By Modesto P. Sa-onoy
Let’s sum up where we left off last week to put us in perspective with the untruthful claims of the two enforcers of Olivia Yanson in the disconnection of the water supply to the apartment legally occupied by Nico Causing and family.
Atty. Roland Pugoy and Marilyn Lopez swore that when they arrived at the apartment of Nico Causing, they only observed what the BACIWA personnel were doing but did not say what these employees were doing, the half-truth. Their words indicate the employees were not waiting for the order to disconnect but already implementing it.
BACIWA manager Atty. Juliana Carbon also tried to make us believe that she did not order the disconnection until Lopez and Pugoy assured her of “access to water.” In fairness to her, she unmasked the half-truths in the claims of Lopez and Pugoy. What is a half-truth called?
The fact is that when the BACIWA personnel cut the water that Nico Causing “announced” (word of Lopez and Pugoy) they have no water. It was only then that Lopez and Pugoy swore they got containers and had these filled up with water but did not say where – half-truth. Carbon swore the water came “from some units also owned by Olivia V. Yanson.”
It is clear Carbon had already ordered the severance of the water supply (that’s what the BACIWA personnel were doing when Lopez and Pugoy arrived) and prompted Nico to “announce” they had no water. Indeed if his connection was not severed he would not have said they had no water and there was no need to fill those containers in another apartment.
Lopez and Pugoy used the same word “announced” to describe how Nico reacted to the severance of their water supply. The use of this term appears intended to soften the impact on the Causing family of life without accessible water. That is contrary to human nature unless Nico had been intimidated enough or so helpless as to whimper in a plea for pity rather than indignation for being “punished” to serve the insatiable wrath of Olivia Yanson against her daughter Emily.
The clever and manipulative use of words intended to mitigate the situation and the action of Olivia’s executioners as non-intimidating and non-coercive runs counter to reality.
During World War II, the Nazis used the same tactics employed by Lopez and Pugoy, of course on orders of Olivia Yanson. The Nazis evicted the Jews on orders of Adolf Hitler. The scheme is the same. The Nazis cut off gas, water and electricity supply to the houses, shops and buildings of the Jews to make them unliveable and thus forced the Jews to abandon their properties. The Nazis immediately confiscated and even gave these houses to their mistresses or have them rented to foreigners.
Will not the cutting off of water and electricity in an apartment make that place unfit to live in especially if a family has a baby? I ask Pugoy and Lopez to tell us that they are willing to live in an apartment without these facilities and be content with it.
And so what Olivia failed to get the Causings out of the townhouse by legal process she succeeded by adopting Hitler’s style.
Olivia’s executioners were not there to observe but to ensure compliance by BACIWA. They should not wash their hands like Pontius Pilate by pretending they had nothing to do with the disconnections because they were the enforcers of Olivia’s demands. Their presence was an important part of the intimidation in the same way that the Nazi enforcers watching by the Jew’s house or a policeman standing in the corner to deter the criminally inclined.
Using the word “observer” also attempts to convince there was no coercion but the reality is that their presence gave confirmation and support to Carbon. It was if Olivia was watching.
The purpose of disconnection is to make the apartment unfit for decent living and thereby force Causing out against his will. Is not coercion defined, quoted by Lopez and Pugoy, as “preventing another by means of violence from doing something not prohibited by law or against his will”? Did not the disconnection force Nico to leave? Psychological violence is more damaging and lasting than physical harm.
Continued tomorrow.
