Exclusive Analysis by Raïssa Robles
This one is totally amazing. To lose a document in a fire that happened TWO YEARS BEFORE the document was written.
In 2012, when Associate Justice Teresita de Castro applied for the post of Chief Justice, she wrote the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) a letter saying she could only submit 15 SALNs (yearly Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth) documents despite 39 years of government service.
The excuse she gave was that her SALNs covering the years 1973 to 1978 “could no longer be located”.
As for the SALNS covering the period from December 1, 1978 to September 22, 1997 when she worked at the Department of Justice (DOJ) — she said they had “burned” — as she put it — in a fire that “gutted” the third floor of the DOJ building “in late 1996 or early 1997”.
Because of this fire, De Castro said, she lost “her personal files” — including all her personal copies of her SALNs covering the period of December 1, 1978 to September 22, 1997 — when she worked at the DOJ.
There’s a problem with her excuse: the fire actually took place on December 11, 1995 and not—as she claimed – “in late 1996 or early 1997”.
The actual date of the fire has serious implications on the truthfulness of De Castro’s excuse for missing some SALNs.
How could she lose her 1996 SALN — and for that matter her 1995 SALN — to a fire that took place way before she was supposed to file them?
Let me explain.
First, a word about SALNs in general
Section 17 of Article XI of the 1987 Constitution requires all government workers from the President down to the lowliest regular state employee to file yearly SALNs.
Republic Act 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees further fleshed out this constitutional provision. But it did not specify when SALNs should be filed during the year.
The period of filing is specified in its Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR). You can see the IRR here.
Implications of required SALN filing date on CJ De Castro’s excuse for missing SALNs
In CJ De Castro’s case, the following is the pertinent provision in the IRR:
When to File
The above documents under the Code must be filed:
(1) Within thirty (30) days after assumption of office, statements of which must be reckoned as of his first day of service.
(2) On or before April 30 of every year thereafter, statements of which must be reckoned as of the end of the preceding year; or
(3) Within thirty (30) days after separation from the service, statements of which must be reckoned as of his last day of office.
Using this guideline, it means:
ONE. CJ De Castro should have filed her SALN for the year 1995 between January 1 to April 30, 1996 or AFTER the December 11, 1995 DOJ fire.
TWO. CJ De Castro should have filed her SALN for the year 1996 between January 1 and April 30, 1997 or TWO YEARS AFTER the December 11, 1995 DOJ fire.
HOWEVER, she claimed that both her 1995 and 1996 SALNs had burned down when the 3rd floor of the DOJ building was gutted. She dated the fire as having occurred “in late 1996 or early 1997”.
De Castro’s excuse for her missing SALNs, including her date of the fire, must have been acceptable to most of her fellow justices. The main Supreme Court decision on the quo warranto case of former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno merely noted and did not question De Castro’s excuse.
This is what the Supreme Court ruling ousting Sereno said about De Castro’s missing SALNs [underlining mine]:
Conformably thereto, the following candidates submitted their respective letters as regards the submission of the SALNs:
“(a) Justice De Castro submitted a letter dated July 17, 2012 with the attached SALNs for 16 years covering the period 1997 to 2011, from the time she became an Associate Justice of the Sandiganbayan on September 23, 1997 until December 2011 as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. She also disclosed that her SALN from February 19, 1973 until November 30, 1978 which she filed during her employment in the Supreme Court, could no longer be located. She also disclosed that her personal files, including her SALNs that she filed while employed at the Department of Justice from December 1, 1978 to September 22, 1997, were among those burned when the third floor of the DOJ was gutted by fire in late 1996 or early 1997. In any case, upon inquiry from the CSC, she was told that her SALNs filed as DOJ employee were already disposed of, as it was way beyond the statutory ten (10) – year period.”
Before I go on, please note that the ponencia who penned the main SC ruling might have miscalculated the number of SALNs De Castro actually submitted in 2012. Justice Noel Tijam wrote that she had attached “SALNs for 16 years covering the period 1997 to 2011…”
The period only covers 15 years, not 16.
In fact, Associate Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe, in her dissenting opinion, noted in a table that De Castro had submitted only 15 SALNs.
When was the fire on the third floor of the DOJ building?
CJ De Castro’s narrative on the fire actually caught my attention because it was very specific and vague at the same time. Very specifically, she said the fire at the DOJ occurred on the third floor. But she was somewhat vague on when the fire occurred: “in late 1996 or early 1997.”
I did try getting in touch with former Senator Teofisto Guingona, Jr. who was the DOJ Secretary at the time of the fire. But I received no answer.
And then I thought the story was NOT THAT IMPORTANT because anyway, De Castro was not vying to replace Sereno. So I shelved it.
