Abusive sons of congressmen

Jomar Pajares, a security guard assigned to the BF Homes village gate in Las Piñas, was mauled, made to kneel before his assailants and kicked while pleading for mercy several days ago.

One of his attackers has been identified as the son of Rep. Arnulfo Teves, of the third district of Negros Oriental.

The incident was recorded by a CCTV (closed-circuit television) camera.

Pajares flagged down Kurt Matthew Teves, 26, and his bodyguards for not having a village sticker on his car.

The sekyu was just following the guidelines of the association of BF Homes residents, which does not allow vehicles without village stickers to go inside the community.

The congressman’s son apparently was insulted when he was stopped at the gate of the subdivision, where his family has a mansion-sized house on El Grande St.

I gathered that that was not the first time the young Teves and his bodyguards would beat someone up, make their victims kneel before them and then kick their victims.

One of their victims, this columnist was told, was a woman who was made to open her mouth. They then inserted the muzzle of a pistol.

Except for the one in Las Piñas, the other abusive acts committed by Teves and his bodyguards happened in Bayawan City, Negros Oriental, where his father holds court.

Kurt himself is a barangay captain in the city.

Reports I’ve gathered say that Kurt’s father, the congressman, is an operator of the controversial e-sabong or online cockfight.

Why operators of e-sabong are notorious we can never know.

One of them is suspected of ordering the abduction of 34 sabungeros (cockfight aficionados) who have since disappeared without a trace.

Among several e-sabong operators is retired Gen. Camilo Cascolan, former chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP). Cascolan apparently took advantage of his former position to get an e-sabong license.

Congressman Teves also got his e-sabong license by apparently using his position.

Teves was – before Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte became president – in the radar of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

A PDEA insider told me the congressman is a former drug lord. He has stopped being one since he was probably scared of incurring Digong’s wrath.

The lawmaker himself admitted he was once a drug addict in a privilege speech at the House of Representatives.

Now, let’s go back to Pajares, the hapless security guard who incurred the wrath of the congressman’s son for doing his job.

Pajares has since gone into hiding, obviously for fear of his life.

He has apparently been told that Bayawan City is a place notorious for beatings and even murders committed by bodyguards of you know who.

Kurt Teves reminds us elderly folk of those days in the 1960s when scions of congressmen were abusive.

One congressman’s son from Southern Luzon would slap people who glanced in his direction when he was drunk.

Another son of a congressman from Cavite bullied his schoolmates in an all-boys school.

Still another son of a congressman from Northern Luzon razed a whole village that didn’t vote for his father.

Are we repeating history?

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Which order should be followed, the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) or the Regional Trial Court?

Former workers of the Paper Industries Corp. of the Philippines (PICOP) won over the old management of PICOP concerning the issue of unpaid benefits.

NLRC ordered the bankrupt PICOP to pay the former workers through its assets, from the proceeds of the sale of heavy machinery inside the now idle paper-making factory and other equipment within the complex.

The NLRC issued the sequestration of PICOP machinery and equipment despite a stay order issued by the Makati Regional Trial Court years earlier.

(PICOP’s main offices were in Makati’s business district, hence the petition of the stay order was filed with the Makati RTC).

The court’s stay order was to rehabilitate the PICOP plant so it could attract foreign investors to come in and buy it. The idea was for part of the proceeds from the purchase of the company to be paid to its former workers.

But then the now jobless PICOP workers could not wait for the purchase of the bankrupt firm and started looting the property within the complex in Barangay Mangagoy, Bislig City in Surigao del Sur.

They took matters into their own hands, they claim, based on the NLRC sequestration order.

Because of the NLRC order, policemen guarding the complex are not preventing the looting of the complex by former PICOP workers.

Police officials – the chief of police of Bislig, the Surigao del Sur provincial director and the Caraga police regional director – told their men to stand down while the looting of PICOP was taking place right under their very noses.

There are even reports that policemen are among the looters.

The NLRC order, the basis for the looting of the PICOP complex, is in direct contravention of the Makati regional court’s stay order.

But it seems the Makati court presided over by Judge Andres Soriano does not assert its authority.

Despite pleadings from PICOP creditors for Soriano to prevent further looting of the 1,000-hectare complex, the judge sits on his butt.

The question remains: which is more powerful, the regional trial court or the NLRC, which is just a quasi-judicial body?

The answer is a no-brainer: the regional trial court.

But why are the police following the NLRC order instead of the Makati regional trial court’s?

Perhaps because of ignorance or maybe because Judge Soriano is not assertive enough of his power.

But isn’t looting against the law, NLRC order or none?

And the police should not look the other way while a crime is being committed in their presence.