A hit job without a mastermind

The Court of Appeals (CA) ruling that cleared former Palawan Gov. Joel Reyes and his brother, Coron Mayor Mario Reyes, in the murder of environmentalist Gerry Ortega in 2011 once again exposes the CA as a court exclusively for the rich and influential.

Poor litigants—people like the family of Gerry Ortega who are seeking justice for his murder—have no chance at this court.

The justices who dropped the murder case against the Reyes brothers are something else.

They know that people were closely watching the outcome of the case in their court, yet they still made the Reyes brothers appear innocent.

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With the Reyes brothers off the hook, only their minions who reportedly carried out the order to kill Ortega are in jail awaiting trial.

In other words, the killer, his companions and Joel Reyes’ men who allegedly recruited them for the hit job did it on their own without orders from their boss.

A hit job without a mastermind—that’s what the CA justices are saying of the Ortega murder.

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A Makati judge has issued an injunction against a decision of a fellow judge over a dispute involving the ownership and operation of a 30-story residential condominium in the city.

The judge showed no respect for his colleague who is already handling the case.

Another judge in Manila issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the transfer of 27 collectors of the Bureau of Customs in a wide revamp.

The Manila judge is infringing on the prerogative of the executive branch, to which the customs bureau belongs, to revamp personnel.

That’s violating the constitutional provision that makes all three branches of government—executive, legislative and judicial—all coequal.

For example, what would it look like if President Noy orders a Manila court to retain an employee who was sacked for being undisciplined?

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The quality of our justices and judges has diminished, instead of improved, over the years.

This, despite the existence of the Judicial Bar Council (JBC), which supposedly screens applicants for posts in the judiciary.

During the premartial law days when there was no JBC, judges acted judiciously and with decorum.

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An audit team of the Commission on Audit has reported it could not find any proof that the 4,000 bags of rice bought with the use of the pork barrel funds of former Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella were distributed to intended recipients.

A total of P16.369 million was spent for the rice that was procured from the National Food Authority from 2007 to 2009.

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Percy Della and Recah Trinidad, both Inquirer sports columnists, traveled to Cuyapo, Percy’s hometown in Nueva Ecija province, and found the 6-kilometer Cuyapo-Nampicuan road “hellish.”

Recah, who writes the “Bare Eye” column, describes the road as “a savage, crater-filled stretch unfit even for carabao carts.”

Calling Gov. Aurelio Umali!