Archive for the ‘noynoy’ Category
noynoy vs. the supremes
CONSTITUTIONALIST Joaquin Bernas on Wednesday urged president-apparent Benigno Aquino III to set aside his opposition to the appointment of Chief Justice Renato Corona as a way of avoiding a constitutional crisis.
but a constitutional crisis is already upon us, thanks to the supreme court decision exempting the judiciary from the ban on midnight appointments by outgoing prez gma. in effect the supremes practically, unilaterally, amended the consitution to accommodate the padrina to whom they owe their appointments. associate justice conchita carpio morales stands tall as the lone supreme dissenter, mabuhay siya! excerpts from her dissenting opinion, including transcripts of concom deliberations, via elmot @ pinoysoundingboard.com:
The clear intent of the framers is … for the ban on midnight appointments to apply to the judiciary.
Taking into account how the framers painstakingly rummaged through various sections of the Constitution and came up with only one exception with the need to specify the executive department, it insults the collective intelligence and diligence of the ConCom to postulate that it intended to exclude the judiciary but missed out on that one.
To hold that the ban on midnight appointments applies only to executive positions, and not to vacancies in the judiciary and independent constitutional bodies, is to make the prohibition practically useless. It bears noting that Section 15, Article VII of the Constitution already allows the President, by way of exception, to make temporary appointments in the Executive Department during the prohibited period. Under this view, there is virtually no restriction on the President’s power of appointment during the prohibited period.
The general rule is clear since the prohibition applies to ALL kinds of midnight appointments. The Constitution made no distinction. Ubi lex non distinguit nec nos distinguere debemos.
What complicates the ponencia is its great preoccupation with Section 15 of Article VII, particularly its fixation with sentences or phrases that are neither written nor referred to therein. Verba legis non est recedendum, index animi sermo est. There should be no departure from the words of the statute, for speech is the index of intention.
It is ironic for the ponencia to state on the one hand that the President would be deprived of ample time to reflect on the qualifications of the nominees, and to show on the other hand that the President has, in recent history, filled the vacancy in the position of Chief Justice in one or two days.
It is ironic for the ponencia to recognize that the President may need as much as 90 days of reflection in appointing a member of the Court, and yet abhor the idea of an acting Chief Justice in the interregnum as provided for by law,[21][21] confirmed by tradition,[22][22] and settled by jurisprudence[23][23] to be an internal matter.
The express allowance of a 90-day period of vacancy rebuts any policy argument on the necessity to avoid a vacuum of even a single day in the position of an appointed Chief Justice.
As a member of the Court, I strongly take exception to the ponencia’s implication that the Court cannot function without a sitting Chief Justice.
To begin with, judicial power is vested in one Supreme Court[24][24] and not in its individual members, much less in the Chief Justice alone. Notably, after Chief Justice Puno retires, the Court will have 14 members left, which is more than sufficient to constitute a quorum.
The fundamental principle in the system of laws recognizes that there is only one Supreme Court from whose decisions all other courts are required to take their bearings. While most of the Court’s work is performed by its three divisions, the Court remains one court — single, unitary, complete and supreme. Flowing from this is the fact that, while individual justices may dissent or only partially concur, when the Court states what the law is, it speaks with only one voice.[25][25]
The Court, as a collegial body, operates on a “one member, one vote” basis, whether it sits en banc or in divisions. The competence, probity and independence of the Court en banc, or those of the Court’s Division to which the Chief Justice belongs, have never depended on whether the member voting as Chief Justice is merely an acting Chief Justice or a duly appointed one.
IN LIGHT OF THE FOREGOING, I vote to hold, for the guidance of the Judicial and Bar Coucil, that the incumbent President is constitutionally proscribed from appointing the successor of Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno upon his retirement on May 17, 2010 until the ban ends at 12:00 noon of June 30, 2010.
CONCHITA CARPIO MORALES
Associate Justice
read too legal maverick alan paguia’s take on the corona appointment (INVALID) and abe n. margallo’s take on the supremes (FALLIBLE).
and here’s rene saguisag, who never fails to enlighten:
I decided to resist Martial Law from Day One. Not many others did because the Good Filipinos, like the Good Germans, would salute anything calling itself as law printed at public expense. Today we again hear from Good Filipinos: follow whatever government says even if the Supreme Court (SC) rules that the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) may be ignored altogether.
