How do you solve an ordeal like one undergone by Dr. Elizabeth de Guia-Godino in a corrupt judicial system?
Godino filed a case for certiorari (a writ of a superior court to a lower court for records of a certain case) with a restraining order against Parañaque City Regional Trial Court Judge Noemi J. Balitaan in the Court of Appeals.
The case has been pending in the appellate court since May this year.
The case she filed in the Department of Justice (DOJ) against her husband for wife-beating has been pending since last year.
Elizabeth’s ordeal started when her husband, William Godino, a multimillionaire businessman, charged her with car theft—known in local legal parlance as “carnapping” in Judge Balitaan’s court.
The case is ridiculous since a husband cannot charge his wife with stealing a piece of property owned by the two of them.
Be that as it may, Balitaan continues to hear the car theft case against Elizabeth to this day.
On the other hand, Elizabeth’s charge of wife-beating against William was dismissed by the Parañaque Prosecutor’s Office, prompting her to elevate the case to the DOJ.
Wife-beating is a crime in the country under the Anti-Violence against Women and Children Law passed in 2004.
Clearly, the odds are stacked against Elizabeth in the Godino couple’s battle royale.
It looks like Balitaan and the government prosecution service are siding with William who, according to Elizabeth, is not beyond resorting to drastic measures to get what he wants.
William is a customs broker who deals with the Bureau of Customs where papers don’t move if money doesn’t pass hands.
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How can you trust the police when many of them are criminals instead of law enforcers?
PO2 Edgar Angel of the Pasay City police is a suspect in the murder of professional car racer Enzo Pastor.
Supt. Angel Germinal of the Makati police shot and killed Christian D. Serrano, a 13-year-old scavenger, two years ago for no apparent reason.
Almost every day, my staff and I at “Isumbong Mo kay Tulfo,” a public service program on radio dwIZ, receive complaints from many listeners about the abuses committed by uniformed law enforcers.
When will all the abuses against civilians committed by people who are supposed to serve and protect them ever stop?
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“Be careful about what you say,” the headline of this column on Aug. 21, 2014, piqued many readers’ interest.
But one reader, whom I met on the street, said he thought it was only a coincidence that Lito Catapusan’s death was caused by what he said as a joke: that God coulc take him after playing an excellent round of golf.
I’d like to give that reader another example of the power of one’s words.
My friend and townmate from Manay, Davao Oriental province, Dr. Antonio Mapayo, were in a bar in Ermita, Manila, many years ago enjoying the sight of young, beautiful women in bikinis serving drinks to guests.
Mapayo, who was in Manila for a seminar, said he was awestruck by the sight of gorgeous women in one place.
“Mon, I could die after seeing all these beautiful women,” said the doctor who worked in a government hospital.
A week later he died of a heart attack after returning to Davao City.
Be careful what you ask for. You just might get your wish, goes an old saying.