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Against All Odds

It is just like the classic David and Goliath fight. A 39-year old lawyer recently filed an impeachment case against a political giant, Ombudsman Aniano Desierto. So far, only five representatives have endorsed the case and the complainant needs 67 more signatures from a House of Representatives widely perceived as a haven of corruption. It is Desierto’s office that tries corruption cases including, yes, of congressmen. Who then is this lawyer braving disbarment and the Ombudsman’s wrath?

BY ROWENA CARRANZA
Bulatlat.com

First, the question most frequently asked: Who is behind lawyer Ernesto "Jun" Francisco Jr., the man who filed an impeachment case against Ombudsman Aniano Desierto?

In the Philippines, a skeptic told this writer, there is always someone or some group behind exposés and anti-graft crusades, such as the one this lawyer has launched. The group or individual usually has interests to protect, political ambitions to pursue or an ideology to advance. The usual route is to find a person willing to front for the person or group and release a bombshell, an “expose,” and make it appear that the attack is coming from a third party.

Thus, when the impeachment case against Desierto was filed last month, jaded political observers, suspicious journalists and other non-believers first looked the man over, from head to toe, front to back. Alas, he is neither an Erap fanatic nor a Gloria enthusiast.

Shaped by poverty

looks at first glance like a typical Atenista (Ateneo graduate) – tall, fair-skinned, well-dressed and moneyed – Jun is anything but typical.

The second son of an Army sergeant, Ernesto “Jun” Francisco and his family transferred from one to place to another when he was young, depending on his father’s deployment. His father’s meager salary was not enough and, Jun recalled, there was never enough food on the table.

“We experienced how it was to be always lacking even on matters as basic as food and pamasahe (jeepney fare),” he said in an exclusive interview with Bulatlat.com. Thus at a very young age, he learned how to work hard. At the military camp in Cebu where his father was assigned for quite some time, he would go to the mess hall and collect leftover food. After school, he would polish the boots of military men and officers.

Jun worked as a water meter reader during his college days at the University of Sto. Tomas and could not have gone to Ateneo Law School in Makati without a scholarship.

“It was because of poverty’s uncertainty that, when I was offered all the comforts of a good life as an ACCRA (Angara Abello Concepcion Regala Cruz) lawyer, I jumped at it.”

Switching sides

Jun started in the prestigious law firm in 1990 and spent close to nine years of his life in the firm. He was first asked to handle a case referred by Luke Roxas, a wealthy Chinese-Filipino banker and top condominium developer, in 1993. The taipan apparently liked his work and he eventually handled most of Roxas’ cases.

Meanwhile, Jun and his family moved to Cavite in 1980 and he was using the Coastal Road everyday. “I saw it being renovated and expected that they will collect toll fee afterward. I expected P1 or P2, but then they posted a sign saying they will collect P9, P18 and P27 (depending on the size of the vehicle). The amounts were outrageous! Then I told myself that these big companies have been using me to get TROs (temporary restraining orders) and injunctions and it became a challenge for me to use my skills against them.”

When the irate Jun arrived at his office, he prepared a petition for a TRO without clearing it with his superiors and filed it the following day. He got his TRO the following Monday and it was all over the papers. According to Jun, his superiors at first congratulated him, saying that for once, ACCRA was engaged in a social cause.

But on the second day, he said, Manny Zamora, well-known Estrada crony and, apparently, an ACCRA friend, called up complaining about the TRO. The management asked Jun to withdraw the case. But instead of acquiescing, he asked FX taxi and jeepney drivers to join him in a petition. When the judge lifted the TRO, they barricaded the coastal road and won an injunction. The taxpayer’s suit filed by Jun successfully delayed a multibillion-peso project for about 50 days. The case is now pending in the Supreme Court, still unresolved.

“I could sense then that I was on my way out. Finally, they said they were accepting my resignation even though there was at the time no offer to resign. But I did not even question it. Kasi ang sa akin may utang na loob din ako sa ACCRA. Galing ako sa wala e (I believed that I owed ACCRA something. I came from nothing).

Troubleshooter

For Jun however, getting out of ACCRA was a blessing. “I think I started bribing judges around 1994. By 1996, I was feeling dirty. I complained about it, especially to the younger lawyers, but on the side I was still doing it. I was still bribing judges. I couldn’t get out. I could not disassociate myself with the name ACCRA.”

“What I could not do on my own, God did for me with that Coastal Road case. It really changed my life. All of a sudden I was on the other side,” smiled the young lawyer.

“Throughout my law school, I asked the Lord every night to just let me finish (law school) because when I become a lawyer I will work for you, work for others. But after joining ACCRA, that was forgotten.”

In a candid interview with Newsbreak magazine in March this year, Jun described his experience in ACCRA: “…at the time, in litigation, I was one of about five or six operators, troubleshooters. The others were older lawyers, partners. If there was an important case, if there was a difficult situation, they called on me… these firms looked for lawyers with killer instincts. You want to win; you want to deliver what your client wants. Some lawyers are good at pleadings alone. But there are lawyers who can do pleadings, trial work, and have the skill and guts to approach the judges and justices, to make the proper opening, and to handle money… it was common for us to discuss, right after a case is referred to us: Who’s the judge? Who’s the prosecutor? It’s not even looking at the merits first. It’s more of trying to find out how to make the right connection.”

