Septuagenarian's Notes (6) - LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIPS (LDRs)

BY BA IPE

THE classical propinquity theory in the discipline of sociology, a branch of social science, says physical distance determines human interaction. The closer the physical distance, the more intimate and personal the human interaction is. Please notice husbands and wives, dating couples, parents and their children, teachers and their students. Because of sheer distance, the interplay of emotions could be intense and passionate among them. Separate them physically and human interaction is adversely affected. Hence, propinquity theory has withstood the test of time. It has remained a fundamental theory in human behavior. Its validity is beyond any shadow of doubt.

Two major inventions in the early part of the 20th century have affected – or revolutionized – human interaction. The first is cars. The mass introduction of cars had  enabled men to conquer space at that time. Men and women alike  were no longer confined to their homes, offices, schools, and town centers. They could move around with new found freedom associated with their cars. With cars , their behavioral patterns had greatly altered.

With cars, people had started to enjoy freedom. They could move with lesser restrictions and go to other places they never went before. Human relations was greatly changed too. It was easy to relate to people in other towns, cities, and states. Human interaction became more  intense. Romance too. The car had come to define human behavior, including interaction.

The second is the coming of the radio. It was the first broadcast medium, which uses the airwaves to transmit information. The second was television which came 35 years later. The emergence of radio – and television – has constituted broadcast media, which enhanced human interaction. The sociologist Daniel Bell said mass communications has led to the  emergence of what he termed “mass society.” Mass media has shaped human behavior, especially interaction, on the basis of what they have heard or seen over the two broadcast media platforms.

Fast forward to 2000. The invention of digital technology and the gadgets associated with it and the emergence of Information Revolution have triggered the ascendancy of nontraditional media, which is different from either print or broadcast media. The use of cyberspace has led to the integration of mass communications platforms, leading to the nontraditional media, including social media.

This means altering the already complicated human behavior, particularly the interaction side. It conquers both time and space. Messages among people from different cultures could be sent and obtained in real time, further erasing restrictive barriers. It is easier to communicate with people in other countries and cultures. Space and time have been transcended with nontraditional media.

Thus, intimate relations can be cultivated even in cross cultural settings. Now, we see the advent of long-term relations, where men and women use nontraditional platforms to create intimacy. The old adage that long distance relationships does not work is being shattered by the new technology platform and the popular will to create new relationships by this new paradigm shift.

There are no empirical data to support assertions to prove or disprove the importance of long distance relations, or LDRs. But the absence does not mean, LDRs are not with us . It s very much with us. They are alive and kicking.

I’ve been told that LDRs work in some instances. In other instances, they don’t. The point is that LDR is with us. Human interaction is a function of technological advances. LDRs will stay with us in the coming months, years, and decades. From a humanistic viewpoint, main is incomplete without the other half. He will invent new things to invite, entice, and keep the other half.

The proliferation of fraud is the single, biggest enemy of LDRs. During the early days of online technology, a number of love struck Filipino women fell victims to a bunch of foreign Lotharios, who promised to give the moon and stars. Mostly these Romeos were of questionable nationalities. It was later found out they were mostly Nigerians or Malaysians, who operated or have been operating in some Internet cafes in their countries.

How these Romeos of questionable credentials had victimized some hapless Pinays was a lesson in naivete. At that time, many Pinays were thrilled to have foreigners as boyfriends without knowing they were scammers of the worst kind. They promised weddings to these Pinays and many Pinays caved in to their demands and requests.  They had the mistaken notion that foreign husbands could be the answer to their wretched condition like helplessness and powerlessness brought by the lack of economic opportunities.

They were the proverbial damsels in distress, who were to be saved by their knights in shining armors, but, in actuality vultures in sheep’s clothing, who were out to take their hard-earned savings. I was personally approached by a fiftyish public school teacher, who claimed to have waited for his Romeo almost the entire day. It was no show for the helpless and powerless, who waited for him at the NAIA. “Namuti ang mga mata ko sa paghihintay (my eyes turned white for waiting),” she told me.

She told me her purported boyfriend took a sizable amount of her savings, which he claimed would be used for visa facilitation and purchase of plane ticket. But after she sent the money, the boyfriend disappeared without any trace. He closed his accounts to her complete discomfiture. She asked me on what to do, but said she did not approach police because she did not trust police officers.

I suggested she approached any of the three broadcast networks so that the issue would be brought out publicly and avert any future scams of similar nature. She did and in the following week, she told me that she was treated shabbily by the networks. Not one of the three networks wanted to take her case as an issue. The staffs even scorned her for naively falling victims to scammers. “Naku Ate, bakit ang tanga mo?” a lowly staff asked her. She told me she was a respected teacher in her school and the lowly staff was hardly a professional.

