Transparency: It's an Attitude

Almost every Philippine government agency has an emphasis on transparency. Not because of law, necessarily, but because of the good governance initiatives of President Aquino and the understanding that the public wants it. Citizens and their agents, the press and watchdog groups, want SALN's and financial information and other facts in order to keep an eye on a government that seems historically inclined to drift toward corruption and little favors like million-peso Christmas gifts from taxpayer accounts.

Let's explore this animal "transparency" a little more, eh?

Here's what dictionary.com says transparency means:

trans·par·en·cy   [trans-pair-uhn-see, -par-]  noun, plural  trans·par·en·cies.  

• Something transparent, especially a picture, design, or the like on glass or some translucent substance, made visible by light shining through from behind.

Well, that definition hints at what we are driving at, but clearly, we need to ask our good friend Humpty Dumpty to recast the definition to better suit what we are striving for. We need a definition that pertains to government agencies, not glass.

• HDNWD: transparency (noun) The act of being candid with citizens regarding information about the activities and operations of a government unit.

Yeah, that's better.

So what do we expect from a transparent government?

• Well, first and foremost, we want to be able to track the money. So we need information on budgets and expenses. We need enough detail to be able to see where the big amounts go. This should be easily accessible on the internet.

• We'd like SALN's to know leaders are not enriching themselves by illicit kickbacks or budget shenanigans.

• We need a method of public inquiry that is reasonable. For example, journalists and certain representatives of the public need to have the right to dig deeper. Not "at will", but within some standards of reason. Guidelines need to be written to deal with requests.

• Citizens need also to understand the vision, mission, strategies, and major tactics of government units. What's the plan? Where are we now, where are we headed and how and when are we going to get there? The plan should have measurable benchmarks. Specific targets and timeframes.

• Citizens then also need to be able to monitor progress toward goals and understand why there are variances from plan. Change in environment? Wrong estimate of timeframe or expenses? Essentially, the public is like a corporate "Board of Directors" and it can only do its job responsibly if it is given good information. If given good reports.

Those are the basics, I think.

But there is one additional quality of transparency that I think government agencies miss. We can call it candor i suppose. And in the failure to be forthright, we can read a lack of  respect for citizens.

The persistent theme in government web sites is self-promotion. The everlasting engagement in public relations or politics rather than running the business of the people.

So many government web sites feature achievements or have glowing biographies of leaders. They emphasize the good and downplay or ignore the bad. In doing so they create a kind of fairy tale impression of glitter and gold and dancing in the castle with the prince. In truth, they are slogging up a muddy hillside in the rain trying to get to dry land.

The lack of objectivity is a lack of transparency, and it is dangerous. I know why it is done. Agency heads want the people to be confident in the agency. They want Philippine citizens to understand that the agency is doing a lot of good work for the Philippines.

But it is hiding from the truth. And it stops good works from getting done.

Playing PR with the citizens, or political games, is not transparency. To sit down with the Board of Directors and mislead them with glowing reports when the business is struggling is negligence at best and criminal at worst.

I'm inclined to think these are face-saving tricks played by the incapable as they try to hang onto their jobs. Or it is an elitist game played by officials who believe "the people aren't smart enough to handle the truth".

I think transparency requires having more confidence in Philippine citizens than that. It requires a belief that they are adults who can handle the good and the bad and accept that he bad sometimes comes with the territory. There is nothing wrong with a mistake or two along the path of progress. It is important to acknowledge when someone screws up. When conditions change. When someone made a decision with imperfect information.

Now, maybe Filipinos DON'T trust one another, and so my overlay of good corporate practices does not work in the Philippines. Maybe Filipinos do not cut anyone slack for not getting it perfect.

In that case, my argument is wrong.

But, if I ran a government agency web site, I would err on the side of confidence in Filipinos. I would put my performance targets smack dab on the Home Page.  I would explain when things were not going well, why, and what we are doing to adjust. And I would note when things are going according to, or better than, plan.

I'd be forthright and honest. Candid. I think that is a better way of gaining the confidence and backing of the public than blowing smoke.

Transparency is more than an excel worksheet. It is an attitude that reflects confidence in, and respect of, Philippine citizens.

"Well Done Mr. President"

By now I'm sure you've read about the Philippines rising in the corruption rankings provided by Transparency International. And perhaps you've read the anti-propaganda diminishing the importance of the ratings.

• "They are just perceptions, and they are wrong!"

• "105th is still corrupt!"

• "President Aquino is a braggart, claiming this as his achievement."

