Speak truth to power, keep power in check

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/Pooled editorial

This is a pooled editorial published by a network of journalists including the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, the Philippine Press Institute, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, and the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility. The editorial marks the observance of World Press Freedom Day today, and is also published in four other Philippine languages: Filipino, Ilocano, Ilonggo and Bisaya.

 

 

Mr. Duterte’s presidency has altered and controlled the public discourse so radically in its favor in ways rude and bold. One tragic result: It has restricted and narrowed the celebrated freedom of the Philippine press and the people’s cherished right to know.

In his first 22 months in power, Mr. Duterte has earned the dubious honor of logging 85 various cases of attacks and threats on these dual values that the Constitution upholds as inalienable rights of the citizens. The number far exceeds those recorded under four presidents before him.

 

Separately and together, these 85 cases have made the practice of journalism an even more dangerous endeavor under Mr. Duterte.

 

From June 30, 2016, to May 1, 2018, these cases include the killing of nine journalists, 16 libel cases, 14 cases of online harassment, 11 death threats, six slay attempts, six cases of harassment, five cases of intimidation, four cases of website attack, revoked registration or denied franchise renewal, verbal abuse, strafing, and police surveillance of journalists and media agencies.

These cases project the force of presidential power dominating the political sphere, with zealous support from Mr. Duterte’s allies and appointees, and their sponsored misinformation army online and off. They have hurled at members of the press insults and unfair labels, and allegations of corruption and misconduct without firm basis in fact or in law.

These cases linger amid effete efforts at solution by state agencies, and in the context of the hostile and vicious discourse against the administration’s critics and the critical media.

 

The President, Cabinet members, and the House of Representatives have imposed and proposed unprecedented restrictions on journalist access to official news events. Congress and executive agencies have denied or delayed the corporate registration or franchises required for operation of media companies.

Some journalists and media groups have also reported police surveillance of their movement and their places of work.

 

Attacks on press freedom diminish not just the news media. These weaken the capacity of the news media to sustain the people’s unfettered exchange of ideas about public issues. Presidential intolerance of criticism is now a well-established aspect of Mr. Duterte’s leadership. While he is not the only chief executive who has become sensitive to press criticism, Mr. Duterte has made sure that everyone understands that misfortunes could hound and befall his critics.

 

And yet Mr. Duterte had promised change; his government should thus tell the people when and where change has come to fruition, and whether it has triggered better or worse results. By keeping citizens and voters fully informed about what and how those they have raised to power are doing right or wrong, a free press sustains and strengthens democracy.

 

That is not quite the situation under Mr. Duterte as yet. Intimidated, restrained, and threatened with consequences, the news media have been significantly constrained to report well and fully on the war on drugs, the siege of Marawi, cases of alleged corruption in high office, questions about the wealth of the Duterte family, the public debate on Charter change and federalism, the shutdown of Boracay, and not the least significant, the incursions of China in the West Philippine Sea.

 

Mr. Duterte has brandished the power of fear. His threats and attacks bear the full weight of his office, the highest in the land. No need to test constitutional limits. All he seems to want to do is to make enough journalists understand that they should be very afraid.

But, like fear, courage could be contagious. And unlike fear that disempowers, courage built on the power of truth and the unity of all in media is a force that empowers.

 

To stand firm and to stand united for press freedom and democracy, to speak truth to power and to keep power in check — this much the press owes the people. And whoever is president, the paramount duty of a free press in a democracy is to defend and uphold the people’s right to know, with unqualified courage and unity.#

 

 

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http://globalsistersreport.org/news/ministry/religious-sisters-mainstream-teleradyo-philippines-49346

http://globalsistersreport.org/news/ministry/religious-sisters-mainstream-teleradyo-philippines-49346

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Q & A with Sr. Mary John Mananzan, documenting Philippine church history from the viewpoint of the 'vanquished'

Global Sisters Report/ Q & A/ by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

There is no dearth of information on how colonial history unfolded in the Philippines and how Christianity was implanted, making the Philippines the only country in Asia with a majority Christian population for centuries until East Timor became independent from Indonesia more than a decade ago.

But these historical facts were written about by the conquistadores during the early years of conquest, and in Spanish at that. And because history is most often written from the point of view of the victors or the colonizers, the stories of and about the vanquished or the colonized are not included in official history. And if the stories are written at all, they remain in the archives, there to gather dust for centuries.

Approximately two decades ago, Benedictine Sr. Mary John Mananzan got a grant to do research on the history of the Roman Catholic church in the Philippines from the people's perspective. The grant enabled her to do archival research in the Archivo General de Indias, the Valladolid archives and the national library in Spain as well as the Archivo General de Nación in Mexico. The result is Mananzan's fifth book, Shadows of Light: Philippine Church History Under Spain, A People's Perspective, which was published in July.