Chief Justice (CJ) Davide and CJ Puno were both told by GMA that she did not like the JBC lists and asked them to submit another. Neither remonstrated to protect the body’s independence. Pray tell, how could an economist and a general as Little Prez know better than the JBC whose members are all lawyers?
We hear today, be prudent, just continue multiplying like rabbits. This was probably what our leaders were telling our people in the face of Spanish, British, American, Japanese, and native oppressors. The poor protested in 2001. Rene Corona, as GMA adviser, reportedly called them “mga walang ngipin, walang salawal, atbp.” May they rely on him for justice in a society where the system reflects the biases of the ruling class? If he must stage a presscon, he should not do so in political combat but tell us what he intends to do, if he must speak at all other than in writing in an actual case. I was privileged to know his father, a very good man who lost his life the same my wife did, in a vehicular incident. I cannot believe his father would look down at the poor the way Rene reportedly did in 2001.
Today leaders in the community tell us to obey a CJ who even stages presscons, behaving like a taunting politician and doing what the unelected SC members do, issue circulars without any public hearings as is done by elected lawmakers. It used to be that law grew by precedents set in actual cases and we were told that future cases must be examined as to their facts because general propositions do not decide concrete cases. Now we drown in circulars such as one disrespecting an accused’s right not to speak by compelling him to appear in criminal pre-trials and stipulate.
Holmes said that even a dog would know the difference between being stumbled over and being kicked.We got kicked by the Spaniards, the British, Americans, and Japanese and when our own started to oppress us, we could not tell the difference anymore. Follow the rule of law, the natives were told, by the arrogant in power.
Seniority was one reason I said no to a signed SC appointment in 1986. I was 47 and so many qualified career people in their 50’s and 60’s were ahead in line, which did not stop modern and forward-looking lawyers Rene and Tony Carpio from bypassing so many others. They should have been taught by Ma’m Baby and Fr. BB of an earlier time to stand in line. We are watching whether Rene knows his right foot from his left given his very sad start in 2001. And Tony does not stage presscons to insult a political foe of GMA. At 62, Rene remains immature, from where I sit.
opinion@manilatimes.net
and so i agree with manolo quezon:
In the end what every administration has the right to expect, is to set the tone for its turn at the helm. This is why there have been so many innovations and departures from tradition in inaugurations. Thus putting in place a chief justice who soiled his own robes not only justifies, but almost makes mandatory, some sort of deviation from tradition. Whether a barangay captain or associate justice administers the presidential oath matters less than the next president’s right to demonstrate that ethics will be part of his core approach to the responsibilities of his office.
nothing wrong with breaking from tradition when tradition only serves to validate the illegal. if i were the president-elect, i would ask associate justice conchita carpio-morales to swear me in. she deserves the honor and place in history.
ang pikon, talo
an expat who might have voted for gibo if he were home for the elections, but kept track through twitter, reacts to the losing camp’s dismay:
Such disappointment and disenchantment among the Pinoy Twitterati post election: lack of transparency, a better way to do this, an uninformed masa, a broken democracy, yadda yadda. To be fair, they all seem to be trying their best not to be too overtly bitter. But to anyone who can read between the lines, these guys are kinda embarrassing themselves. Mostly because they wouldn’t be whistling this tune if their candidate had won, now would they? No, they’d be proud Pinoys, ready to stand tall behind our flag, to shout from their twitter stream that Pinoys rule and our democracy rocks!
Here’s the sad part, guys, you were right the first time. There was a distressing lack of transparency. The political system is so broken and fixing it would lead to a better way of doing this. The masses still think it’s a popularity contest (Good God, Erap?! Again?!). None of that equals a working democracy.
But in your frustration and disappointment you’re forgetting that this is so goddamned much better than what we had in the 60’s and 70’s with Marcos. So much safer and productive than what we have even now in Maguindanao — where resistance, where providing a choice, where even thinking of exercising a right to choose equals a shallow anonymous grave. You’re failing to appreciate that with martial law just a few short decades ago, and the Ampatuan massacre only half a year ago, the recent relatively uneventful elections (absolutely boring, actually) *is* something to flood your social networks about.
