Probe judge, council row over market

Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno has appointed Deputy Court Administrator Raul Villanueva in charge of instituting judicial reforms.

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Why not Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez, Villanueva’s boss, whose job is to oversee all the lower courts in the country and discipline erring judges?

Marquez’s only sin is that he is close to dismissed Chief Justice Renato Corona.

But despite his closeness to Corona, Marquez has not lost his integrity.

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The Chief Justice may want to order Marquez to investigate the feud between Bulacan Judge Virgilita B. Castillo and the Meycauayan City Council over the reopening of a public market in the city.

The city council had ordered the market’s closure, but the judge ordered it reopened.

The investigation might determine the reason for the judge’s order to reopen the market.

Courts should not interfere in the affairs of local government units.

Local government units are under the executive branch of government which is coequal to the judiciary.

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Estrella “Baby” Gutierrez, wife of Director Jose Gutierrez of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), allegedly owes about P100 million in gambling debts from friends and subordinates of her husband.

People I interviewed about her gave me that estimate.

She even tried to borrow P300,000 from relieved PDEA Deputy Director General Carlos Gadapan but was rebuffed, according to Gadapan himself.

“She came to me one day and asked me to lend her P300,000. I told her where would I get the money and she said: ‘Get it from your operational fund. I will return the money in one week.’ I told her  I couldn’t do that. She left and that day I received several text messages from her cursing me,” Gadapan said.

I was told that’s how she is: If friends or her husband’s subordinates didn’t lend her gambling money she would get angry and make threats of getting back at them.

An Indian businessman told this columnist that “Ate Baby” tried to borrow money from him, but since he had no cash at the time she got his expensive watch and hocked it for P300,000 so she could go to the casino.

When the Indian businessman wanted his watch returned to him, Gutierrez allegedly got mad and threatened to have the businessman’s earnings scrutinized by the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

According to the Indian, she gave him the pawnshop receipt for the watch.

The businessman ended up paying P300,000, plus interest, to get it back.

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How ironic that Gutierrez heads an agency that protects people from getting addicted to drugs, yet his wife could be an addict of a different kind— gambling.

How would Gutierrez pay his wife’s creditors?

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Who is Berna Padilla Catacutan who, intelligence reports say, deposited P8 million that PDEA agents  allegedly extorted from a suspected drug trafficker whom they arrested two months ago?

Catacutan reportedly deposited the money at the BDO branch at Resorts World Hotel on July 18.