Mananzan belongs to the Benedictine Missionary Sisters founded in Germany. She is a feminist theologian and the founder and executive director of the Institute of Women's Studies of St. Scholastica's College, where she served as president for six years. She is now co-chair of the Office of Women and Gender Concerns of the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines.

A much-sought-after speaker on issues related to women, gender, theology and history, Mananzan continues to be in the forefront of the feminist movement in the Philippines. But despite her busy schedule, she finds time to play Candy Crush, solve Sudoku puzzles and take in a movie or two.

GSR: You said you did research for this book decades ago. Why did it get published only now?

Mananzan: I wasn't sure of myself then because of the presence of big historians like Jesuit Frs. John Schumacher and Horacio de la Costa. Also, because it was typewritten, my only copy was lost for 10 years. We found it only last year.

What can this book contribute to our appreciation/understanding of our Catholic faith as introduced by the Spanish colonizers?

I think it will help us understand why we have what Jesuit Fr. Jaime Bulatao calls 'split-level Christianity.' It is also why we are steeped in the kumpare [patronage] system, the lusot [getting away with it] mentality, our colonial mentality, and our chronic failure in being a church of the poor. It will help us appreciate the efforts of the early missionaries in spite of the mistakes and abuses of both the secular and religious authorities at that time.
Left, cover artwork; Right, illustration of the babaylan (priestess-healer), who were suppressed when Christianity was introduced to the Philippines in 1521. (Illustration by Ziggy Perlas / photos by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo)

What can missionaries learn from this experience? Filipinos are now missionaries themselves in foreign lands.

First of all, we should have a profound respect for the culture of the people and not demonize it. These days, we should not use the direct conversion method, which amounts to proselytizing, but just share the person of Christ and his teachings without too much dogmatic and moralistic preaching.

Why the title? What do you mean by 'people's perspective'?

'Shadows of Light' — the light is Christianity and the shadows are the negative aspects of Christianity being introduced in the context of colonization. 'A people's perspective' means that I tried to see the events from the point of view of the people who were colonized rather than from the colonizer's perspective. So I included the resistance of the people to conversion in many parts of the islands. I discussed the oppressive policies like forced labor, discrimination of the native clergy, domestication of the mujer indigena [the native women]. I also discussed the injustice of the colonization itself and the abuses of the religious congregations, such as land-grabbing and persecution of the babaylans [the priestesses and healers].

Is the subject of history ever final or closed? Or does the retelling and interpretation change depending on who tells it at a certain juncture of history?

I think history is not a photo of a reality, but a choice of what one considers significant. So it will always be an interpretation according to the perspective of the author. Many things happen simultaneously at any given time in history, but one has to choose what one considers significant. Men, for example, most often focus on wars, conflicts, etc., so they write about these things more than other events, and their heroes are, of course, soldiers, warriors, etc. Women would include culture, daily lives of people, etc. Those in power, the victors and colonial masters, would focus on their victories and their successes. People will dwell on their oppression, their sufferings and the injustice they experience.

You saved the best for the last chapter: the topic of mujer indigena, the native woman, her status in society in the pre-Spanish era, during and after. As a feminist theologian and historian, are you hopeful that the negative imprints of history on Filipino women will dissipate?

I think it is already happening. We insist that our feminism is not a copy of the West's but is the recalling of our dangerous, subversive memory of our original equality. We have to acknowledge the gains that have been made by our women's movement: the awakening of gender consciousness as shown by our many laws favoring women, our government's Gender and Development budget, the recent Commission on Higher Education memo mandating all tertiary educational institutions to mainstream gender. We have to acknowledge the militancy and effectiveness of our women's organizations in championing the causes of women: victims of rape or human trafficking, etc. Of course, we still have a long way to go, but we have gone quite far, I think.

What is it about our indigenous pagan heritage as Filipino women that we must take back, own, appreciate and live out?

We have to take back our original gender equality, which stems from our foreparents' lack of the concept of a virginity cult, which therefore made them treat boys and girls equally and not overprotect the girls. Dignity cannot be equated with virginity. We have to take back our status as spiritual leaders of our community, like the babaylans who were the main religious practitioners mediating our relationship with the spirit world. We have to take back our foremothers' active role not only in the home, but in society and in commerce.

Should it worry the church if Filipino women try to go back to our roots? Don't the women, in fact, become richer for it?

No, the church should, in fact, work on getting rid of its patriarchal values and structures. It will then become a more compassionate, more Christ-like church. And maybe by reclaiming what we have lost, we will contribute to this endeavor of de-patriarchalizing our church. In the book, I noted with emphasis that the Filipina has somehow retained the subversive, dangerous memory of her original equality.

For religious women and men, especially those in charge of formation, how can this book help in understanding Filipino spirituality?

Well, I hope it will help them understand the lack of integration of faith and action and endeavor to arrive at a congruence of our faith and our life. I hope it will help in understanding the mistakes of the past and moving on to make our church a real church of the poor and, as Pope Francis expresses it, a church that heals wounds and warms the hearts of people.