Then suddenly, she was.
And suddenly, she was the new CJ.
And one major factor that led her to that position was the displacement of Sereno — on the issue of SALNs. In fact de Castro had expressed outrage, writing a 45-page document excoriating Sereno, who had been unable to produce SALNs for the years 2002-2006 because they were “irretrievable.”
In casting her vote to oust Sereno, De Castro wrote [underlining mine]:
“The impeachment trial of Chief Justice Corona and his conviction by the Senate sitting as Impeachment Court emphasized the importance of the SALN. As Senator Francis Joseph G. Escudero (Escudero) pointed out during the JBC en bane meeting on June 4, 2012, “the JBC should impose higher standards to aspirants for the position of Chief Justice.”
♦ ♦ ♦
The Court has repeatedly held in numerous administrative cases that court employees, from the highest magistrate to the lowliest clerk, are held to a higher standard than most other civil servants, and that every employee of the Judiciary should be an example of integrity, uprightness, and honesty.
♦ ♦ ♦
The evidence on record shows that respondent [Sereno] was unable to submit her SALN s for 2002 to 2006 to the JBC as required for applicants for the Supreme Court Chief Justice vacancy in 2012 and she deliberately deceived and misled the JBC so as to secure her inclusion in the shortlist of candidates for the vacancy in the said position, despite her noncompliance with the SALN requirement mandated by the Constitution, the law, and implementing rules.
♦ ♦ ♦
Considering the foregoing, respondent’s appointment as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, secured through her lies and deception in the entries in her sworn PDS [personal data sheet] and regarding her non-compliance with the above mentioned SALN requirement of the JBC, is void ab initio, and for such reason, I vote to GRANT the Petition for Quo Warranto.”
That sounds like De Castro sets a great store on the importance of SALNs, doesn’t it? It was one of the reasons why I became curious about her own SALNs and the fire that allegedly destroyed them.
I contacted some government sources to verify exactly WHEN this fire happened.
I was very much surprised to be told initially that the fire occurred not “in late 1996 or early 1997” as De Castro said.
But in December 1995.
However, the sources only had their recollection of the fire and no specific date of when it happened in December of 1995.
The Shield Law which protects journalists from having to disclose their sources of information protects me from having to disclose whom I had talked to.
Suffice it to say that as soon as another source gave me the specific date of December 11, 1995, I looked for other sources that would verify the date of the fire.
My sources were very clear that aside from the December 11, 1995 fire, NO OTHER MAJOR FIRE OCCURRED ON THE THIRD FLOOR OF THE DOJ between 1995 and 1997. Major enough to be covered by a foreign news agency.:
An Ateneo librarian helped me find the Associated Press story on the 1995 DOJ fire
Celia Cruz, former librarian of Business Day newspaper where I once worked, suggested I try the archives of the Rizal Library of Ateneo de Manila University.
Most fortunately, Tomas Dela Cruz, librarian in the microform and digital resources center of Rizal Library, was quickly able to locate for me a story on the DOJ fire. It was in the December 12, 1995 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
And it talked about a fire hitting precisely the third floor of the DOJ the night before.
Here it is below: [NOTE: You can view the images full screen by clicking on the diagonal arrow on the right side below the file.]
But what if there really was another fire “in late 1996 or early 1997”, as De Castro said?
This is still possible. However, the 1995 fire already affected the third floor where De Castro was then holding office. So presumably, her personal files were already affected in 1995. Unless she reconstructed those files, can her files, which were already affected in 1995, be affected again “in late 1996 or early 1997”?
If she had reconstructed the files after the 1995 fire, don’t you think De Castro would also have mentioned in her letter that there were in fact two fires in successive years; and she reconstructed her files but these were affected again? Her letter only pointed to one fire.
She still could say that the 1995 fire did not affect her SALNs but the 1996 or 1997 fire did. Then she would have to explain why the first fire had no effect but the second fire had.
Notice that I used the word “affected”. I did not use the word “burned”, as she did. Because some government sources told me that a lot of documents were not actually consumed by the flames but were damaged by the water used in hosing down the fire.
What THIS 1995 fire means
De Castro herself, in her concurring opinion ousting Sereno, castigated Sereno for the latter’s missing SALNs.
De Castro wrote — on page 43 of her 45-page decision voting for Sereno’s ouster — that “the mere submission by respondent (Sereno) of her letter dated July 23, 2012 to the JBC (Judicial Bar Council) — wherein she deceptively claimed that since most of her ‘government records in the academe are more than fifteen years old,’ they are infeasible to retrieve…”
Surprisingly, De Castro had given the same kind of excuse for six of her missing SALNs. They “could no longer be located”.
