Think about it
By Raïssa Robles
On the anniversary of Edsa people power, one commenter using the handle karaniwang tao wrote on my blog this sad lament on our nation:
kudos to your well researched and deep opinionated reports…
but im confused……
from time of prez aguinaldo to present day P-noy…..
they “look like” the same…..
so who will lead our pilipinas?
does it just solidify that we are really FAILED STATE?
how do we go from here?
maraming comments /marami matalinong pilipino / maraming mangmang / pero………..
dapat bang tangapin na lang nang karaniwang pilipino na ang mamuhay sa pilipinas ay “ganito lamang”
this is the “standard” of living here…
so ang tanong ko madam raissa……..
niloloko lang tayo ng mga leader at maraming nagpapaloko….maraming lumalaban…
pero nagbabayad ako ng tax na pinapasahod sa kanila…do FLIP-PINO deserve this?
No you don’t. We don’t.
This is a question that has bedeviled our nation since the 1986 peaceful uprising.
It’s like a curse.
Filipinos seem to be condemned as a people to experience the same slide to greed and state corruption over and over again.
An American political science professor named John T. Sidel put the finger on the problem in his book Capital, Coercion and Crime Bossism in the Philippines published by the University of Stanford. Prof. Sidel described the Philippine state as a:
“complex set of predatory mechanisms for private exploitation and accumulation of the archipelago’s human, natural, and monetary resources [making the state] essentially a multi-tiered racket.”
In 1986, we Filipinos threw out a president, Ferdinand Marcos, in a peaceful uprising known the world over as Edsa People Power. In 2001, we overthrew another one, Joseph Estrada. Between 2005 and 2010, we again tried to unseat a third, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo – for corruption.
Marcos escaped conviction by dying. But the Swiss Federal Court has issued a decision stating that his secret Swiss bank deposits – hidden with the connivance of his wife and children – were ill-gotten loot.
The Swiss high court thus ordered the money returned to the Philippine government. (see my earlier story entitled Senator Bongbong Marcos confirmed he had a direct hand in trying to withdraw US$213M from a Swiss bank in 1986).
Estrada was subsequently convicted of amassing ill-gotten wealth for embezzling tobacco tax funds and running an illegal gambling protection racket.
Today Mrs Arroyo stands accused of electoral sabotage. She and her husband are being investigated as well for other high crimes.
Throughout our history as a Republic, corruption scandals have played a role in bringing down governments and in unseating public officials from political office. State coffers have been robbed of billions of dollars by corrupt officials.
And yet, wonder of wonders. Not one high official has gone to jail – and I mean REAL JAIL as in Muntinlupa or National Bilibid or Manila city jail – for corruption. And in how many other countries do you find someone accused of a high crime asking for a three-day pass from jail in order to go home and visit a relative’s wake?
The game Filipino politicians play
I think it’s because politics in the Philippines is mainly a political game to its players. It’s a political game I’ve watched in fascination. Politicians compile dossiers of scandals on each other. When the right time comes, BOOM. These are leaked to media.
I say this from experience. I have, in the past, been a recipient of such leaks.
The targeted politician is thus humiliated into resigning or losing an election.
But no one ever pushes for a closure and a conviction, immediately followed by an actual jail sentence. Except for the case of Estrada, there is no follow-through of the charges. Unlike elsewhere such as South Korea, Taiwan and the United States.
Nowadays, we’re being played again by our high government officials. Last year, some of them asked that former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo be allowed to go abroad allegedly for “emergency” medical treatment. Although they knew fully well this would place her beyond the Philippine justice system which she had succeeded in evading since 2005.
Lately, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Senator Chiz Escudero and Senator Edgardo Angara – to name a few – asked that Mrs Arroyo be allowed to stay under “hospital arrest” to give due respect to her previous office as President.
There is nothing in our Constitution and in our laws that says a former president accused of having committed serious crimes is entitled to hospital arrest while awaiting trial. NOTHING.