Pope Francis is creating a commission that will study the role of women deacons (Phoebe, for example) in the early church. Does this augur well for church women? Does it matter what the findings will be?

I think it is Pope Francis' way of really trying to give women an equal status in the church, but since the whole of tradition is blocking him, this is the best he can do. It's like what we say: consuelo de bobo [small consolation]. Give him credit for trying.

[Ma. Ceres P. Doyo is a journalist in the Philippines. She writes features, special reports and a regular column, Human Face, for the Philippine Daily Inquirer.]

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75,730 claims of rights violations under Marcos are being processed

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

A severed hand being taken away by a dog after bombing operations. A pregnant activist under intense military interrogation and forced to identify the father of the baby in her womb, yelling, “Andres Bonifacio!” A drinking straw inserted into a victim’s penis.

Many cases and stories leap out of the pages as painful remembrances, others sound simple and direct but are written in detail, still others appear to be “copy and paste.”

Poring over, evaluating and deciding on tens of thousands of stories about cruelty, suffering and loss during the martial law years is a difficult and heartbreaking task. Establishing the authenticity of supporting documents and witnesses’ accounts goes with it. Just as difficult is setting monetary reparation for each proven case.

But the task has to be fulfilled because a law, although almost 30 years too late, has been passed requiring that a form of justice be dispensed with.

Reparation, recognition

On Feb. 25, 2013, President Aquino signed Republic Act No. 10368, or the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act, “providing for reparation and recognition of victims of human rights violations during the Marcos regime, documentation of said violations, appropriating funds therefor and for other purposes.”

By May 2015, a total of 75,730 persons have filed in the Human Rights Victims Claims Board (HRVCB) their claims as human rights violations victims (HRVVs) of martial rule (1972-1986), or as next of kin of victims who have suffered, died or disappeared during those dark years under dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Besides filling out forms and submitting documents of proof, individual claimants had to submit a narrative of what they had undergone in the hands of martial law enforcers, mainly military and police elements.

The number of claimants ballooned after the period to file claims (May 12 to Nov. 10, 2014) was extended by six months. The work of the HRVCB became even heavier and will take longer.

Under the law, HRVVs are to be classified as 1) victims who died or have disappeared and are still missing, 2) victims who were tortured, or raped or sexually abused, 3) victims who were detained and 4) all other victims. Each category is given a range of points that will correspond to the reparation amount.

‘Liberally interpret’

The HRVCB chair, Lina Sarmiento, a retired police director, said that utmost care had been given every case to assure justice for the genuine victims. These mean some dubious claims have to be weeded out.

“We do not want to use the word fraudulent,” Sarmiento told the Inquirer. “We liberally interpret in favor of the claimant.” But she also stressed that the board always had “the benefit of the legitimate claimants” in mind.

The breakdown of claims filed is as follows: main office (16,895), regional desks (26,088), caravans (32,659), abroad (90). Claims filed in the first filing period (47,128), extension period (28,602).

Next to the caravans, Metro Manila yielded the most number of claimants (16,895), followed by the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (2,763) and Tuguegarao City (2,351).

Places listed in the report are the sites where claims were filed and received, not necessarily where the abuses were committed. Interestingly, some places yielded more claims during the extension or second filing period as compared with the original filing period.

3 divisions

The HRVCB is composed of Sarmiento, Doctors Erlinda Senturias and Aurora Parong, and lawyers Byron Bocar, Wilfred Asis, Galuasch G. Ballaho, Glenda T. Litong and Jacqueline Mejia. Jose Luis Gascon left the board after he was appointed chair of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) a couple of months ago.

The board is divided into three divisions. Each division meets for a whole day twice or thrice a week to decide on cases. The divisions are supported by lawyers and paralegals who read, check the details and write summaries. They also refer to supporting data, many of these coming from the Task Force Detainees-Philippines (TFDP), a mission partner of the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines.

The TFDP documented thousands of human rights violations cases and helped detainees and their families during the martial law years. If not for TFDP’s files, many HRVVs would have difficulty proving their cases.

And thanks to computer technology, the HRVCB staff can easily access cases across divisions. Names, events and places can be checked and counterchecked for truth and accuracy. Someone’s independent account can bolster somebody else’s. Even news reports and articles written during that time can lend proof.

P10 billion

A total of P10 billion allotted for the HRVVs’ reparation was sourced from the Marcoses’ hidden and stolen wealth recovered by the government from their Switzerland accounts.

Separately, P500 million has been allotted for the building of a memorial museum to be supervised by the CHR and the National Historical Commission of the Philippines. The museum has yet to be built. The money is still with the national treasury.

The Philippine government’s P10 billion for reparation is distinct and separate from the $2 billion (almost P90 billion) won in a Hawaii court after more than 9,000 HRVVs filed a class suit against the Marcos estate in 1994. Alas, more than 2,000 claimants had been delisted. The awarded amount comes in batches and is dependent on hidden stash discovered abroad by the claimants’ American lawyers.