So get your heads out of your asses and accept defeat with the same grace and composure that most of your candidates did. We’re nowhere near the Hollywood/West Wing ending a Gibo win would have us celebrate, but this has got to be considered progress pa rin.
oo nga naman. and enough with threats of migrating, which is so self-centered. raising your hopes so high, in the first place, was rather naive and unrealistic.
sa kabilang banda, there’s kris aquino who’s also pikon, kahit panalo, over the facebook page kris aquino’s despedida party (18k members and counting). of course no one expects her to leave, not just yet anyway. if anything, people expected her to do a miriam and say “i lied”, sabay halakhak. but really, it’s a warning that she’ll be under close watch. she would be wise to stay out of politics (though i’m not sure how if she is to continue helping out president noynoy) cos people will pounce pounce pounce every time she says the politically incorrect thing (as in, foot in her mouth stuff a la “katas ng hacienda luisita”) and so, yeah, a despedida may not be so farfetched, whether noynoy gets it or not.
election eve
despite the surveys calling it a sure win for noynoy, the other camps continue to be really upbeat, each one thinking that their candidate still has a good chance of pulling off a surprise win from behind. which is as it should be. after all, marami diyang puwede pang magbago ang isip. marami ring undecided pa at magde-decide lang pag kaharap na mismo ang balota at mga bilog na hugis itlog.
pero kung mababaw ang kaligayahan ko and i were wavering between noynoy and gibo, the miting de avances would have decided me. caught gibo’s final sugod speech on channel 4 (thanks to a carlosceldran tweet) and he was, wow, sorta outstanding, looked and projected great, toweringly tall, high energy, and whether that was an extemporaneous or a memorized speech, the delivery was awesomely passionate and must have swayed undecideds some. noynoy’s came later, aired on anc, and in comparison, he was okay lang, i guess because he was reading his speech (well at least for those moments that i turned to look at the tv screen). no contest. had to remind myself why i’m not voting for gibo — the VFA — which tells of a limited vision for country, forever chained to mighty america. looks like it’s jamby’s platform for me pa rin.
as for surveys, i look forward to a presidential campaign na walang surveys. it would be a totally different exercise. until then, national artist f. sionil jose’s words apply:
Nothing is going to change…. I am 85. I have seen three generations of Filipino leaders fail. They have never been able to transcend themselves, neither their class nor their ethnicity.
Did you read The Economist obituary on her? (referring to Aquino). It said her greatness ended when she became president. Many people were angry. But for those of us who had eyes wide open, her rule was a disaster. She promised land reform. She didn’t do it. She restored the oligarchy. I never forgave her for that.
manila times columnist elmer ordonez is only a little hopeful, and only because of the few partylists that truly represent marginalized sectors.
This election, if it goes through on Monday, whether automated and/or manual, has no special appeal for me. As I wrote earlier, the outcome will be the installation of another faction of the landed oligarchy or that of the relatively new business rich—in power. All within the ruling class.
Opinions about contenders are generally based on survey results and anecdotal information. In the absence of other “scientific” indicators, it is easy to succumb to what may be called survey fetishism, a reliance on statistical counts conducted particularly by two outfits (SWS and Pulse Asia) that seem to have the allegiance of media and the general public.
An alternative survey, conducted by IBON Foundation, using the same tools learned in schools of economics like UP’s, has been red-baited out of circulation by stakeholders in SWS and Pulse Asia. And critics of the latter are called “ignorant” or “incompetent” about the arcana of what the late Dean Jose Encarnacion would call a “quasi-science.” As are all social sciences.
There are charges of “trending’’ and “bandwagon effect” because of the surveys, as people talk freely about “leading” or “front-running” candidates. I myself paid scant attention to those who are in the “cellar”—all of whom seem imbued with idealism, or practice new or nonpatronage politics. Can they look forward to a level playing field through electoral reform?
