BELATED WHITE CHRISTMAS: Some Pinoys have lived all their adult lives in the San Francisco Bay Area without having experienced snow, except when they drive up to Reno in winter some four hours away through the Sierra Nevada.

That climatic quirk of the Bay Area should be a bonus for people who hanker for year-round pleasant weather unmarred by extremes of scorching hot and freezing cold days, but there are some of us who simply must have snow in their lives.

Some kababayan who have dreamed of a White Christmas, however belated, finally got their fair share of snow days ago, some of them romping on the immaculate white blanket for the first time in their life.

STAR columnist Ben Simpao tells us from his base in the Bay Area: “The past week had been kind of freezing in the SF-Bay Area when a flush of snow flurries blanketed a lot of sites, bringing joy and glee to children throwing snowballs at each other and inspiring creativity with their snowmen.

“Some sections had not seen this kind of snowfall in the past 50 years, from Petaluma, up north (Marin county) down south in Sta. Cruz. Mt. Hamilton, in San Jose (remember those giant telescopes?), was snowcapped. Tilden Park, beyond the UC Berkeley hills was all white.”

* * *

HOY! YOU’RE ON TV!: Ben adds a footnote on American coverage of the Abu Sayyaf situation: “Also, we got a good amount of TV coverage on NightLine, ABC, channel 7, with Ted Koppel hosting about the Abus in Mindanao. On prime time evening news, World News Tonight, with Peter Jennings, ABC, channel 7, the airing was mostly about the Abus and the activities of the US military in the war exercises.

“Over a week ago, Dan Rather hosting, on CBS 48 hours, channel 5, America got the same dosage of the goings on in Mindanao.”

Here’s our own footnote on the golden city by the bay that was home to us during our martial law exile: Don’t let the natives hear you call their city “Frisco.” It’s San Francisco…

Marin county that Ben mentions is that mountainous area immediately north of San Francisco. After crossing Golden Gate bridge, you come upon a quaint village called Sausalito with fine restos, boutiques and a marina crawling up to the sea edge and rustic cottages half-hidden among the vines and greenery on the mountainside facing the bay.

* * *

OPEN THOSE PUBLIC ROADS!: Back here, we have this little debate about subdivision roads being kept off limits to the motoring public despite the fact that they are supposed to have become public after using maintenance funds from the government.

Our point is simple: All roads, even those in private subdivisions and villages, on which tax money has been used must be accessible to the public. Access to a public road running through the village gate may not be denied a licensed motorist on the sole basis of his not being a resident or his refusing to buy a windshield sticker.

(The Metro Manila Development Authority could ease traffic considerably if only it would convince exclusive villages to open some of their streets to through-traffic of small private vehicles during peak hours. Also at peak hours, certain thoroughfares should be declared strictly tow-away no-parking zones so as to maximize their total use for moving vehicles.)

* * *

FEARFUL V.I.P. RESIDENTS: Engineer Ibarra S. Torres of Quezon City, who had complained of the blocking with steel gates of Chestnut, Walnut and Dahlia Sts. in West Fairview (Postscript, 03Feb2002) despite their being previously open public roads, thinks he has found the reason for the blockade.

He reports that there is a popular actor living in the vicinity, a politician who may be a Cabinet member because he sports a car plate number “DA-6,” and other officials ensconced in the neighborhood. But why are they deathly afraid of people?

Reader Oscar Velarde (msn.com), who also lives in the neighborhood, agrees with Torres, saying “We cannot allow homeowners associations to adopt policies that discriminate motorists and pedestrians in the guise of traffic control and security.”

He also assails the use of some streets for basketball. He says: “The street fronting my house is used as a play court. You can imagine the writing on the fence wall, the green on the sidewalk turning brown, the smell of urine visiting your surrounding… and you have to wait for a ‘time out’ to enter your own driveway.”