Those already on the Hawaii class suit list enjoy “conclusive presumption,” which means they would be approved as claimants under RA 10368 as long as they have filed claims with the HRVCB.

Senturias said talk about claimants getting 80 percent more in reparation was plain misinformation.

The HRVCB operates on a P50 million yearly operational budget, Sarmiento said. This is not enough because the number of claimants dramatically increased during the extension period, therefore more personnel became necessary. The HRVCB has a life span of only two to three years.

“We have talked to the Department of Budget Management about this,” Sarmiento said. “We had expected only 20,000 claims, double the number of the Hawaii claimants. Now we have more than 75,000 cases.”

The HRVCB cannot give a definite number of cases that have been decided upon because the number increases every day. But 75,739 cases are a daunting number to handle, and Sarmiento said for a division to finish 1,000 cases a month was not a breeze.

Nine stages

There are nine stages in the claims process. Stages 1 and 2 (preparation and submission), though time-consuming and physically tiring, were not as difficult as Stage 3 (evaluation and resolution of each claim by the board.)

The board is now in Stage 3, which is not only time-consuming. It also needs patience, probity and good judgment. Adding to the difficulty is the sensitive nature of the cases: Wade into pools of blood and tears, stories of torture, death, loss, suffering, imprisonment, despair, trauma, fear, broken lives, lost opportunities, rage.

Not easy for the HRVCB, said Senturias and Parong who, as doctors, had seen their share of medical cases involving victims of martial rule. Parong was herself a political detainee.

Zumba for release

“That’s why Chair Sarmiento decided to have Zumba sessions for the staff every end of the week,” Parong said with approval. The exercise is their way to release the toxicity continuously poring over human rights violations cases that are in the thousands.

After Stage 3 is (4) publication of a preliminary list of eligible claimants, (5) filing of opposition and/or appeal, (6) decision on opposition and/or appeal, (7) publication of the final list of eligible claimants, (8) determination of monetary award per eligible claimant, and (9) distribution of the tax-free monetary award claimed personally by victim/claimant.

The HRVCB clarified that determination of monetary award couldn’t be done now, but only after all cases had been decided on with finality. “We have to end with a zero balance,” Sarmiento said.

Who’s the claimant?

Every now and then the HRVCB would encounter telenovela-type cases, such as when three persons separately appeared in one day, each one claiming he was the rightful heir of a deceased. Or two women claiming to be the wife of a deceased victim.

In cases where there is no marriage certificate, the board would advise that the offspring of the deceased, if he or she has one, act as claimant.

“We don’t want to interfere with families,” Parong said. “But once, in the morning we had someone who said he was the sole heir. Then in the afternoon two other siblings showed up. They all needed to show birth certificates.”

Horror and heroism

The offices of the HRVCB are housed in Virata Hall and a neighboring building on the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman, Quezon City.

On a regular day, one would find lawyers, paralegals, encoders and other staff quietly going over files in hard and soft (scanned) copies. Two rooms are lined with shelves that hold tens of thousands of brown envelopes—some thick, some thin—that contain human rights violations cases.

The sight gives one goose bumps. When the HRVCB’s work is over, the files will be turned over to the memorial museum that is yet to be built, a museum not so much of horrors but of heroism.

Added benefits

On Sept. 21, the 43rd anniversary of the signing by Marcos of the martial law declaration, the HRVCB members signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with government agencies on nonmonetary compensation for HRVVs or their surviving kin.

Agencies at the MOA signing were the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Health, and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

This means added benefits for the legitimate claimants. Many victims who suffered but survived martial rule have already passed on without having experienced a balm for their wounds. But like those who fell in the night, they have bequeathed to their loved ones lessons in heroism.

For those fighters-victims-survivors who remain hale and strong, justice can never be too late. The taste of it is ever so sweet it is worth the wait.#

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US lawyer says PCGG merely grandstanding

Philippine Daily Inquirer/SPECIAL REPORTS/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

(Last of two parts)

MANILA, Philippines–The claim of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) was not to the paintings of Imelda Marcos, “which were never government property,” but to the money that was allegedly stolen, according to Robert Swift, the lead counsel of the 9,539 rights abuse victims during the martial law regime of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

“The PCGG has no judgment against Mrs. Marcos for the paintings,” Swift said in an e-mail to the Inquirer. “Its claim is that money was stolen from the Philippine government in the 1960s and 1970s, and some of the money may have been used to purchase the paintings.”

He said Imelda, whom Forbes Magazine had estimated as being worth $5 billion, should be made to repay the government, “should the PCGG ever prove the theft.”

Lawyer Robert Swift handing a check for $1,000
to a victim who suffered human right violations
during the Marcos dictatorship.

