"Let's not jump like chimpanzees just yet."
“‹Despite President Duterte’s instructions to ban “thank you” streamers as Boracay opens to the public today after a six-month shutdown, I will have to say “thank you” to him and members of his Cabinet as well as the hundreds of men and women in various agencies, local and national, who labored day and night to bring back this gem of an island to its pristine beauty.
The various Boracay stakeholders, especially the workers and others who depended on the tourism trade which made the island one of the most visited destinations in the world also deserve our thanks. They managed to keep their cool and their senses and did not do anything which would have disrupted the çlean-up of this cesspool, as President Duterte described it, prior to the closure last May.
Of course, we have to thank citizens all over the world who encouraged us to proceed with this clean-up plan which has been postponed many times over in the past on various guises by those who were raking it in without regard for its long-term sustainable development.
One of those who boasted of connections all the way to Malacañang in the past and who managed to expand his empire beyond recognition defying the rules tried to wiggle his way all over again with this recent clean up using all kinds of ruses and connections. He was flatly told by the Boracay Inter Agency Task Force to comply or else. Well, he tried, first, by bringing in a highly placed Malacañang connection to meet with Task Force chairman and DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu who told him to his face to go by the rules—otherwise, his operations will remain closed.
After getting that heave-ho he tried a more brazen but ultimately criminal act – he faked his compliance papers. He will now have to clean his act many times over and pray that the Task Force and President Duterte will be as forgiving. Otherwise, all his operations in other parts of the country will be checked and his compliance documents possibly including his BIR payments and related papers subjected to severe tests.
In any event, as we thank all those who worked hard to bring Boracay out of the cesspool we have to doubly reiterate that a lot of hard work and creative thinking remains to be done if we are to bring back
Boracay to its old glory as the best island tourist destination in the world. It ain’t over yet.
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Speaking of unfinished business, it is clear from the latest reports that Senator Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes IV will be in for a long goodbye. Despite the latest ruling of Makati RTC Judge Andres Soriano denying the government’s petition for the issuance of an arrest warrant and hold departure order against him, Trillanes will have to reckon with the government’s petition to have the same overturned.
Justice Secretary Meynard Guevara has directed his prosecutors to file a motion for reconsideration. If that fails, then I have every reason to believe that the government will appeal the ruling with the Court of Appeals and eventually the Supreme Court until a final judgment is arrived at. These perfectly legal remedies will take time to be resolved and definitely beyond the senator’s end of term next June.
As a layman and without meaning to debate with the legal eagles on either side of the debate on the Soriano ruling, I found the same confusing. On the one hand, Judge Soriano refused to grant the government’s requests saying that the coup d’état charges pending before the Court were already dismissed with finality on June 2011. “The Court loses jurisdiction over the case when its decision has become final and executory.” It was almost at the same time that the amnesty proclamation issued by then-President Noynoy Aquino was put in place. That issuance was used by then-Branch 148 Judge Oscar Pimentel to order the suspension of the coup d ‘etat hearings without prejudice to its resumption in some future time. The government will now argue that there was no dismissal at all, only a suspension.
On the other hand, Judge Soriano also said that he was “powerless” to disturb’ President Duterte’s proclamation voiding the amnesty given to Trillanes. Thus, the ruling stood with all the attendant repercussions. For example, with that ruling it is now very possible for the government to proceed with its implementation.Can the government now insist that the warrant of arrest issued by Makati RTC
Judge Elmo Alameda be implemented to the full by seeking the recall of the bail? Together with that effort and the subsequent findings of both judges that the voiding or recall of the Aquino amnesty can the government now order the convening of the court martial panel hearing the coup ‘d etat’ case and proceed with its operation? If the AFP moves and proceeds with the hearing then it is very possible that
Trillanes will be taken into custody as the leader of that coup d’ ‘etat. That is non-bailable and something he will fight hard to overcome.
So, as we earlier said this is going to be a long goodbye for Senator Trillanes. And much like all things in limbo it ain’t over until it’s over. As the late Senator Joker Arroyo once said, let us not jump with joy like chimpanzees until the Fat Lady sings.