Jun hoped that the Supreme Court would initiate an investigation about the corruption of the judiciary. He said he would tell them everything he knows in a close door meeting. Instead, he was slapped with an administrative charge for violation of the Code of Professional Responsibility. He is now facing the possibility of being disbarred or suspended.

Life after ACCRA

The coastal road case was a turning point for Jun. “When I got that TRO, I didn’t have to pay the judge. I was there until evening and the judge saw my determination.”

He stopped practicing for a while after he left ACCRA but restarted his law practice when introduced to a client.

“I won a case and it reached all the way to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court favored me and I got a compromise agreement that was very favorable to my client. And I did not have to pay,” he said.

Indeed, there are many lawyers who had never argued, much less won a case, in the Supreme Court. Jun did it a few months after he got out of ACCRA.

Jun now heads a humble two-man law office in Ortigas and says he has no regrets leaving ACCRA.

His crusade however did not stop with the coastal road issue. In December last year, even before the Estrada impeachment trial started, Jun filed a plunder case against Estrada, Manny Zamora, Ronaldo Zamora and Luis Virata for the takeover of the Coastal Road Project.

This was followed by another plunder case against the former president, this time involving a multibillion-peso project linking C5 and the Manila-Cavite expressway. The project allegedly benefited Estrada and Mike Velarde, El Shaddai leader and Estrada crony.

During Estrada's impeachment trial, Jun served as prosecution witness Jose Antonio Gonzales' legal counsel.

Taking on the ombudsman

On November 6, Jun filed the impeachment case against Desierto. Jun charged Desierto with bribery, culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust for receiving close to P1 million in exchange for sitting on a case.

In a 45-page complaint, Jun said Desierto accepted bribe from Roxas, Jun's former client in ACCRA, in exchange for going slow on the investigation of a case involving Roxas' Bank of Southeast Asia (BSA).

Jun himself was involved and witness to the transaction between Roxas and Desierto. The bribery, he testified, occurred on Sept. 10, 1997 in one of the rooms of the Westin Philippine Plaza which Jun himself booked for his client. P400,000 cash placed in a plastic bag was handed by Roxas himself to Desierto.

Jun said he gave Desierto through a Fernando "Ding" Timbol, reportedly Desierto's PR man, video equipment worth P273,000 aside from cash given directly to the ombudsman.

Jun explained his decision to file the impeachment case: "I knew that after all the grand standing – the Ador Mawanay, Mary Ong and other exposés -- all of these will be thrown to the office of the Ombudsman. That’s where the action is and where Ombudsman Desierto will share a piece of the action." Jun believes that President Arroyo is too vulnerable not to give in to Desierto especially with the cases against First Gentleman Mike Arroyo.

He thinks that even if Desierto survives the impeachment case, he would have a hard time convincing the public. "At the very least," he grinned, "I’ll be able to stop Desierto from becoming a Supreme Court justice and wreaking havoc there, creating a lot more money."

Bad timing ?

Jun vigorously countered criticisms that the plunder case against Desierto was badly timed, given that the Ombudsman is in middle of the Estrada plunder case.

Jun said, “He is not really the one prosecuting the Estrada cases. He projects himself to be the one but he does not know anything about the cases. When we were in the Supreme Court presenting oral arguments about the six plunder cases that were elevated by Estrada to the Supreme Court, I was sitting beside Desierto and he kept saying he had not read the record when in fact he should read the record of all his cases.”

Jun used caustic words to describe Desierto's blunders in Estrada's trial which he said have weakened the cases. He said Desierto refuses to conduct fact-finding on the other plunder cases to strengthen them and has failed to file cases against Estrada's other cronies. "Chances are," Jun said, "he already made money on them."

"I really believe this is the right thing to do – take him out of the plunder case. This might even ensure that the prosecution would proceed unimpeded," he said.

Still an optimist

When Congress was taking up the new impeachment rules in a plenary session, Rep. Rudy Albano openly referred to Jun as a "crackpot." Desierto has also publicly called him mentally unstable.

Aside from being publicly maligned, Jun also has to contend with the possibility of being killed. “You don’t know how these people think,” he said.

But despite all these, the man is still unbelievably optimistic. He believes that “when the people realize that all I’ve said were true, they themselves will act.”

Jun also still defends the judiciary he criticizes: “Not all judges are corrupt, ha!”

He said he himself is not clean and that people should not be surprised if at the height of this impeachment case many issues will be coming out against him. But if he survives all these, Jun wants to handle cases that will benefit a lot of people, such as the anti-privatization case he now handles for Health Alliance for Democracy.

Cynics are for now giving Jun the benefit of the doubt. However, they still believe that, unlike in the biblical David and Goliath story, the powerful Ombudsman is too politically astute and his office too influential for him to be felled by Jun's impeachment complaint. Bulatlat.com

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