There is no mention in the SC ruling that in 2012, when De Castro applied for the CJ post, she had submitted a certification from the Bureau of Fire in Manila or the Department of Justice to attest that fire at the DOJ had occurred when she said it did.
Besides, the certification might have revealed that De Castro could not account for her SALNs for 1995 and 1996.
BUT –
Here’s one thing we can draw from the SC decision ousting Sereno.
When De Castro joined the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan on September 23, 1997—after 24 years of uninterrupted government service—she had NO SALN WHATSOEVER in her possession.
Because the SALN she would have submitted by April 30, 1997 that year would have covered the 1996 period. And it is clear from the SC main ruling that De Castro did not submit her 1996 SALN. She said it burned down “when the third floor of the DOJ was gutted by fire in late 1996 or early 1997.”
So what if she had no SALNs, you might say.
Here’s why.
It’s quite unusual for a former justice department official without SALNs to be appointed a Sandiganbayan judge because this court has the sole jurisdiction for convicting government officials and employees who don’t file or lie about their SALNs.
In 2012, when she vied for the post of Chief Justice and she said her SALNs were lost in a fire and no other copies remained in other government agencies, De Castro’s excuses seemed highly believable.
However, it seems no one in the JBC thought to ask her why — after joining Sandiganbayan in 1997 — did she not try to get certified true copies of her burned SALNs to reconstruct her personal file? Or at the very least, get a certification from the DOJ that she had lost her SALNs in a fire but the DOJ had copies?
That would have been easy to do then. Government sources explained to me that at that time, SALNs at the DOJ were filed with the personnel department which was located in a separate building which did not burn down in the 1995 fire.
This lack of interest to retrieve copies of her SALN then would appear to indicate that when De Castro was in Sandiganbayan, she did not really give SALNs the same weighty consideration that she does now. Despite the fact that other government officials and employees were being sent to jail or fined by the Sandiganbayan due to lack of SALNs.
No wonder that in her concurring opinion ousting Sereno, De Castro agreed with the opinion of Justice Antonio Carpio that – “since the government custodian is required to keep the SALNs for only 10 years, government employees cannot be required to keep their SALNs for more than 10 years. Thus, applicant for government positions, in particular, judicial positions, should not be required to submit SALNs more than 10 years prior to the application.”
Because if this had been required, De Castro would not have qualified for CJ.
This lack of SALNs, however, did not stop De Castro from turning around and castigating Sereno. According to De Castro: “Beginning 1994, respondent (Sereno) should have filed her SALNs yearly on or before April 30 of the immediately succeeding year.” As proof of non-filing, De Castro pointed to Sereno’s lack of SALNs.
Coincidentally, De Castro added:
“The root of respondent’s deceptions lies in her letter dated July 23, 2012 to the JBC.” De Castro castigated the “mere submission by respondent of her letter dated July 23, 2012 to the JBC — wherein she (Sereno) deceptively claimed that since most of her ‘government records in the academe are more than fifteen years old,’ they are infeasible to retrieve — she was already deemed to have substantially complied with the requirements and was eligible to be interviewed.”
If we apply De Castro’s standard for Sereno, her own July 17, 2012 letter to the JBC — stating that most of her records burned down — could also be castigated as a “deceptive claim.”
And yet the SC main ruling criticized Sereno’s excuse but accepted De Castro’s explanation of a fire.
De Castro’s predecessor, Sereno, was ousted due to missing SALNs. The justices ruled that SALNs were a test of her integrity. And integrity is a very important qualification for a Chief Justice.
As De Castro herself wrote in her decision ousting Sereno:
“…every employee of the Judiciary should be an example of integrity, uprightness, and honesty.”
Last April, De Castro herself became the subject of a quo warranto request. A private citizen named Jocelyn Acosta asked Solicitor General Jose Calida to also file a quo warranto case against De Castro for her 19 missing SALNs.
Calida rejected the request saying:
“The argument which the OSG (Office of the Solicitor General) propounded against Sereno does not apply to Justice De Castro since it was Sereno who was appointed as the Chief Justice without the qualifications back in 2012.”
Even though the JBC in 2012 had eventually judged that Sereno had complied with the SALN requirements — after relaxing this further to a 10-year period and accepting Sereno’s letter as an explanation for her missing SALNs — Calida proceeded to dig into Sereno’s SALNs beyond the 10-year period.
Now that De Castro is the sitting Chief Justice, will Calida apply the same standards he used for Sereno’s quo warranto case?
Whether or not he does, among the things that CJ De Castro will perhaps have to explain before the bar of public opinion are the following:
1) When was the fire she used as an excuse for her missing SALNs? Can she prove there was a fire on the third floor of the DOJ in late 1996 or early 1997?
