By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
If this administration really wants to stop corruption, all it has to do is to exhaustively investigate any complaint filed with the complaint center in Malacanang. That was the purpose of that center anyway. Any subject of such complaint must be properly vetted to separate the nuisance ones from those that smell like corruption and then investigate it full blast.
There was one case I handled where a judgment was issued to the tune of about P150M. The company which should pay that appealed. But they did not complete the requirements to perfect their appeal, particularly the posting of a bond equivalent to the amount in the judgment. They could have posted a surety bond from an insurance company but they did not within the time allowed by law. The time to post the bond was at the same time they submitted the appeal requirements which was 10 days from receipt of the decision.
So a motion for the issuance of a writ of execution to enforce the decision was filed and this was granted . . …… but it was stopped by the body where the corporation appealed.
We then filed a motion to declare that the appeal was not perfected. This was not resolved for years for the alleged reason that there was a vacancy in the group that will decide the case. So the case slept even with our constant following up of the matter in Metro Manila. But even with the filling up of the vacancy, the case was delayed for almost a year. And whenever we wanted to look at the records of the case, these could not be found. They would give various reasons but obviously we were being given the run-around.
If the obligation of the corporation would be recomputed, it would be around P500 million considering the passage of time. With this in mind, I told the client to brace himself. Any businessman who is about to be forced to pay such amount could easily shell out P50 million to be divided by the three people who will decide the case. How about a P100 million? Perhaps.
The hiding of the records went on for sometime until I got pissed off and directly threatened the people in that office that we will file cases against them so they will be fired from their jobs.
Then they bought out the records. There I saw that the corporation filed a surety bond but it was done about 6 months late. And yet that office accepted it. A motion for reduction of the bond was also surreptitiously filed and was granted so that the corporation filed a surety bond for which it only paid about P50,000 as premium.
We pointed this out in a complaint filed in the complaint center in Malacanang but nothing happened. The agency where the anomalies happened was even under it, a part of the executive branch of government.
With our pestering, the case was finally decided. The original judgment was reversed but the issue about the late posting of the bond was not at all touched.
Well, that is our beloved Philippines under this present administration. Drive against corruption? My foot!
**
