who is ma’am arlene? wanted: whistleblowers in the judiciary

on the eve of the first day of oral arguments in the supreme court re the TRO on what’s left of the PDAF, philippine star columnist jarius bondoc tossed in this bomb:

Just call her Ma’am Arlene – the Judiciary’s version of Janet Lim Napoles.

She throws birthday bashes for Appellate Court justices and trial court judges, and bankrolls their family junkets abroad. She is the magistrates’ go-to girl if they need to give an offspring an expensive graduation or wedding gift. She makes them dependent on her, for a reason.

Cases are won depending on which Ma’am Arlene’s rich client-litigant is. Her connections are not limited to the courts, but extend all the way to the Department of Justice and the Office of the Ombudsman. She is notorious as a fixer of cases, with investigators, prosecutors, and magistrates, mostly in Metro Manila. She has counterparts in other big cities.

Ma’am Arlene always gets what she wants. That’s because, sources say, court bigwigs and key personnel are in her secret payroll. The justices’ spouses are yearly recipients of luxurious birthday gifts. No one turns her down, lest she spill the beans on them.

Her criminal generosity knows no limits. But some magistrates avoid her. For, she has the funny habit of bragging about her connections. It’s no different from Napoles reportedly telling her employees that this senator or that congressman “is asking for money again.” Riding around town in as snazzy SUVs like Ma’am Janet does, she “owns the Judiciary” like the latter “own the Congress.” And, oh, like Napoles, Ma-am Arlene is no lawyer. Yet she “lawyers” inside chambers, for such “honorable clients” as a flour importer who allegedly also brings in banned substances.

a bomb that has yet to explode because this arlene woman has yet to be identified…

Bondoc did not provide the full name of Arlene, but court sources said she is married to a former judiciary official who is close to a prominent member of the prosecution service. She reportedly worked in the Arroyo administration. http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/10/10/1243487/napoles-judiciary  … court sources said she is known even to court employees, adding she is a native of Iloilo and related to a suspected Chinese smuggler of flour.  http://cefa.ph/sc-probes-maam-arlene/

… and evidence has yet to be presented.  googling ma’am arlene, i found posted on abs-cbn‘s facebook page a link to Sereno: Find judiciary’s own ‘Mrs. Napoles’ where the chief justice says there are many stories of hoodlums in robes but no evidence, and she doesn’t know if this arlene is involved.  and this comment:

Naku naman Madam Chief Justice, halos lahat ng nasa judiciary alam na kung sino si Madam Arlene, mukhang ikaw na lang ang di naka-kilala sa kanya?!

if true, and i have no reason to doubt jarius, then it would be interesting should the call for whistleblowers a la benhur luy to come forward prove futile.  this arlene woman must be doing something “right” that napoles didn’t?  no paper trails?  no records?  or maybe she’s just paying her staff really well and maybe treating them like family?  or, speaking of family, maybe it’s as simple as: she doesn’t have a daughter thoughtlessly flaunting her wealth on the internet?  puwede ring, all of the above.