What to do? (concluded)

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The President has announced she will not attend the Philippine Military Academy homecoming this weekend (because of a startling coincidence involving assassinations plots) . She is in a mess of her own making, and which requires loyalty at a time when her officials have to wonder if it’s worth it to lose all, for her. Read Tony Abaya’s column to understand why Jun Lozada has engaged the sympathy of many people and why government’s resources have failed to impeach his credibility.

As Mon Casiple muses,

The instruction of the president for government to work with private business sector, academe and Church in the anti-corruption work and the sudden interest of the Ombudsman and DOJ in the ZTE-NBN case aim to seize initiative in the issue. The NBI raid on Lozada’s office, on the other hand, is more in the same league as the failed discrediting of Lozada for corruption.

Many top officials in the GMA administration have been put on the spot, had their reputation besmirched, or are in danger of prosecution themselves because of their actions in defense of the Arroyo family. They are under intense pressure from their own families, friends, and peers to stand for truth and decency on the issues confronting the First Family.

The signal role of the Lozada case is in bringing forth these pressures. In turn, the pressure on the president to resign will intensify. Ironically, the effective pressure may come from her own official family and camp rather than from the outside.

The Palace has also had to backtrack on its attempt to divert public attention by means of prematurely launching it’s amendments scheme. The Vice-President, for obvious reasons, has begun to grow a spine.

Yesterday, the Inquirer editorial pointed out that what is undeniable, is that the administration’s engaged in a Conspiracy. One that entailed a whole roster of officials collectively insulting the intelligence of the public, as Manuel Buencamino sardonically demonstrated in his column.

The group Action for Economic Reforms, in calling for the resignation of the President, puts it this way:

Criminal justice will come, but now is the time to take political action……

The first family is the capo di tutti capi, the boss of all bosses. The Macapagal-Arroyo family has turned the Philippine government into a mafia family, with Cabinet men, congressmen, and other functionaries as their mob lieutenants. We have state capture not by the elite but by a Filipino mafia headed by the first family.The Philippines is not lacking in laws and institutions against corruption and plunder…

Much effort has been undertaken to address chronic corruption…

Despite all this, what is missing is the simplest answer to the problem: Fighting corruption is a question of leadership.Since the leadership itself is brazenly engaged in plunder, corruption remains unabated. Under the leadership of a non-corrupt president, anti-corruption programs and institutions will be effective. Under a corrupt presidency, the same programs and institutions only become a protective veil for corruption itself…

With GMA’s repeated betrayal of the public trust, she has no right to sit as President a minute longer. All other officials involved in the ZTE-NBN deal, including Secretary Romy Neri, DOTC Secretary Leandro Mendoza, and members of the NEDA-ICC must step down from their government posts. The officials involved in the abduction of Jun Lozada and its cover-up in the media, such as PNP Chief Avelino Razon, Secretary Lito Atienza and DILG Secretary Ronaldo Puno, must likewise step down.

We must expunge the Philippine Mafia.

And yet even as more and more people add their voices, from Harvey Keh to the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (perhaps, taking its cue from the national lawyer’s association, and perhaps statements such as Jovito Salonga’s, the law school governments of the Ateneo, UP and other law schools are reportedly meeting and are expected to call on the President to resign) to the Makati Business Club (and if there were any divisions in its ranks, they’ve closed ranks over Secretary Favila’s threat to unleash the BIR on businessmen; as Boy Blue replied, “bring it on!”) except for that old Palace reliable, Vivianne Yuchengco, the debate goes on and on about the President. The debate is distilled to its essence by this quote from the play, A Man for All Seasons:

William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!

Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?

William Roper: Yes, I’d cut down every law in England to do that!

Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned ’round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s! And if you cut them down, and you’re just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake!

Yet we know that in real life as in the play and film, More ended up imprisoned and put on trial, charged with treason: bearing the full brunt of “Man’s laws,” because the King wanted him forced to publicly recant his private opposition to the King’s divorce and remarriage, which More found contrary to God’s laws. The world remembers him as a man who submitted to the law, to prove his fidelity to a higher one. Recognition the laws of man can be flawed, and man’s justice profoundly unjust.

