Who was really sleeping in the noodle house?

Our deepest condolences to the Gullas family, especially to David and Jackie Gullas Weckman on the loss of her only son 13-year-old Kyle and his classmate Jaebak Jung. He was the grandson of Sir Dodong Gullas. The initial reports we got was that Kyle was kidnapped and then killed... other texts said that he drowned in a pool. But finally the news is out... they were with 41 other kids including five teachers from the Cebu International School doing community service in Kanawan Elementary School in Morong, Bataan.

I really don’t know why they chose Morong, which still has some NPA activity there (remember the famous Morong 43?) but apparently, they went swimming in the Visai Waterfalls and got swept by the strong current. I gathered from Facebook friends that Kyle was a great goalie for his school. We are sad that he is gone. His remains will be brought to the Carmelite Church in Cebu City and funeral arrangements will be announced later. May we request the pious reader to please pray for the repose of his soul.

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There he goes again! Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III did what is now known as “Classic P-Noy” when last Tuesday, he was invited by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to grace its 72nd anniversary and the President used that occasion to lambast the BI officials for “Natutulog sa pancitan” or “Sleeping in the Noodle House” (literally, caught napping) for not stopping the fugitive former Palawan Governor Joel Reyes and his brother Coron Mayor Mario Reyes, who are principal suspects in the murder of media broadcaster and environmentalist Gerry Ortega to leave the country.

The President didn’t stop there, he also mentioned many other incidents like that South Korean who was ordered to be sent back to Korea for duping people and the fellow escaped from his BI handlers in the hospital. Come now, was it really a case of “Natulog sa pancitan,” I don’t think so!

I gathered that BI officials are sore at the President for lambasting them during this occasion. But if you ask me, the President was even being polite when he used that phraseology because no one in BI was really caught napping. These fugitives were sent out of the country courtesy of unscrupulous BI officials or syndicates within the BI for big money. If at all, someone was caught napping... it is BI Commissioner Ricardo David for not stopping this corrupt practice and I agree with many pundits that he ought to tender his resignation because all this happened under P-Noy’s watch.

It’s an open secret that there are syndicates within the BI that have allowed people running from the law to leave the country and believe me... they were not sleeping on the job! One of them was Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson. He got out of the front door and returned the same way. Why didn’t the Department of Justice (DoJ) conduct an investigation… that caper speaks of a double standard of Justice under the Aquino Regime. Should P-Noy also say that Justice Secretary de Lima was caught sleeping in the noodle house?

So this brings us to the other big issue, whether or not it is wrong for the BI officials to collect overtime pay from airline companies whose passengers they serve at our international airports. While it is not illegal, in my book it is wrong because airline companies already pay their fees in airport terminals and this should include BI personnel manning immigration booths.

What needs to be done is for the BI to increase their budget to include their overtime pays. If P-Noy is dissatisfied with the BI, then it is prudent for him to fire BI chief Ricardo David for not inserting the overtime pay in the BI budget. In these days of budget airlines, asking them to pay for the BI’s overtime is wrong because this is no longer an airline problem.

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Right before Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno was appointed to replace ousted Chief Justice Renato Corona; there was that news item that revealed that she failed her psychiatric test. So now, the Judicial & Bar Council (JBC) is having that “leak” investigated. We already questioned, why should this leak be investigated when the JBC is supposed to show its transparency?

Well, I got a text message commenting about the refusal of the JBC to release the psycho records of all those in the JBC shortlist. “Sir Bobit, JBC’s refusal to release results of psycho test on CJ applicants or nominees is obviously a move to prevent exposure of its failure to comply with its mandate to recommend the best qualified to the Judiciary. The inclusion of applicants/nominees rated as “unsatisfactory” in the list of recommendees for CJ constitute a “Betrayal of Public Trust.” This act of “misfeasance” if not, “Malfeasance”, could subject the JBC members voting for their inclusion to disciplinary action by the SC, which by express provision of the Constitution, exercises supervision over the JBC. It is time for the SC to assert that power if we are to have an independent JBC and competent members of the Judiciary.” I concur!

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