I LIKE MOST the planned policy of the youngest presidential candidate at last Monday’s Inquirer debate. JC de los Reyes of Kapatiran Party said he would dismantle family dynasties.

Yes, family dynasties are an insult to our Constitution. The Constitution prohibits it but our politicians are expanding their family dynasties without any shame. Politicians who did not have one before are now starting their own. Even politicians who I thought were sensible are now making their relatives run for public office. No legislator has filed an implementing bill to the Constitutional ban because they plan to create and expand their own family dynasties. Nobody has spoken against it either, except De los Reyes. Unfortunately, he would have a difficult climb before becoming president.

It was our tolerance of family dynasties that made possible the monster that is the Ampatuan clan. If we do not put a stop to family dynasties, we would soon be like Medieval Europe, torn apart by warring feudal lords. It is happening now in Mindanao where the datu system is still very strong.

I was also waiting for De los Reyes to say that he would have very strict gun laws, the advocacy of Kapatiran’s founder, Nandy Pacheco, but I did not hear it. We have seen how countries with the strictest gun laws like Japan have the lowest crime rate while countries with liberal gun policies like the United States have the highest gun-related violence, yet we have not learned from them.

I was also waiting for the candidates to say that they would stop the pork barrel system, but I heard only Sen. Jamby Madrigal say it. The pork barrel system is bribery and corruption pure and simple, no matter what you say to defend it. It wastes so much taxpayers’ money and spreads corruption from the highest to the lowest ranks of society.

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There is something I don’t understand in the Dacer-Corbito murder case against Sen. Panfilo Lacson: What was his motive? That is the first thing every detective in the mystery novels ask: What is the motive? Who has the motive?

The government’s star witness merely said that he heard Lacson order the killing because a certain “Bigote” was irritated with Bubby Dacer. He did not say why “Bigote” was irritated or even who he was. On that basis they have charged a senator with the capital offense of murder?

Another capital crime hurled against a citizen is the kidnapping rap filed against Tsinoy businessman Mariano Tanenglian, his wife and their two children. The crime is non-bailable. Again, there is no motive. The supposed victim is a former housemaid. Why would a Tsinoy tycoon kidnap his own housemaid, whose relatives cannot afford to pay ransom? What would he have gained from kidnapping a housemaid?

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Another clear case of harassment is that of Mayor Pedro Cuerpo of Rodriguez, Rizal. Gov. Casimiro A. Ynares III and the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Rizal have suspended him, one after the other, for the maximum period allowed by law. His offense? Implementing an ordinance passed by the Sangguniang Bayan of Rodriguez. The SB had passed an ordinance authorizing the imposition of the development exaction fee on any municipality and city or garbage collector using the Rodriguez Sanitary Landfill (07-12) and its collection through the trip ticket system (07-13). In other words, the whole problem started with garbage.

You may think it is just stinking garbage, but there is plenty of easy money in it—for the garbage collectors. The trash collectors are paid by the truckload by the city or municipality. Each truck driver reports that his team had collected and dumped so many truckloads of garbage for that day and the contractor is paid for that. But there was no checking whether what they were reporting were correct. There was a lot of over-reporting. Trucks that dumped only five truckloads reported double that.

Cuerpo’s trip ticket system stopped that. For some reason, the provincial government of Rizal did not like that. The provincial board passed a resolution declaring the Rodriguez ordinances null and void.

On Feb. 8, 2008, the governor preventively suspended Cuerpo for 60 days. The latter appealed to the Office of the President (OP) with prayer for the lifting of the suspension.

But before Malacañang could resolve Cuerpo’s appeal, the provincial board rendered a decision finding him guilty and imposed the maximum penalty of six months suspension.

Cuerpo appealed to Malacañang. The OP stayed the suspension order. The provincial council filed a petition for certiorari with the Court of Appeals.

On July 28, 2008, the CA annulled Malacañang’s stay order. Cuerpo filed a motion for reconsideration.

On Oct. 3, 2008, Malacañang rendered its decision on the appeal of Cuerpo and exonerated him of the charges, reversing the provincial board’s resolution suspending Cuerpo for six months. The board filed a petition for certiorari with the Supreme Court, which the latter denied.

But surprise, surprise, after more than a year and three months, on Jan. 6, 2010, the OP suddenly, and after disposing of the case and losing jurisdiction over the same, came out with a decision affirming the six-month suspension of Cuerpo. The latter decision bears no reference at all to its Oct. 3, 2008 decision on the same case that exonerated Cuerpo. What is going on here?

This is a clear case of persecution by professional politicians of a mayor who is not a politician. Cuerpo is an engineer. He is the lone opposition mayor in the whole province of Rizal.

But Cuerpo may get his revenge in the May elections. He is running for governor against Ynares III.