Day: February 12, 2012

By Ira Pedrasa, ABS-CBNnews.com

Palace says claims are ‘unsubstantiated,’ a ‘desperate gimmick’

The defense on Sunday alleged that Malacanang offered P100 million for senators to skirt around the Supreme Court-issued temporary restraining order on the subpoena issued on Chief Justice Renato Corona’s alleged dollar accounts.

Citing a “very reliable” source, defense lawyer Dennis Manalo said Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. has been contacting senator-judges not to honor the halt order.

Another lawyer, Jose “Judd” Roy III, alleged the money will be sourced from government savings to be used for “soft projects.” The funds will supposedly be released this week.

In a prepared statement read by Manalo, the defense said: “Yesterday, we received very reliable information that Executive Secretary [Ochoa], acting in behalf of President Aquino, was personally contacting and phoning senator-judges to pursuade or pressure them to defy TRO issued by SC in favor of PSBank.”

He said they condemn in the strongest terms the actions of President Benigno Aquino III to “undermine the constitutional process that he himself initiated.”

He added that Corona “in good faith” participated in the process, but now “it’s apparent that the President is bent on convicting CJ Corona at all cost.”

Attack on the judiciary, economy

The defense did not reveal their source, noting only that he is very reliable.

But they stressed they would not risk their reputations as lawyers by coming out on a Sunday to issue a statement on news that has no bearing.

They also called on lawyers “to be more vigilant and stand up for the independence of the judiciary and the integrity of our constitutional processes.”

What is happening now is an attack on the entire judiciary, the defense added.

They also called on the public to “guard against efforts to undermine the constitution and rule of law…We must…secure the independence of the judiciary. Otherwise, the oppressed would find no refuge from abuses and rights cannot triumph over injustice.”

Defense lawyer Ramon Esguerra also added that if the senator-judges decide on Monday not to respect the TRO, “the backlash will not only be on the Chief Justice, but on the banking industry and the entire economy.”

The defense did not say what it will do with the information it received. They said, however, that what Aquino did, if true, is already “a culpable violation of the Constitution.”

Palace says defense allegation a ‘squid tactic’

Executive Secretary Ochoa called the accusations of the defense as “unsubstantiated” and a “desperate gimmick.”

In a statement issued to the media, Ochoa said: “As a member of the Bar, I respect the right of the lawyers of the Chief Justice to protect the interests of their client, within the bounds of the law. However, citing rumors to prove baseless accusations to support their cause goes against the principles of decent and ethical lawyering.”

He said: “It is a desperate gimmick that does not belong in the proceedings of any court of law, especially an impeachment trial.”

He said the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, is capable of making decisions to provide Corona a fair trial.

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda urged Corona’s camp to “stop running and stop hiding” and inflicting on the public “idle talk.”

“Their conspiracy theories concerning the Executive Secretary [Ochoa] is a diversionary tactic to distract attention from the evidence coming to light in the impeachment trial,” he said.

He said the defense chooses to use “squid tactics” in order to deviate from the real issues.

“The Senate has been conducting the impeachment trial in full light of day; the prosecution and defense have been given every opportunity to have themselves heard,” he said. “We can only surmise that the defense has run out of ways to conceal the culpability of its client, and has engineered this move as a last-ditch effort to confuse the proceedings and prevent a resolution.”

“The only danger in the disclosure of the Chief Justice’s assets is the Chief Justice’s defense: the integrity of the banking system, our system of laws, the cause of justice and good governance are not endangered by the proceedings of the impeachment court,” he added.

Pull-out imminent?

The senator-judges will hold a caucus on Monday morning to discuss whether or not to follow the halt order issued by the Supreme Court last Thursday.

The High Court, in a vote of 8-5, issued on Thursday a TRO on the subpoena issued by the impeachment court on the alleged dollar accounts of Corona in PSBank.

Esguerra added: “We respect the trial…but we came in already scathed and wounded…Sugatan na ang Chief Justice, lopsided na ang sitwasyon, di kami makapag-motion for reconsideration, we can’t object to the questions of the senators.”

He said, however, that they still hope that “the senator-judges will see reason and implement the Constitution.”

Asked if they will pull out from the trial if the Senate insists on the subpoena, defense lawyer Paolo Quicho only said: “Kami pong mga abogado ay handing lumaban, manindigan…Sama-sama po namin itong haharapin. Marangal naming haharapin ang persecution na ito.”

In the meantime, the defense is asking stakeholders to wait for their turn in ducking the accusations against Corona.

