Impeachment Reeks of GMA-Cojuangco Collusion - SMC Union

There are signs of collusion between President Macapagal-Arroyo and SMC Chair Eduardo Cojuangco in the impeachment case filed against Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr. This came from the president of the SMC employees union who also warns no impartial trial will be conducted given that the impeachment initiators represent the business empire of Cojuangco.

By Alexander Martin Remollino
Bulatlat.com

William Merene, president of the Kilusang Mayo Uno-affiliated San Miguel Corporation (SMC) Employees Union, said over the weekend that there are signs of collusion between President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and SMC chairman Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco in the impeachment case filed against Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr.

Davide faces impeachment in the Senate after more than 90 members of the House of Representatives signed a complaint initiated more than a week ago by Reps. Gilberto Teodoro and William Fuentebella of Cojuangco’s Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC).  

The embattled Chief Justice talks to the press

The impeachment complaint accuses the SC chief justice of failing to allocate 80 percent of the Judiciary Development Fund (JDF) to the cost-of-living allowance of court employees.

“How can there be an impartial trial on the charges against the chief justice when the lead initiators of the case are identified with Danding?” Merene told Bulatlat.com. “They are pushing a clear agenda behind the impeachment bid, that is, to replace Davide with a more loyal associate in the judiciary who will cater to all of Danding’s and Gloria’s interests.”

Anakpawis chair for electoral concerns Crispin Beltran, who recently resigned from the House, made a similar analysis in a recent statement.

“It’s evident that Cojuangco is the one calling the shots in this issue,” Beltran said. “His stands, opinions and objectives are what guide the proponents of the Davide impeachment efforts. Cojuangco is neither an elected official nor a presidential appointee, but he wields the power of scores of congressmen. The influence he has over Congress and even the presidency of Arroyo should be denounced. His machinations to remove Supreme Court chief justice Hilario Davide, Jr. and conspiracy with President Arroyo to retain his control over the disputed P130-billion coco levy should be investigated and criminal sanctions laid down against him.” 

Teodoro, a nephew of Cojuangco and leader of the NPC in the House, is the principal initiator of the impeachment complaint against the chief justice.

P700 million

According to Teodoro and Fuentebella, more than P700 million of the JDF had been spent on the construction of vacation houses for SC justices in Baguio City, the purchase of luxury vehicles, and the renovation of the SC and the Court Appeals. Under Presidential Decree No. 1949, which established the JDF during the martial law years, 80 percent of the funds should be allocated for the cost-of-living allowances of court employees and only the remaining 20 percent may be spent on office equipment.

Said Merene: “Danding and his cohorts are merely using this very legitimate issue to advance his economic interests.”

Both Merene and Beltran have called for the junking of the impeachment complaint against the chief justice. “The impeachment complaint should be junked even before session resumes on November 10,” Beltran said. “The complaint is fuelled by Cojuangco’s thirst for revenge, and malicious intent to keep the coco levy funds. It’s clear that the impeachment supporters in the House are not so much goaded by concern for the welfare of court employees and the missing judiciary development funds as they are by Cojuangco.”

Meanwhile Danilo Ramos, secretary-general of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, called on the SC not to be intimidated and to uphold its ruling on the coco levy fund. “The justices should not allow the highest tribunal to be used as protector of Cojuangco’s economic empire and Ms. Macapagal’s electoral machinery,” he said.

Ramos also said that greed was behind the impeachment complaint. “Greed is the root of all these evils,” he said. “Cojuangco’s greed for the P130-billion coconut levy fund vis-a-vis Ms-Macapagal’s greed for power beyond 2004.”

Trail of “conspiracy”

The alleged conspiracy between Macapagal-Arroyo and Cojuangco began on Sept. 27, 2001, when then Malacañang publicist Dante Ang reportedly helped forge a “compromise settlement” of the coco levy funds.

The coco levy is a series of taxes exacted from the earnings of coconut farmers from 1971 to 1983 or during the Marcos dictatorship. (Cojuangco was then a crony of Marcos.) The levy was supposed to aid the coconut farmers. However, coconut farmers have not received any form of help in exchange for the coco levy and the funds were used to acquire shares in major corporations, including SMC of which Cojuangco has been chairman for several years.

Cojuangco himself admitted in Civil Case 33, which is pending before the Sandiganbayan (anti-graft court), that he acquired his shares of stock in SMC when he was still chief executive officer of the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) and CIIF Oil Mills, a company formed by Marcos in the 1970s to control the coconut industry.

Cojuangco also admitted to the Sandiganbayan that he secured some P2 billion in “loans” from the UCPB and “cash advances” from the CIIF and used these to buy 20 percent of shares from Enrique Zobel de Ayala in 1983.

