No Justice for Imaginary Mystic Dwarves!

[Damien Falgoust]

This....amused me (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5261856.stm):

A Philippines judge who said he consulted imaginary mystic dwarves has failed to convince the Supreme Court to allow him to keep his job.

Florentino Floro was appealing against a three-year inquiry which led to his removal due to incompetence and bias.

He told investigators three mystic dwarves - Armand, Luis and Angel - had helped him to carry out healing sessions during breaks in his chambers.

[...]

The judge said he had made a covenant with his dwarf friends that he could write while in a trance and that he had been seen by several people in two places at the same time.

Judge Floro reportedly changed from blue court robes to black each Friday "to recharge his psychic powers".

[...] I'm tellin' ya, it's getting harder and harder for an imaginary mystic dwarf to catch an even break in this cruel, cruel world...

[Vaughn McMillan]

This....amused me (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5261856.stm):
I'm tellin' ya, it's getting harder and harder for an imaginary mystic dwarf to catch an even break in this cruel, cruel world...
LOL...Yeah, ever since the imaginary mystic dwarf crash of the late 90's things just haven't been the same for the little fellers. :rolleyes:

- Vaughn

[Robert Mickley]

LOL...Yeah, ever since the imaginary mystic dwarf crash of the late 90's things just haven't been the same for the little fellers. :rolleyes:

- Vaughn

Yeah about all they can do now is be a tour guide..

The wheels onthe bus go round and round :D:D:D

[florentino floro]

Just sayin Mabuhay (hello, in Filipino; it’s now 6:15 p.m, here, Monday, Philippines; considering that since April, 2006, I spent 10 hours daily replying to 500+ blogs / forum discussions, topics and 100+ world reports/headlines on my relief from service due to belief in dwarves/religion, and since I just learned computer months ago, please FREELY EDIT this comment if it is too long). . [My email address is judgefloro@yahoo.com; I reside here in Alido, Malolos City, Bulacan, PHILIPPINES, ASIA].

FIRST, LOOK AT MY PICTURES and video ---

http://psychic-and-healing-judge.blogspot.com


www.youtube.com (http://www.youtube.com)
on my healing - just type judge floro on the upper search engine

http://youtube.com/results?search_query=judge+floro

Philippine Psychic Judge who talks to 3 mystic dwarfs loses appeal to keep job: Martyr of Filipino Justice will file 2nd Appeal, Disbarment/Administrative Cases before the August 29 Deadline.

[I]Filipino 'dwarf' judge loses case
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5261856.stm


A Philippines judge who said he consulted imaginary mystic dwarves has failed to convince the Supreme Court to allow him to keep his job.
Florentino Floro was appealing against a three-year inquiry which led to his removal due to incompetence and bias......

In a letter to the court he said: "From obscurity, my name and the three mystic dwarves became immortal."

Dismissed judge, elfin pals claim immortality

http://newsinfo.inq7.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view_article.php?article_id=13683

By Armand Nocum, Inquirer, 02:42am (Mla time) 08/06/2006, page A1 of the August 6, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

HIS pals, “the imaginary dwarfs” Armand, Luis and Angel, may not have impressed the justices of the Supreme Court but, according to dismissed Judge Florentino Floro Jr., he and his three friends were superstars among psychics and believers of the occult throughout the world.

http://newsinfo.inq7.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view_article.php?article_id=15519

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=47281

However, the Supreme Court said dalliance with dwarves would gradually erode the public's acceptance of the judiciary as the guardian of the law, if not make it an object of ridicule.

However, the Supreme Court said dalliance with dwarves would gradually erode the public's acceptance of the judiciary as the guardian of the law, if not make it an object of ridicule.

Creature features of the Philippines

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=11&art_id=26377&sid=9682141&con_type=1&d_str=20060902

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Judge Floro Florentino is not too pleased with his three spiritual guides being referred to as dwarves or duende, as superstitious Filipinos call these elf-like beings. His brother, who first saw them, called them duende, a Spanish word of ambiguous definition.

To Filipinos, they are something like tiny magical goblins who live in forested areas. There are, according to folklore, two types: black, denoting evil which can harm, and red, who are good and can heal. On the island of Mindoro, the Mangyan tribe claim to trade with the few remaining duende for forest products. They are said to be extremely shy because of the violence that has been done to them in the past.

