Shades of Watergate

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Shades of Watergate
Sunday, 04 25, 2004

Ever since we unmasked the fabrication operations of the lackeys of the administration designed to disqualify candidate Fernando Poe, Jr., we have been receiving nasty – sometimes threatening – messages. We have calmly accepted them as one of the occupational hazards of lawyering for a political party and gave them no further thought.

Last April 17, a Saturday, on my way to Baler, Aurora, another one appeared on my cell phone and it said as a business card message: OK KA BA? Little did I know that the following Monday morning, I would get the jolt of my life, when my clerk, who usually opens my law office in the morning, called me that the entire office was in disarray.

Whoever trashed my office must have been in constant track of my movements. Last Friday, I had been doing a very important task for the KNP-LDP, to meet some deadlines before I would go to Baler, so I worked late in the office.

The break-in must have been triggered by an irresponsible reference to me by a columnist (not of this paper) as a “demolitions expert,” and they were hoping to find among the documents in my office anything that might give credence to this undeserved sobriquet.

It could not have been a simple case of burglary because it is a law office. Walang mananakaw doon, except the bulky equipment which they cannot however spirit out the building without being noticed. The documents then were the natural objective, as in fact all documents in the office have all been gone through by whoever went inside. The diskette tray was in disarray; another (with its contents) was taken altogether.

My evidence bags - of the cases filed, and still to be filed against Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her minions falling all over the place to spend public funds for her candidacy - were taken by the intruders. The diskettes on the disqualification and other cases were not spared. Their choice of the loot was the giveaway as to the identity of the intruders. It was as if the intruder had scrawled “JP” (for “Jose Pidal was here”) on the walls of my office.

It is of no great loss to me as far as the importance of the documents and the evidence that they got is concerned, because they are documents and evidence that any legitimate party could easily get from the Comelec or from the courts where the cases are pending. Besides, I heeded the advice of the great Prof. Dakila Castro to “have more than one copy of your evidence.” Their loss is no big deal, except that the intended beneficiary of the documents and evidence now has an advance copy of whatever I will need to crucify her with. The order to do the necessary whitewashing should have been issued by now, as a matter of course.

I am alarmed by the brazenness by which they undertook the clandestine operation. They entered my office during a weekend and everything seems to have been well planned. From the neatness with which they entered my office (no sign of forced entry on all three doorlocks) to the calculated arrogance by which they left it in disarray. The intruders even have no respect for the statue of Our Lady of Fatima that kept constant watch over my office. They toppled it, as if to silence anyone to witness their caper.

What concerns those who know me as not the “demolitions expert” I am touted to be is the very real certainty that a dirty tricks department could concoct something and attribute authorship to me out of the bits and pieces of documents taken from my office. I am telling everyone that there is nothing significant taken from the office, such that if by chance something comes up and they say these are the documents taken from the office of Atty. Raval, then be forewarned that they are pure concoction from my political adversaries.

This is probably not the last among the harassment tactics that the opponents of my political party are hard pressed to impress upon me: that I am being watched and that they will not allow me to do anything legal or otherwise.

More than 30 years ago, the party headquarters of the Democratic Party was “burglarized.” That set off the investigation that culminated in the scandal that brought down President Nixon. The “burglary” in my law office, a very insignificant office in the entire FPJ campaign, has not reached that proportion of Watergate. But in a sense it does, because the intrusion in my office shows the arrogance of those in power, and their determination to threaten and put fear into their political adversaries. Yes, I am disturbed that they could easily enter my office, but now I am more determined to give double of my time for the cause to throw out the present occupants of that palace by the stinking river on May 10.

The investigation is moving ever too slowly. I am not entertaining anything out of the ordinary, not just yet, especially after a palace lackey uttered: Wala dito sa amin (ang ebidensya mo). To which I can only retort: Bakit tila alam ninyo and ipripisinta ko sa COMELEC noong Huwebes? I have disclosed everything there is to the investigators. I am waiting for results.


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