I told the teacher that she better forget recovering her money. She just fell victim to a swindler. It was estafa, plain and simple. Her case was not an isolated case because there were other cases of scams perpetrated by those Lotharios.     

But there are success stories in LDRs. I have  an older sister who met his British husband through the old pen-pal scheme, where they resorted to the snail pace mail system. After exchanging letters for so long, they got bored and decided to meet.  The British national (an Englishman) went to the Philippines, met my Ate, who was a public school teacher, got smitten by her charm, and married her in a civil wedding ceremony here. I was a witness in their wedding and went to their wedding reception, which was exclusively for relatives and friends.

Their marriage has been holding for more than 30 years.  My brother-in-law is already in his 80s while my Ate is about 74 yo. Their marriage is fairly stable and my brother in law is a frequent visitor here. We occasionally meet and have fun bantering and drinking together.

Concerning the LDRs, using modern digital technology, the case of Eden Pelaez and her boyfriend  Eric Villar. Eden has been a popular netizen, whose opinions and posts are highly valued by netizens in social media. Eric is a professional engineer, who met Eden in social media. Somehow, romance has blossomed between the two netizens, who have been separated from their legal spouses.

The two netizens have ironed out their differences and found themselves they have sufficient bases for keep their relations. They have met in what was called an “eyeball.” Eric traveled more than 500 kilometers south of Metro Manila to meet Eden and her family.

The seriousness was most palpable. It was a relationship that started as an LDR but has bloomed into a full-pledged relationship.

Septuagenarian Notes (5) MEET REYNALDO ROBLES: DEFENSE LAWYER OF SONNY TRILLANES

By Philip M. Lustre Jr.

THE defense lawyer who has represented Sonny Trilanes in his court cases over the last 20 years is a volunteer lawyer, who has not billed him for the legal services given him. Lawyer Reynaldo Robles, managing partner of the Chan Robles Law Offices, has been representing him with success in many legal skirmishes in court and even outside the legal arena.

“There were other lawyers, who volunteered to help Sonny Trillanes,” Robles said. “It’s not my monopoly,” he clarified, as he pointed to former University of the Philippines Law dean Perfecto Agabin, former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay and a host of young lawyers as the among the volunteer lawyers, who helped the controversial soldier turned politician.

They helped in the discussions, clarifications, and evolution of the legal strategies, issues, and arguments, which were to be presented in court. In the end, a lead lawyer had to file the legal briefs before the court. “It was me,” Robles said.

Robles justified his voluntary action to represent Trillanes, saying “it’s community service,” or his way to give back his “blessings” as a practicing lawyer. As the lead lawyer, Robles prepared and filed before the appropriate court the legal briefs, memoranda, and motions in defense of his controversial client.

In one of his pivotal court cases, Robles successfully defended Trillanes, when the Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional the Presidential Proclamation 572, which then President Rodrigo Duterte issued on Sept. 8, 2018 to revoke the presidential  amnesty earlier given to Trillanes by then President Benigno Aquino III.

The High Court, in a majority opinion penned by Associate Justice Maria Filomena D. Singh, said that an incumbent President cannot just revoke a grant of amnesty without concurrence from Congress. It cited the Bill of Rights and reaffirmed that neither the government nor any of its officials, including the President, are above the law.

The High Court ruled that the revocation of Trillanes’ amnesty long after it has become final and executory violated his constitutional right to due process. It said the PP 572 violated Trillanes’s constitutional rights against ex post facto laws and the doctrine of double jeopardy.

In hindsight, Robles said the unanimous decision by the Court of Appeals, promulgated on May 31, 2021 but issued on June 9, 2021, was enough since it upheld the presidential power to grant amnesty and stopped unilaterally Duterte from revoking Trillanes’s amnesty and bringing him back to jail. The CA decision, rendered by its 11th Special decision, was penned by Associate Justice Edwin Sorongon, with concurrence from Associate Justices Perpetua Susana Atal-Paño and Raymond Reynold Lauigan.

But the Supreme Court took a step forward by issuing a verdict that settled the constitutional issue of the presidential power to give amnesty, Robles said. “This is most important not only now but for future generations,” Robles said. Students of law would understand that not even the president could violate the Bills of Rights in the 1987 Constitution. It has been customary for the Judiciary to leave to the Supreme Court to settle the issue of constitutionality of any decision, while allowing the lower court to decide on its merits, Robles said.

Its decision is the climax of Trillanes’s tumultuous struggle to clear himself of various court charges. Robles, however, said he and Trillanes were still exploring the possibility of filing countercharges against Duterte and Calida. There is no final decision yet, he said.