“Any money that Imelda Marcos could have stolen from the republic should be recoverable from her $5-billion fortune. She lives in Metro Manila and the PCGG should simply ask her to return the money. If she refuses, attach her bank accounts in Manila,” he said.

Hence, Swift sees the attachment of the paintings ordered by the Sandiganbayan last week as mere “grandstanding” by the PCGG.

“The PCGG has known about the paintings since 1986—28 years ago—but never filed a case until now, and that is just for attachment. I am not aware of any case it filed for forfeiture of the paintings,” he said. “Instead, the PCGG is playing the game of pursuing paintings that Imelda may or may not have purchased using (the Filipino people’s) money,” he said.

$2B judgment

Swift said this was being done as part of the PCGG’s strategy to nullify the $2-billion judgment.

In 1995, a US federal court in Hawaii awarded the victims the $2 billion in damages after it found the Marcos dictatorship liable for the torture, summary executions and disappearances of about 10,000 people.

“For the 19 years since entry of the [$2-billion] judgment, the Republic of the Philippines has been relentless in trying to nullify any enforcement and preclude compensation to the class members, who are predominantly old and live in abject poverty,” Swift said. “This has included refusal to recognize the class’ judgment in Philippine courts,” Swift wrote in a brief he filed last month in the New York appellate court that is adjudicating the case of the so-called Arelma account.

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Philippine Daily Inquirer/SPECIAL REPORT/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo



This file photo taken on June 7, 2007 shows former first lady Imelda Marcos is seen in her apartment in Manila with a gallery of paintings including a Picasso, seen at upper right. Philippine authorities moved on September 30, 2014 to seize paintings by Picasso, Gauguin, Miro, Michelangelo and other masters held by Imelda Marcos after getting a court order against the former first lady. AFP/ROMEO GACAD

MANILA, Philippines--This is a list of 206 art pieces believed to have been purchased by former First Lady Imelda Marcos during the martial law years.

Many of them by European masters and worth millions of dollars each, the paintings have been attached to a Petition for Writ of Execution and Turnover filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York by the lawyers of the victims of human rights violations during the Marcos dictatorship.

The victims are claimants in a case versus the Marcos estate and who have won a judgment in 1995 and been awarded $2 billion in damages.
 

French impressionist Claude Monet’s painting “Water Lilies” ** had been illegally sold to a collector by Mrs. Marcos’ aid, Vilma Bautista her co-accused for $32 million but the buyer avoided litigation by paying $10 million which the claimants received in March 2014. Two more—another painting by Monet (47) * and one by Alfred Sisley (7) *—could soon be recovered.

The list is the result of research and investigative work done by the claimants’ lawyers led by Robert Swift. The list has the artists’ names, titles of the paintings, medium used and size.  The list may not be complete.  Images of most of the masterpieces can be viewed on the Internet. – Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

 

1) Abraham Janssens
Peace and Abundance Binding the Arrows of War,

a.k.a. Peace and Plenty Binding the Arrows of War
Oil on canvas, 150x118cm

 

 2) Alessandro Botticelli
Madonna and Child
Tempera on panel, 37x29cm 

 

3) Alessandro Magnasco
Christ Heals the Cripple
Oil on canvas, 93.5x70.5cm


 

 4) Alessandro Magnasco
St. Jerome
Oil on canvas, 73x58.5cm

 

 5)Alessandro Magnasco
Mother with Child
Oil on canvas, 40x30cm

 

 6)Alessandro Magnasco
Couple of Farmers with Children
Oil on canvas, 40x30cm

 

 7) Alfred Sisley *
Langland Bay
1887

 

 8) Amadeo Modigliani
Jeanne Hebuterne
Oil on canvas, 51x22.25cm

 

 9) Amico Di Sandro
Virgin and Child
Tempera on panel, 58x58cm

 

 10) Andrea Della Robbia
Madonna and Child
Terracotta relief, 40.5x23cm (including frame)

 

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PCGG, Marcos victims in race to claim Imelda's art collection

Philippine Daily Inquirer/SPECIAL REPORT/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

First of two parts 


The sudden move by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) to order a search of the San Juan residence, offices and other homes of the Marcos family for precious artworks that the PCGG claims should belong to the government caught many by surprise.

A GAUGUIN IN SAN JUAN Paul Gauguin’s “Still Life with Idol,” is just one of the masterpieces allegedly in the Marcos art collection that the government seized from the ancestral house in San Juan City.


Why only now?

One of those asking this question is Robert Swift, the lead lawyer of the 9,539 rights abuse victims during the martial law regime (1972 to 1986) of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who doubts the motives of the PCGG, the agency created by the first Aquino government to recover the ill-gotten assets of Marcos, his family and associates.

He believes the PCGG is “playing a game” of recovering the paintings as part of a strategy to nullify the $2-billion judgment that the victims won in a class action suit against the Marcoses in a Hawaii court.