2) Since evidence shows that the fire occurred in 1995, how did her 1996 SALN get burned in 1995? Or two years before she even wrote and submitted it?
3) What happened to her 1995 SALN, which she was required to file four months after the fire?
What if De Castro pleads memory lapse, confusing the date of the fire?
That would be a valid excuse.
But she would still have to produce her 1995 and 1996 SALNs. ♦
______________________________________________
leona says
‘Amid calls for him to heed due process, Duterte said the individuals he had publicly shamed can always go to the courts and seek redress.
“Why will I give you (due) process? I’m the President, hindi ako nagpo-proseso. I just name you publicly because it is my sworn duty to protect the nation and tell you what the problem is and who are the people behind it,” he said.’
Diggong does not believe in due process of law.
This country and the people cannot expect that
Diggong will observe for everyone against his
Adm the due process of law.
What does that makes of Diggong? On Sen. Trillanes IV case now?
No due process of law and planting or hiding evidence?
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/07/19/1604381/duterte-pardon-cops-drug-killings
arc says
no rule of law na, lawless si digong! ginagawang dabaw ang buong pinas and treating all pinoys like he treated dabawenyos. his word is the lawless! zeig heil!
all the more reason not to support federalism, things can only get worst under federalism. dont support sara’s hukpong too. her hukbong will perpetuate digong’s lawless policy, like father like daughter and traveling together na, birdlings of a feather.
Parekoy says
My way…
Military is on full alert…
Just brace yourselves…
We could hear Frank Sinatra’s voice in the air…
The song which killed many Filipinos in the Karaoke bars will find another victim…
Somebody fast tracked their demise…
And we are sure he is not one of the wise…
Parekoy
09-04-2018
arc says
my way or the highway. show digong the highway. escalating na po siyang masyado. kapupunta lang sa israel and already behaving like hitler, sara is goebbels, he, he, he.
leona says
I remember, and this is what was taken
on ‘planting evidence’ – relevant to Sen. Trillanes IV
problem now,
QUOTE: “Recalling a past episode of his personal participation in ”planting evidence”
“he regaled his midnight audience of sleepy journalists, attempting to impress them with his ‘evidence planting’ expertise! ”
“However, having bragged of his participation in the nefarious and criminal activity of “planting evidence,” what do you surmise might have been another Duterteic “Freudian Slip” in all that? Another revealing lapsus linguae? (slip of the tongue).”
Does Diggong’s important court cases have credible admissible evidence? Against Sen. De Lima? Against CJ Sereno? and now maybe against Sen. Trillanes IV? Who knows?
But watch this/read this:
https://news.abs-cbn.com/blogs/opinions/08/25/16/opinion-we-planted-evidence-admits-duterte
Yvonne says
I asked my source about how SALNs are normally handled by government agencies such as the DOJ where CJ De Castro supposedly lost years of SALN records due to a fire at the DOJ building.
According to my source the reconstruction or retrieval of previous SALNs should not be really that difficult because there should be three copies of the SALN kept somewhere – one for the personal copy of the filer, a second copy for the Human Resources Management (HRM) and a third copy for the Commission on Audit (COA) field office located in that specific government office.
Although it is feasible that the records of the HRM and COA are located in the same building floor, or assuming the whole building was engulfed in fire it was unlikely that both records would be destroyed because it is COA’s procedure to keep those records in a fire-proof document vault whereas HRM’s procedure varies from agency-to-agency. My source said that COA’s field office at the DOJ has fire-proof document vault but can’t say if the HRM office has.
And then there should be copies that De Castro should have retained for her personal files, as is a common sense practice with filers, because it makes the following year’s SALN much easier and accurate to prepare and submit.
leona says
Maybe she just is not loaded with ‘common sense practice’
how to go about securing documents when seemingly
lost/unavailable.
Imagine staying in court rooms and the like for 40+ plus years
all following books of rules, etc., and no other on other things
in life, one can say she became cold or frozen with it.
She needed thawing from the word THAW from ice.
he he he
andrewlim8 says
Somebody ought to put out a meme of that video of VP Robredo putting forward options on the rice crisis and iinflation, showing how she understands the issues and economics in general together with the video Duterte claiming there’s no rice crisis/shortage when even the NFA data itself shows how their stocks were depleted during his term.
You can just imagine the Cabinet meetings when economic issues are on the agenda. The President probably asks his economic secretaries, ” O ano na napagkasunduan niyo?” because he cannot and does not participate in discussions.
