Color of Water
‘Out’ and fighting
By Malou Guanzon-Apalisok
Cebu Daily News
First Posted 15:44:00 05/12/2008
The homosexual florist who underwent an operation at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center to remove a perfume canister from his anus has finally been identified in local media reports after months of referring to the florist through fictitious names like Danilo, Jan-Jan and George. Manila news reports had the victim properly identified, but local media opted not to disclose the name as an act of sympathy with the victim whose harrowing experience became the butt of ridicule after it was uploaded on the video-sharing website YouTube.
Now that Danilo has filed a case and is seeking P6 million in damages from hospital doctors and nurses who made fun of him while doing the operation, the documents relative to the case have now become public. I agree with observations that by going to court, Danilo can no longer remain faceless and nameless.
Some sectors find it unfair that Danilo’s identity continued to be withheld even after the disclosure of the names of doctors and nurses who performed the operation. The observation takes note of the fact that he is a grownup.
Moreover, since he also insists there was no forced sex by way of explaining how the canister ended up in his rectum, it means there are no rape issues, like protecting the victim’s identity, to consider.
We can understand why persons caught in situations that suggest shame and scandal would rather not be exposed to public scrutiny and strive to quietly work at some ways to obtain justice. But the so-called Black Suede scandal is imbued with public interest. After it has taken a life of its own, the protagonists will have to deal with intense public scrutiny.
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Lawyer Edgar Gica, who represents former Cebu vice governor John Gregory “John-John” Osmeña in the pseudoephedrine case, is reportedly baffled why the Department of Justice (DOJ) is charging John-John for coddling drug smugglers, when it isn’t established who are behind the supposed importation of the controlled drug. As a media worker who covered the controversy in March 2004, Gica has a point in raising the issue of the failure of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the DOJ to subpoena Michael Cummings, who, according to lawyer Salvador Panelo, was the consignee of the shipment.
It may be recalled that after the local Bureau of Customs seized the 1.7 tons of pseudoephedrine, Manila lawyer Panelo surfaced in the latter part of March 2004 to say that Michael Cummings was granted authority to import the controlled chemicals. According to Gica, had the DOJ and the PDEA subpoenaed Panelo, the lawyer “could have testified to the existence of a certification issued by the Compliance Services of the PDEA last March 14, 2007 that showed Coastside Ventures was issued an ‘S4’ and an ‘S5-I’ license to import pseudoephedrine hydrochloride and that the license was valid from Aug. 15, 2003 until Aug. 15, 2004.”
I find this particular point interesting because the shipment was covered by import licenses, meaning it was not smuggled. This maybe interesting for the camp of John-John because, until now, PDEA has not disclosed the name of the officer who issued Coastside Ventures the license to import such a large stash of controlled chemicals. In fact, when Panelo turned up to defend Mike Cummings and Jose Lavarro, purportedly the men behind Coastside Ventures, the lawyer mentioned that CVI “will use the large stash of controlled chemicals for the manufacture of diet pills.” When pressed by news reporters for more details, Panelo wasn’t able to name the pharmaceutical laboratory that Coastside Ventures operates.
The obvious question is, who issued Coastside Ventures the license to import pseudoephedrine from China? More importantly, who, in behalf of Coastside Ventures, applied for certification before the Compliance Services of PDEA? Now that the camp of the former vice governor is raising these issues, it may be good to know if they pressured Panelo to produce Coastside men Michael Cummings and Jose Lavarro.
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