Where are the foreign investors lured to Phl?

LEAVE IT TO COURTS: The ultimate objective of the investigation of the Jan. 6 massacre in Atimonan, Quezon, of 13 individuals on two vehicles is to determine the guilt or innocence of the persons accused, who at this stage are all presumed innocent.

Their guilt or innocence is for the courts, and nobody else, to determine after a fair trial.

President Noynoy Aquino has chastised the policemen and soldiers under investigation for commenting on the case, specifically their claiming that Malacañang had given the go-signal for the bloody operation codenamed Coplan Armado.

The President said that the Palace did not approve it, reiterating a statement of Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa that the P100,000 released for it was just for its intelligence requirements.

It seems the best and fair approach is for all officials — including the President and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima — to shut up while awaiting the final findings of the National Bureau of Investigation. Premature comments of key officials tend to sway the investigation.

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CAREFUL WITH SOLDIERS: We should be careful how we treat our armed personnel. The soldiers involved in Atimonan are presumed to have been simply following orders.

By themselves, soldiers deployed with automatic weapons by the roadside will not fire on passing vehicles with such ferocity as to ensure that all passengers are dead on the spot.

We assume they have no personal reason or motivation to act that way and kill persons they do not even know. They must have been, as is often the case, merely acting on orders.

This is much like the case of the Aviation Command team that murdered opposition leader Ninoy Aquino in 1983 upon his arrival from exile at the Manila International Airport. They were acting on prior orders of their superiors.

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JUST OBEYING ORDERS: Efforts should be exerted to find out what the Atimonan soldiers’ orders were and who gave them. Have the soldiers (and policemen) been quarantined so they cannot be given post-operation orders or instructions on what to say?

From how high up did the orders come?

While the bullets that riddled the vehicles and bodies of the victims came from the guns of the soldiers and policemen, it would not be fair if they alone would be made accountable for the massacre without dragging in their complicit superiors, even the mastermind.

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REPORT CARD NEEDED: Every time President Aquino came home from his foreign travels, except from ASEAN capitals, he would tell the nation that investors were soon rushing in as a result of his selling effort during his trips.

But where are these investors? If they are already here, maybe they should make their presence felt by the masses hanging on rising expectations.

Since 2010, the President has made 24 foreign trips, the last one to Switzerland last week, but we still have to see the big investors bringing in their own money (not borrowing it from local banks), putting up businesses and employing the natives.

The President’s bright boys should tabulate his foreign jaunts, the travel budgets, the business commitments gained on each trip, the nature and dollar value of the investments promised — and which have actually been set up in the country.

There is an impression that most foreigners invest only because they see big money prospects, not so much because of the President’s presentation or meeting with them. The tabulation we are suggesting might help give a clearer picture and justify the trips.

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UNIVERSAL PRAISE: In his report on his trip to Switzerland, where he attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, the President said the Philippines received universal praise and was back on the radar of investors and the international community.

He said: “Our achievements are really being looked up to and in all honesty, I felt their excitement to follow the path of good governance because of our good example.”

He recalled WEF founder Klaus Schwab praising the country’s reforms and proposing that the Philippines host the East Asian event of WEF next year. He also mentioned International Monetary Fund director Christine Lagarde who was as usual all praise for the Philippines.

The President said he sensed the eagerness of foreign investors in his meeting with some global business executives arranged with the help of Filipino industrialists Jaime and Fernando Zobel de Ayala.

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MIRIAM SLIPS?: Somebody should keep Sen. Miriam Santiago from reading the papers and listening to radio-TV so the hypertensive senator’s fragile health does not deteriorate upon hearing of Sen. Ping Lacson’s “complete folder of evidence” to pin her down for graft.

Lacson did not mention Santiago by name in a radio interview last Sunday, but the description fits her as “the feisty senator who first complained about the alleged P1.6-million cash gift given by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile to senators last month.”

Santiago had called Lacson the Senate chief’s “attack dog.” He called her in turn a “crusading crook” and brought out results of his investigation of her own handling of public funds.

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OPEN-AND-SHUT CASE: Lacson alleged that Santiago used Senate funds to rent a satellite office in a Quezon City building owned by her husband. He claimed the office space was leased out for P840,000 a year from 2010 to 2014.

“I consulted this with retired justices and a good lawyer,” he said. “When I showed them my documents, they said it was a clear open-and-shut case, a self-serving contract.”

He asked if Santiago had the moral ascendancy to accuse her fellow senators of pocketing funds given by Enrile from savings from the maintenance and other operating expenses(MOOE) of the Senate.

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