Then there are the nocturnal Agta, tall black men who also hang out in the forests, while the Batibat, found in Ilocos, look like fat women who live inside posts, and suffocate people by sitting on top of them.

The bovine-like Mantahungal have fearsome teeth, the Pugot are self-beheading multi-formed creatures, and the Tikbalang are centaurs in reverse. These and many more magical creatures - some invisible, some half-human, half- animal - are all said to inhabit the Philippine countryside.

Florentino and the three dwarves

Saturday, September 02, 2006

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=11&art_id=26375&sid=9641493&con_type=3&d_str=20060902

A Filipino judge who was dismissed from the bench because of his ongoing relationship with invisible mystics meets with Sam Chambers to explain his side of the story.

T he Philippine judiciary has oft been the butt of a joke but never before has one of its members caused so much mirth as Judge Floro Florentino and his three invisible dwarves.

Judge Florentino and the dwarves - Luis, Armand and Angel - might sound like a good name for a band but they are in fact the main characters in a surreal tale from a nation famous for its superstitions.

Last month, the trial judge lost his final appeal to keep his job, with the Supreme Court's 72-page ruling stating that Florentino's "dalliance" with Luis, Armand and Angel showed he had a "medically disabling condition of the mind" that rendered him "unfit to discharge the functions of his office" which in turn could "erode the public's esteem of the judiciary" and make it an "object of ridicule."

Florentino and I arrange to meet at what seems the most apt of places to discuss such matters - the Hobbit Bar on Mabene St in the Manila district of Malate. Charitably offering employment for the vertically challenged, it has been a tourist attraction for more than 10 years.

Florentino's three sidekicks, or "spiritual guides" as he prefers them to be called, take many different forms. Luis is the "king of kings" or "God's angel," while Armand is a beautiful boy who, like Luis, has wings. Angel is their sister. Florentino has on
ly seen Luis once - on a rock in the middle of the Philippine archipelago. Luis communicates and uses his powers via violet and white lights.

Florentino peers over the bar and orders a bottle of Australian shiraz but shows no sign of recognition - it seems that Luis, Armand and Angel are not among the diminutive presences to serve us. Moments later a pudgy hand holding a 2003 vintage appears out of nowhere; two glasses follow, as if by levitation, from beneath the bar.

Looking 10 years younger than his 53 years, Florentino comes across as remarkably lucid. For sure he rambles in a high-pitched tone, often going off on tangents, yet the psychosis the Supreme Court claims he has is not immediately apparent.

Fame, or infamy, clearly is something this otherwise shy man seems to enjoy. He comes to the interview armed with 300 pages of clippings and court appeals. He says, with no small relish, that he and his three cohorts have appeared in more than 66 media titles and 1,000 blogs.

One such blogger described Florentino as a Filipino X-Man for his efforts to rid the country's judiciary of corruption. In 1995 a Supreme Court commission found that more than 50 percent of judges received bribes, something Florentino has been determined to wipe out. His area of jurisdiction in Manila was Malabon, a coveted location in which to work, he says, because within a month a judge could become a millionaire, the starting price for any judicial decision being 50,000 pesos (HK$7,640).

"Court starts at 11am; at 11.05am (the judges) go for golf," he quips. He shows even less mercy in his judgment of the Court of Appeals: "They say it is 85 percent corrupt," he muses, "It is 100 percent corrupt."

Florentino initially trained to become a priest and was just a young teenager when he joined a seminary in 1965. He transferred to a Jesuit institution a few years later but then left to enter the legal profession. His life changed forever, he says, on June 2, 1983 - the day his father died. It was on that day that Luis, Armand and Angel made themselves known to Robert, Florentino's mentally disabled youngest brother.

"My brother, because of his innocence, can see them," he says. Floro Florentino recounts how the dwarves had revealed his healing and psychic powers. At first, he says he was sceptical. An avid gambler - horse racing coupons are mixed in with his press clippings - the dwarves told him to get involved in cockfighting. He bought 13 cockerels, made 21,000 pesos and "suddenly believed them."

Since then he claims to have healed many people, explaining that his hands are golden and impart heat to the afflicted. "I am not a faith healer," he says, "I am gifted."

