Thursday, September 29, 2005 [ 5:21 PM ]

G, M & A

“The President is afraid of nothing”
- Sec. Rigoberto Tiglao

Yes she is really afraid of nothing. That is why she lifted the maximum tolerance policy and changes it to the Calibrated Preemptive Response (CPR). GMA is afraid of nothing, that is why she used some provisions of the Batas Pambansa Blg.880 (which was made during the Marcos dictatorship) to implement the CPR but neglected other portions of it that permits a public assembly in freedom parks without any government permit and that local officials should not hinder giving permits unless national security is concerned. Yes, the president is not afraid of her administration’s own ghost. She is not afraid of people power.

Yes she is really afraid of nothing. That is why she issued Executive Order 464, which prohibits any cabinet and military officials to attend any legislative hearings without her permission. Yes, she is not afraid that cabinet and military officials might expose something against her administration that is why the Malacañang would review first what should be the answers of the invited officials before letting them participate in the congressional inquiry. Yes, she is not afraid that cabinet and military officials be caught unguarded like what happened to National Security adviser Norberto Gonzalez that is why she is requiring the lower and the upper House to submit the questions beforehand. . She is afraid of nothing, not even in the senate inquiry, that is why Brig. Gen. Francisco Gudani would be relieved from his position and placed under the court martial because of his revelations. Well, she really afraid of nothing, right? Just look who is being protected by this moves of Malacañang, is it the general public? Is it the institution? Is it the constitution? Or just the three letters of the alphabet?
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Saturday, September 24, 2005 [ 4:56 PM ]

DARKNESS

I think this is my first post that would air my grievances, not against the government, but in a private corporation. I am not the first to complain about this, but I would certainly be glad to be one of those complainants. I am referring to the Meralco corporations, which almost every Filipino below middle class hate.

Last Monday, their electric post in our area exploded due to too many illegal connections. That kind of event was not that extraordinary, in fact, we always experience it almost every other week. But the problem is, it has been almost a week now that our area doesn’t have an electric supply and the Meralco is still not doing anything about it. Some residents called their office and they said they would fix the problem by Tuesday, but it is already Saturday but there was not even a shadow of their employees that came to our place. Just imagine how life is without any electricity… (how can I read that damn Lit articles?) I decided to call their office personally to make a follow-up and guess what they said… shit! They said that they wouldn’t fix it anymore because there were many illegal connections. What kind of response was that? I believe that we are paying our bills on time, no matter how high it is, so we just deserve better services and I mean quick services... and we demand for it!. They said that we should just wait until the illegal connections were gone. Are they asking us to wait until forever? It is like waiting for GMA to resign.

With regard to the illegal connections, they said that the residents in the area should guard the electric post so there would be no one to tap an illegal link. What kind of service is that? That’s nonsense, for many reasons, First, it is not our duty to guard an electric post from illegal connections, it is theirs. Second, the house owners around the said electric post were the ones responsible for the illegal connections, do they want us to be killed? (We live in a squatter’s area, and I guess you know what I mean) And lastly, we have already given them all the information about the illegal connections, who were the responsible for it, where they live and everything about them. But they just gave another stupid response. The very responsible Meralco said that we should be the one to capture those people behind the illegal connections and just call to their office afterwards. Forgive me but Meralco is a big... ay ewan!
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Saturday, September 10, 2005 [ 5:37 PM ]

HOUSE MINORITY LEADER

The attempt of the opposition to impeach GMA failed because of lack in numbers. As for that event, opposition congressman Jacinto Paras said that the leadership of the Minority should be changed. Paras mentioned that Rep. Ronaldo Zamora should replace the current House Minority Floor Leader, Francis Escudero. According to Paras, Escudero is not the leader the minority needed; he said that Escudero's inefficiency is the reason why the minority didn’t reach the 79 votes. He also added that Chiz is only working for his own interest because he is aiming for a senatorial slot. (Just a question to Paras, is Chiz not worthy in the senatorial race?)

I'm not sure who would agree with the statements of Paras. I don’t want to sound, as the lawyer of Chiz XD But my point is that the nation saw the efforts of Chiz to gather the 79 votes and do his duty as the minority leader. It is just that he is not as powerful as GMA. As what I have noticed in the past events, Chiz became one of the reasons why the minority had been able to diminish, if not obliterate their image as the political black sheep of the country. If not for him, the minority may not been able to gather support, especially from the youth. Most of the minority solons always sound tpapos in public perception.

With the statement of Paras, I don’t know if he really believes that Rep. Zamora should be the minority leader, or if he has other political motive. (Maybe this could give us an idea...)

3 COMMENTS

Thursday, September 08, 2005 [ 8:13 PM ]

CHEATING, LYING & STEALING PLUS KILLING

We must follow the rule of law! This is the pulse of my constituents. It is the rule of democracy, the rule of majority.

