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Chief
Justice Reynaldo Puno of the Supreme Court left in a huff
early dawn last Thursday from the 8th IBP Eastern Visayas
Conference in Ormoc City to attend to the urgent petitions
filed by Jun Lozada's kin.
No
one was able to inform the Chief Justice that while the rest
of the country was still sleeping, Jun Lozada already held
a press conference at De La Salle University in Manila and
later went to the Senate to voluntarily turn himself in while
Puno was catching up a plane from Tacloban City to Manila.
Just
the same, the High Tribunal did not render the separate petitions
for a Writ Habeas Corpus and Writ of Amparo moot and academic
but instead required the parties to submit their respective
position papers.
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Undoubtedly,
Jun Lozada is the man of the hour starting from the day he
left the country last week to his "abduction" upon
his return from Hongkong early last week.
That
is why it would not be surprising if almost everybody is cashing
in on him.
For
starters, he accused former COMELEC Chair Benjamin Abalos
of muddling the ZTE-NBN deal just to protect his "moderate
greed" of $130-million take. That's a whooping P6.5 billion.
Lozada also mentioned about a $17 million kickback in the
Southern Luzon Railway Project.
If
there's a lesson to be learned from the Lozada expose, that
would be the "dysfunctional" procurement system
of the government which we agree 100%.
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Going
back to the IBP convention in Ormoc City which ended last
Friday, we find the affair modest and the ensuing Mandatory
Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) seminar enriching although
some topics are still a rehash of law subjects.
We
are happy to learn though that the Supreme Court has now taken
an extra mile to monitor lawyers who comply the 36-unit MCLE
compliance periods. Chief Justice Puno assured that lawyers
who were not able to comply the last two MCLE compliance period
will be dealt with more strictly. Those who continue to ignore
the MCLE will be disbarred outright, Puno stressed.
This
is just but fair for those who complied the required MCLE
units religiously. The time and money spent to comply the
same are something worth the Supreme Court's consideration.
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What
this? Every time that Oceanjet errs, Weesam suffers the consequences
courtesy of the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA).
Fresh
from the incident at the city wharf the other Saturday evening
involving an Oceanjet fast craft, MARINA has issued a memorandum
to Weesam to strictly stick to DAY TIME trips only due to
the lack of night vision lights. This means that Weesam is
prohibited by MARINA from having a schedule earlier than 5
o'clock in the morning and not later than 5:30 in the afternoon.
Instead
of conducting an immediate probe on Oceanjet for the incident
the other Saturday evening which injured more than 30 of its
passengers, it appears that MARINA is going after Weesam.
Sakto ba na?
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For
comments and suggestions, just e-mail to the following e-mail
addresses: obiter@boholchronicle.com
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