The crime, if proven, is rendered even more despicable by the fact that Mrs Arroyo once swore on the death anniversary of our national hero Dr. Jose Rizal that she would not run for president and she would work for clean and honest elections as her legacy to the nation.
Come to think of it, this may well be her legacy if she is convicted of electoral sabotage. She would stand as a shining symbol of a negative reinforcement for poll cheaters.
Her fellow politicians wanted her initially to get away and failing that, they now want her to enjoy soft treatment. The fact that they are willing to give her favored treatment has been an unwritten rule in our politicians’ game.
The game has this underlying assumption: if caught, they may lose the office or the elections but they never go to jail. NEVER.
This is all part of the political game they play. And we, the Filipino people including the Philippine media, let them play.
As a Filipino, I believe it’s high time we say ENOUGH.
Let them play their political games. But when caught, MAKE THEM go to jail and stay there.
A history of self-entitlement
Those who say Philippine politics was cleaner and less corrupt before Martial Law or after World War II or during “pre-war” under the Americans have not read up on history.
Our politics has always been corrupt and making it less so starts with admitting that fact.
After Marcos was booted out in 1986 we all thought state corruption would go away. It did not because many of those we trusted to do right by us took advantage of their positions to enrich themselves and their families.
But this is no argument to say we were better off during Marcos’ time.
Edsa People Power failed to improve the lives of Filipinos because we let our guard down. Perhaps because we didn’t know any better or we trusted politicians too completely or we didn’t quite understand the problem of corruption.
One of the biggest problems we’ve had to face is that a basically good person – educated in the best Philippine and American schools, well versed in the Holy Bible and a regular mass goer – could be tempted to do evil not once, not twice but many times, even with the best intentions of doing good.
Education is no insulation from temptation. In fact, our experience has shown that the smarter a politician is, the bigger is the unexplained wealth.
Why is that kind of politician so prevalent in our history?
In the aftermath of the “Hello Garci” tapes scandal in 2005, I was asked to do a piece to place the scandal in the context of our history. I therefore talked to three people who could give me the long view. One of them was historian Serafin Quiazon. The two others were Manolo Quezon III, then a Philippine Daily Inquirer political columnist, and historical researcher Crispina Reyes.
I interviewed them for my newspaper South China Morning Post one week after Mrs Arroyo became the first Philippine head of state to admit committing a “lapse in judgment” and to say “I’m sorry”. Her apology was prompted by a leaked tape recording of her allegedly talking with election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano over a bugged mobile phone, asking him to make sure she would win by more than a million votes.
Quiazon told me that corruption and election scandals had long been part of our history. He said this arose from the attitude of self-entitlement that Filipino politicians have. This was molded by nearly 400 years of ‘multiple colonial experience’ under the Spanish, British, Americans and Japanese rule.
“Our leaders inherited and are still wearing the shoes of the old colonial masters,” said Professor Quiazon, a former chairman of the National Historical Institute. “Their object is not to serve but to dominate and exploit the poor masses,” he added.
That attitude of self-entitlement was personified and exemplified by no less than our revered Father of Philippine Independence, the late President Manuel Quezon. He did great to obtain our independence from the United States.
But a discussion on politics cannot be complete without a frank appraisal of what he bequeathed to Philippine politics. When Quezon said he would rather have a country “run like hell” by Filipinos than one “run like heaven” by the Americans, he was simply describing how he and his cohorts played the political game.
Filipino politicians were running the country like hell and Quezon was the role model. Politicians like Ferdinand Marcos who was then starting his political career learned a lot from him.
It was for this reason that I wanted to talk to Manolo Quezon III. I wanted to ask him a rather delicate thing. Was it true his grandfather wanted to build a bridge so he could easily visit a querida living across the Pasig River?
It was an archivist named Crispina Reyes who had told me this nugget from our history. She said: “A womanizer, he (Quezon) wanted a bridge built across a certain portion of [the] Pasig River because his paramour lived across the river’ from Malacañang Palace.” [To all those who know Cris, she needs your prayers. She is critically ill with cancer.]
