A caution to Cibac

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

A caution to Cibac
Sunday, 07 08, 2007

Myself being actively involved in the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption (Gopac), the Southeast Asia Parliamentarians Against Corruption (Seapac), and Transparency International (TI), I had no reservations in endorsing Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption (Cibac) in the recent elections for party list representation in the 14th Congress. Not to mention the fortunate stroke of serendipity that Joel Villanueva, the president of Cibac, is a good friend and a member of Gopac and Seapac, too. Seeing and believing that its advocacy dovetailed with ours, I and my fraternity brother, Rep. Rolex Suplico of Iloilo, now the vice- governor for that province, campaigned hard for Cibac.

It came as a big surprise, therefore, when I read after the elections Jake Macasaet’s article in Malaya — I was in Riyadh at the time, attending an anti-corruption conference — about a certain Luis Lokin being the second nominee of Cibac. I almost choked on my coffee, wondering whether a big joke was foisted on the Filipino electorate: a party-list organization espousing anti-corruption as its main plank of governance having Lokin as its nominee!

Jake wrote: “Cibac has nominated lawyer Luis Lokin. He is to be sworn in as a member of the House of Representatives. If suspension from law practice is moral turpitude, Lokin is disqualified from seeking public office. He has been suspended for three months from the practice of law. If I remember correctly, Lokin was suspended for betrayal of trust. That is according to the complainant who alleged that Lokin betrayed her father by lawyering for his enemy. Of course, the suspension is remotely related to Lokin’s role in the misuse of the funds of Philcomsat Holdings, a listed corporation.”

Rolex and I are the private complainants in the case for large-scale estafa against this Lokin. He is the very same person prominently identified with the perpetrators of the anomalies within Philcomsat, whom a Senate committee has recently recommended for prosecution. In addition, Lokin’s slew of disbarment cases is not something that has been kept secret from the public.

To the credit of Cibac, its president filed last May 8 a Certificate of Withdrawal of Nomination, Substitution and Amendment of List of Nominees, immediately after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) released the names of nominees of the party-list organizations. To support the certificate, Cibac submitted a resolution signed by 81 percent of its membership, citing the reasons for removing Lokin as a nominee, thus: “(1) hindi siya ang pinakilala at prinoklamang opisyal na ikalawang nominado ng Cibac sa pagpupulong at proclamation rally ng partido na ginanap noong Marso 2007 at (2) hindi rin makakaganda sa imahe ng partido ang mga kaso at usapin na kinasasangkutan o patuloy na kinasasangkutan niya.”

In accordance with the Party-List Law, Lokin was seasonably excluded by Cibac by simply giving notice to the Comelec, and allowing the nominee next-in-rank to take over. (How Lokin’s name got included in the original certificate of nomination will be the subject of a separate article). Cibac may have cured itself of a malady, or a locum tenens, according to my didactic friend Reggie Pastrana.

But the filing of the certificate by Joel did not end the travails of Cibac. Lokin filed on June 27 a petition to have the Comelec proclaim him as representing Cibac. And, in a classic case of forum-shopping, a complaint was filed with the Regional Trial Court of Pasig City last Thursday, questioning the acts of Joel as president, foisting the decisions of a rump board of trustees claiming to be the real decisionmaker of Cibac, and insisting that Lokin is the nominee.

Lokin’s insistence on being proclaimed has certainly been vexatious to Cibac and the Comelec.

A word to the wise: Never try to teach a pig to acquire knowledge on the rules of language; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

Cibac is identified with the opposition in the House of Representatives. In fact, Joel and lawyer Chona Cruz-Gonzales, the real second nominee of Cibac, have been attending the caucuses of the opposition. Can Lokin show his face in these caucuses and take common cause, given his identification with, and out-and-out support for, those the opposition has been fighting all these years?

It would be odd, indeed, for an anti-corruption party-list organization to be represented by a character such as Lokin. Odder still it would be for an opposition party to be represented by somebody who is in bed with the administration.

And, worse, for Cibac to be represented by one whose spouse had declared assets of P59,785,325.96, making her the 29th richest among 225 members of the House of Representatives in the 12th Congress, and which makes her neither marginalized nor disadvantaged.

The proclamation of the nominees subject of the certificate filed by Joel has been recommended by the Comelec law department. Now that Cibac is on its way to having two of its nominees sitting in the House of Representatives, the 744,674 who voted for Cibac, believing in its sincerity to fight corruption, need not feel they have been shortchanged after all. Only those truly deserving and dedicated in the fight against corruption will represent Cibac.

The battle against corruption suffers credibility every time those who do the battle — or who pretend to do the battle — against this evil are themselves suspect of being the evildoers. Cibac in the past two Congresses has acquitted itself well, having taken a prominent role in the impeachment proceedings and in the investigations into many anomalous transactions. Cibac, to be true to its anti-corruption advocacy, should not allow the good name it has earned to be smeared by representatives with questionable character.

Cibac is growing, now garnering 5.27 percent of the votes cast compared to only 2.97 percent in the 2004 elections. Cibac should now do some housecleaning, by purging its ranks of those who have used it as a front for their activities opposed to what Cibac espouses.

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