Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Another Flashback: Rage Against Ani Desierto

No to Ani D for the Philippine Supreme Court!
Thursday, July 18, 2002


I cannot believe that Ani Desierto is even being CONSIDERED for appointment as a Supreme Court Justice.

FYI. He lost his credibility early on as an Ombudsman over the Kuratong Baleleng case:
1. Ombudsman Desierto overruled his own committee's findings that Philippine National Police Chief (now Senator) Ping Lacson as well as other police chiefs should be charged as principle respondents. What had been reported as a shoot out between a bank robbery gang may have turned out to be a "rub out" or execution.
2. The eye witness who identified Ping Lacson and blew the whistle on the rub out, police officer SP02 Ed de los Reyes, also swore in an affidavit that a man named Faustino "Pong" Salud (ano ba yan? may Ping, may Pong!) had tried to bribe his family on Ping Lacson's behalf.
3. An insider at the Ombudsman's office later revealed that Pong Salud had sold Ani Desierto 10 TV sets at unbelievably low prices. In his own defense, Ani said that Pong was an old friend. Plus he gave away the TV sets as gifts to his staff. Baka hindi naka tanggap yun nagsumbong?

More about Ani Desierto, the Kuratong Baleleng case, and his expensive house-buying available from this Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism article.

Ani Desierto has also bungled the prosecution of only the biggest (documented) plunderer since Marcos, Joseph Estrada, who is in an airconditioned hospital room when he should be on death row! (gratuitous aside: no to the death penallty!)

And to make things worse, while names like Hayde Yorac and Simeon Marcelo are being floated by civil society groups as Desierto's replacement, so are names like Antonio Carpio, whose law firm has represented Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Mike Arroyo. Given fat ass Mike Arroyo's penchant for corruption, this might present some sort of insurance for Madame Presidente.


Ani Desierto. No wonder he and Darth Vader have the same nickname.

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