Malacanang has also called on Corona to just open his bank accounts to end the speculation.

But Manalo said: “There is a process. Sila dapat muna ang magpatunay. Bakit kailangan ng shortcut?”

Anti-smoking advocates have a new ally and could yet be the most effective in the crusade to stop the habit that kills some 80,000 Filipinos every year.

In her radio program, “Good Times in the Morning”, with Mo Twister last Wednesday, the 29-year old Korean TV and radio host who has admitted dating 52-year old President Benigno Aquino III, said, “I can always convince the guy to quit smoking.”

Lee should have a good chance to succeed in convincing Pnoy to stop smoking because she said they always talk “animatedly for three to five hours. “

Lee’s self-imposed mission should warm the hearts of anti-smoking advocates in the country like Dr. Anthony Leachon, internist-cardiologist and consultant to the Department of Health on Non-communicable Disease and Dr. Cecilia Llave, gynecologist-oncologist, Initiative Coordinator of the national Cancer Institute.

Heart attack, stroke, cancer and, chronic obstructive lung disease (bronchitis and emphysema) and diabetes are NCDs and they are the top killers of Filipinos today.

Since NCDs are lifestyle-linked diseases (cholesterol-laden diets, lack of exercise and smoking), the solution is also in the change of lifestyle and one of them is to stop smoking.

The two believe that the most effective campaign booster against smoking is leadership by example.

“When you’re sick, you are not productive. You spend money for medication and hospitalization… When we look at the bigger picture, a nation’s health is a nation’s wealth. A sick population is a sick nation,” Leachon said in a TV interview.

Leachon shared with me an article which appeared in a number of publications in the United States and Europe linking smoking to “faster cognitive decline in men.”

This should be sent to Lee who is talking about her relationship with the President going the “full length” and headed to “the altar.”

Here’s the article in ABC News written by Carrie Gann titles “Smoking Slows Memory, Reasoning in Middle-Aged Men.”

“New evidence suggests that smoking isn’t only bad for the body but can also take a toll on the mind.

“A study published today in the Archives of General Psychiatry linked smoking to faster, more dramatic age-related mental decline in men.

“Researchers from University College in London studied more than 5,000 men and 2,000 women from Britain’s long-running Whitehall II study, which has surveyed the health of thousands of British civil service employees.

“The researchers studied each participant’s performance on tests of memory, verbal skills and reasoning over a period of 10 years, beginning when the participants were about 56 years old. They found that men who smoked showed a greater decline in these mental functions than those who had never smoked.

“Smoking seemed to speed up the cognitive aging process, making men function mentally as if they were 10 years older, said Severine Sabia, the study’s lead author.

“’For example, a 50-year-old male smoker shows a similar cognitive decline as a 60-year-old male never-smoker’ she said.

“The brain changes weren’t necessarily permanent. Men who stopped smoking more than 10 years before the tests performed as well as those who had never smoked. But men who kicked the smoking habit less than 10 years before the cognitive tests began didn’t do much better than the men who’d kept smoking.

“While smoking seemed to drain men’s brains, the researchers didn’t find a similar connection between smoking and declining mental function in women. Sabia said that could be because women in this age group smoked less than men do, or that there were simply fewer women in the study.

“Researchers said there are several factors that could explain the connection between smoking and mental decline. One reason could lie in the way smoking affects the heart, lungs and blood vessels. Because smoking ups the risk of vascular disease, it could limit the body’s ability to deliver the blood, oxygen and nutrients the brain needs to function at its best.

“Dr. Charles DeCarli, director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Center at the University of California at Davis, said differences in cardiovascular disease may also explain why the study found that men showed more cognitive decline linked to smoking than women did.

“’Men have more heart disease and greater stroke risk than women do up until about age 70 or so. Part of that is related to lifestyle,’ DeCarli said. ‘en of this age group often smoked more than women did.’”

“Philip Harvey, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Miami School of Medicine, said the addictive nature of cigarettes may also take a toll on the brain, noting that molecules of nicotine in the brain latch onto the same brain receptors involved in attention, concentration and memory.

‘”’That just may lead to a disregulation of those receptors, it may make them function less well,’ Harvey said. ‘But that could mean that rather than some kind of long-term damage, it’s a reversible process that may involve resetting the receptors.’

“The study’s authors said that smoking’s long-term effects on mental function are probably underestimated, since smokers are more likely to die of other health problems before they have the chance to develop dementia.”

Dementia is not only heartbreaking for the patient but also for their loved ones. Lee should use that pitch to Pnoy.