Under our current laws, what Quezon thought of doing would amount to graft and corruption.
His grandson Quezon confirmed to me that this was the talk then.
He then told me a surprising thing. He said: “Estrada in many ways was very much like my grandfather except that he [Estrada] lacked the work ethic.”
A lot of nice and lofty things have been written about Quezon. As I said, he did a lot for Philippine independence.
But there was a dark side to him as well. He set the bar for political behavior which every Filipino politician then wanted to emulate. And it continues to this day.
One of President Quezon’s secretaries was Carlos P. Romulo who saw Quezon up close and personal. Romulo admired the man but also saw his faults, which he disclosed in a book published after his death by his widow Beth Day. The book is entitled “The Philippine Presidents: Memoirs of Carlos P. Romulo“.
This slim book is a treasure trove of gossip that Romulo had amassed in his years of public office.
Of Quezon, Romulo wrote:
One cannot evaluate the Quezon charisma or his effect upon people without taking into account his frank and unself-conscious pursuit of women. He was a congenital womanizer with nature on his side….his idea of relaxation after a long day of sessions in the Assembly was to go to the cabarets to flirt with the ‘bailarinas’ as we called them then.
Romulo disclosed that he wrote Quezon’s love letters for him even when the latter was already married.
Once, Romulo said:
“We were all in New York when election returns were coming in from Manila and Quezon’s orders to me were: ‘When the cables come in, bring them to me, no matter what time it is.'”
“I arrived at his suite at The Waldorf towers at 5:00 am. and knocked.
“Come in, come in,” I heard an impatient voice.”
“I walked in, saluted smartly, then swallowed with embarrassment. They (Quezon and a Hollywood film star) were both nude and she was sitting on his lap, shaving him.”
“Go on, read the cables,” snapped the President.
“Blushing and uncomfortable, I did.”
Romulo also explained that Quezon adhered to a code “of never-ending reciprocation of favors” observed by Filipino politicians.
Quezon was not born rich, Romulo wrote:
“A product of relative poverty, he became extravagant when the means became available to him and unfortunately, set a pattern of personal unaccountability that was to haunt the Philippine presidency.”
And Philippine politics, too, to this day.
Politicians continue to believe that political office comes with certain perks, such as free Philippine Airline tickets. As former Senate President Ernesto Maceda recently told ABS-CBN News, PAL tickets are “a standard privilege” for senior government officials. Maceda, a former Senate President, said he himself had accepted free PAL tickets and such perks are quite common for legislators.
Maceda pooh-poohed the idea that such tickets were enough to make CJ Corona flip-flop on court decisions involving PAL.
Maybe not, but there’s Republic Act 6713 that put in place a Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for public officials and employees. This law states that public officials are barred from accepting or receiving gifts that are “neither nominal nor insignificant.” Maceda was a senator when Congress approved this law.
A plane ticket may be insignificant to the likes of the Chief Justice and ex-senators who have millions in their pockets. But not to most Filipinos.
Our ethical standards for “public servants” leave a lot to be desired
It is really up to the ordinary Filipinos to raise the bar and pressure politicians and other government officials to resign at the merest whiff of scandal – in the same manner that the German president Christian Wulff recently resigned after allegations surfaced that a film producer once paid for his vacation in a luxury hotel.
Unlike Philippine Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona who has refused to budge from office despite serious questions raised about his wealth, Wulff of Germany resigned voluntarily even though he said he had already repaid the filmmaker in cash.
Philippine officials have a sense of entitlement
I have personally observed many politicians, government officials and their relatives continue to exude a sense of entitlement to their office.
I know of one previous cabinet secretary who placed a domestic helper in his mansion on state payroll. I know of another cabinet secretary who insisted on staying at a luxury hotel while renegotiating the country’s massive foreign debt.
In 2005, then President Arroyo’s husband Jose Miguel came under severe criticism when he stayed in a US$15,000-a-night MGM Grand suite in Las Vegas, while his wife back home was admonishing everyone to tighten their belts and pay more taxes.