“The PCGG has known about the paintings for over 28 years and done nothing about them until now,” said Swift.

In 1995, a US federal grand jury in Hawaii found the Marcos dictatorship liable for the torture, summary executions and disappearances of about 10,000 people and awarded the victims $2 billion in damages from the Marcos estate. According to Swift, Philippine courts have refused to recognize the $2-billion judgment while the Philippine government uses its sovereign immunity in the United States to try and prevent the members of the class suit from litigating to collect on the judgment, touting Sandiganbayan decisions forfeiting various Marcos assets in favor of the government as enforceable in the United States.

Unable to collect

In addition, Swift said the claimants in the class suit also have a 2011 US judgment against Imelda Marcos personally for $353.6 million, which they are entitled to execute on any property she owns. But again, collection of the judgment has been difficult because Philippine courts do not recognize the US judgment.

Swift himself has been engaged for decades in hunting for Marcos assets, including the art pieces—many of them by recognized masters that Marcos’ wife Imelda is said to have acquired using the Marcoses’ enormous wealth—in the interest of collecting on the $2-billion judgment.

Ill-gotten or not, the Marcos assets should be used to compensate the human rights victims of Marcos’ martial rule, he argues. “The class [suit members] are entitled to pursue any assets of Mrs. Marcos, including her art collection, because the class obtained a [2011] judgment against her personally for $353.6 million,” he said.

Finders keepers?

The PCGG and the claimants represented by Swift are therefore in a race to who gets to the trove first. Does the search mean finders keepers?

One of the Marcos art pieces that has been traced, French impressionist Claude Monet’s “Les Bassin Nymphease,” also known as “Water Lilies,” was sold by Imelda’s aide, Vilma Bautista, to a collector for $32 million. To avoid litigation, the buyer offered $10 million to the members of the class suit against the Marcos estate. Bautista and her conspirators continue to face prosecution for selling what did not belong to them.

In March, proceeds from the settlement on the Monet painting were divided among the claimants, the second distribution since 2010. (For each claimant, $1,000 in 2010 and another $1,000 in 2014.) These are a mere trickle from the $2-billion award.

More where it came from

But there’s apparently more where the Monet came from. On Oct. 1, sheriffs of the Sandiganbayan, armed with a writ of attachment from the antigraft court, seized an undetermined number of artworks from the Marcoses’ San Juan residence.

Masterpieces

The writ, issued on the request of the PCGG, covered at least eight Old Masters works in the possession of the Marcos family, including “Madonna and Child” by Michelangelo Buonarroti, “Femme Couchee VI” (Reclining Woman VI) by Pablo Picasso, “Portrait of the Marqueza de Sta. Cruz” by Francisco de Goya, “Still Life with Idol” by Paul Gauguin, “La Baignade Au Grand Temps” by Pierre Bonnard, “Vase of Chrysanthemums” by Bernard Buffet, “Jardin de Kew pres de la Serre 1892” by Camille Pissarro and “L’Aube” by Joan Miró.

Swift’s list of artworks, whose value could partly fund the rights abuse victims’ claim, is even longer at 206, not including the “Water Lilies” that was sold.

On the list of 206 are two Picassos, two Gaugins, two Botticellis, three Degases, one Matisse, one Cezanne, one Van Gogh, one El Greco, one Fra Filippo Lippi (1460), one Raphael, one Titian, one Manet, 52 Gobillards, 18 Grandma Moses and three Monets. (“Water Lilies” was one of the three Monets on the list.)

The other Monet, “L’Eglise et La Seine a Vetheuil” (also known as “L’Eglise a Vethueuil”) and an 1887 painting by French impressionist Alfred Sisley (“Langland Bay”) will soon be traced, if not already found, the lawyer said. # (To be continued)

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Basa-Guidote heir speaks truth to power

Philippine Daily Inquirer/SPECIAL REPORT/Ma. Ceres P. Doyo                                                                 

                                                             (Conclusion)

Last month US-based Ana Basa flew to the Philippines after learning that the only surviving sibling of her father, her Tita Flory (Sr. Flor Maria) has a life-threatening ailment. The nun is one of the original incorporators of the Basa-Guidote Enterprises Inc. (BGEI).

Like her illustrious forebears who influenced the course of Philippine history, Sr. Flor Maria now finds herself, albeit unwittingly, in the cusp of the unprecedented, in the confluence of events that might have a bearing on how this country could rise or fall flat on its face. Sr. Flor Maria Basa of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (FMM) is the granddaughter of Filipino patriot, Jose Maria Basa.

Thrust recently into public consciousness because of her family ties to the protagonists in the impeachment trial of Supreme Court Chief (CJ) Justice Renato C. Corona and because of the pronouncements she made to uphold her niece Ana Basa in the family problem concerning inheritance that could have a bearing on the ongoing trial, Sr. Flor Maria has become fair game for the paparazzi.