Though at times in the conversation he bristles at the term psychic, Florentino rates himself as as the country's number five seer. Number one? Ferdinand Marcos, apparently.

Florentino says he predicted Joseph "Erap" Estrada's presidential downfall and prayed that present incumbent Gloria Macapagal Arroyo would survive her endless political battles. Looking ahead, he reckons Arroyo's power will end soon and the nation will suffer as a result.

He'll also have you believe he is a bilocator - someone who can be seen in two different places at the same time, which he acknowledges is also a trick for which the devil is known.

Florentino says such powers do not come without sacrifices and that he has had to remain single or lose his gift of healing: "That's in the Book of Revelations," he adds.

He glances over his shoulder at a child laughing nearby. "You know it's painful for me not to have a kid. That's why I am the Filipino martyr."

Florentino was appointed on November 5, 1998, as the country's youngest judge. It was not the first time he'd tried to become one. Three years earlier the state had failed him for psychological reasons but he was allowed an independent, private mental assessment that cleared him.

His reign as a judge was as bizarre as it was short. Sessions would start with readings from the Book of Revelations; on Fridays he would change from blue robes to black to recharge his powers, and in between hearings he'd provide healing sessions, even for other judges, as well as consulting his trio of "advisers."

Such unorthodoxy brought a swift end to his career and he was suspended in July 1999. So began his seven-year battle to be reinstated, with more than 100 motions tabled, finally ending with the Supreme Court decision. He was paid 1.1 million pesos in back pay, over half of which has already been used to pay debts.

He lists the names of senior judges who have in the past come to him for healing and says these are the same people who turned on him for political reasons, using his paranormal "gifts" as the excuse to get rid of him.

"This is a first in our judicial history - the Philippines Supreme Court has never dismissed or removed a judge because of their belief in the paranormal or religion. Other country's constitutions provide for dismissal or removal of judges, jurists and magistrates because of graft, corruption or misconduct," he insists.

However, Florentino admits to having a darker mission, avenging those who corrupt the legal system. This has led him to be dubbed an angel of death, a description he does not dispute.

At this point I am reminded of the fact that to be a dwarf in the Philippines, or duende as they are known, is not to possess the lovable qualities often attributed to them in fairytales. Rather they are regarded as figures full of malice and violent intent.

Eight judges who Florentino has deemed corrupt have all been struck with serious illnesses, three of them dying. He has, he confesses, been psychically "inflicting illnesses" upon his tormentors, even going so far as to ensure one of them gave birth to a child with epilepsy.

"Armand, Luis and Angel's role is a never-ending fight against `black' or evil; a spiritual battle - the angels versus Lucifer. Right now Satan is winning, God is losing. All our leaders have 666 on their heads from the president down, the Supreme Court, everywhere," he says in his mild, yet animated, manner. "My mission is healing the wounds of the judiciary."

His more immediate goal is to appeal the Supreme Court decision as early as next week. He intends to file a disbarment case against Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jnr for delaying his case for so long. "I am asking for a job. I am asking for justice," says the spiritual crusader.

Is this just a tall tale of short people? Or is that Luis reaching up to take my credit card? Filipino judges, you have been warned.

[Bill Leonard]

I've been to two county fairs and a hog callin', and "ain't" never heard nothin' like this!!!

[florentino floro]

I've been to two county fairs and a hog callin', and "ain't" never heard nothin' like this!!!

Ca Justice William W. Bedsworth also was spellbound --- our S.Court's Decision is now the OBJECT of ridicule -
http://www.acriminalwasteofspace.com/journal_beds.asp
Judges and Dwarfs Don't MixJudges are, by and large, not the flamingos of the justice swamp. Present company excluded, we tend to be temperate, conservative1 (http://www.acriminalwasteofspace.com/journal_beds.asp#fNoteJudges and Dwarfs Don) and ... well, judicious. For every one of us who wears Hawaiian shirts and cowboy boots to work,2 (http://www.acriminalwasteofspace.com/journal_beds.asp#fNoteJudges and Dwarfs Don) there are scores wearing rep ties and wing tips. That's just how we are.

