Batas Mauricio I COMMEND lawyer Persida Rueda Acosta, national chief of the Public Attorneys Office (PAO) of the Department of Justice, in her immediate offer of assistance to those who maybe victimized by the so-called “tanim bala” syndicate at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, because victims do need immediate legal help. But I wish that she would also attend, with similar dispatch, to complaints that there are lawyers of the PAO who have not been paid their salaries despite having already completed their work. Indeed, this maybe the reason why, according to some poor litigants, some PAO personnel resort to demanding fees for their services, when that is supposed to be for free. I hope my informants are wrong about this claim. But, indeed, charity begins at home. Before battling the problems of others, we should all endeavor to resolve our problems first, not only because that will make us more effective in helping others, but more so because it is our duty to look after our own at all times.
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I cannot understand why the major political parties participating and which have big stakes in the upcoming 2016 elections have been shying away from the ongoing source code review for precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines sponsored by the Commission on Elections. We have heard of many complaints from various groups and interested individuals, to the effect that rampant computerized cheating characterized the 2010 and the 2013 elections, on account of the alleged refusal of the Comelec to allow a review of the PCOS source code (or the set of computer instructions that will be used to run the PCOS machines during elections). So, how come major political parties appear uninterested in, at the very least, witnessing the review of the source code being spearheaded by the Comelec at De La Salle University? I can only proffer two guesses: one, that they are not really interested to win, or two, they know they will win anyway, with or without a review of the source code.
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So more Filipinos have gone hungry in the last several months, proving once again that nothing substantial and nothing beneficial really came out of the economic policies of the Aquino government, and despite its claims of economic boom during the last five years that it is in power. If the truth be told, hunger and poverty took a turn for the worst while President Aquino was trumpeting his government’s supposed economic gains. Indeed, if there was any economic success in the country, it benefitted only the already rich and powerful, but never the poor who have always remained poor, and whose poverty only increased all the more under Aquino. Why is this happening? Well, we have been told by the Bible, in its Deuteronomy 28:15 and 20, that people will continue to be afflicted with poverty, with rebuke and with dissension, for as long as they continue refusing to listen to the Word of God, the Bible, and for as long as we continue being hardheaded, refusing to obey God’s commands. E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo. com