The winners will of course be known after May 10 but the social change that discerning voters hope for will not come about. Those elected will perpetuate themselves in office through the vast resources and the ideological/coercive agencies under their control—with cronies and “kamag-anaks” waiting in the wings. What else could be new?
….Is there hope for us in this election? Yes, some. For one, the party-lists that represent truly marginalized sectors—like Bayan Muna, Akbayan, Gabriela, Anakpawis and Kabataan are leading in the surveys and are assured of seats. New party-lists like ACT Teachers (unlike one that represents school owners), Agham (science for the poor), and Ang Ladlad (representing gays) are likely to win at least one seat each. These party-lists deserve support from voters turned off by traditional or oligarchic politics. At least they can provide a strong voice in Congress dominated by the establishment.
Satur Ocampo and Lisa Maza of the Makabayan Party had already served ten years as pro-poor party-list representatives in Congress (Bayan Muna and Gabriela) and are running as NP guest candidates to continue their advocacies in the Senate. I am confident they will acquit themselves creditably in their undertaking.
The senatorial lists of all parties include names who will work for the interests of the underprivileged and the dispossessed. I would include (besides Ocampo and Maza), Pia Cayetano, Mario Bautista, Susan Ople, Gwendolyn Pimentel, Adel Tamano, Alex Lacson, Danilo Lim, Teofisto Guingona III, and Sonia Roco in my ballot. A few more are already in the top twelve of the surveys. eaordonez2000@yahoo.com
my list : satur, liza, danny lim, miriam, jpe, lozada, pia, neric, adel, serge, guingona, and either toots or ruffy.
yellow naif disses land reform :(
nakakadismaya the 5-minute video produced and posted by newbie blogger felicity tan entitled Ang nangyari sa Hacienda Luisita, ayon sa mga magsasaka. it’s a cut-to-cut talking-heads kind of quickie production featuring just 7 former farmworkers / laborers / tenants of the hacienda saying they miss the old feudal days when the cojuangco-aquinos took care of their needs — complete with free health care, weekly allowances for the kids — and that they went on strike not for land — what would they do with land without capital and knowhow — but for better pay, except that the likes of satur ocampo and teddy casino made pakialam and satur even made millions of bucks, so please, leftists, stay away, we don’t want you meddling in our affairs.
i could not but react when i first saw it posted in facebook via carlos conde:
the video by itself is rather slanted against land reform and against the left, almost like an advertisement for oligarchic rule. but let’s rewind to the part where these few farmers are saying that they went on strike for better pay, so obviously things had deteriorated since the happy past when the hacienda took care of all their needs. sana ilagay naman sa context. oh and the accusation that satur got a lot of money out of some deal should have been followed by a statement from satur either denying or confirming, in fairness lang.
tan’s reply:
my purpose was just to air the other side para mailabas naman, yun lang, if you visit HL you will see it is impossible that the farmers demonize the cojuangcos as it is seen in the media. in any case, i put in the UP clip from TV patrol because the general sentiment is “give what the farmers what they want.” So I asked them. We already heard the farmers who want the land. How about the others? Lahat ba sila land ang gusto? Looking at reports, it seems that way. Inside HL is a different story. if you change your opinion on it or not is besides the point and not my purpose. I think Caloy’s blurb above says it all: “the OTHER side that ought to be heard as well” (thanks again C!)
soon after, men sta. ana also posted the video in fb with a comment, and we had this exchange:
men : Sad to say, this cannot be the full story. Some Noy campaigners, specifically those who work with the farmers, even think that the video might have been produced by the Luisita management (which is not the case, I think). So whoever produced this video only complicated the issue even for Noy supporters. The story is more complicated than what the video offers. I myself went to Luisita more than a month ago, accompanied by a young academic researcher doing his postgrad in Australia, a local organizer, a national peasant organizer, and a farmer who heads a national peasant organization (they are all pro-Noy), and the stories we received from the farmers differ from those interviewed in this video. In other words, there are many voices in Luisita, which this video does not capture. But what is clear is that different forces have used the farmers as pawns. What a tragedy.
