest for a few cases of murder. He ordered his bodyguards to resist arresting officers. But the officers used an army armored car to batter down the mayor’s gate. The officers found the mayor in his pajamas cringing under a table. He was convicted of a few counts of murder and one rape. He is still in Munti serving a long sentence.
Long arm of the law
The long arm of the law will finally catch up with any offender. It’s hard to believe that in our country, two former presidents faced corruption charges and detention without bail one after the other. The first was convicted and the other is still facing trial.
To my best recollection, no other democratic country in Asia, Europe, and the Americas holds a record of prosecuting two former presidents after leaving office successively.