LOWDOWN, TOO
By Jojo Robles

For the sake of the quake-hit people of Dumaguete City and other parts of the province of Negros Oriental, I sincerely hope that they voted for Noynoy Aquino for the most part in the last elections. Otherwise, they will have to rely heavily on volunteers and non-government aid organizations to help them in their time of need.

This is not idle talk. The shared tragedy of the people of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan City – and the uneven official response to it – will show that the Aquino administration treats victims of calamities differently, depending on the way they voted.

Anyone who has taken the trouble of distinguishing between the two cities that were similarly devastated by flooding, especially the residents of both localities and volunteer aid groups who worked closely with them knows that this is true. The people of Iligan got more government funds, aid and support than the people of Cagayan de Oro for no other conceivable reason other than the way they voted in 2010.

This is the dirty secret of the aid program in the aftermath of typhoon “Sendong”: aid workers, local officials and other people “on the ground” know that the Aquino government did not treat all flood victims equally. And the only reason why this is so is because Malacanang considers the popular Mayor Vicente Emano of Cagayan de Oro a political foe who caused the Liberal Party's defeat in that city two years ago.

Indeed, whatever aid the national government sent to Cagayan de Oro had to be coursed through the palace-friendly congressman, Rep. Rufus Rodriguez. In nearby Iligan, Malacanang and its official relief and aid agencies coordinated directly with Mayor Lawrence Lluch Cruz, who is also allied with the palace.

As for Aquino visiting the quake-ravaged areas on practically the entire  east coast of Negros island from Dumaguete to Guihulngan during his 52nd birthday, that bodes well for the stricken people there. Aquino's dislike for such visits is almost pathological, as his foot-dragging after calamities hit Cotabato City, Central Luzon, Northern Mindanao and other areas has shown.

Unlike other Presidents in the past, Aquino has always taken his sweet time to visit calamity-hit areas, as if this is a part of his job that he doesn't really consider important. And no matter how many times Aquino declares that what he detests is the public spectacle that such visits cause, he always does so eventually, with his entire palace coverage team in tow.

And the Negros quakes could not have happened at at a more inconvenient time – Aquino's attention is currently taken up by the Senate impeachment trial convened upon his behest, his new broadcaster flame and his upcoming 52nd birthday. All these enjoyable (to Aquino, anyway) pursuits should relegate the earthquakes in Negros to a burner placed way back on the presidential stove.

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The continuing controversy in the ongoing Senate impeachment trial about the opening of the bank accounts allegedly owned by impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona – and the obvious quandary that the senator-judges have been placed in concerning it – is understandable. The last time that a Senate impeachment court subpoenaed and investigated supposedly private bank accounts, after all, some unintended consequences followed quickly afterwards.

There is no question that impeachment proceedings, among other special circumstances, are exempted from the application of the Bank Secrecy Law. But while such revelations are allowed in such unique proceedings, that doesn't necessarily mean that they will redound to any good – even to the prosecutors seeking conviction in an impeachment case.

Already, some sectors of the business community have expressed alarm about this direction that the impeachment trial is taking. The usually non-political Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc. weighed in on the matter, saying it believed that the move of the prosecution to subpoena the bank documents covering the accounts of the chief justice and asking bank executives to testify could jeopardize the banking industry.

To those who may have forgotten, the Estrada impeachment trial stalled after House prosecutors walked out on the issue of the opening of the “second Velarde envelope” which was supposed to contain the details of the impeached President's bank accounts. Prior to the walkout, the prosecution heard supposedly damaging testimony from Equitable-PCIB vice president Clarissa Ocampo, who said she witnessed Estrada personally sign as “Jose Velarde” when the account containing ill-gotten funds were deposited was opened.

What many recall is that the walkout triggered the Edsa Dos “people power” revolution that toppled Estrada and installed Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in his place. What not a lot of people remember (but which has stuck in the mind of almost every businessman ever since) was the bank run that caused Equitable-PCIB to be sold to a bigger rival.

And that memory is why many senators are having reservations about opening Corona's bank accounts. And why, in these times when business and the economy have virtually ground to a standstill, this is certainly no laughing matter.*