PETRASANTA, RAUL. Chief Superintendent, Philippine National Police. Regional Director, Regional Police Office III.
Third in the list of 13 ranking PNP officers and three civilians ordered by the Office of the Ombudsman to be investigated in connection with the missing high-powered firearms, mainly AK-47 assault rifles, that allegedly ended up in the hands of New People’s Army insurgents in Mindanao.
Petrasanta, et al are facing charges filed by the Ombudsman Field Investigative Office for 19 counts of falsification, 23 counts of violation of Section 3(e) of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti- Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, 23 counts of violation of Section 3(j) of RA 3019, and violation of RA 5487 or Private Security Agency Law.
Serious charges there, not to mention the element of treason incident to the crime – of arming the very enemies of the state one is sworn to protect and serve. How can something this evil be even imputed to a man whose surname translates directly to “Sacred Stone” or “Holy Rock”?
PURISIMA, ALAN. Director-General, Philippine National Police. A 10-hectare agricultural lot in Barangay Caloocan, Talisay, Batangas is the latest anomaly assailed upon the PNP chief. Again, it was ABS-CBN News that broke the story that the Office of the Ombudsman had started investigation of the property Purisima allegedly failed to declare in his Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth.
The report cited records from the Register of Deeds that said the property, covered by 11 land titles, was bought by Purisima in 2007, and sold it for P4 million to one Mariano Villafuerte III in October 2010, but its title has remained under Purisima’s name.
Purisima is crying “libel” over this latest allegation of anomaly. Earlier, ABS-CBN exposed his supposed mansion and estate in San Leonardo town Nueva Ecija which, along with the P25-million renovation of the so-called “White House” in Camp Crame, formed the basis of the charges of plunder, graft and indirect bribery filed against Purisima before the Office of the Ombudsman.
Purisima. Idiomized to “as pure as driven snow.” Translating to “purest of the pure.” Appended to the embodiment of purity herself, Ave Maria purisima, sin pecado concebida – Hail purest Mary, conceived without sin. Nothing immaculate, everything maculated, in Purisima’s image of late. And then…
JEJOMAR BINAY. Vice President, Republic of the Philippines. Thoroughly demonized by allegations of overpricing – to pillage and plunder proportions – first the Makati City parking building, then the Makati City Science High School Building.
And the as yet unexplained ownership of scandalously ritzy Hacienda Binay in Rosario, Batangas. Bedevilled by the tattling Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV whose latest tale on the Veep was his backing out as a coup pal in the Manila Peninsula siege. Which the tattletale unearthed in the immediate wake of Binay’s tail-betweenthe- legs retreat from the debate he, the VP himself, dared Trillanes to.
So why is Binay included in this name game? Lest we forget, the VP’s given name is a contraction of Jesus Jose Maria – the Sagrada Familia, no less. Which may explain now Binay’s propensity to invoke the name of the Lord at every charge of anomaly imputed upon him, to wit:
On Hacienda Binay: “Sasabihin lamang po sa inyo, sa Diyos at sa tao, hindi po ako mayari no’ng lupang ‘yan. Pati ba naman ‘yong babuyan namin, pati ‘yon air-conditioned? Ngayon lang ako nakarinig [no’n] (I just want to tell all of you, to God and people, that I’m not the owner of that property. Even the piggery, they say it’s air-conditioned, that’s the first time I’ve heard of that).“
On the Makati City parking building: “Sa Diyos at sa tao, taas-noo kong sinasabi na wala akong tinanggap o hiningi na anumang pera sa proyektong ito o anumang proyekto sa Makati (Before God and people, I hold my head up high and say that I never received or asked any money for this project or any project in Makati).”
With the Holy Family for his very name, Binay may just think himself excluded from the injunction attached to the Second Commandment, thus Exodus 20:7: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.”
Petrasanta. Purisima. Jejomar. The Bard says a rose by any other name will still smell as sweet. So be it.
Petrasanta. Purisima. Jejomar. It’s not all in the name. Even a sanctified one, dragged to the muck, will also stink.
