Open and shut cases, but……

After I took my oath as a member of the Philippine Bar and signed the roll of attorneys, I received invitations from four of the city’s leading law firms to join their offices. The offers, coming from the brightest stars in the legal circle, humbled me. The road to active law practice, my dream actually, was literally paved. But, I still resisted the lure of hobnobbing with leading law practitioners because I opted to open my own law office despite the apparent uncertainty of solo practice.

One day, a seemingly unkempt gentleman walked into my small cubicle. He said that he got my name from somewhere and he was pleased to see that on my modest book shelf was a complete set of the Supreme Court Reports Annotated (SCRA) which at that time was up to volume 77 yet, and my college text books. I found out that he was a scion of a powerful political family and he wanted to engage my services. His appearance might be rather odd for his social structure but he sounded intellectually profound. After explaining the legal complexities of his case, he confidently said that his cause was “open and shut” in his favor. Honestly, it was the first time I heard of the phrase and I struggled to understand what it meant.

Watching the social media posts kept me awake until dawn yesterday. The revelations of Former Public Works and Highways District Engineer Brice Ericson D. Hernandez, who was detained at the Philippine National Police custodial center following his being declared in contempt by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, reminded me of the phrase a wealthy and socially high strung personality told me almost half a century ago. The narratives of Engr. Hernandez about the alleged ways of Senators Jose Pimentel Ejercito Jr., better known as Jinggoy Estrada or Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada, and Emmanuel Joel Jose Villanueva nicknamed "Tesdaman," in dipping their hands into public funds are “open and shut” cases. Hundreds of millions of people’s taxes were mentioned. If the claims of Engr. Hernandez are carefully and completely documented, the plunder and many other related graft cases reportedly consisting of 30% SOP, against Senators Jinggoy and Joel are predictably leading them to prison. Open the cases and shut the prison bars against Double “J”!

I kept alternately switching to the two FB posts that, in one, featured Engr. Hernandez and in the other, Senator Panfilo "Ping" Morena Lacson Sr. In the FB posts, the senator from Cavite gave details of the so-called ghost flood control projects. There were documents showing that a project was authorized to begin on a certain date and to be completed in about 270 days. It surprised Sen. Lacson to discover documents indicating that few days after the supposed starting date, the contractor submitted a billing for fortyish percentage completion and shortly thereafter another billing for an 80% complete performance. Sen Ping said that the same billings, together with identical pictures, were presented for another project. He concluded that the “other” project was a ghost. It did not exist and yet millions were paid. Without doubt, Senator Lacson pointed to an “Open and shut” case.

Here is the BUT ….: in the title of this article today. What is it and why? Between the two FB posts of Engr. Hernandez and Sen. Lacson were hundreds of social media posts placed by an unbelievably numerous netizens expressing anger. Their indignant posts were written in warlike language. To them, the investigations by both the senate and the lower house are but charade such that after the ugly noise, the corrupt politicians and their favored contractors would resume their devious ways. While the cases, if ever eventually filed, are “open and shut” these cannot cure the systemic corruption. Greed, according to them, is insatiable. The corrupt ones are, as shown in the legislative inquiries, not satisfied with pocketing millions of pesos. Punishing them with incarcerations is not fair enough. The undertone of their posts, if given a dramatic picture, can be translated to a revolutionary movement. OMG!