There is another gripping scene where More is undergoing trial (“betoken,” as used in the dialogue, means “be a sign of; indicate”) and his refusal to publicly take an oath as demanded by the king is taken as proof positive of treason:

Cromwell: Now, Sir Thomas, you stand on your silence.

Sir Thomas More: I do.

Cromwell: But, gentlemen of the jury, there are many kinds of silence. Consider first the silence of a man who is dead. Let us suppose we go into the room where he is laid out, and we listen: what do we hear? Silence. What does it betoken, this silence? Nothing; this is silence pure and simple. But let us take another case. Suppose I were to take a dagger from my sleeve and make to kill the prisoner with it; and my lordships there, instead of crying out for me to stop, maintained their silence. That would betoken! It would betoken a willingness that I should do it, and under the law, they will be guilty with me. So silence can, according to the circumstances, speak! Let us consider now the circumstances of the prisoner’s silence. The oath was put to loyal subjects up and down the country, and they all declared His Grace’s title to be just and good. But when it came to the prisoner, he refused! He calls this silence. Yet is there a man in this court – is there a man in this country! – who does not know Sir Thomas More’s opinion of this title?

Crowd in court gallery: No!

Cromwell: Yet how can this be? Because this silence betokened, nay, this silence was, not silence at all, but most eloquent denial!

Sir Thomas More: Not so. Not so, Master Secretary. The maxim is “Qui tacet consentiret”: the maxim of the law is “Silence gives consent”. If therefore you wish to construe what my silence betokened, you must construe that I consented, not that I denied.

Cromwell: Is that in fact what the world construes from it? Do you pretend that is what you wish the world to construe from it?

Sir Thomas More: The world must construe according to its wits; this court must construe according to the law.

In More’s case he submitted, as a believing Christian, to the secular power precisely because he was obedient to a higher authority: one that compelled him to bow down before the laws of man because they are as nothing compared to the laws of God, which required fidelity to the death.

The law, he recognized, could serve as defense for certain things but there come points when the law compels obedience even when the law itself is unjust; yet compels that submission because the law’s limitations are clear, it cannot intrude into the distinctions a person’s conscience creates between what is legal and what is just.

A similar question was tackled by the scientist Stephen Jay Gould, when he discussed how the debate between those who believe in science and those who look to a supernatural authority are engaged in a futile debate. See his essay Nonoverlapping Magisteria:

I believe, with all my heart, in a respectful, even loving concordat between our magisteria — the NOMA solution. NOMA represents a principled position on moral and intellectua] grounds, not a mere diplomatic stance. NOMA also cuts both ways. If religion can no longer dictate the nature of factual conclusions properly under the magisterium of science, then scientists cannot claim higher insight into moral truth from any superior knowledge of the world’s empirical constitution. This mutual humility has important practical consequences in a world of such diverse passions.

By all means the law is often our shield against injustice, but there are certain forms of injustice our laws are impotent to address.

What is at stake is the position held by the President of the Philippines. A position not hers by right, but by grace; a position only temporarily hers and not her inalienable possession like her life, for example. What she can claim a right to is a fixed term; but the term is hers by virtue of certain assumptions, among them her receiving a popular mandate that is genuine and not so marred by controversy as to make it suspect; or that she continues to enjoy the confidence of the people who consider her fit to continue in office.

The supreme law, the Constitution, gives her the opportunity to declare herself unfit to hold office at any time (resignation); it grants the power to declare her unfit for office not only to Congress, by means of a prosecution begun by the House and a political, not judicial, trial in the Senate; and even to her subordinates, the Cabinet, who can declare her unfit for office and who can even force a vote in Congress; and it grants the public at the very least the right to petition government for the redress of grievances and enshrines the citizenry as the ultimate arbiter of what is legal: for, if need be, the public can overturn the fundamental law of the land by means of revolution (if it succeeds).

Her critics do not call for the murder or assassination of the President, or that she should be denied the chance to adequately defend herself in court; but what they assert is that the President may continue to enjoy the presumption of innocence as far as the courts are concerned but no longer enjoys that assumption as far as the public is concerned; that in a sense, in the face of the President’s acts of commission and omission as well as those of her henchmen, a significant portion of the population has what lawyers call a moral certainty of her guilt; this moral certainty does not meet, as of yet, the requirements of the courts when it comes to depriving her of life, liberty, or property; but it is more than enough in the political sphere, to justify citizens calling her to relinquish her office.