You know, I disagree with the anti crowd once again. Indeed, I can't disagree more.

The Transparency International ranking is just one more check in a lengthening checklist that PROVES that President Aquino has recast the hopes and promise of the Philippines. Tangibly.

From a string of presidential disappointments to a huge stride forward. From the dark confusion and mistrust of Mrs. Arroyo into the light of good deeds and promise of Mr. Aquino.

If the anti crowd cannot grasp that perception is real, is tangible, is meaningful, then it is best to write them off as lost, adrift in self deceit. You see, hope is also intangible. But so very important. Promise. Courage. Dignity. Compassion. Loyalty. Trust.

Intangible, but oh so very real. Powerful in the right circumstances.

President Aquino brought that power to the Presidency.

I chalk this up as one more metric that the anti crowd must whine and rationalize away to hold onto their dwindling credibility, founded on some strange, enduring distaste for the Philippines and Filipinos and anything POSITIVE about the country they may once have called home. 

The "yellow glow" that the antis detest is real. It is the bed of promise, the motivation, the passion upon which real work has been done. One man provided that foundation, the platform needed to get the Philippines headed in a new direction, the man the antis can't bear to give credit to, even when credit is due: President Noynoy Aquino. The man who brought fundamental goodness and earnest work to the Presidency of the Philippines, for ALL that it is worth.

Would Estrada have done this? JoeAm figures the odds would be about 5%.

Villar? 20%

Gordon? 40%

Why? Because the nation rose as one and said "we demand good government!" Those guys had certain strengths, but they did not have the real-deal GOODS. The rock solid intangible of belief and trust.

Only one candidate in 2009 could bring the hope and the promise and, yes, authoritarian power that would clear the path for stern acts like the jailing of the predecessor President and the eviction of a Supreme Court Justice who did not pass muster. I'm imagining Estrada and Villar would have pardoned Arroyo and left Corona in office. Gordon, who knows . . . such an illusive butterfly, floating on emotion . . .

Do  you think that authoritarian power, granted by the will and demands of the people, is "intangible"? Do you think ANYONE else could have brought to the top desk what President Aquino brought? The good of his mother and the grit of his father?

Who?

You know I may climb on the President for his various acts from time to time. I even used the "I" word in a headline once. But that is akin to how one feels about a baseball infielder making an error during a game. We boo in frustration, but still cheer for him and his team when they do well.

I cheer for President Aquino, and the Philippines. Truly, I do.

 Here's the Philippines under President Aquino:

• Economic  growth is strong. Everyone recognizes this from the international press to the debt rating agencies. 

• Tourism, service-center, gaming and real estate industries are flourishing.

• The stock market is roaring.

• The peso is strong. Too strong for my dollar denominated wallet.

• International standing is strong and respectably, and respectfully, firm. Ask China. They know what nation they can't roll.

• Investors are investing, in call centers, in public/private partnerships, in casinos, in hotels and tourism ventures.

• Infrastructure is being rebuilt after years of neglect and budget plunder. Roads and trains and schools and ports.

• Primary schools are going to the international standard of K to 12, a hard transition, but essential for Filipino scholars to gain the recognition they deserve overseas.

• Antiquated government paper processes are being automated and trimmed of red tape, the automation itself a form of check against corruption.

International standing is up markedly; not just on Transparency International's rankings, but S&P's and Moody's. ALL indicators are going in the same qualitative direction: UP. Only the antis and China and the Catholic Church and the incorrigibly corrupt are trying to drag the Philippines back into pits of darkness and dysfunction.

Strange partnership, eh? It warrants restatement for emphasis: Working against the moderization and betterment of the Philippines are:

• The antis
• China
• The Catholic Church
• The incorrigibly corrupt

Is President Aquino perfect?

Are you?

Is Philippine progress fragile?

Yes, yes it is. The manufacturing base is weak. The storms and disasters are real. Poverty is a huge burden. The pipelines for essentials - food and water and electricity and gasoline and health care - are barely able to keep up with demand. The nation seems always to be one step ahead of crushing need. Tuna are disappearing from the seas. Good farmland is being eroded. Congestion is bogging cities down in costly and dirty inefficiency. China is making threats daily, insulting and trying to intimidate the Philippines and Filipinos.

But here is what I hope will happen, with the idea that hope, combined with confidence and commitment, can become singularly important drivers of achievement:

• HR will get passed and there will be a tempered but profound trend in the poorer areas to limit family size. Education will do that. Word of mouth endorsement of smaller families will do that. Availability of birth control methods will do that. In 50 years, poverty will have moderated. It's a slow freight, getting money to the millions of poor.