PURO PATAYAN ANG NALALAMAN
PAGDATING SA EKONOMIYA
WALA SIYANG IDEA.
arc says
ayan, lumayas yang si digong sa israel, running way from problems and went to israel to tell hitler jokes to jews, he, he, he. big bokbok running away to isreal.
of course walang rice shortage si digong, there will always be rice on his table, the rest of the country may starve, but never digong. solve rice problem? digong cannot even rebuild a single building in the ruins of marawi city, solve nationwide rice problems pa kaya? lest sa israel, digong wont be bothered by rice problems, he only has ofws to fool there, he, he, he. digong is hungry for their applause, god know what fake news he’d be spreading in israel.
and if buying guns and ammunition in isreal, akala ko, he’d angkat them from china. aha, ayaw yata siyang pagbilhan ng china dahil he cannot afford china’s asking price, baon na sa utang si digong.
build, build, build and marawi city is still in ruins, no build build build going on there. only asa asa asa, pinaasa lang ng husto ang maranowans, rebuild tomorrow and tomorrow never comes.
and duterte is spending travel money na naman, and all he got from the jews is pledges and promises and cooperation big enough to sink our economy.
digong really knows how to waste money, not thrifty like the jews!
leona says
Diggong found out late, now in 2018, that Adolf Hitler was INSANE.
AH was insane already way back in the 1930s.
The future Fuhrer went into PUTSCH in Germany and got jailed for it.
His doctor, Dr. Morell, gave the Fuhrer a lot of cyanide medications
that worsened his insanity. Result? Germany’s ruins and
– the SIX MILLION JEWS, etc., slaughtered and more millions Germans,
and other races deadma.
Ma-drama si Diggong sa Israel. Love and hate Hate and love for him.
he he he
Aberato says
reminds me when he declared ML in Marawi during one of his trips abroad. now, he’s in israel when he declared trillanes’ amnesty void ab ini sa ilonggo pa. hehe
so better watch out better not cry when he travels again.
Johnny Lin says
FAKE SC J De Castro is asking her critics and allies to respect the Supreme Court office now that she has assumed the top post wihe she initiated to DISRESPECT the office when she was not appointed Chief Justice by Aquino.
there is a sign board in New with a picture of Trump with the caption “our leader is an idiot”.
FILIPINOS must distribute leaflets with the picture of DeCastro with the caption “Our Chief Justice was given the position as a reward for dispels pectins the Supreme Court”
hehe he
raissa says
Hi Johnny,
Great to hear from you.
Glad you are back.
arc says
after de castro’s less than two month stint as chief justice, another justice with seniority will be rewarded for ‘shooting’ down sereno, and given the job as chief justice as well.
methink, there will be quick succession of senior chief justices, their rewards for being collegiate and accommodating to digong. and for bringing to digong sereno’s head on a silver platter.
nagmumurang kamatis ang supreme court ngayon, he, he, he, buy one take one, easy come easy go, revolving door on the go.
leona says
‘One UP three to GO’ . . . like ‘One down more to go’. . .
he he he
snitches will be awarded amazingly with grace.
he he he
leona says
She is the First FAKE CJ of the Court.
More fakes cjs to come as arc correctly anticipates it.
– in the Mafia world, the crooks call it a snitch.
he he he
andrewlim8 says
Mahirap paniwalaan yung tuta, yung tuta ng Tsina.
Yung aso ng PDEA, hindi marunong magsinungaling.
hi hi hi
arc says
given the cold shoulder yata yang tuta, china has found better replacement and another countries to pillage, he, he, he. tuta is middle east bound na, far from china, far from the maddening crowd, still chasing the illusive moolah. if only tuta looks within, he might just find the best moolah is back home and waiting development. takes time yang development, kaso impatient yang tuta, sanay ng instant gratification and in his impatience, accomplished little.
tuta is out there in the world, looking, looking, looking. if only tuta spend that time developing developing developing what tuta already has back home; nah, tuta does not have the fortitude. not born with it.
so tuta goes on looking, looking, looking and found nothing, nothing, nothing, he, he, he. and his entourage go looking looking looking with him and racking up expenses.
what a life! he, he, he.
Yvonne says
@Aberato,
If you’re looking for my original post about the million-peso waterfall you can read it on the previous page (older comments) with date stamp of August 31, 2018 @ 10:57 AM.
If you’re looking for a newspaper link about it there is none because that is/was known only to the justices of the Supreme Court, and a few people outside of the Court.
COA threatened to disallow the expense as unnecessary and extravagant so then Justice De Castro came up with the justification that the waterfall was needed because the soothing sound of the cascading water in the waterfall helps her think clearly and concentrate in her decision-making on the cases before the Court, so it was supposedly a work-related expense.
