Word: climaco
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...commonplace is violence in the southern Mindanao seaport of Zamboanga City that Mayor César Climaco, 68, tallied the killings on a billboard outside the municipal hall. The mayor, a leading critic of the regime of President Ferdinand Marcos, last week became such a statistic himself as he was shot in broad daylight in the center of town. The assassin escaped. Inevitably, some Filipinos blamed the killing on the Marcos regime. During the past two months three opposition figures in the south have been murdered, and many suspect that Mayor Climaco right-wing military elements were involved...
...Climaco had been a constant critic of the government's human rights abuses. When the President proclaimed martial law in 1972, he vowed not to cut his hair until "peace and democracy are restored," and his long white locks became his trademark. Marcos condemned the murder and ordered an investigation by the acting armed forces Chief of Staff Lieut. General Fidel Ramos. That did not appease the opposition. Said former Senator Salvador Laurel: "One by one our leaders are being killed or eliminated...
Among the questions before the panel: Was the Climaco firm appointed examiner in the White Motor bankruptcy (possible fee: $1 million) as a payoff for hiring Nephew Gino? The firm was chosen by Bankruptcy Judge Mark Schlachet, a Battisti protege and the son-in-law of one of Battisti's close friends. Schlachet resigned last year while under investigation for improperly giving high-paying court appointments to friends...
What might have remained a more or less standard influence-peddling inquiry became more titillating last month when Judge Aldrich made public her role in the investigation. Remembering her Christmas-party chat, she decided to check out Nephew Gino with one of the Climaco partners, Shimon Kaplan. According to Aldrich, Kaplan told her that young Battisti had received $41,000 in bonuses, roughly 10% of all fees from cases "attributable" to his uncle. Stunned by Aldrich's assertion, Kaplan and the Climaco firm formally denied making any deals with Judge Battisti or his nephew...
Speaking for his partners, John Climaco accused Aldrich, 55, of attacking the firm because of a faltering romance with Kaplan, 42, who had been her student at a local law school. Kaplan said bluntly, "I believe Judge Aldrich's actions are an attempt to get even with me and my law firm for my refusing to marry her." In a letter to his colleagues he wrote...