• FOI will get passed, if not this year, then next. And with FOI will come additional incentives for government workers and agencies to focus forthrightly on the job to be done. On competency, not show. It will help seal good governance as a permanent quality. That's why the President will back it. His legacy is lost without it.

• The economy will continue to rip, with a growing middle class spending and educating the nation to new wealth.  Also from the middle class will rise pragmatic managers focused on productivity and achievement, not the self-service of corrupt ways.

• I'm inclined to wonder, what does China really provide that could not be built in the Philippines or bought elsewhere? Cheap plastic toys?  It is in China's interest not to stir up trouble with the Philippines. The Chinese have major investments here. Filipinos have little in China. Joint development of contested seas will be worked out. No guns will fire.

• Peace in Mindanao will be troublesome, but successful. The government is making the kinds of investments there that can turn bitterness to opportunity. Something the Philippines has never delivered to poor Muslim communities. It's important to understand that the cause of unrest in Mindanao is not religion, it is poverty.

Two huge, critical milestones will need to be passed to assure that the rise of the Philippines is permanently sealed into the nation's social infrastructure. They are:

• The FOI Bill, which opens government to inspection and puts the people in charge, a force for public good over private gain. 

• The 2016 election, which will either advance the Aquino legacy or turn away from it. I personally believe Mr. Binay would be a bad choice and Mr. Roxas or Mr. Abaya would be a good choice.

Although it bugs me when President Aquino brags about every accomplishment as if it were his personal mark rather than the natural flow of things, I must admit, every achievement, every increase in ranking and rating, is indeed built on the bed of promise he brought to the Philippines, and the fundamentally good work that his agencies have done. So . . .

"Congratulations, Mr. President, on that improved Transparency International ranking."

You did that. You can claim it.

We would not have that improvement without your principled leadership.

But enough of that glow for now.

How about turning your attention to that FOI Bill, eh?

To allow you to exit stage 2016 with a profound and everlasting legacy that seals "good governance" into the way Philippine agencies, courts and legislators do the people's work. Work that is visible to the people and their agents, the press. And their advocates, the attorneys. Work that is forthright and open. You know . . . earnest . . . and good . . . like those intangible leadership qualities you brought to the Presidency that today enable Filipinos to convert another intangible, their good heart, to progress.

The Awakening Beast: Public Indignation (Angry Maude)

Guest Blog by: Angry Maude

(Editor: The scheduled blog "How Filipino Personal Independence Undermines Community" will be delayed one day so that this guest article can be run on a timely basis.)

I see that a lot of commentary has moved past Senator Sotto's transgressions to the willingness of our so-called esteemed Senators to turn their eyes, to duck their heads, to walk away from a blatant, arrogant insult to public honor and high values. Not to mention, Senate honor.

I like Senator Santiago. She is a bright woman and my role model. But today I have to disagree with her. Senator Santiago is correct in only one way. Copying a paragraph from a blog is not such a big deal.

ANGRY MAUDE

But every which way after that, she is wrong. It is a big deal if an entire speech is crafted on the creative efforts and knowledge of others, with the words twisted to mean what the writers did not mean to say. It is a big deal to deny first the theft, then  acknowledge it and dismiss it as innocent. It is a big deal to criticize the public for doing their duty to condemn bad behavior. It is a big deal to propose an act of vengeance against those who spoke out for higher values, a blogging bill to silence public expression.

No, no, Senator Santiago, that is a VERY BIG DEAL. Idol or not, you are wrong.

Blaming bloggers for the incident reflects a huge ignorance of what the public's role in a democratic nation is all about.

Condemning bloggers in this instance is very much like condemning a whistle-blower for having courage and high values.

Public expression is a vital check and balance in democracy.

To silence public expression would be like eliminating the courts. Just letting the police determine guilt or innocence. Who really needs that check and balance on justice? Cops have good values.

It would be akin to eliminating the legislature. Just letting the Executive Branch dictate laws. Who really needs a Legislature, especially if it is not interested in doing good acts?

To silence public expression would be to return the Philippines to the dark ages where leaders meet in secret smoky rooms and hatch dark schemes hidden from public eyes.

This is an attitude exactly the opposite of transparency and forthright governance.

It goes against the grain of stability and enlightenment brought to the Philippines by President Aquino's dedication to good governance.

The Senate is out of step. Out of step with the direction of the Philippines.

The Senate is not leading.

