An indecent assault

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

An indecent assault
Sunday, 07 15, 2007

It used to be that only planes and cargo trucks were hijacked. Not anymore. Political parties are now fair game.

That is exactly what the Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption (Cibac) has become: a victim of hijacking by its own lawyer out to use the party as a tool to wield power and shield him from investigations into his activities.

Cibac and its president, Joel Villanueva, have a problem. Maneuvers by a certain Luis Lokin, the lawyer of Cibac, have created a schism within the party. The Lokin group, consisting of three members of the Cibac board of trustees, is foisting itself on the public as being the decision-makers of Cibac, not the group of Joel consisting of five members of the board and the entire Cibac membership.

The motivating force of Lokin’s effort to claim power is his indecorous desire to sit in the House of Representatives. Lokin claims he is the second nominee of Cibac, while Cibac and Villanueva deny Lokin’s entitlement to any seat. Lokin has filed a motion for proclamation with the Comelec, which Cibac naturally opposed. Impatient with the Comelec which has yet to act on his motion, and afraid that Cibac would push through with a general assembly where his expulsion from the party would be a certainty, Lokin caused the filing with the Regional Trial Court of Pasig City a complaint for injunction.

What’s the real score, anyway? Let’s take it from the narration of lawyer Chona Gonzales, the real second nominee of Cibac.

Prior to the filing of its certificate of nomination, Cibac adopted the following line-up: Villanueva as first nominee; Kim Lokin (the wife of Luis) as second nominee; and Gonzales as third nominee.

Villanueva, Kim Lokin and Gonzales were then proclaimed in the party’s proclamation rally, along with Virginia Jose and Emil Galang, as fourth and fifth nominees, respectively. After the proclamation rally, but prior to the filing of the certificate with the Comelec, the party decided to include Sherwin Tugna to replace Jose.

In the preparation of the Certificate, the nominees were required to fill out their respective slots in the form. Villanueva, Gonzales, Tugna and Galang accomplished their respective slots in the certificate, but Lokin’s wife requested that she be the last to fill out her slot, after she shall have consulted with her husband.

The certificate, having been accomplished by Villanueva, Gonzales, Tugna and Galang, was then forwarded to Kim Lokin for her to complete it.

Unknown to Cibac, Lokin placed his own name on the slot reserved for his wife. (Later, Lokin would explain the substitution as a remedial measure in order to complete the set of five nominees, and to meet the deadline for the filing of certificates of nomination, his wife having decided to run instead as representative for a congressional district in Pangasinan.)

And so it came to pass that Luis Lokin’s name was in the list of nominees of all party-list groups published by the Comelec. Naturally, the Cibac party members were completely surprised and taken aback when they saw in the list a Lokin of a different name!

This prompted the signing of a petition by more than 81 percent of the membership, calling for the withdrawal of the nomination of Lokin.

As contained in their petition, the reasons advanced by the party members for the withdrawal of the “nomination” of Lokin are: (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;

Acting on the petition, Villanueva filed with the Comelec a certificate of withdrawal of nomination, substitution and amendment of list of nominees, indicating that Cibac was formally withdrawing the nomination of Lokin, and upgrading Gonzales as the second nominee.

The decision of Kim Lokin to forego her nomination did not in any way give her husband Luis the license to substitute his name, in place of his wife, as second nominee. Lokin is said to have assured Cibac that he would withdraw the nomination he made for himself. But as subsequent events have shown, Lokin reneged on his promise, and has even filed the motion that is now being opposed by Cibac and Gonzales.

Lokin has flouted the decision of Cibac withdrawing his purported “nomination.” He has not exhibited even a trace of what Messrs. Tugna and Galang have done: a gallant acceptance of the party decision to withdraw their nominations.

In the begrudging admiration reserved for scalawags and scoundrels, observers say this character Lokin has buggered Cibac real good. Lokin, they say, has made an indecent assault on Cibac. (Lawyers know what this euphemism means.) And what’s more galling is that he did it from behind.

It looks like Lokin is overextending himself. Already, he faces trouble from several fronts: the plunder of Philcomsat, where the Senate recommended prosecution; the multimillion estafa case against him and his partner Salvador Hizon; the five disbarment complaints against him; the 13 criminal/civil cases he has to contend with, and the many more that my friend Jake Macasaet will be exposing. Indeed, Lokin desperately needs to sit in the House to cloak himself with an immunity of sorts.

Lokin has committed acts that put him at risk of facing another disbarment complaint, for engaging in a conflict-of-interest situation, and for putting his interest over and above that of his client. Worse, he continues to speak against Cibac, picturing it as a religious front for the Jesus is Lord Movement. Villanueva has denounced this as scurrilous and defamatory of the program of action and actual performance of Cibac in the House of Representatives since 2001.

Cibac and Villanueva refuse to take this indecent assault passively. If you ask Jake, Lokin is a goner in this his latest obscenity.

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