Supreme Court administrator and spokesperson Jose Midas Marquez. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
After initiating the ouster of Chief Justice Renato Corona, Malacañang is eyeing Court Administrator Midas Marquez as its next target.
Marquez’s only “crime” was being closely identified with Corona.
Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda hinted that Marquez could be removed from his post because of a supposedly leaked World Bank (WB) report that he mishandled a $21.9-million WB loan to the high court for its Judicial Reform Support Project.
What the Palace didn’t say was that both the WB and the Supreme Court are still reconciling the expenditures of the $21.9-million loan.
In other words, how could Malacañang say Marquez misappropriated the loan when the auditing on how the loan was spent is not yet finished?
The Supreme Court justices— and not Malacañang—should make Marquez answerable for the loan’s expenditures, if ever he is liable.
The Palace is clearly infringing into the internal affairs of the high court.
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Supreme Court insiders tell me Marquez is one of their most efficient court administrators.
The court administrator, who receives complaints against Court of Appeals justices and lower court magistrates, is a very powerful position.
Marquez, I am told, has never abused the powers that come with his position.
Many of his fellow lawyers envy him because they consider him too young for his position.
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There ought to be a law against airlines that charge its passengers exorbitant fares.
I booked a Zest Air flight to Marinduque on June 2, and was charged P9,400 for a round-trip ticket that would be used a week later.
The P9,400 fare charged by Zest Air for a flight to an island 25 minutes from Manila was ridiculous.
It’s P400 less than the fare charged by Philippine Airlines for a round-trip ticket—P9,800—to Davao City which is 1 1/2 hours from Manila.
So I put off buying the ticket because I thought I would just take a bus to Lucena City and then a ferry to Marinduque, an island-province in Southern Luzon.
But then I found that the trip by land and sea to Marinduque takes hours, and so I finally decided to take Zest Air, the only airline servicing the Manila-Marinduque route.
And you know how much I was being charged after one day? P10,200 for a round-trip flight!
Again, I had second thoughts about paying an exorbitant fare for a 25-minute flight, so I postponed buying the ticket.
But for the third and last time I decided to take the Zest Air flight because I didn’t want a long trip by land and sea.
You know how much Zest Air charged me for the round-trip ticket four days before I use it?
I was told the ticket would cost me P14,870!
In a matter of a few days, Zest Air increased its fare to Marinduque by 54 percent.
If that’s not air-highway robbery, I don’t know what is.
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The owner of Zest Air is the same owner of a company that makes the popular Zest-O orange drink.
Many years ago, Zest-O became notorious because a gang used it to dupe unsuspecting bus passengers.
Members of the gang would sell Zest-O aboard buses plying Edsa and other routes.
When passengers bought the drink, they would be charged an exorbitant price.
If a passenger complained about the price—as much as 100 to 200 percent of the original price—the gang would use its coercive power, showing its strength in numbers.
The passenger could not do anything but pay the price for fear of getting mobbed.
I am just wondering if the Zest-O gang’s modus operandi—which the manufacturer of the beverage, of course, disowned—was eventually adopted by Zest Air.