The wealthy Mr Arroyo dismissed all criticisms by saying, “It was free, what’s the fuss all about? It was accommodation fitting a dignitary of my stature as husband of [the] president.”
Recently, allegations surfaced that the current state gaming chief Cristino “Bong” Naguiat had received expensive “gifts” from Japanese gambling tycoon Kazuo Okada. Naguiat has since denied receiving cash and a designer bag but conceded he was lavishly wined and dined.
Such perks open recipients to serious conflict of interest situations. In the case of Naguiat, he had the power to review and adjust existing state contracts with local and foreign gaming firms. He in fact adjusted the gaming contract with Resorts World Manila in the government’s favor. Which was probably why Okada gave him the royal treatment.
I would like to hear of a high government official turn down such generous “gifts” and demand instead more modest perks.
Temptations abound for high government officials. And many succumb.
I personally believe that one effective deterrent to their giving in to such sweet temptations is to see erring colleagues in jail, treated like the most ordinary suspect or criminal.
The deposed convicted president Estrada is fond of saying – “a hungry stomach knows no law.”
This is actually an insult to the millions of Filipinos who are poor and yet stay honest. True, the poor in the Philippines often commit what Singaporean authorities call “confrontational crimes” like robbery at knife-point or gunpoint. But oftentimes, they take only what they can physically run with.
In contrast, some of the most highly educated Filipinos have commited “white collar” crimes by stealing from government coffers in the millions and billions of pesos. Or they use their influence or position to enrich themselves.
Their crimes are much worse because they steal the very future of our nation and our children and cause many to lose hope and leave the country of their birth, perhaps forever.
rejtatel says
SC just issued TRO on GMA’s plunder trial. there you go. Court would not even let the case proceed. or was d case defective that d court saw some things that d ombudsman did not?
vander anievas says
“Lately, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Senator Chiz Escudero and Senator Edgardo Angara – to name a few – asked that Mrs Arroyo be allowed to stay under “hospital arrest” to give due respect to her previous office as President.”
just one simple sample why the philippines of yesterday became the philippines of today. marami tayong katulad nina jpe, chiz at ed. madaling magpatawad. malambot ang puso. o dahil malapit na ang eleksyon?
ganito po sana ang gusto ko, kung kaya nating mga pilipino, ” It’s time to send erring high state officials to real jails!”
iyan ang challenge para sa ating lahat, hindi lang kay PNOY. kasi kung mag-isa lang siya, WAAAHHH. paktaylo na!!!
Mel says
Mel says
Read the above article at this link.
PNoy: Filipinos won’t allow Arroyo pardon
Cane Juice says
(Ed :
I submitted a comment a few minutes ago.
Now, I don’t see it.
Was it rejected/censured…?)
raissa says
I’ll check.
Mel says
Get Real: Magic tricks and contortions
I thought that the Supreme Court decision that justified the midnight appointment of Renato Corona as Chief Justice was a breathtaking exercise in judicial legerdemain, exceeding by far the legal contortions it engaged in later to show that plagiarism by a justice is not plagiarism. But I think I can safely say that it has been put to the blush by the arguments forwarded by the majority in its recent decision (7-2, with 5 abstentions) involving the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines (Fasap).
I urge the reader to read both the majority decision and the dissenting opinion, the latter penned by Associate Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, who showed up the majority arguments for what they are. In the meantime, please allow me to describe, in layman’s language, some of the latest magic tricks and contortions on this 14-year-old case:
In June 1998, Philippine Airlines retrenched 5,000 employees, including 1,400 cabin crew, members of the Fasap (the continuing ordeal of the other 3,600 is still a nightmare issue). The retrenchment was described as a “cost-cutting measure” by PAL, which claimed to have incurred P90 billion in liabilities as a result of the 1997 financial crisis. Suffice it to say that a series of decisions, reversals and appeals found the case in the Supreme Court in 2007.
The high court (in one of its finer moments) found in favor of Fasap in 2008, a decision which of course PAL appealed in a motion for reconsideration (MR). This was denied in October 2009.