It's also how we got here. I've been watching this system for 35 years and I've pretty much concluded that the first question — maybe not the most important one, but the first one — the governor asks about any judicial candidate is, "What are the chances I'll ever see this person's name again if I appoint him/her?" Only if the appointments secretary answers, "Zero. No chance. Zip, zilch, nada, bupkis, ain't gonna happen; fuhgeddaboudit" does the process go any further.

Because unless the appointments secretary can absolutely guarantee the governor that he will never pick up his morning paper and read, "Judge Arrested for Molesting Sheep," or "Local Jurist Marries 13-Year-Old Cousin," the application goes into the round file faster than a gum wrapper. Governors want their judges to "do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God," but mostly they just want them to stay out of the headlines.

All of which, of course, makes my own appointment a miracle on the order of Fatima or Lourdes. My name shows up in newspapers and magazines every month. I had already published a book of psychotherapeutic meanderings — like the one you're reading now — by the time I reached Pete Wilson's appointments secretary. I am almost certainly the most over-exposed judge in the history of the state.3 (http://www.acriminalwasteofspace.com/journal_beds.asp#fNoteJudges and Dwarfs Don) As my colleagues would hasten to point out, I do not fit the profile.

Yet here I am. I can only assume I am a Roman Hruska appointment. You remember Roman Hruska. He was the senator from Nebraska who argued in favor of G. Harrold Carswell's confirmation to the United States Supreme Court on the basis that "Even if he was mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they, and a little chance? We can't all be Brandeises and Cardozos and Frankfurters and stuff like that there."4 (http://www.acriminalwasteofspace.com/journal_beds.asp#fNoteJudges and Dwarfs Don)

I assume John Davies, who has otherwise acquitted himself spectacularly as appointments secretary for two governors, went back into Pete Wilson's office after interviewing me and said, "They can't all be Brandeises and Cardozos and Frankfurters."5 (http://www.acriminalwasteofspace.com/journal_beds.asp#fNoteJudges and Dwarfs Don)

But something about me must have reassured Davies. He required me to submit a copy of my first book while I was under consideration. Having read it, he probably figured I'd already said about all the crazy stuff I could say.6 (http://www.acriminalwasteofspace.com/journal_beds.asp#fNoteJudges and Dwarfs Don)

By and large, though, governors tend to regard a tendency to say crazy stuff as a negative quality in a prospective judge. They're looking not so much for "flamboyant and entertaining" as "Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent." Go figure.7 (http://www.acriminalwasteofspace.com/journal_beds.asp#fNoteJudges and Dwarfs Don)

So it astounds me that there is a publication called ... so help me ... the Judicial Conduct Reporter. You would not think a group of people chosen in large measure for their ability not to crash and burn on the six o'clock news could support a quarterly magazine devoted entirely to cataloguing their sins. But they do.

Honest. I get this thing every three months. It's put out by the American Judicature Society, and exists solely to chronicle the peccadilloes of me and my colleagues, apparently in the futile hope that we will learn from our mistakes.

I'll pause here until you stop laughing at the concept of an educable judge.

Really, I'm not going to continue until you stop.

OK, are you done?

Fine.

Every quarter the Judicial Conduct Reporter lands on my desk and I put aside whatever I'm working on to read it. Talk about psychotherapy. I start out thinking myself a flawed human being, struggling to get as many right as I can and hoping against hope I won't disappoint the people who put me here. By the time I'm finished, I think I'm ready for the Hall of Fame. Forget Brandeis and Cardozo, I feel like Gandhi. The things other judges are doing make me want to call Davies and ask what took him so long!

Usually the Judicial Conduct Reporters have a theme. Usually it's sexual harassment. Sexual harassment seems to be the judicial equivalent of the common cold. But there are other themes: bullying people, inappropriate gifts, ill-advised charitable activities.

One of my favorites was "Judicial Road Rage." This was a collection of guys8 (http://www.acriminalwasteofspace.com/journal_beds.asp#fNoteJudges and Dwarfs Don) who didn't just yell at another motorist or flip them off, but had them arrested. These people actually sent their bailiffs out, or called the sheriff, and had motorists whose driving offended them tossed into the hoosegow. Not just one guy who did that, several of them! A gaggle!

At the risk of sounding provincial, most of these do not involve California judges. Whether it reflects strong moral fiber or mere lack of imagination, our judges don't seem as prone to things like making decisions by flipping a coin (summer 2003) or falsely claiming to have won the Medal of Honor (summer 1995).