Duterte issued PP572 in an attempt to jail anew Trillanes, one of his fiercest critics, since involvement in a coup d’etat is a nonbailable offense. Then Solicitor General Jose Calida was said to have authored the controversial presidential directive. Duterte offered the lame excuse that he merely signed what Calida gave him. Robles filed an urgent motion before the Supreme Court for temporary restraining order (TRO) on the implementation of PP572.

The Supreme Court ordered two Makati City Regional Trial Court judges to hear the issues of PP 572.  Judge Andres Soriano of RTC 148 and Judge Elmo Alameda of RTC 150 issued conflicting decisions. Soriano dismissed PP572, arguing the amnesty granted to Trillanes is final and could not be reopened. Alameda reopened the case, but allowed Trillanes to post bail. This prompted the state prosecutors to bring Soriano’s decision to the Court of Appeals.

The Court of Appeals ruled in Trillanes’s favor, describing as “mental calisthenics” what Duterte did. While the CA effectively sustained Soriano’s decision not to reopen it and stopped Alameda from hearing it, Robles brought the issue to the Supreme Court to settle the constitutional issue of PP 572. The High Court put to rest the issue but not without Robles saying “the government can prosecute but not persecute its critics.”

Reynaldo Robles, 58, is a practicing lawyer with vast experience both in the private and public sectors. He took his primary and secondary education at Don Bosco Academy in Bacolor, Pampanga and Pampanga High School respectively. He took his law course at Far Eastern University (FEU) and placed 10th in the 1990 Bar Exams.

Robles served as legal counsel and advocate for private corporations and public institutions, and several elected and appointed national and local government officials. He served in various capacities in government and private sector.  He served as legal counsel of the late Toots Ople, when she was secetary of the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW). Robles helped in DMW’s streamlining and reorganization from remnants of the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA), the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and the Office of Overseas Migrant Workers Affairs (OMWA) of the Department of Foreign Affairs.  

He served as a board member of the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) from 2011 to 2017, a state corporation and regulatory body. He was involved in the oversight of all land reclamation projects and activities, as he was chair of the PRA board’s land reclamation committee.

He served as adviser, legal counsel, and legislative consultant to several national and local officials like Blas Ople, Trillanes, Ismael Mathay, Jr., Manny Villar and others. His legislative experience included working in technical working groups (TWG), which crafted final versions of the committee reports and committee bills of Senate and House Bills in the 16th and 17th Congress, a number of which were passed into law.

As founding partner of the law firm of Chan Robles & Associates, he has counseled numerous corporate clients and served as chief legal counsel, corporate secretary and director of over a hundred companies. With partner, the late Joselito Chan, he cofounded the Chan Robles Virtual Law Library in 1996, an Internet-based library which has remained as one of the most popular legal research portal. Robles teaches law subjects in law schools, including FEU.             

Robles was instrumental in the preparation of the first and second information, which Trillanes and Magdalo associate Gary Alejano have filed in 2017 before the International Criminal Court (ICC). The two pieces of information alleged that Duterte and his cohorts committed crimes against humanity in their bloody but failed war on drugs launched in 2016 when Duterte became president. While their legislative lawyers worked on the two information, Robles was instrumental in their drafting, as he one of the lawyers, who gave advice and direction in the case buildup against Duterte and ilk. The late Jude Josue Sabio filed the first information under his name, but it was done to give cover to the guys, who although they worked feverishly on the completion of the two pieces of information, could be subject to harassment.

The first information submitted to the Office of the Prosecutor, had claimed that Duterte, as mayor of Davao City, and, later, as president, was engaged in the mass murder of people suspected to have been involved in the use and trade of prohibited drugs. It claimed that, for the interest of international criminal justice, the ICC, through its Office of the Prosecutor, should proceed to conduct a preliminary investigation on the reported mass murder on the basis of the facts laid down by the information and details given by the international human rights groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. It raised the possibility to bring the issue to the next step after preliminary investigation, which is the formal investigation by the ICC.

The first information prepared by the Magdalo and their legislative staffs and reviewed by Robles has two major divisions: the first part described the rise of Duterte and his DDS, when he was mayor of Davao City; the second part covered the use of the Davao City-made DDS template on the national level. The first information sufficiently covered the period 1988 to 2016, when the DDS came into prominence, as Duterte used his liquidation squads to kill criminal elements and political rivals in the southern port city. But it lacked the desired details, specifically when Duterte became president and adopted the Davao City template on a national scale.

Hence, Trillanes and Alejano worked on the second information, which is to complement and bolster the first information. They personally submitted it to the ICC headquarters in The Hague. This time, Sabio was no longer involved, but Robles gave valuable legal advice because it involved criminal law as it contained specific cases of murder by police officers and vigilante forces. #