PAL filed for a second MR, which the high court denied “with finality” on Sept. 7, 2011, using pretty strong language (e.g. “PAL appears to be less than honest in its claim” and “This case has dragged on for so long and we are now more than duty-bound to finally put to an end to the illegality that took place; otherwise the illegally retrenched employees can rightfully claim that the Court has denied them justice”). That decision was written by Associate Justice Arturo Brion.
Less than a month later (Oct. 4, 2011), the Supreme Court en banc recalled its Sept. 7 resolution. Not on the basis of any appeal or MR filed by PAL but because PAL counsel Estelito Mendoza wrote four letters—not even addressed to the high court or any of its members, but merely to the clerk of court. And rightly so, because the questions were in effect administrative in nature—the composition of the Supreme Court’s divisions in the case, whether the case might have been transferred from one division to another.
Fasap filed an MR, claiming among others that not only had there been no formal appeal by PAL, but it was also not even asked by the high court to give its comments on the Mendoza letters before it made its recall decision.
Fast forward to the March 2012 7-2 decision of the high court “In Re: Letters of Atty. Estelito Mendoza re …” The bottom line of this decision is that Fasap is now back to square one, because the high court en banc was taking jurisdiction of the case and would now be studying not only PAL’s second MR but also its first MR, which questioned the original 2008 decision.
In other words, it is a complete victory for PAL, without its even having formally asked for it, and a complete defeat for the 1,300 illegally retrenched Fasap members. Because as sure as my name is Winnie, the high court en banc will, in due time, rule that way.
How did it arrive at that conclusion? Here are examples of the magic tricks and contortions:
Magic trick No. 1 is a disappearing memo: When the high court en banc met on Oct. 4, 2011, with Mendoza’s letter on the agenda, Chief Justice Corona did not mention that the clerk of court had written a memo which debunked Mendoza’s claims of administrative faux pas in the assignment and raffling of the cases. Which was why there was no dissent from the justices when Corona said that the questions merited a recall of the Sept. 7 resolution until they could be studied, and particularly because Brion, the ponente of the resolution, made no demurrer.
Magic trick No. 2: The majority decision listed all the errors made by the raffle committees (all justices) and the clerk of court in the assignments of the case, thus supporting Mendoza’s contentions and ignoring the clerk of court’s memo. But it concluded that no fault could be attributed to the clerk of court or to any of the justices. Administrative faux pas galore, but no one at fault.
Sereno, to whom the case was raffled after the Oct. 4 recall resolution, found absolutely nothing wrong in the assignments of the case—in other words, the Mendoza questions were without basis, and there should have been no recall if only the justices had been shown the memo of the clerk of court.
Now the contortions. No. 1, really major, was transforming the administrative mistakes into a jurisdictional issue, in order to lay the basis for the high court en banc taking over jurisdiction and reviewing the case on its merits all over again. The point is that whether PAL’s MR was assigned to the first, second or third division becomes irrelevant and immaterial against substantive justice.
Contortion No. 2 is the concept of a “nominal” ponente, who presumably has the authority to admit an MR, but cannot rule on it, as opposed to a “ruling” ponente, who has the authority to write the decision on its merits. Shades of plagiarism that is not plagiarism—a ponente who is not a ponente.
But the biggest contortionist—the king of all flip-flops—has to be Brion, who was the ponente of the Sept. 7, 2011, resolution that gave the “final” victory to Fasap, and also the ponente of the recent decision that took it away from Fasap and gave it to PAL instead. Infamous.
By: Solita Collas-Monsod
Philippine Daily Inquirer
2:18 am | Saturday, March 24th, 2012
Cane Juice says
We were told, time and again, that our form of government was patterned mainly from that of the U.S.A.
That was/is a lie.
Whereas, the U.S. Government gave importance to each region (State, if you will), here in the Philippines, each region outside NCR, had to look up and sometimes literally beg Manila for funding, ask Metro Manila to do this or that…, even to the point of asking Imperial Manila’s approval to change a name of a street. The whole Philippines’ system of government was so centralized that here in the provinces we could feel ourselves to be colonies of Manila, rather than equal regions and people. People from Manila, largely,
when they go to the provinces, especially the far flung provinces, have that “air of superiority” which I, personally, find disgusting.