me : men, i so agree. carlos conde also posted the video and i commented that it’s practically an advertisement for oligarchic rule, sabay banat kay satur. the video producer says it is simply meant to air the side of luisita farmers who continue to be unemployed, as if there were only this one side and only these few farmers. and she claims to be a journalist, even blogs about ethics of journalism. absolutely, support like this noynoy doesn’t need.
men : Oo nga, Angela. She committed the mistakes that she was railing against. Actually, I don’t have any problem re opinionated journalism. Just be honest about it. Hunter Thompson is my idol because of his gonzo journalism. Problem here is she becomes holier than thou.
worse, she’s getting a lot of kudos in her blog, i assume from political naifs like herself, who are thankful that she has cleared the air, so now they get it, the farmers don’t really want land, they just want the good old feudal days back, so now they WILL vote for noynoy. susmaryosep. i don’t get it. why isn’t she practising what she preaches re journalism ethics? maybe she thinks these ethics don’t apply sa blogosphere? she’s been blogging for just a month, so let’s give her the benefit of the doubt? LOL
pero sige na nga, maybe she didn’t plan for the video to stand alone, maybe she thought her “blurb”, where she says she didn’t bother airing the other sides because they’ve had enough exposure in media, presuming, incorrectly, that her readers all know the big picture already, would be posted around along with the video. still, the blurb said hardly enough. and besides, that’s not the way it works in the blogosphere. you have no say in what or how much gets picked up and posted around, so a video has to be complete in itself, airing all sides, unless hindi naman talaga credible journalism ang drama kundi partisan sensationalism.
salamat na lang at meron din siyang commenters na mas marunong sa kanya, like jonas and the penniless sitar player:
Jonas : medyo may intellectual dishonesty dito sa ginawa mo, ms. tan. una, binanatan mo ng todo ang report ng gmanews.tv dahil sa tingin mo mali-mali at iisang panig lang. tapos sinabi mo, pupunta ka sa luisita para hanapin ang katotohanan. pero ano ang ginawa mo? you just presented a few farmers na kontra kina lito bais, at napaka-tendentious pa ng mga argumento at totally without basis or proof (lalo na ang akusasyong binigyan si satur ocampo ng 6m).
in the final analysis, propaganda din ang ginawa mo na ang makakabenepisyo ay si noynoy at mga kalaban ng ulwu at catlu. true, pinresent mo ang side ng ilang mga farmers pero what they said didn’t help the discussion of the issue. they merely vented their ire.
medyo tuso ang posisyon mo na ang ginagawa mo lang ay ang side ng mga farmers na di naririnig. ok lang sana ito kung hindi mo pinipresenta ang sarili mo na journalist. e kaso, napaka-self-righteous pa nga ng dating mo about journalism, as if you are god’s gift to journalism in this part of the woods.
hindi mo pueding sabihin na kaya di mo nilagay ang side nina lito bais ay dahil masyado na silang sikat sa media. tusong pag-iisip yan. kung totoo kang journalist, give us the complete picture. otherwise, don’t pass yourself off as a journalist na walang kinikilingan kundi ang katotohanan.
in the final analysis, walang pinagkaiba ang ginawa mo sa mga puntong ayaw mo sa story ng gmanews.tv. bagkus, mas maganda ang ginawa ni stephanie dychiu dahila at least mas throrough ang research, mas maayos at mas complete ang picture, kahit na sabihin mong one-sided. April 24, 2010 2:22 PM
penniless sitar player : it only shows that redistribution should not be the only concern of land reform. a finite resource such as land, should be managed sustainably (considering the economic, social and ecological dimensions of it.) unlike the virtual land in farmville (he he he) further subdividing it to smaller portions would not optimize its eco-social contribution. with the chains and layers of people and processes involved in production (farmhand, farmhelp, capital and service providers, irrigation providers, traders, buyers) agricultural production is actually one big enterprise. and with that, only a sustainable business model could answer the increasing needs of people dependent on it. new forms of ownerships and/ or profit/fruit sharing should be set in place. I also abhor the idea that control remains in the hand of a mega-family corporation but individually distributing it would even marginalize the people at the far end of the value chain. the idea of setting up cooperative, interdependent structures and mutually reinforcing agro-enterprises, owned and managed by the farmers, could be explored and it should be coupled with efforts to build the capacity of farmers to deal with it in a businesslike way. April 26, 2010 3:47 AM
cory’s comprehensive agrarian reform program failed (and carper, its extension, will fail) because of loopholes designed to allow old-rich hacenderos to be creative about finding ways of holding on to their hundreds of thousands of hectares of land instead of being creative about sharing the bounty with landless farmers in national food production. meanwhile, small middleclass landowners, like my nanay who inherited a mere 20 hectares or so of hard-earned riceland from her parents, had to give up all but 7 hectares some 20 years ago, ora mismo, agad-agad, grabe :(
homestretch blues
dismaying but interesting. our minds and communications are on mercury-retrograde mode for the next three, four weeks, right smack in the last three weeks of the presidential campaign, which means that instead of moving on to other important issues we’ll be going back over old ground, which means more of hacienda luisita, alleged psychological incapacity, lack of experience, etc. with regard to noynoy, and more of c-5-at-taga, landgrabbing charges, and the poverty spin with regard to villar. we will see how low either camp would stoop to discredit the other all the way to election day. mas madaling magsiraan (hindi mauubusan) kaysa magmagaling (mauubusan).