Here is a nun who had quietly lived her religious vocation for 65 years suddenly coming out, with guns blazing so to speak, to shoot down what she believes is not the truth.

Speaking truth to power, one might call it.

Oppressive tactics

When Ana arrived here, the impeachment trial was well underway. The bank accounts and other assets of the impeached Chief Justice were being laid bare by the prosecution. Witnesses were being examined and cross-examined. It was then that Ana learned, straight from the horse’s mouth so to speak, that the alleged source of Corona’s funds in his Philippine Savings Bank accounts were BGEI funds, that Corona’s wife Cristina was merely holding the money in trust. Ergo, the money did not have to be in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN). One of the charges leveled against Corona had to do with his incomplete SALN.

Ana grabbed the opportunity to share her version of a long-festering family problem that had to do with BGEI and Cristina’s control of it.

To Inquirer reporter Cynthia D. Balana, Ana first bared in detail what she claimed were oppressive tactics by the Coronas to leave the rest of the Basa-Guidote heirs out of BGEI.

Sr. Flor Maria’s name again came up. What did she know? Being the only surviving original BGEI incorporator, Sr. Flor Maria was privy to her niece Ana’s allegations.

With TV-radio host Ted Failon in tow, Ana went to see her Tita Flory who readily shared what she knew. The nun made the news.

Backs niece’s story

Sr. Flor Maria (Flory to her next of kin) became hot news last March after her interview with the Inquirer which was followed by a taped interview with Failon.

In the interview, she gave credence to the statements of Ana, who said in so many words that the Coronas (spouses Cristina Basa-Corona and the impeached Chief Justice) had taken over the BGEI without so much as a by-your-leave.

Ana’s father Jose Ma. Basa III, Cristina Corona’s mother Asuncion Basa-Roco, Sr. Concepcion FMM and Mario—all deceased—and Sr. Flor Maria were siblings.

Crowns of flowers, thorns for Sr. Flor Maria Basa

90 but not infirm

The Inquirer spent a whole day with Sr. Flor Maria recently. She was anything but infirm or feeble. Yes, cancer somewhere in her body was recently discovered, but Sr. Flor Maria carries herself better than her younger sisters at the FMM retirement and wellness home. Before the medical diagnosis, she was assigned in various places in the Philippines.

Sr. Flor Maria, who turned 90 last December, has always made it known with great humor that she has her burial garb ready, that she takes it with her wherever she is assigned. Not the casual skirt and blouse she wears every day, but the full white habit with the turtle neck. When the time comes, her resting place will be at the grassy Tagaytay ridge with the splendorous view of Taal lake and volcano, in that hallowed place where mist turns to dew.

Heirs puzzled

With the Basa-Guidote siblings dead (except Sr. Flor Maria), their surviving spouses and children are now supposed to be BGEI shareholders. How Cristina ended up holding the reins and how funds ended up in her husband’s bank accounts was something Ana and other Basa-Guidote heirs could not understand.

Questions beg for answers. Are the funds in the PSB accounts really BGEI funds as Corona’s counsels argue they are? If so, why were the other Basa-Guidote heirs in the dark about these funds? But if they are not BGEI funds, where did they come from? The high-caliber defense bristled with energy to defend the accused by saying Corona merely borrowed from those funds. And where is the board resolution for the loan?

During her interview with the Inquirer, the nun describes her ailment as a blessing in disguise and Ana’s visit as “perfect timing.” She says that were it not for her health condition, Ana might not have come to visit. Indeed, upon arrival, Ana serendipitously found a perfect storm, namely, the impeachment trial that put the Coronas on the defensive. This was a time of reckoning.

To Ana’s revelations, Sr. Flor Maria adds that she had more than sensed some maneuverings on the part of Cristina. She recalls, “In 1999 people were telling me, ginigiba na ang Bustillos.” (The property on Bustillos St. is being demolished.) That property was sold to the City of Manila for P34.7 million in 2001, former Manila Mayor Joselito Atienza told the impeachment court. Cristina Roco-Corona received the payment and put it in her bank account.

(Sr. Flor Maria requested that several paragraphs in this article that have to do with an alleged attempt to seize control of BGEI that she had witnessed be deleted to prevent family members from feeling hurt. -CPD)

‘Notice to the public’ ad

Things came to a head in 1995 when Jose Ma. III placed in two national newspapers paid announcements with Cristina’s photo and name in bold letters. The “notice to the public” said, “Notice is hereby given to the public that on 15 July 1995, BASA-GUIDOTE ENTERPRISES INC. THROUGH ITS STATUS QUO Board of Directions (based on the 1986 General Information Sheet), has officially WITHDRAWN whatever authority that was given to CRISTINA ROCO-CORONA by her father, Vicente Roco (the president of the corporation, who passed away on 07 March 1993). Please be warned that Basa-Guidote Enterprises Inc. shall not recognize any transaction made by Ms Corona for and in its behalf.