Most of the leadership of this Country (about 90+%), in the more or less 115years of existence, had been held by persons from Luzon. Of the 23 sitting Senators, only 6 represent(come from) the Visayas & Mindanao.(Even then, many of this 6 live most of their lives in MetroManila).
As could be seen by these basic figures, the disparity of leadership, representation and voice in government.
So much said on the matter. I think I may have over stressed my point.
Therefore, based on the above.., and more that was left unsaid, this Beloved Philippines of ours, can only succeed econmically and others, if we Federalize our system of government, very similar to that of the United States of America, where individual rights and individual regions are respected and also duly represented in Government.
Almost 75% of development go to Luzon provinces. The ration drastically goes higher when we look into the development in NCR and immediate surrounding provinces.
Lastly, a point of my observation:
No colony, in the history of the world, have ever developed itself into a premier economy.
jcc says
There is no need to federalize RP. All you have to do is to abolish the Senate and let the HOR function as the chief legislative assembly. HOR shall pass the budget and the laws. Equal representation is assured this way… As regards the U.S. system — it is ideal geographically. RP is no bigger than California… in land mass… By parity of reasoning, if you put up a federal system in RP, you were creating Califonia a federal system in itself with its counties/cities as Federal geographical political units. This is not the case of California.
Let us just consider RP as another California and its provinces as counties like most states in the U.S. The President is like a Governor. These provinces will be represented by congressmen in each districts, they way it is structured now. Let just abolish the Senate.
I may add that our problems lie not with our political institutions… it is our character as a people that hold us down and the ignorance of those who are left behind that occasionally participate in the political process.
The middle class was practically depleted by migration by going abroad to work as engineers, nurses, doctors and consultants. Portions of the working class (the poorer sectors) work as DHs in the Middle East, Hongkong and Singapore. What was left in our poor country are the super rich and the super poor and few middle class. The super rich exploit the super poor. The participation of the poor and sometimes of the middle class in the political process is limited during elections or occasional street conflicts. (Corona marshalling his supporters at the entrance of the SC building to fight for his right to his office is an example of a street conflict using the super poor and the rank in file court employees to a very personal agenda. If you remove the super poor and the rank and file employees of the SC, you will only see Corona and few of his immediate family members at the balcony of the SC waiving at few by-standers down below). See how the rich used the poor and the not so poor with impunity!
The super poor look at the process as a concern for fleeting need for cash to address the issue of the stomach. They care less of the party’s platform/doctrine. The few middle class that are left and who are interested in good governance look for good leaders and not personalities/celebrities, but they are drowned by the super poor who vote their politicians on a master-vassal relationship.
I suppose, this is the sad state in country today. It has nothing to do with the fact that we are not a federal system.
