CJ Sereno off to a fresh and positive start

It was providential that I wasn’t able to write articles regarding the appointment of Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno earlier because we were waylaid by the accident that took the life of DILG Sec. Jesse Robredo. Offhand, I already thought that something was odd… that the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) released that report that showed CJ Sereno failing her psychology test. Was that perhaps a message that they were sending to the President to exclude CJ Sereno? We will never know.

But if you ask me, after her appointment, the JBC should have released all the information about CJ Sereno. After all, we are supposed to live in a new era in our Judiciary, where reforms are to be expected and one of them was something that all Filipinos wanted to see… her Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) which, the ousted CJ Renato Corona revealed before the Senate Impeachment trial, which in my book is the beginning of the journey to transparency.

But three months after his ouster, none of the Justices of the Supreme Court dared or cared to show their transparency and revealed their SALNs to the public. Whether they like it or not, showing their SALNs should henceforth be practiced by the Supreme Court to prove that they are clean and transparent, and this also goes for Pres. Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino and all the Cabinet members… and yes, including the Commission on Elections (Comelec) which today still refuse to show their SALNs. I have read reports coming from the Office of the Clerk of Court that admitted that no SALNs were released to anyone requesting these as late as Aug. 17 this year.

Well, surprise, surprise! Newly appointed Chief Justice Sereno the other day approved the release of her SALN when she first presided the Supreme Court as the 24th Chief Justice and the first woman Chief Justice of the land. I call this a very positive move and a true fresh start that CJ Sereno would show her SALN to the public and I hope that all the Justices in the Supreme Court should also follow. At this point, even if we do know that CJ Sereno owes P-Noy big time, we will see in the future how she would deal with the Hacienda Luisita as it comes. But at least, she is off to a fresh and positive start.

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He doesn’t know it… but people here in Cebu appreciate the move of Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Sec. Manuel “Mar” Roxas to clear up those nasty rumors coming from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) who were dropping reports to the media about the expired license of the late Capt. Jessup Bahinting, when the truth came out that it was really CAAP’s fault for not encoding this when he had his license renewed. But should the DOTC be the one to clear them?

There really is a serious and obvious effort or attempt by certain unnamed CAAP officials to discredit Capt. Jessup. As you know, CAAP has a new head under William Hotchkiss III and if you ask me he must break that so-called “Mafia” inside this government agency which is allegedly composed of ex-PAL, ex-PAF or ex-CAA personnel whose practices resemble that of the few unscrupulous in Land Transportation Office (LTO) which have ties to smuggling syndicates. CAAP is a different story, but I have already heard those stories of corruption inside, which needs to be stopped.

Last March, an Avia Tours aircraft Cessna 172 carrying five people crashed in Mambajao town in the island of Camiguin which ended with two fatalities, the Filipino pilot Christian Cesar Cebrecus and a Norwegian woman tourist who was with her husband and three-year old daughter who survived the crash. During a conversation with Capt. Jessup Bahinting, he told me that this was clearly a case of pilot error, as the Mambajao airfield is a one-way in, one-way out runway to the sea. In short you cannot take off on the side of the Hibok-Hibok Volcano.

I looked at the news reports of this crash in the Internet and the news reports were similar.. that the pilot was experiencing strong winds (I was told that the plane was landing with the wind, which makes a very difficult landing) and it was too late to abort the landing, so when the pilot gunned the engine, the plane hit a coconut tree and fell into the ground. But just the same, Avia Tours operations were suspended by CAAP.

While this suspension is understandable, CAAP should not take forever to suspend Avia Tours because they have many foreign students who are in various stages of finishing their flying school and has already paid for this. It is time for CAAP to show that they are part of the progress of this nation, not a bureaucratic agency that uses its knotty process in order to propagate corruption from within. Let’s streamline CAAP now!

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