De Castro, whose division at the Sandiganbayan found Estrada guilty of plunder, and thus provided some legitimacy to Arroyo’s ascendancy to the presidency, appointed De Castro to the Supreme Court in what many considered as her reward. She became known as Arroyo’s protege and no one at the Supreme Court then was willing to cross path with her. Thus she was able to get away, among other things, with her million-peso waterfall – a lot of money at that time.
That would not be the only time De Castro is seen as being rewarded by a seating president. Her appointment as CJ, as position she will only hold for two moths or so, is seen by many as her reward for the ouster of former CJ Sereno, a strong critic of Duterte.
kalakala says
i tried google walang lumalabas kaya pala… thanks yvonne.
nag simula sa sunog at sinundan ng 1M waterfall para mapatay ang sunog sa 3rd floor he he he
leona says
‘the waterfall was needed because the soothing sound of the cascading water in the waterfall helps her think clearly and concentrate in her decision-making on the cases before the Court’
SOOTHING
SOUND OF THE CASCADING WATER
WATERFALL
like listening to a pianist running down the keys
when playing The Falling Leaves piece on the
piano. . . soothing! like a sound of the cascading
water falls!
How dramatic! Dramatic ba si CJ De Castro? Yep!
Watch the videos on her testimony at the SC during the QW
proceedings and at the LH of Congress.
D R A M A T I C !
Me? When I cannot write
[any decision] I buy HALLS CANDIES which
are SOOOOTHING I even hear the leaves
of the trees falling down like waters from
waterfalls. . . haaayyyy rapsa!
he he he
leona says
Sooooting! LISTEN TO THIS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4OR5sBVirk&list=RDD4OR5sBVirk&t=20
arc says
he, he, he, she got pagsanjan falls in her office, kulang na lang ng frogs.
leona says
HA HA HA !
SOOOTING Carol!
where are the frogs? at mga lumot?
how I love to ride in the banca over the falls – falling banca
will sooooth my adventure there!
ha ha ha
arc says
uhm, leona, you could be right about having halls candies. the brain needs sucrose o glucose to function, some people eat chocolates, hmm, delicious. thinking is one activity that needs fuel such as sugar and anything sweet, fast fuel and quick and efficient and easily digested.
as brain stimulants, other smoke cigarettes, but waterfall? na bad feng shui tuloy siya, he, he, he. missed being appointed chief justice a number of times, then she made a pack with the devil, he, he, he.
leona says
BTW. . . I only now imagined
there is a video of the dramatics
before the SC. . wala pa!
SOOOOTHING rapsa pa rin like there is * * * *
he he he
Aberato says
daghang salamat mam Yvonne.
arc says
ako rin po, nagpapasalamat kay yvonne, that waterfall is a surprise. there must be some picture takings done by the falls during christmas parties! some waterfall pictures in someone’s photo album, pride and joy of de castro, the waterfall her trophy!
leona says
I await someone giving out a photo
of the WATERFALLS at the SC Hall
taken during Christmas parties.
SOMEONE MUST HAVE IT !
Yvonne. . . can you please
contact again your source for a
possible PHOTO of that WATERFALLS
* * *
I vote to grant these ones with background music of Amazing
Grace and more other music
Oh * * * how these are sooootingly beautiful !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0FRt0CNhbo
Aberato says
now that de castro’s waterfalls is now in the limelight i guess she will put it off for a while until she retires. But wait, what about sereno? did she have one? to soothe her mind & spirit? maam Yvonne pls update us if there’s any aside from the bullet “luxurious suv”. hehe.
arc says
uhm, maybe law students have been inside supreme court building and seen all. in their walkabout, some of them must have pics too, standing beside the waterfall, smiling and dazed.
throughout her career, de castro must have mentored student lawyers and entertained some of them in her office too, telling them of her encounter with gloria arroyo and all those important people their pics on her desk.
one day, pics of de castro’s waterfall will turn up in the internet.
Aberato says
@arc, kung wala na dyan ang waterfalls baka mayyroong river that runs wild…hehe
leona says
photo of CJ Sereno’s TOYOTA LAND CRUISER P5- Million
– ‘ Department of Budget and Management Administrative Order No. 233 exempted the chief justice from the prohibition against the use of luxury vehicles for security purposes by government officials.\
EXEMPTED ! eh?
http://www.interaksyon.com/what-the-return-of-maria-lourdes-serenos-p5-million-suv-means/
photo of World of Waterfalls
https://www.google.com/search?q=photo+of+man+falling+over+waterfalls&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=lzWLvufTT-21tM%253A%252CYU0cR6eiuI5jJM%252C_&usg=AFrqEzfpO8qniws5sWdAqeWKzifEb82q7Q&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjg7erU-5vdAhUMBIgKHaSxCDcQ9QEwCXoECAUQFg#imgrc=RY3VKPBf7UmMsM:
arc says
yang bulletproof suv ni sereno, little did sereno knows that assassins bullet was coming from within, rat tat rat tat de castro and her cohort of bent justices fired bullets at sereno, close range pa.