It is just sitting there. Or worse, hiding.

• Senator Sotto has spoken. He has held the floor for a long time.

• Four senators have mumbled a few words of support for the Sotto ideals.

• One senator has criticized plagiarism.

• Seventeen senators have remained silent.

Oh integrity, sweet integrity, I fear thy name is not Senator.

On Probation: Chief Justice Maria Lourdes A. Sereno

JoeAm has been running a series of articles focused on "A First Class Philippines", working his way past the sensationalist media which tend to focus on flaws and the anti-thugs who relentlessly tear down the Philippines and anybody who objects to their obnoxious line.

It is too early to rate newly appointed Chief Justice Maria Lourdes A. Sereno. The appointment itself is first class, continuing President Aquino's penchant for finding good, sincere, honest, bright, capable people to put into key offices. But the proof is in the judicial pudding and that will take a couple of years to bake.

I laugh when the antis condemn the President for picking a judge who has ruled sympathetically to his own thinking, for instance, on the attempted midnight escape of ex-President Arroyo. As if the President would be smart to pick someone sure to UNDERMINE his efforts to build a responsible, honest, capable Philippine government. Like that would be smart!  Hoo ha.

There is no doubt that CJ Sereno has the POTENTIAL to be rated First Class as a Chief Justice. She has the knowledge of law, the independence of thinking, the intelligence and the experience to be successful. But she must do some very important things to prove her mettle:

Wean herself from the Executive Branch.

Okay, good joke. Now get to work!

Okay, smiles and cheers, we are all on the same page here, happy with the appointment, as we can see in the enclosed photo grabbed from the PCIJ blog. But the Judiciary must stand independent so that it can responsibly and independently rule on cases that involve the Executive Branch.

CJ Sereno must show, without question, that she is not a lackey of the President. She does not have to rule against him to do that. She has to rule intelligently and forthrightly with a keen eye on the law. History suggests she can do this.

Assure Transparency and Honorableness

Judges in the Philippines do not reveal their personal wealth. You know the reason as well as I do: enrichment derived from determinations "in law" that go to the litigating party that pays the most. This must change or the courts will remain suspect. SALN's must be the rule, not the exception. And the transparency has to be in enough detail to track the money year-to-year.

The excuses for continuing to operate in secret are infantile. "People will harass them. Their families will be open to kidnapping if their wealth is evident." So on the infinitesimal chance harm might come to a judge, the whole judicial system is opened to bribes and secretive behavior.

• You know, my scale of pros and cons broke when I loaded those arguments on. Snapped.

The notion that judges are on the take is disgusting. The place where the law is rendered simply must be impeccable to be respectable.

CJ Sereno must clean up the corruption and get judges focused on law, not favoritism. Transparency of financial records is an important first step.

Build Efficiency

The Judiciary has in place some of the basic disciplines to drive toward better efficiency. For example, the number of rulings issued by court are tracked. This kind of statistical accountability is important. Not only number of cases, but cases by type, and number or percentage of cases appealed, and the record on appeal: judgments endorsed or reversed.

But the compilation of statistics is not enough.

The question needs to be asked, substantively, "What are we doing in our courts? How can we focus energies where they will do the most to build respect for law in the Philippines?"

Here is an example. Annulment hearings take a tremendous amount of judicial time. In the Philippines, marriage is a contract with no termination provision. When husband and wife both want out of the contract, the State insists that they remain in it, and holds numerous hearings to disprove assertions contrary to the State's authority. How ridiculous on two counts: (1) that so much judicial energy is spent on minor family matters where there is no serious offense, and (2) that the State sets out with the intent to prove both litigating parties wrong, for wanting an end to the marriage.

Why not simply stipulate that both parties want the marriage to end, and end it?

If this cannot be done within the Judiciary, than appeal to the Legislature for a Divorce Bill to take the hefty burden of mediating domestic issues off the courtrooms and judges.

Change the fundamental rationale of what the courts SHOULD be doing, which is to focus on the greatest harm, and get rid of the nuisance cases that take up so much time and energy.

Speed of resolution is ESSENTIAL for justice to be fair. If a case cannot be ruled on expediently, dismiss it. Stop punishing people without cause. The presumption of innocence should prevail. It scares you to release people like ex-President Arroyo? Then get the damn case to trial!!

Build Law Discipline

Philippine case law is a mess because too many rulings are based on favors and favorites rather than law. Appeals galore, reversals from this administration to the next, cases in the courts for 25 years knocking about without resolution (the Hacienda). A mess.