JAMES PASTOR SARMIENTO says
APO LAKAY , YOU NAILED IT IN THE HEAD( TAMA BA ANG ENGLISH KO PARE KO??????) IT MAKES A LOT OF SENSE IYONG SINASABI MO….MAYROON NGA MIEMBRO NG SENADO DIYAN EH SINCE NAGING MIEMBRO NI HINDI KO NARINIG NA NAGSALITA….AYWAN KO KUNG MAY GINAWA…..O’K LANG IYON…..AT SAKA NGA ANG UGALI NG PINOY AY TALAGA NAMANG KAKAIBA….SASABIHIN PA SA AKIN NA ….EH IYONG MAYAYAMAN AY NAGNANAKAW….EH DI KAYA DIN NAMING GAWIN IYON DAHIL KAMI AY MAS GUTOM…..EVERYONE DIYAN SA ‘PINAS AY BLAMING EVERYBODY BUT THEMSELVES…..KAYA SABI NG MGA KAIBIGAN KO DITO AY HUWAG NA LANG MAGISIP NG IKABUBUTI NG TAO DIYAN SA BAYAN NATIN…..DAHIL PARE-PAREHO DAW NA MAGNANAKAW SILA….MAYAMAN AT MAHIRAP…..PERO HINDI NAMAN AKO NAWAWALAN NG HOPE SA MGA KABABAYAN NATIN…THERE IS STILL A GLIMMER OF HOPE NAMAN TAYO….MAYROON PA NAMAN NA MGA TAO DIYAN NA INIISIP PA RIN ANG IKABUBUTI NG SAMBAYANANG PILIPINO….KAYA SUGGEST KO KAY RAISSA AY SIGN-UP NG ARMY OF VOLUNTEERS….MGA DO-GOODERS AND HONEST NA MGA TAO PARA MAKA-ESTABLISH NG PARTIDO NG PINOY NA FORWARD LOOKING AND VERY ACCOUNTABLE…..PAG DUMATING ANG PERA KO AY I WILL DONATE A PART OF IT SA KILUSAN NA ITO….IN THE MEANTIME AY WE HAVE TO ESTABLISH A FUND PARA SA MGA ITO….SORT OF A WAR CHEST NG PARTY NA ITO( KAHIT NA $10./MONTH AY HINDI NA MAN SUPER LAKI IYON TILL WE CAN HAVE A SIZABLE FUNDING PARA SA MGA TAO NA INAAKALA NATIN NA MAKAKATULONG SA BAYAN NG PINAS….THANK YOU JCC….LET’S JOIN HANDS TO MAKE OUR BAYAN THE KIND THAT WE WANT….THE COUNTRY WE WILL ALWAYS PROUD OF….JAMES PASTOR SARMIENTO
Cane Juice says
By doing away with the Senate would create a Unicameral form of government. Most progressive countries today have the Bicameral form, as compared to those that have the Unicameral form which are used by many underdeveloped (&/or dictatorial) countries. Examples are the U.K. and Germany which today, even tho both have the Parliamentary form, both adopt the Bicameral form.
Prior to the ’40s, of the last century, Germany had the Unicameral form of a Parliamentary.
It would have been very much more difficult for Hitler and his minions to take control of the country had they have the Bicameral form. Please note, that most countries with dictators or have a ruling monarch adopt the unicameral form.
To set California as an example, compared to the Philippines because only on size would be very inadequate.
Firstly, the Philippines is very much more complex and diverse than California. Geographically, we are divided by islands, dialects, culture & history, cuisine and taste, etc.
The same could be said of California. But here in the Philippines, such diversity are situated and divided in the different areas and regions. Unlike in California, the diversity are mixed together into “one single pot”. (so to speak) of the whole giving itself(California) its own unique character.
Further, the Philippines has more than three times the population of California.
Cane Juice says
We have to Federalize.
As it is now…, the biggest piece of the “budget” pie is(and have been) alloted to the NCR and, to a lesser degree, the surrounding provinces. What the far flung areas of Luzon and the areas of the Visayas and Mindanao have been receiving of their share of the budget is but a small percentage of what they have contributed to the national coffers. Even then, what is supposed to be their share, are sometimes even reduced further, time and time again.
And there are so many matters that, as it is now, the provinces/areas outside of the NCR have to request (mind you…, BEG) for permission/conformity/approval from the “rulers of Imperial Manila”. Matters that do not concern National Interests.
Imagine, just to change a name of a street of a far flung city, Permission and Approval must be obtained from Manila and the Central Government. That puts these regions at a level of nothing more than colonies of Imperial Manila.
Just by observation, one could see the development and infrastructure in the NCR and surrounding provinces as compared to the areas in the Visayas, Mindanao and the far flung areas of Luzon…., both in the urban and rural of these regions.
I have also noticed that the most resistance to the proposal to Federalize come from the NCR…, which have the most to gain if the government would remain in status quo.
Cane Juice says
In our present form of government…, people, or rather, the citizenry perceives that lucrative jobs await them ONLY in Metro Manila. They sell their carabaos and what have they, and try their luck in the Big City…, contributing further to the already horrendous congestion and pollution.