assassins bullets did not come from where sereno had expected them to come, her bulletproof suv was of no help to her.
high powered caliber bullets came from sereno’s own rank and file, de castro, midas marquez, among others, fired the rounds of bullet, hit sereno on the chest and broke her heart. she was ‘bloodied’ and lost her job.
arc says
uhm, I hope, he, he, he, no associate justice had pissed on the waterfall, gotten drunk during a christmas party! or waded into the waterfall, cooling the ardor, a bottle of whisky on one hand, a cigar on the other, dressed as santa.
Yvonne says
@ leona,
I made a mistake in deciphering a message given by my source where I misinterpreted SB (Sandiganbayan) for SC (Supreme Court.) It should have been Sandiganbayan, not Supreme Court, sorry my mistake.
No photo-taking was allowed inside her private chamber, supposedly for private and security reasons.
leona says
Yvonne – Thank you for that clarification.
Memories comes back when you are
urged to. . . he he he
leona
andrewlim8 says
It’s Sept 1, and it’s Jose Mari Chan xmas carol time! Here’s the 2018 version, updated for the times.
The verses fit the original, and the rhymes connect.
CRISIS IN OUR HEARTS 2018
(sung to the tune of Jose Mari Chan’s “ Christmas in our Hearts”)
Whenever I see girls and boys
Eating bukbok on the streets
I remember the rice
in the warehouse as they sleep
Wherever there are people
Buying fish exchanging words
I believe these imports
are truly from our seas
Let’s fight our crisis, please
For a bright tomorrow
Where prices are at ease
And all are one in God.
CHORUS:
Let’s sing “ Merry Crisis
and a crisis holiday”
This season, may we never forget
the price we pay for silence
Leni, be the one to guide us
As another new year starts
And may the spirit of resistance
Be always in our hearts!
In every Chinese plane and ship
we allow to skid and slip
Losing all the respect
Of our neighbors and our kin
Our debt, like that bondage
From that first Chinese loan
Lead us back to the crisis
When Marcos was in form.
So come let us rejoin
Come and sing the crisis carol
With one big joyful voice
Resist the lies of Digong!
arc says
digong will soon be in israel and jordan, spreading bad vibes wider and farther, his speaking style far from ideal and less than satisfactory. it’s all about him and his infamous drug war. no wonder po, foreign investors shied away from pinas, who wants to be caught in a drug war and all that killings?
in jordan it’s mostly refugees that’s the issue, in pinas its poverty. and the queen of jordan may not like digong’s rape jokes!
Levi says
Ginamit cguro na pang ningas sa kalan de kahoy ng Apo nya ô sinu sa kanila…
Cielo says
Hi Raissa,
As far as I understand, in 2012, JBC required submission of SAL within 10 yr- period which means from 2002 to 2011.
Sereno has missing SALNs for 2002 to 2006 while De Castro has missing SALNs from 1996 to 1997 which is outside the 10 yr period.
So in terms of requirement what exactly is the problem? If you think its an integrity issue because she lied about her 1996 and 1997 SALNs, I am more inclined to believe that she may have forgotten because she is already old. Ako nga 54 yrs old na makakalimutin na sa dates.
But I commend the way you tried to dig deeper in search for the truth. It’s just your speculations that I dont quite agree because there seems to have some malice in it.
Thank you.
raissa says
Dear Cielo,
There is no malice.
I know what you are doing.
Perhaps you are the one imputing malice.
You are trying to lay the predicate for libel.
First of all, your first sentence is wrong. You said –
“As far as I understand, in 2012, JBC required submission of SAL within 10 yr- period which means from 2002 to 2011.”
The truth –
INITIALLY, the JBC required ALL SALNS. Later, since so many applicants did not have complete SALNs, they modified that to SALNs for the last 10 years.
Did you read or choose to misread the main Supreme Court decision on the quo warranto case of Sereno?
Thank you, though, for joining in on the conversation in Cyber Plaza Miranda.
Cielo says
Hi Raissa,
Thank you for your response.
Maybe aside from SALNs, a requirement that was modified to 10 yrs, looks like the psychological results was also disregarded so that Sereno can be appointed.
Since the issue here is the SALNs of de castro, she was able to submit the required SALNs for 10 years while Sereno did not which is the reason for the quo warranto..
Was de castro able to meet all legal requirements that the JBC laid for the post?
If based on your investigation yes, then she can not be removed thru quo warranto.
Was there an integrity issue on de castro?
