Why was Ara Mina
in Amsterdam?

The Supreme Court has designated 99 Regional Trial Courts to swiftly try cases of extra-judicial killings in the country. Why, have the police caught and charged 99 suspects already?

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The announcement will probably placate the members of the United Nations team who came to look into the incidence of the so-called extra-judicial killings that, embarrassingly, continued to occur even while the UN people were still preparing their report here. And when it did come out, the findings of Philip Allston were slammed by both the Justice Secretary and the military.

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But the 99 RTCs will have a big job on their hands. The order to them as designated courts says that the cases must be resolved in 90 days - 60 days to try them and 30 to render judgment. And no postponements - except, of course, for "clearly meritorious reasons". For the benefit of media people, all single sala courts will give priority to cases involving them. I hope they will announce the trial of a pilot case soon.

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The military has promptly declared that movie personalities Ara Mina and Janno Gibbs will not be held liable for consorting with the enemy, or should we say, dancing with the wolves, when they were shown partying and romping with Number One' rebel leader Joma Sison in Amsterdam last Christmas. Are we sure the military did not have anything to do with that trip of Ara and Janno? Just asking…

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His followers here have not reacted to the video showing their leader having fun with the stars, but some defenders have claimed that there was nothing wrong in Joma's night out, he is entitled to have some diversion, like anybody else. But is it true, as the military claims, that it was Joma himself who posted those scenes on his website? If so, then he must have wanted it to be shown here. Perhaps his body language was telling his people here something. I guess I've been reading too many mystery and spy stories.

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By the way, Ara Mina had a ready explanation about her sortie with Joma in Amsterdam. She claims she did not even know who she was dancing with, she only asked the crowd who is the best dancer there and picked Joma. Furthermore, she added, more glibly, she was only eight years old when Sison was in the headlines and later exiled himself, so how could she know? Oh dear. That should be a blow to Joma's ego. With all the reports about him and the publication of his photos in the media, Ara Mina never heard of him?

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Is Tourism secretary Ace Durano on leave from his post? I haven't heard any announcement, but it is strange that he is now working as spokesman of the political party Team Unity which is a full-time job. What happens to the department in the meantime, is it on hold? Stranger still is the fact that any government factotum, no matter how lowly the position, becomes liable for even handing out leaflets of a candidate. Since Durano himself is not a candidate, is there no prohibition in the Election Code about his new assignment? This should be made clear because government workers are puzzled over it.

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The Regional Trial Court Branch 87 in Batangas has ruled that Hernando Villena was the winner by 241 votes in the May 2004 election in the town of Taysan in that province. The court ordered that sitting mayor Anacorita Portugal step down and yield the post to Villena. Of course Portugal does not want to leave yet, she will exhaust all available means to stay on. But isn't it unkind to poor Villena who gets vindicated about two months before the next election? If I were his friend, I'd advise him to forget about assuming the post now and just run again in May. Because if he does, this will be counted as one term, and even if he wins again in May, he will be eligible only for two more terms. I wonder how many similar protest cases are still unresolved and pending?*

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