At the September 5 hearing in Quezon City, PLDT expert witness and systems engineer Manuel Bausa gave the courtroom public a peek into the arrogance of the company he works for.
     Obviously briefed properly by the Telco's lawyers, the expert witness seemed to smirk a lot during his cross examination, when he was asked to show certain Internet sites to the presiding judge - who also happens to be a newcomer to the Internet.
     On one occasion, the witness, when asked to click on an AltaVista search result, ignored the request and instead merely highlighted the description portion of the PLDT-Clearly for You link. Trying to taunt the court, perhaps? Then, when he was asked by the defense lawyer if the URL http://www.pldt.com.ph was the link to the Telco's site, he replied, "The Internet is not always factual." Duh? What does it link to, then - the Patikul Lambada Dancing Troupe?
     He was then asked to click on the link to bring the court to the Telco's website. After he did so, he was then asked to confirm if the site belonged to his company.
     Instead of answering in the affirmative - he should know who pays his salary, shouldn't he? - he took, it seemed, several long minutes before he could condescended to admit that yes, it was indeed the Telco's homepage.
     This is the same witness who, in the past, has seemed incapable of responding to simple queries which only require a yes or a no. It may yet need be established whether he is psychologically capable of continuing as an expert witness, as the cocky demeanor with which he began the trial proceedings is now disintegrating with surprising speed. After all, the Telco may cop a psychological incapacitance plea for this poor "insult over perjury" expert witness.

                                     want more pain