“The issuance of this notice does not mean, however, that the corporation has recognized the validity of Ms Corona’s past representation that she was authorized to act in behalf of Basa-Guidote Enterprises Inc. Ms Corona’s picture appears above for the public’s guidance. By: Basa-Guidote Enterprises Inc. Felix Carlos Vicentillo, Assistant Secretary.”

Estafa case, libel suit

Jose Ma. III also filed an estafa case against Cristina who was collecting the BGEI rentals.

Incensed, Cristina filed a libel suit against Jose Ma. III, Sr. Flor Maria, Cecilia Basa (wife of the late Mario Basa) and Betsy Basa-Tenchavez (a daughter of Mario Basa). (Sr. Concepcion died in 1995.) The three women coaccused hired the services of Yorac Arroyo Chua Caedo Law Office. (Jose Ma. III who was the principal accused in this case had his own lawyers.)

Yorac’s glare

Sr. Flor Maria remembers defense lawyer William Chua remarking that they would have rough sailing because Cristina’s husband, Renato Corona, was holding a high position in Malacañang. The feisty Haydee Yorac flashed her famous glare and said, “What is our law office for?” And so the lawyers fought it out in court and got the three women acquitted in 2004. “Sometimes Corona would be there,” Sr. Flor Maria remembers. “William (Chua) was already ill at that time but he showed up when the decision was to be handed down. When I turned around, there he was, standing behind me, with a mask on his face.” Chua had made sure the courtroom would be packed with nuns. He died not long after.

Libel case pending

As Ana had said in her two-part interview with Inquirer reporter Balana, the libel case against her father is still hovering over their heads. It is possible, a lawyer who knows something about that libel case, that if Jose Basa III was found guilty of libel, Cristina might have been awarded damages and she could have helped herself to her uncle’s shares.

Nun still an incorporator

Is Sr. Flor Maria still a co-owner of BGEI and therefore entitled to her share of assets? “When Peping (Jose Ma. III) was still alive, he bought my shares, Sr. Concepcion’s and the others’,” the nun recounts. Sr. Flor Maria says that Peping did this because their mother Rosario had wished that her inheritance from her deceased parents should remain with her children and would not be sold away outside the family.

“This property supported us after Papa died at the age of 47. So Peping offered to buy it at the appraised price. Each of us received P2 million. What I know is that he did not give Cristina because she had been collecting BGEI income.”

This treasured family property is what Cristina sold to the City of Manila when Atienza was the mayor of Manila.

An Inquirer source, a lawyer, said that Jose Ma. III’s “buying out” other BGEI shareholders must have been a private arrangement between siblings because the last time she looked at Securities and Exchange Commission records was not long ago, Sr. Flor Maria was still an incorporator.

‘I have forgiven’

As to members of religious orders who have vows, they do not lose their legal claim to their shares in their families’ fortunes. An FMM sister explains: “Members of contemplative religious orders usually pronounce solemn vows and make a total renunciation. We, the FMM, make simple vows. Our policy on the sisters’ property is this: Before we make our final vows we write a will indicating the beneficiary of whatever inheritance we are entitled to. The beneficiary could either be the congregation or any member of our family—or both. Some sisters give a part to the congregation and a part to a member of her family.”

Suffice it to say that both Sr. Flor Maria and the late Sr. Concepcion had decided on their beneficiaries.

And so it was that after decades of missionary work, the spunky 90-year-old nun was living a quiet prayerful life and translating French documents into English when there was a knock on her door. Sr. Flor Maria had to say her piece. She was not raring for a fight. “I have forgiven,” she declares. She merely supported what Ana had said, but what she said was more than enough. Will she be subpoenaed to testify?

Victim-soul for justice

“I am doing this (interview) as a victim-soul for justice,” she declares, “as a victim for souls and the church.” In spiritual parlance, making oneself a victim-soul is a form of sacrificial offering so that good may prevail.

Sr. Flor Maria at 90 is only two years older than the impeachment court’s presiding senator-judge, the now highly rated (in surveys) Juan Ponce Enrile. “Please mention that I have a good review of his performance,” she says wistfully. With a mind as sharp as a razor, Sr. Flor Maria might yet have the last word.

“When we were children,” she muses, “Mama used to tell us, ‘No hay mal que por bien no venga.’” (This is also a line from a 2002 Gloria Estefan pop song.) The literal English translation of this double negative—“There’s nothing bad from which a good doesn’t come”—is as unwieldy and confounding as the issues plaguing this nation that is groaning for redemption. Turned on its head, the saying simply means “Good things can come out of bad situations.”

It is not quite sunset. In the afternoon haze, Sr. Flor Maria walks unassisted past the garden and to the convent chapel after the interview, but not before jotting some inspiring lines in this journalist’s notebook. In her elegant handwriting, she ends, “…for the greater glory of the Triune God. Sr. Flor Maria Basa fmm, March 25, 2012.” #

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