* * *

CUT THROUGH VILLAGES: Dr. David Michael Murphy (skyinet.net) says: “Like everyone, I’ve been subject to the restrictions at subdivision gates, including paying for so many stickers that it’s difficult to see out of the windshield. I tried to be patient about it, reasoning that the traffic of outsiders caused additional expense for security guards and repaving. I was surprised to learn that the roads are paid for with government funds. Charging motorists to drive on roads they pay for with their own taxes? Doesn’t sound quite right, does it?”

He adds: “There are so few side streets that can be used when the main streets become congested. Subdivisions should be required to have at least one public passage between public roads on each side. The passage should equal or exceed the capacity of the smaller of the roads it connects.

“Mega-developments like BF Parañaque could provide a single throughway. The roads would not allow total access, just the ability to pass through. The residents can still have their guardhouses, security and seclusion, just in a smaller package. And they can pay for their own roads.”

* * *

FRIENDSHIP ROUTE BLOCKED: Josie Bernabe (yahoo.com) of nearby Las Piñas notes that Mayor Nene Aguilar has opened so-called “Friendship Routes” precisely to divert heavy traffic through selected roads in private subdivisions in his city.

The scheme works fine, she reports, but in such places as BF Resort Village the guards are still demanding that motorists passing through the Friendship Route must buy stickers or leave their driver’s license at the gate. She notes that the very street where the gate stands has been upgraded, lighted and beautified with the use of government funds.

“In fact, there is a billboard near the gate boasting that the road improvements are ‘another project’ of Rep. Cynthia Villar, Mayor Aguilar and Vice Mayor Louie Bustamante. If tax money is being spent on the road, why are taxpayers being barred just because they don’t want to buy car stickers?” Bernabe asks.

* * *

ANI GETS IT TWICE A YEAR: We thought all along that no official may be the object of more than one impeachment proceedings within one year. So we checked the Constitution and, sure enough, Section. 3(5) of Article XI says: “No impeachment proceedings shall be initiated against the same official more than once within a period of one year.”

The charter says the prohibition against repeat charges covers “a period of one year.” That means to us a period of 12 months counting from the initiation of the first impeachment complaint.

So why is Ombudsman Aniano Desierto again being dragged by some congressmen through another impeachment process when an earlier impeachment complaint was initiated just a few months ago and subsequently thrown out by the same body?

* * *

WHEN IS IT INITIATED?: The big question seems to be on when an impeachment complaint is deemed to have been “initiated.” Is it upon filing of the verified complaint? Or the majority signing of the committee report? Or the decisive vote of the plenary body on the committee report?

To resolve this question, Rep. Augusto Syjuco Jr. of Iloilo has gone to the Supreme Court questioning the House rules that the impeachment proceedings are deemed initiated with the plenary, not committee, action.

The House rules provide two modes wherein an impeachment complaint is deemed initiated:

1. When the House by a vote of one-third overturns a decision of the Committee on Justice dismissing a complaint for lack of form and substance.
2. When the House affirms by a majority vote the decision of the Committee on Justice to dismiss a complaint.

* * *

CHECK THE MINUTES: However, a reading of the minutes of the Constitutional Commission (particularly the remarks of delegates Maambong and Bernas) indicates that the impeachment process is deemed initiated upon the filing of the verified complaint.

Maambong: “The procedure, as I have pointed out earlier, was that the initiation starts with the filing of the complaint.” (p375, Record of the Constitutional Commission)

“The initiation, xxx, really starts from the filing of the verified complaint.” (p416, Record of the Constitutional Commission)

Bernas: “Impeachment was not ‘initiated’ by the vote of the House but by the filing of the complaint.” (p770, Bernas, The Intent of the Constitutional Writers)

“The impeachment proceedings begin with a complaint filed with the House xxx either by a member of the House or by any citizen supported by a resolution of endorsement by any member.” (p404, Bernas, The Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines)

Meantime, the House leadership should nip growing impressions that impeachment has become a weapon of harassment. Not just any official is impeached, and not just for any reason. The constitutional process of impeachment must not be trivialized.