are we going to see survey kulelats gordon, bro.eddie, jc, perlas, jamby giving up the fight to endorse either noynoy or villar, erap or gibo? i seriously doubt it just because, if memory serves, it hasn’t happened in recent multiparty history. to the very end they all think they have a chance, surveys are questionable, anything can happen, never say die, not even when llamadong llamado ang mga kalaban. a pinoy macho thing, i suspect ;)) but hey i’d love to be disproven on this, just because it could tip the balance one way or another, make for a most definite win for the lucky one. and then, again, maybe not.
what we ARE likely to see, i’m afraid, even now, are all kinds of glitches with machines, esp. those that have to do with communications and transportation, anything that moves people and ideas around, including the machines for automated counting of votes and conveying of results. sana hindi. sana suwertehin tayo, for a change. but the odds are against us, so dapat ay paghandaan by having plans B and C, just in case.
meanwhile i still don’t have a president. and i haven’t stopped wishing, how retrograde of me, that it were mar running for president and noynoy for vp. i disagree with the notion that if noynoy had run for prez later rather than sooner, he could not have counted on the same phenomenal love and energy a la edsa generated by (ninoy’s) cory’s death that birthed the clamor for the unico hijo’s candidacy last august.
i don’t see why not. i think that noynoy as vp (mar would have won easily, with noynoy behind him) could have used the next six years to clean up his act, do the morally, and politically, correct thing with regard to hacienda luisita, AFTER reading of course ninoy’s testament from a prison cell and other writings that might enlighten him a little about the Left. if there were no poverty and oppression, there would be no Left; snubbing and demonizing the Left (instead of finding a way for Left and Right to work together for the good of the whole) would not have been ninoy’s way, is no way to honor ninoy’s legacy, in fact it dishonors ninoy’s legacy. anyway, if he used the six years wisely and creatively, maybe also studied the education problem thoroughly — an additional two years of schooling is not the answer – i have no doubt that the cory-ninoy effect would have kicked in as powerfully, and there would not be so many undecideds in 2016.
for now hindi ko pa mapatawad si noynoy for the hacienda luisita killings and for being so anti-Left, or is it anti-poor. i guess i’m still hoping to hear him say something reassuring, to the effect that he will prevail upon the cojuangco-aquino clan to follow the law and give up luisita to the farmers, and that he would snub the likes of palparan and get the military to produce jonas burgos atbpang missing activists.
lacking either or both, well, there’s villar, pero kahit kayanin ko siyang patawarin for c-5 at taga and, even, the obscene spending, ay di ko yata kayang patawarin his obdurate stand against reproductive health. si erap, he got his turn already, and he botched it. gibo looks good but he reeks of status quo politics. amboy gordon i considered, but only briefly. bro.eddie is too fundamentally religious, perlas too green, jc too sophomoric. jamby at least has not only the best-looking FG (french gentleman), she has the best platform of the lot. so hmm, if not noynoy, it could be jamby for me, a protest vote, on principle.