CJ Sereno must begin to build quality into legal renditions. Excellent, law-based judges need to be promoted. Poor judges need to be pushed down or out. Attorneys must meet rigorous ethical standards. Perhaps a scoring system is needed to evaluate attorneys on capability and performance. Not to mention judges.

Build the quality, where administrative efficiency and legal precision are fundamental requirements. Pay well for judges who demonstrate that quality. Prune the rotten fruit.

CJ Sereno's advantage is fundamentally that the Judiciary is on bottom now and the only direction is up.

Our Verdict

Two year's of probation. Report to the people regularly.

______________________________________

Profile of Chief Justice Sereno (Source: abs-cbnnews.com):

Associate Justice Maria Lourdes A. Sereno is the first appointee to the Supreme Court (SC) by Pres. Noynoy Aquino and the youngest among the nominees for Chief Justice coming from the high tribunal.

She was born on July 2, 1960; she is 52 years old.

She completed her law degree at the University of the Philippines (UP) in 1984 as Class Valedictorian and cum laude.

As pre-law, she took up AB Economics at the Ateneo De Manila University (ADMU) where she graduated in 1980.

She completed her secondary education in 1976 at the Quezon City High School, with Honors; her elementary education was completed in 1972 when she graduated Class Salutatorian from the Kamuning Elementary School.

She had her post-graduate degree at the UP School of Economics with the Master of Arts in Economics Program which she finished in 1992. In 1993, she completed another masteral degree, this time, Master of Laws, at the University of Michigan, Michigan, USA.

Justice Sereno was appointed to the Supreme Court on Aug. 13, 2010.

Professional background

She started her career in private practice as a junior associate of the Sycip Salazar Feliciano and Hernandez law firm in 1986.

Starting in1994 up to 2008, she served as legal counsel of various government offices such as the Office of the President (OP), Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), Dept. of Trade and Industry (DTI), and WTO-AFTA. Sometime between 1995 to 1996, she headed the Information and Public Division office of the UP Law Complex.

Also, in 1995, she served as consultant for Judicial Reform of the UNDP, WB, and USAID; she served in this capacity up to 2002.

From 1996 to 1999, she was Director of the UP Institute of Legal Studies.

In 1998, she was a counsellor of the WTO Appellate Body.

In 1999, she served as Commissioner and Chairperson of the Steering Committee of the Preparatory Commission on Constitutional Reform.

Sereno was a lecturer at the Dept. of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Foreign Service Institute from 1996 to 2007.

She served as a lecturer in Electronic Commerce Law at the AIM in 2000, at the same time, at the Murdoch University lecturing on International Business Law from 2001 t0 2002. She also lectured on International Business Law at the University of Western Australia from 2003 up to 2007.

In 2004, she was a lecturer on International Trade Law at the Hague Academy of International Law.

She was a longtime professor at the UP, teaching for 20 years, from 1986 to 2002.

She became the Executive Director of the AIM in 2009, a post she held on to for a year.

Sereno became president of ACCESSLAW, Inc. in 2000, a post she continues to enjoy up to the present.

Awards, other credentials

In her 25 years as a lawyer and educator, Sereno received the following awards:

- 1998 Outstanding Women in the Nation's Service

- 2000 Most Outstanding Alumna Award, Quezon City High School

- 2003 Most Oustanding Alumna Award, Kamuning Elementary School

- 1991 Provincial Citation, Camarines Sur

She was also able to edit the book, Thirty Years and Beyond (UP Law, 1997).

Sereno was the key writer on Law and Economics and the Constitution and Judicial Review of Economic Decisions.

She also drafted the legal framework for the operations of the first paperless trading of securities in the country for the Bureau of Treasury (BT).

Endorsements for Chief Justice, oppositions

Sereno was not automatically nominated for the top judicial post for being one of the most junior magistrates of the Supreme Court, rather, she was nominated by the following:

- Felma Roel Singco (June 13, 2012)

- Reagan De Guzman (June 13, 2012)

- Atty. Fidel Thaddeus Borja (June 14, 2012)

- Attys. Jordan Pizarras, et al. (June 15, 2012)

- Christian Legal Society through Atty. Salvador Fabregas (June 14, 2012)

- Bishop Efraim Tendero (June 18, 2012)

- UP Women's Circle (June 13, 2012)

Fudging and Filipino Legislators

Let me try to characterize the Philippine social value called "Fudging". If we flip through the Humpty Dumpty New World Dictionary, skipping past a particularly popular American obscenity because it is not relevant to his inquiry, we come across the definition we need:

• Fudging: a propensity to work around the edges of the law for personal gain.