Nor do we talk to imaginary mystic dwarfs.

Yep. That's what it says: imaginary mystic dwarfs.

Until today, I would not have considered my lack of involvement with imaginary mystic dwarfs a great achievement. Until today, I would not have understood it as a compliment if someone said, "I've got some issues with Bedsworth; about the best thing I can say about him is he doesn't talk to imaginary mystic dwarfs." But today I found out the mystic dwarf thing is grounds for removal of a judge in the Philippines.

According to Reuters, "A Philippine judge who claimed he could see into the future and admitted consulting imaginary mystic dwarfs has asked for his job back after being sacked by the country's Supreme Court."

Wow. I'm too old to use the word "awesome," but I just don't know how else to describe that. As judicial flameouts go, that's Krakatoa. My hat's off to former-Judge Florentino Floro and his ... uh ... staff.

This beats the hell out of anything the Judicial Conduct Reporter's come up with lately. And I just love it. I love it because it appeared when I was right up against my deadline.9 (http://www.acriminalwasteofspace.com/journal_beds.asp#fNoteJudges and Dwarfs Don) I love it because it makes me feel superior. I love it because I've never previously gotten to type the phrase "imaginary mystic dwarfs." And I love it because the guy is APPEALING!

As near as I can determine, he's making this out to be a freedom of religion issue. He says, "They should not have dismissed me for what I believed." Certainly, I can sympathize with that position. The prospect of judges being removed because of their personal belief systems is anathema to all of us.

But I think once it's established that you, "told investigators that three mystic dwarfs — Armand, Luis and Angel — helped you carry out healing sessions during breaks in chambers," you gotta expect to trudge through a little grief. I mean, these aren't just your ordinary, garden-variety, run-of-the-mill imaginary mystic dwarfs. These are imaginary mystic healing dwarfs!

And you're on a first-name basis with them.

You gotta expect the local bar to be a little leery when you tell 'em, "Counsel, I regret that I cannot grant your motion. But if you'll just step into chambers, me and Luis and Armand will use our mystic powers to cure that arthritic knee of yours."

You've especially gotta expect it if you're able to see into the future. Reuters doesn't elaborate on just what the judge could see in the future — or whether Armand, Luis and Angel were not only mystic and therapeutic, but precognitive as well — but I'm not sure saying you can see into the future requires much elaboration. Certainly it made Judge Floro's future pretty clear.

I have no doubt that if I had told ANY of the lawyers who appeared before me, EVER, that me and the mystic healing dwarfs were gonna cure a little deafness and then go out for a run over the lunch hour and that when we returned we'd have the name of next year's Preakness winner, Davies would have docked me some points.

Certainly the Philippine Supreme Court thinks it lowers your score. Although they were very diplomatic about it. According to Reuters, "The Supreme Court said it was not within its expertise to conclude that Floro was insane, but agreed with the court clinic's finding that he was psychotic."

I'm not sure just what distinction they were drawing here. They may have been saying, "We're not psychiatrists, so we can't say he's gone stark, staring loony tunes on us, but we certainly agree with the doctors who said it." Or they may have concluded that, in today's world, one psychosis hardly differentiates you from the rest of society; it takes at least two or three to qualify for a diagnosis of insanity.

Either way, they confiscated his robe and his ruby slippers and fined him $780.10 (http://www.acriminalwasteofspace.com/journal_beds.asp#fNoteJudges and Dwarfs Don)

And, mirabile dictu, Judge Floro is appealing. I don't have a clue who to.11 (http://www.acriminalwasteofspace.com/journal_beds.asp#fNoteJudges and Dwarfs Don) Who do you appeal to after the Philippine Supreme Court disrobes you? Seems to me, you and the dwarfs have pretty much topped out when you lose in your nation's supreme court. I can't really see The Hague taking this one on.

But Judge Floro has vowed an appeal, and, since he can see into the future, I have to assume it's gonna come to pass.

And I'm not about to take a chance that I might miss the outcome of this saga. I'm going online as soon as I finish writing this to subscribe to the Philippine Judicial Conduct Quarterly.

Then I'm gonna contact the dwarfs and see if they can do anything about my putting.