A Plea for Freedom, Justice, and Righteousness
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While blogwalking the other night, I chanced upon a blog of an American married to a Filipina. If you have the time, please go through their blog Loving the Challenge – Philippines and you will know about the ordeal that they are going through right now, because someone is trying to blackmail them using our justice system. I was compelled to help them in my own little way by blogging about their case and posting their site on Facebook. I am writing this now to seek help from the readers to post this story on whatever social networking site they are using. I am posting here one of his blog posts. Let us show them that although there are corrupt people in this country, there are others who are honorable and hospitable and who possess the characters of what a true Filipino is. Let us help in spreading their story until it attracts the attention of the media or whoever is in a position to help them overcome their ordeal.
I am posting this with permission from David Graham, the author.
Is this right, President Aquino?
Dear Mr. President,
For nearly two years now my wife and I have been patiently waiting for your justice system to make a decision on a case leveled against us by extortionists using a loophole in the law.
Because of corruption in the prosecutors office of your home town of Tarlac we were denied the right to defend ourselves when our personal counter affidavit was withheld by the secretary of the prosecutor (with full knowledge of the prosecutor ) to our detriment.
Because of this action, based solely on the reason that “no counter affidavit was submitted by us” the prosecutor filed for information’s putting us in a very precarious position. She did this without one shred of evidence. Once they put us in this position we were given the choice to pay $125,000 or face incarceration. This under the guise of a settlement offer.
Sir Noy, you must know the depth of the problem there. When we submitted a petition to your DOJ stating the facts and evidence of our counter affidavit being maliciously withheld to our detriment, a third party stating he was in touch with a prosecutor told us a payment was required. We were told that our petition would automatically be denied and worse, we were told that additional charges would be fabricated so as to assure our extradition if we did not pay. So not only were we being extorted from by individuals collaborating with the prosecutors office, we were apparently being extorted from in the higher level too.
Sir Noy, if you read this blog you will see that both my wife and I have gone above and beyond to help the Philippines. It is a travesty of justice that these things have been allowed to happen to us.
Nearly two years have passed since we were forced from your country. Our investment which comprised of our life’s savings has been ruined by this. Is it right Sir Noy for these things to happen there in your country? Is it right that a man like my self who gave nearly everything he had to help the poor himself be made poor by extortionists there?
We have been denied the right to defend ourselves. Our human rights of liberty and justice have been denied for the purpose of extortion. This cannot be. We have been intimidated, harassed and our lives threatened so as to keep us quiet. We have no more means to support ourselves now. We cannot let this go unnoticed.
While we continue to wait patiently for an answer we still have not heard anything from your DOJ on our petition. The only thing we heard through a third party is we must pay or we will never get out of this.
Every month our investment there costs us $3000-$4000 to maintain yet because we were forced from our livelihood we have had to borrow to survive. This nightmare has cost us over $200,000 now and because we are forced to sell our property at a rush sale, it will cost us another loss of $700,000 so that we can eat and have a roof over our heads.
I guess the most painful thing is my wife who you know personally has tried to contact you through many means including through your cousin Sir Dan and still we have not heard from you. We are not asking you to do something illegal. We are only asking for our human right to due process. Yet, we have been told that unless we pay for it, we will never see it.
Sir, I have personally given about $2.6 million dollars of my own hard earned money to help the poor in your country. I invested another million dollars developing one of the most beautiful properties in your own province of Tarlac. Sir, now we have become more poor than those whom we have helped. And why? Because of corruption. How can this be?
If I had my prayer come true this very issue would be the subject of your talks with Secretary Clinton this coming 15th. My self as an American citizen, she needs to know what has happened me there. What has happened to us brings shame on you and your country Sir. This cannot be. We know you are opposed to the very thing that happened to us. How much is it for us to only ask you to give us the right to due process without having to pay for it? Please help us Sir Noy. It is the right thing to do.