These phrases were grossly overused last Monday and Tuesday during the plenary session in the House of Representatives. Debates and exchange of ideas overwhelmed the session hall. But like as everyone thought of it, the impeachment complaint was murdered. Honestly I didn’t monitor the whole event but I can say that I had an idea of what actions occurred.

Commentators and analysts said that the committee on justice rushed the impeachment hearing but Congressman Datumanong expectedly said that they didn’t. Really? The constitution gives 60 session days for the committee on justice to complete its committee report and they just finished it in 14 session days. They didn’t rush it. They have at least more than three sessions in the committee level which were done overtime. They didn’t rush it. In the plenary, they made the debates and the voting in a marathon session, which lasted for almost 24hours. They didn’t rush it. They gave the copies of the committee report to the members of the House only on the day of the plenary session itself, and much later that day to the members of the pro impeachment group. They didn’t rush it. The members the minority made a motion if they could at least have a day to sleep with the report but the majority rejected it. They didn’t rush it. The committee report lacks substantial information in the draft, like in some paragraphs; there is no mention of the source of the conclusion such as court decisions from the SCRA or constitutional provisions. They didn’t rush it. I don’t know how can I make myself believe that really didn’t.

But why? Sec. Bunye said that the president is thankful for the result of the impeachment and she can now face in the United Nations with full pride and no impeachment case hanging on her head. Did they really think that would happen? In the first place, how can they boast that the name of GMA had been cleared when she didn’t answer the allegations to her legitimacy as president? They didn’t prove that the President is innocent with all these controversies; they just proved that she could use her power, not for the benefit of the public, but for her own interest.



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Thursday, September 01, 2005 [ 8:53 PM ]

(ONLY) DUE TO TECHNICALITIES

The nation have seen in the past few weeks the different emotions and events that occurred in the House of Representatives. I would like first to put it on record that although I support the amended impeachment complaint of the minority, I don’t think that the walkout of the opposition is a right move. (But we really can’t blame them for that)

As of the last two weeks of the justice committee hearing, there had been four major decisions made… all of them went in favor of the administration congressmen.

The first is the vote whether to consider first the prejudicial questions given by administration congressman Edsel Lagman, or to determine the sufficiency in form and substance of the three complaints. I believe that the prejudicial questions raised by Lagman were to delay the determination of the form and substance of the three complaints. But why did the minority wanted to discuss the determination of form and substance? And why did Lagman insist to discuss the prejudicial questions first? The motives are obvious. If the majority allowed the opposition to go to the determination of form and substance, they know fully, that the Lozano and the Lopez complaint will fail and the amended impeachment complaint will remain. (The amended complaint is the one filed by the opposition and endorsed by 41 solons when it was first referred to the committee on justice… it was also the same complaint that the administration wanted to kill! ASAP) To avoid such, Lagman laid the prejudicial questions, in the end the administration won and the House went first to answer the prejudicial questions.

Originally, Lagman laid seven prejudicial questions but the committee on justice decided to reduce it into two. The questions were: Should the amended impeachment complaint be treated as a separate complaint from the original Lozano comlapint? & Does the Lozano complaint barred the filling of the amended impeachment complain and the Lopez complaint? The congressmen from both sides stated their stand on the matter and it would be tiring if I would discuss it all here. XD But their points were clear, the majority said that the constitution only allows one impeachment complaint in one year. The point of the minority and also the point stated by constitutionalist fr.Joaquin Bernas in his column in the PDI, says that the constitution allows only one impeachment proceedings in one year. The minority points out that a “proceeding” is far different from a “complaint” But as all of us have seen, the minority was outvoted. The votes said that the Lozano complaint should be treated as a separate complaint among the other complaints and the second voting also said that the Lozano complaint had already barred the filing of the other complaints.

The motive of the administration congressmen is very clear at this point. They wanted to treat the Lozano complaint apart from the amended complaint and to determine the form and substance of only the Lozano complaint. As of this point they carried the Lozano complaint to determine if it is sufficient in form and in substance, and that was the last question in which the (majority) congressmen voted. The final result, it was dismissed because of its insufficiency in substance. At the end of the day, the amended complaint that is obviously sufficient in form and substance was dismissed not due to merits but due to technicality. What a very nice screenplay! Approving a complaint and eventually dismissing it at the end. Now tell me, is this why GMA asked the minority to bring their complaints to congress? Is this what she is talking about as the proper forum where she will answer all the questions about her legitimacy as president? With the dismissal due to technicalities, does that clear her name from all these political controversies? Does that clear the doubts in the minds of the people that she really cheated in the elections? Tell me, what do you think?
(the only hope now is the magic 79)

2 COMMENTS