Potshots from Manila
By Sonny
Pucio Mirasol
I’m glad Joe Perez was let out of jail last Wednesday after
spending a week there as a sacrificial lamb to press freedom. I’m
so glad the judge, His Honor, Felimon Montenegro, relented as I
had hoped, and granted Joe provisional liberty. The amount of
bail, P50,000, and the time of release, right at the close of
office hours, may indicate how pissed off the judge was. Peace,
Judge.
Still, we can say that since he granted bail, the judge’s heart is
neither really black nor hard as the black mountain his surname
means in Spanish.
I’m not a lawyer, and most of all, not a liar, (no offense meant
against any legal beagle or magistrate), but if what Joe wrote,
which he said was lifted from pleadings the city attorney filed in
court, constituted indirect contempt, why wasn’t the attorney who
wrote the pleading guilty of direct or indirect contempt when he
showed Joe the papers and allowed him to copy them?
Well, that’s my worthless two-centavos-worth logic for you. Is my
logic pilipit just like our country. Pilipitnas, the banas na
republic? I’m not trying to put the city attorney in hot water or
anything of that sort, nor poking my nose into anything sub-judice,
or risking contempt of court. With all due respect to the judge,
I’m just wondering why the messenger got “killed.” Was it a knee
jerk reaction? Will a legal mind please set me right if my
“toting” is wrong just as Bunye was when he triggered Gloriagate?
Ah, Gloriagate. It has triggered so much Gloria-hate. Rallies,
denunciations, plots, coup rumors, hearsay testimony, affidavits,
ad nauseam. Is it true she smashed a TV set (or Ignacio del
Palacio’s head) when Mr. Buni, I mean Bunye, got the itch to
titillate media with “Hello Garci?” What a flap, starting a media
frenzy worse that when Krisis Kris got the clap from Pal Joey and
wanted to bite or crush some balls.
Have you noticed how “Si Raul, O” Gonzales seems to have been so
quiet this past week? Did he meet his “katapat” when Aquino
brandished her sharp kris after he denigrated Cory who made so
many sorry during her time?
Since the SONAta, Glory bee has been singing a different tune and
going on a media offensive. What she may not know is that the
perception is she is what is offensive. Her antics look like
another presidential tenure, which fellow Bicolano Conrad de
Quiros blatantly writes, she stole. Will anyone get salvaged?
She’s also dancing the cha-cha, to the music of an Unlit Cigar
which is the perception both deny. Does Mang Fidel still believe
“It’s a sin to tell a lie?” Wasn’t that sung often at the Palace
then? Or is it just another kabuki performance? Who was that
socialite? Not Monica Lewinski, of course, she was no socialite,
just an intern also intrigued by cigars.
As far as Glory is concerned, she’s accused of being a liar and a
cheat. Is she also a cheating heart as long rumored?
Levy Aureus wrote in the previous issue that Glo and Mike are not
husband and wife but brother and sister because “Ang putikon
tugang can parahabon. Corruption na, incest pa?
A friend texted me, “The fight against posonegro continues.”
Business must be great in Naga for septic tank excavators. And all
because of a million patolas. “How cheap, naman, a lola said, her
nose covered by her camisola against the stink, “One million Pinoy
patolas is not even worth 18,000 American apples.” Oo nga naman.
I’m sure most, if not all, of Naga media are after Judge Felimon
Montenegro’s lemon. So, I’ll stand up for the judge and play
devil’s advocate by asking this question: Would a learned judge of
an intermediate court, not just a lower municipal court, allow
himself to be bribed with only one million pesos in a case
involving hundreds of millions?
Isn’t that a fair question? Would such a judge risk his
reputation, his career, his family’s honor for such a measly sum,
which, we can assume is much smaller than his retirement pay? Is
that relatively small amount worth the risk, exposure, shame,
condemnation and censure? I believe most people have their price,
just as Vito Corleone in “The Godfather” said when he was going to
make someone an offer he couldn’t refuse. But isn’t one million in
today’s pesos, an offer easily refused? What can one million buy
nowadays?
A judge who accepts one million either has his back against the
wall with financial difficulties and is grabbing at straws to get
out of hock or gambling debts or whatever, or is a novice in the
game hoodlums in robes play. I don’t think Judge Montenegro is
like that. I hope the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the
truth comes out.
“Let ye who is without sin cast the first stone,” sayeth the Lord.