Sincerely,
David & Chona
Here is a link to my blogpost which you can share: Let Us Help This Couple in Distress
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OK, I read all of this and the entire blog from Mr. Graham. It appears to me that Mr Graham brought a lot of this trouble upon himself. In his blog, he boasts about all of the money and gifts he has laid at the feet of some of the locals and how he states it had to ‘slow’ a bit after he got married. Sounds to me as if he was taken for a ride. When the frequency of these gifts had become less an less, I am sure that some of the locals became a bit frustrated as they had become used to the generosity of the Grahams. The glaring point in this whole matter is that no where do they discuss the charges against them. If a person is getting a raw deal, it is human nature to want to help, but if the person telling the story makes the situation ‘lean’ as if they were all victims, I am always a little leery until I hear both sides of the story. I see by the comment made by ‘Matthew’ above that there might have been an alleged purchase and possession of a combat assault rifle. If this is the case, then all of the good things accomplished by the Grahams will not help in saving them from the penalty for this crime. I do not doubt that the Prosecutor was surely expecting a payment by just accepting the Personal Counter Affidavit. Having dealt with some officials during my stay in the Philippines taught me that there is a fee for just about anything, even receiving your mail. The Grahams should receive any help needed to put this behind them, but I would not count on any help until both sides of the story are told and understood.
Mr president please give justice to all Filipino in the administration of former president Arroyo who’s worse than Marcos regime both of then are thief and corrucp.
..ito sa bayan nyo na po sa Tralac pero dpa po ninyo nakikita..Sana ang pagkaabalahan nyo ay ang pagbaba ng presyo ng gasolina at iba pang bilihin..bka d pa po nonyo alam mas lalong dumami ang naghihirap…me solusyon na po b kayo???!!
..Nagmumukha na nga lang tayong katawa tawa sa mga iba..mula sa admistrasyong Marcos may nagbayad ba??!!!!Matuto nalang tyo sa nakaraan para maayos ang sa ngayon..
..so there goes ur President PPENOY..dapat ang ipatupad nya para sa tuwid n daan ay bitayin lahat ng corrupt sa mismong administrasyon nya mula sa pinakamataas hanggang barangay tanod..tingnan lang natin kung meron pang gagawa ng katiwaliaan..Bakit sila nagaaksaya sng pere talino at galing sa mga nangyari na????Sinong opisyal naba ang nagbayad sa mga nagawa na nila??? WALA!!!!
I know this guy and he got involed with the Philippine syndicate and was lent money to build his home and resort. He also bought a AK-47 which is illegal for foreigners to buy weapons in the Philippines. He refused to pay back the money he owed and now he is on the run. That was straight from Davids own mouth and freely admitted to buying the weapon and freely admitted to not paying back the money he owed.
Rence maybe instead of jumping on the band wagon, you might should check to see whether this person is really on the up and up (honest).
Personally, I think he should be in prison for knowingly using a fixer (Philippine syndicate) to buy the AK-47 knowing that it is illegal so break the law and do the time. You have right as a U.S Citizen in the Philippines however, your under the Philippine laws and such. You break them you must pay or go to prison.
Sorry Rence but David got to your soft spot and you fell for it.
If the issue is only the AK-47, then it will settle to such offences and charges from the government. The issue here is the human right which is of hard for the President to give (he wasn’t even able to give justice to the victims of his clans)I’ll be happy if he well though. Second this couple were “Victims” of extortion, and to think he invested something in the president’s hometown how a could such a person make this thing happen to his people? third why pay such a high amount of money and make the case drag on like hell? to make more money from the expenses of the case? think about it. that makes the country more corrupt in terms of implementing the law and to think those justices were given enough compensation from the government to function. Ans then why the currencies in dollars? can you think of it?
A defamation of Character case is going to filed in Anchorage Alaska against this person “Matthew”. He was a person I had met on facebook who became insanely jealous of my good relationship with my wife and success in business. You can say anything buddy but show the evidence if you want people to believe you.
Exchange rate is not controlled by d govt unless we are living n china. Its not our govt fault f d us dollar value is deteriorating kasi they cn print their own money. If d exchange rate against peso is down it means our economy is doing great.
kung taas ang palit ng dolyar ibig mas lalong naghihirap ang pinas…
PeNoy
mr president taasan mo nmn poh ang exchange rate ng $r,kahit 50 flat-1$ wawa nmn kami d2 sa ibng bnsa,napakababa kc,prng natapon lng pinghirapan namin..