It derives from the Latin word fudgare, which is the infinitive expression of a verb meaning "to cheat benignly". Roman gladiators used it when they laced their loin cloths with hot chili pepper, at least preserving their family valuables from the maws of hungry lions.

"Hey Ben Hur, pass the Tabasco sauce, eh?"

Well, the inquiring mind of Joe America sees the Philippine Congress as being in a bit of a predicament because fudging has been, until now, an accepted Filipino social value. But that has changed.

Bam! Has it changed.

It changed because we had the page turning, dial flipping drama of Chief Justice Corona biting the proverbial impeachment dust at the hands of his Excellency, President Aquino, who pursued the case like a pit bull on a fluffy toy poodle.

The heavy mace of punitive embludgenment (note to self; add this fine descriptive word to the HDNWD) was called an "SALN", a particularly simple document that asks elected officials to add up what they own and what they owe and put it on paper. But the math was a little much for the Chief Justice, no matter the 26 years of education you are likely to find in his curriculum vitae. So the President and all his men, and a few women to boot, whacked the Chief Justice upside the head and tossed him under the historical bridge like a log heading downriver into the West Philippine Sea.

Well, in truth, it was not the math that nailed the Chief Justice. It was fudging.

He skirted around the edges of the law on his SALN, concocting some weird interpretation of bank secrecy laws meaning that his hidden and potentially ill-gotten wealth could be socked away in a thick iron vault under no eyes but his own. He did not have to enter dollars on his SALN. That is the way an incompetent Chief Justice fudges. He interprets laws to his personal benefit.

The Chief Justice also intermingled money from businesses and relatives and his own accounts in such a web of confusion that it would take 23 senators from now to eternity to figure out exactly whose is what. That is another way to fudge.

Alas, whereas fudging was perfectly fine in 2011, and everybody was doing it. It is processa non grata in 2012. That is, it is illegal.

And double alas, we have a bunch of representatives who impeached the fluffy puppy and a bunch of senators who convicted him who are also sitting on SALN's prepared under the 2011 Filipino Code of Conduct, where "to fudge" carried a certain macho bearing, as "man, we are screwing ordinary citizens  and pulling the wool over their blind and ignorant eyes; aren't we rich and grand!"

If the spotlight turns on the hooks and crooks in the legislative math-making, we'll likely find half the government out on its ass in the middle of the road. So the legislators have called a "time out". They are huddling and muddling and trying to figure out a way out of these troublesome woods. Once they discover how screwed up the SALN's of their colleagues are, they must decide what to do.

I have an idea.

Just declare amnesty. Stamp each SALN "accepted as filed" and move on. But next year's damn well better be precise to the decimal points and it had better include dollars and Russian rubles and even that well-tattered scrap of paper called the euro.

Recognize that social values have changed.

People who lived by the old values ought not be punished because the rules have suddenly changed.

"Well, then, Chief Justice Corona should be pardoned," you might argue. "He should be given his job back."

No, no. His warped SALN was relevant to his competence, and the impeachment an expediency for a greater good. His error strewn SALN proved his judicial injudiciousness. There was no intent to prove theft; there was intent to prove bad ethical character. A Chief Justice is paid to be a law-based and high-minded arbiter of disputes. He is not supposed to use his expertise to manipulate laws for personal gain.

A legislator is not an objective arbiter of the laws. He is a writer of laws, wherein the laws reflect the preponderance of the political ideology in place at the time. In other words, a legislator is PAID to be political. A Chief Justice is paid to be NON-POLITICAL.

So the legislative SALN's that may not add up don't prove anything with regard to a legislator's ability to write laws. Besides, who needs the hassle of trying to sort out all that paper muck when Filipinos are starving and many poor women are uneducated about birth control?

The main point is to move on. Certainly, the Philippines loves a good blood bath. The sensationalist television stations would love to see hundreds of legislators with their eyeballs gouged out, lying in the middle of Roxas Boulevard or wherever they'd get dumped. And the tabloid press, masking as mainstream newspapers, would love to rumble out edition after edition of 196 point headlines screaming which legislators couldn't add things up right.

The legislators that FUDGED!

But, the glory of gore aside, it would be better to focus an intense spotlight on 2013 SALN's as the clear benchmark of present wealth. And then 2014 and subsequent years to examine change. 

The point is made.

The point is clear.

Fudging is now a swear word.

Move on. Get transparent, get honest, and get some bills passed.