Signed by Cojuangco, Zamboanga City Mayor Maria Clara Lobregat, and more than 20 supposed organizations of coconut farmers, the deal sought to place at least P50 billion from the coco levy fund into a “perpetual trust fund,” the interest earnings of which were supposed to go to the farmers and the coconut industry. Now President Macapagal-Arroyo stood to gain a commission of P20 billion pesos from the deal, claimed Linda Montayre of the People’s Consultative Assembly (PCA), one of the groups that participated in the People Power 2 uprising.

In a statement last week, Merene corroborated Montayre’s claim. “Gloria, through First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, already collected a P20 billion commission on the compromise deal on the coco levy case,” he said. “She is obliged to help Danding as she needs political and financial support for her presidential bid in 2004. Danding, on the other hand, gained even more under Mrs. Arroyo’s administration.”

Merene also said: “Another proof of the conspiracy is the fact that although the impeachment complaint was initiated by the NPC, there are members of Lakas who signed it. They could not have done that without Gloria’s knowledge.”

Lakas-CMD signatories

Out of more than 80 signatories to the impeachment complaint, ten are members of the administration Lakas-Christian/Muslim Democrats: Jose Carlos Lacson, Soraya Jaafar, Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado, Faustino Dy III, Jacinto Paras, Herminio Teves, Amado Espino, Jr., Perpetuo Ylagan, Juan Miguel Zubiri, and Rodolfo Albano. 

On Dec. 14, 2001, the SC ruled that the coco levy funds were prima facie public funds. Two days later, Macapagal-Arroyo allowed Cojuangco to stay on as SMC chairman—a violation of the SC decision.

This was followed by the Kirin-SMC deal of January 2002, in which the Macapagal-Arroyo administration allowed the sale of 15 percent of SMC shares for $540 million. Under the agreement, Kirin and Cojuangco would vote as a single bloc.

Last Sept. 17, the Sandiganbayan reversed a 1986 PCGG sequestration order on Cojuangco’s shares in SMC. According to the Sandiganbayan, the writs violated a rule that sequestration orders must be signed by two PCGG commissioners.

Last October, Sen. Joker Arroyo—chair of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee—said it was strange that it took the Sandiganbayan 17 years to find the PCGG sequestration order defective in form.

“Mr. Cojuangco is chairman emeritus of the NPC, an opposition party that coalesced with Lakas and... Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. in the House. They want the Constitution amended through a (constituent) assembly. President Arroyo wants that, too—a confluence of interests,” Senator Arroyo said in a media interview last Oct. 10.

The latest chapter in this trail of alleged conspiracy is the impeachment case against Chief Justice Davide, Merene said. “Cojuangco is not sure of Davide,” he said. “So all obstacles must be removed.”

In terms of seniority, Justice Reynato Puno is next to Davide. According to SMCEU vice-president Amado Vidal, Puno has a son who is an assistant vice-president in SMC.

Davide still not off the hook

All these, however, do not mean that Davide must no longer be held culpable for the JDF scam, Merene said. “This is a very legitimate issue being raised by the court employees, and Davide must be investigated for this.”

Merene proposes an investigation of the JDF scandal by a body with no connection to the government whatsoever. “When the government forms investigating bodies, it can easily influence the outcome of investigations,” he said. “What is needed is an investigation by a group whose members are to be nominated by the basic masses.”

“Reject elite democracy”

Meanwhile, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) secretary-general Teodoro Casiño criticized the pro-impeachment congressmen, the SC itself and “civil society” groups sweepingly exculpating Davide, for hypocrisy.

According to Casiño, pro-impeachment congressmen are using the grievances of court employees “to project themselves as champions of the working class and enemies of corruption, while at the same time pursuing Cojuangco’s devious ploy of harassing and weakening the SC into submission.”

He added: “On the other hand, as abhorrent as a Congress catering to the selfish agenda of Cojuangco and Macapagal-Arroyo is a Supreme Court using its powers to protect one of its own, and civil society groups equating Davide’s impeachment as an attack on democracy.

“Where are these defenders of democracy when the rights of farmers are being violated by big landowners? Or the rights of workers are being violated by capitalists? Where are they when human rights are being trampled with impunity by the police and military?

“It is only now, when one of their own is under attack, that they cry for justice and democracy. But they turn a blind eye when the masses are victimized by the undemocratic and unjust machinations of the ruling elite.

“Thus, we condemn the hypocrisy of both sides and call on the people to reject elite democracy.” Bulatlat.com

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