When men and women don't see eye-to-eye

MORE WOMEN HAVE EYE DAMAGE THAN MEN. You can read these words in big, bold letters in billboard advertisement along EDSA. It goes with a picture of a young, pretty and fair complexioned woman in the arms of a dark, goofy-looking guy. So at a glance, one would laugh at the not-so-subliminal message of this ad by an optical firm. While the message may come funny, it might offend the sensitivities of others. But obviously, it has not.

But in the case of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez and Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio, they don’t see eye-to-eye on the handling of the “big” graft cases filed before the Office of the Ombudsman. The feud between the two anti-graft officials is no longer funny but is getting to be ridiculous. The intramural between them apparently has divided their office and getting in the way of discharging their respective duties and responsibilities.

Gutierrez lost her cool during Monday’s regular flag-raising ceremony at the Office of the Ombudsman in Quezon City. This was after seeing Villa-Ignacio raised a clenched fist while singing the popular EDSA song “Bayan Ko.” Gutierrez reportedly summoned her lead prosecutor in her office and reportedly dressed him down. Actually, he was also reprimanded for showing up to work after being absent for several days. A kiss-and-tell Villa-Ignacio confirmed their latest public quarrel.

Supposedly, the row started after Villa-Ignacio has accused Gutierrez of clipping the powers of the Office of the Special Prosecutor after he criticized her policies in the handling of the more controversial cases pending before the Ombudsman.

Gutierrez is now facing impeachment complaint that was formally filed against her before the House of Representatives. It, among other things, alleged that she coddled respondents in big cases pending at the Ombudsman, especially those that involved people close to the Arroyo administration.

Under attack by impeach moves in Congress, a media-shy Gutierrez lashed back at her critics in a rare press conference she called last week. The tigress came out from her den and fought back at her impeachers. We saw a very bitchy Ombudsman in hurling tirades against ex-Senate president Jovito Salonga and other endorsers of the impeach case on her. Gutierrez gets a reprieve of sort from her impeachers, at least for one month. This is because Congress adjourned for their month-long Lenten break last Thursday and will be back in session on April 13.

Also not seeing eye-to-eye are Commission on Human Rights chairperson Leila de Lima and Public Attorney’s Office chief, Persida Rueda-Acosta. The two women lawyers are at odds over the handling of the alleged rubout of suspected carnappers who were killed by responding Quezon City policemen. The PAO chief lambasted the CHR chair for her being all over the media and pre-judging the alleged guilt of 29 cops who were immediately placed under preventive suspension. But De Lima lectured Acosta on the finer points of lawyering. 

Conflicts among these officials are getting uglier and uglier by the day. Although the Ombudsman and the CHR are supposedly constitutionally independent bodies, President Arroyo must step in and put a definite end to these feuds between and among these constitutional officers and key government officials.

Fortunately, there are Filipino women leaders who are not at each other’s throats but are assisting the government in its task to work for the country’s economic growth and national prosperity. They come from the private sector who have achieved their goal through unity. The women leaders are headed by Atty. Alejandra “Dading” Clemente, founder of Rajah Tours and is the president of the Federation of Tourism Industries in the Philippines. Yesterday, she led a group of her fellow women leaders who came to The STAR office to enlist our support to their cause for the immediate signing into law of the newly Congress-approved Tourism Code of 2009.

She was accompanied by fellow women leaders in the tourism industry — Rose H. Libongco, president of the Hotel Sales & Marketing Association; Ma. Paz Alberto, president of the Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA); Rosvi C. Gaetos, chairperson of the Incentive Travel Executives; Adel Majaba, vice president of the Association of Professional Congress Organizers; and, Punch F. Jose, board of trustee of the PTAA.   

For more than four years, these women banded together and joined their resources and forces to work for the legislation by Congress of the Tourism Code. Citing tourism industry as the key to keeping the Philippine economy crisis-free, they are asking the President to sign the Tourism Code into law at the soonest possible opportunity.

Also programmed to help boost Philippine tourism is the expansion project of the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) at Clark Field in Angeles City, Pampanga. Nestor Mangio, chairman of the board of Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) corrected us about an item in my March 9 column where I discussed the proposed investment being considered under a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contract for the DMIA expansion project. Mangio clarified the Pacifica Avia Group Inc. is a local consortium and is different from the Al Mal Investment of the Al Kharafi Group of Kuwait. Mangio disclosed Al Kharafi Group is challenging the bid of Pacifica Avia. As mandated by the BOT law, Mangio cited, the P3 billion DMIA expansion project is undertaking this week the so-called “Swiss challenge” system of competitive bidding.   

Hopefully, this ambitious project won’t be tainted with any controversy later on. It reminded me of a comment from Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez in a recent TV talk show where he represented the government on the alleged “rigged” bidding cases exposed by the World Bank on infrastructure projects funded by WB loans. The Justice Secretary bitterly noted that in the Philippines, contractors who lose in the bid for a big government contract are like candidates losing in elections. Both claim afterwards they lost because they were cheated. Gonzalez bemoaned this tactic among losing contractors to allege the bidding was either “rigged” or “over-priced.” Gee whiz, what else is new?