In a manner of saying it…, Metro Manila is already suffocating in its own ‘greed’.
It is just that we, our form of government, is so centralized.
During those coup attempts in the 1980s, it would have taken only two fighter airplanes, of World War I I vintage, to have toppled the government.., or at least paralyzed the country, where it not for the intervention of the U.S. Government.
raissa says
True.
Cane Juice says
Thank you, Raissa.
Rolly says
Well said jcc
Rolly says
Masyadong nakakatakot, nakaka-kilabot at nakakagalit ang tricks and contortions pictured by Solita Collas-Monsod above. Malamang na matagal nang nangyayari ang ganito. Kaya pala walang takot magluko ang maraming pinuno ng bayan
Paano na kaya ang maliliit na taong tulad ko. Wala pala akong maaasahan sa Kataastaasang Hukuma.
Cane Juice says
Why is Defense Counsel allowed to testify/answer questions raised by Senator-Judges without undergoing the process of “swearing in”…?
Is it alright for Senator-Judge Miriam S. to open up the Impeachment Hearing of March 19, with comments that borders to “lawyering for the Defense”…, and also opening up on her personal opinions on various aspects of the Impeachment Trial, which opinions should be reserved at the closing of the I.T. …?
Cane Juice says
CJ Renato C. Corona talks/insinuates that P-noy have plans towards Noynoy’s one-man rule.
LOOK. WHO’s TALKING.
Isn’t this same CJ Corona that casts his lot and full-support to the “rule’ of PGMA.
Not contented of usurping her position to the highest position in the land, Gloria M. Arroyo still wanted MORE by having herself elected, by whatever cost, BY HOOK or BY CROOK. And when in office for an ‘over-extended’ time, governed the country with such blatant and rampant use of power to reach the height of corruption, second only to that of Ferdinand E. Marcos.
All this time, and even after her(GMA) term, he, Renato Corona continued to use his position as CJ to aid and abet his master, Gloria, in several instances of questionable SC proclamations.
Santiago Katumbal says
If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is… infinite. But in reality our perception is often clouded
…by expectations
…by experiences
As of late, I find my perception is being blinded by only one thing… “T.R.O.”
Andres Bonifacio says
Dapat ilipat na sa city jail si gloria.
JAPS says
SORI..MAGAGALIT SI ENRILE
Cane Juice says
I think, this is outside the jurisdiction of JPE.
(Eh, ano kung magalit sya)
rene-ipil says
Under the situation he was in, Atty. Aguirre did the most plausible thing to do. He made sure that he could not hear miriam say bad words. While his act of covering his ears with his hands were too obvious, it was more insulting if he walked out while miriam was talking. Under the circumstances prevailing then, he did the best he could to prevent damage on his eardrums and, more importantly, to preserve his self-respect and dignity.
From where I came, respect is earned, never demanded.
In my case, every time that Enrile gave the floor to miriam, I just put my TV on the MUTE mode. In the event that I am traveling in my car, I merely put off the radio. This is a free country anyway. But I always thought na darating ang araw na makakatagpo ng katapat itong si miriam. Indeed, miriam got her match in the person of Atty Aguirre, a former senior partner in a law office composed of prominent lawyers who are ALL bar topnotchers from San Beda.
CONGRATULATIONS, ATTY. VITALLIANO AGUIRRE. MAY YOUR TRIBE INCREASE.
Arsenio Reyes says
I just wonder :
1. What are the bad words?
2. What are the good words?
I think we should throw away the bad words but learn and profit from the good words.
It’s just like harvesting. It goes for everybody whether senator/judges, prosecutors or defense lawyers. The government people in the impeachment court are paid through
taxes while defense lawyers teach freely.
Take away the bad words and keep the good words. As in the Bible, I think Jesus said listen to the the good things they are saying but do not imitate them (referring to the Pharisees). The Pharisees I think refer to all people who apparently teaches good but does the opposite.