If based on your investigation, yes, then she can be impeached if lawmakers put weight on your speculation which is an integrity issue.
I am NOT trying to lay a predicate for libel. I just want to join the conversation.
Thank you and God bless you.
raissa says
reply to you later.
have to attend to something today and tomorrow.
Aberato says
@Cielo,”I am more inclined to believe that she may have forgotten because she is already old”….
in cebuano, “ang kalimot way gahum” is a euphemism for people who are candidates for Alzheimer’s disease. But when de castro attended the congress hearing during sereno’s impeachment she seemed very accurate in her memory.
are you still inclined to believe de castro’s memory failure maam cielo?
please do get your facts right and not inject some malice about it. you’re dealing with a “tadhan ug karaan” journo and i’m incline to believe ms. raissa about this issue.
thank you anyway ms. cielo.
Aberato says
*i’m inclined..
arc says
a chief justice forgetting important dates? maybe, she’s not fit to be chief justice, higher standard is expected of her. she put her hands up for chief justice and gotten the nod, not because she’s old and forgetful and confused at times, but because of her seniority kuno, more experienced and wiser.
at kung may probity man siya, ayan, na-probe tuloy. maybe next time the chief justice will keep quiet and open her mouth only when she’s sure of what she’s saying. if not sure, she’ll be wiser and humbly says she’s not sure of the dates.
she’s now chief justice, no longer associate justice, time for her up the ante and show some refinement, he, he, he. maybe as refine or finer than the chief justice before her, who was some lady, articulate, straight to the point, and much loved, adored even. stayed 5 yrs on the job that lady, compared to the barely two months of the newly appointed chief justice.
still, never too old to learn . . . merci buco.
leona says
If one wants to be SURE be DOUBLY SURE. It goes
like this:
* * * ‘I think it was 1996 fire.’ * * * ‘No, maybe it was 1997 fire.* * *
* * * ‘No, now I have to be doubly sure. AHA! Yes it was 1996 or 1997 FIRES! * * * *
Now, that’s more like it. Sigurado na.
The fire was in 1995! HA HA HA
leona says
Raissa Robles did not engage in SPECULATIONS
on the ‘fire date’. Facts were secured.
Raissa Robles did not only try to dig deeper, SHE DUG deepest and found the date of the FIRE after 23 Years!
Why couldn’t CJ or J. De Castro [at the time] find the date of the fire like Raissa Robles did it.
It has nothing to do with age.
Where’s that WATERFALL? Not helping?
Maybe, this is my speculation without malice, the answer is:
-MaTIAGA lang si Ms. Raissa Robles without any WATERFALLS.
netty says
Leona, Cpmers, eto o! This would really help her contemplate the sins she created.
PLS delete if it created a wasted bandwidth and if palpak…THANKS.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-rbD51IecZrQ/V6eA56tgZDI/AAAAAAAAPc4/ROVEVD34E8g_YPNlgfZxh8kxIPl8ROWZgCL0B/w702-h395-no/16%2B-%2B1
leona says
Thanks netty !
Beautiful WATERFALLS !
Is this the one?
arc says
mukhang natural waterfall, a natural beauty, netty and made by nature. yong kay chief justice de castro naman ay isang man made waterfall with water maybe sourced from the faucet and could well be smelling of chlorine, may water meter pa.
Simon Olivares says
This is the raissa I’ve always enjoyed reading. The real investigative journalist who dug up the facts for all to see and make their own conclusions. Great Job, Raissa!
raissa says
Thanks.
It took a while to change from book mode to blog mode.
Glad to have you back, Simon.
Teray says
She had a 1m waterfall installed in her office to think clearly? So why did she forget about her SALN’s?
raissa says
?
1m waterfall?
Pls explain.
kalakala says
our very own yvonne revealed this 1m waterfall.
raissa says
sorreeeeee.
I seem to have missed it.
raissa says
I just read it.
Wow.
Aberato says
can you pleas post here the link on the 1m waterfalls maam raissa?
I’m interested to read it too. thanks.
raissa says
Let’s ask @yvonne
arc says
the sound of toilet flushing, water gushing, the castrated might as well have a ‘walkman’ and listened to tapes of water falling, waves rolling . . . and in some instances, sprinklers on burning buildings, he, he, he, make same sound po. gushing water.
actually, indoor plants would have been better than waterfalls, dahil plants mopped up pollutants in the air, making air fresher to breathe. kung sound lang, paano kung may tutuli ang mahistrado, may earwax! waterfall, plus air conditioning, all that moisture in the air, adds to formation of moulds, o molds. some molds are dangerous to health, bad for the lungs too. kaya siguro may mga mahistradong may hika, may lung problems, may breathing problems, he, he, he. buti nga!