Because, as Joker Arroyo in a previous incarnation declared, we cannot afford to have a country run by a thief. Whether it was run by thieves in the past or will be run by thieves in the future is absolutely irrelevant and immaterial, if your honors please. We are talking about the incumbent President and no one else. We can deprive only the incumbent President of office and no one else; the punishment is specific because it can only apply to one person at a time.

What is the law’s is the law’s; what is the people’s as a political entity is entirely something else.

The question is how the people, as a political entity, should dispense with political questions, such as the fitness of their head of state and government for office. Public opinion and the threat of impeachment drove Nixon from office; de Gaulle, facing student protests and a lost referendum vote, resigned. Politics recognizes force majeure when it comes to the terms of its highest officials: when a party loses the US House of Representatives, traditionally the Speaker from the party that lost Congress resigns his seat; it is not just in parliamentary systems that there can be votes of confidence -whether in elections or in mobilized public opinion.

Oliver Cromwell embarked on his dictatorship by dismissing the Long Parliament with these famous words on April 20, 1653:

It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice; ye are a factious crew, andenemies to all good government; ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.

Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye haveno more religion than my horse; gold is your God; which of you have not barter’d your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?

Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defil’d this sacred place, and turn’d the Lord’s temple into a denof thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here by the people to get grievances redress’d, are yourselves gone!So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors. In the name of God, go!

And this is the warning that echoes down in history: in face of wrongdoing or plain incompetence, the longer people confuse procedures for actual government, the greater the temptation to banish those fussing over procedures to restore what’s right. But one needn’t embark on the path of dictatorship to realize that an essential attribute of the democratic system, is the opportunity it affords to discard a discredited leader, rather have the whole system go down in flames to preserve one person’s political life.

As the British parliament agonized over the question of whether to continue its fight against Hitler or surrender, one MP, Leo Amery, quoted Cromwell in urging Neville Chamberlain to resign:

Some 300 years ago, when this House found that its troops were being beaten again and again by the dash and daring of the Cavaliers, by Prince Rupert’s Cavalry, Oliver Cromwell spoke to John Hampden. In one of his speeches he recounted what he said. It was this:

‘I said to him, “Your troops are most of them old, decayed serving men and tapsters and such kind of fellows.” You must get men of a spirit that are likely to go as far as they will go, or you will be beaten still.’

It may not be easy to find these men. They can be found only by trial and by ruthlessly discarding all who fail and have their failings discovered. We are fighting today for our life, for our liberty, for our all; we cannot go on being led as we are.

I have quoted certain words of Oliver Cromwell. I will quote certain other words. I do it with great reluctance, because I am speaking of those who are old friends and associates of mine, but they are words which, I think, are applicable to the present situation. This is what Cromwell said to the Long Parliament when he thought it was no longer fit to conduct the affairs of the nation:

“You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go”

Chamberlain resigned; Churchill became Prime Minister, despite the great misgivings, even obvious mistrust, of his peers. When Chamberlain died, Churchill, in turn, paid tribute to his predecessor:

It is not given to human beings, happily for them, for otherwise life would be intolerable, to foresee or to predict to any large extent the unfolding course of events. In one phase men seem to have been right, in another they seem to have been wrong. Then again, a few years later, when the perspective of time has lengthened, all stands in a different setting. There is a new proportion. There is another scale of values. History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days. What is the worth of all this? The only guide to a man is his conscience; the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield, because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculations; but with this shield, however the fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honour.

At stake, let me repeat, is the President’s political life; as to the sum total of her life we can’t pass judgment, yet, though it is, of course, possible that in retrospect, when that time comes, she may come off better than she seems, today; or worse. But it is not too soon, to pass judgment on her fitness for office. This is a judgment call in which the law is only relevant in terms of our layman’s appreciation of what it’s spirit ought to be, and whether under her leadership, the government has proven itself faithless to that spirit.

The question however, settled in many minds, remains unsettled in the minds of others; it hinges, in those minds, on whether the dangers of an aroused public are so grave, as to justify denying the public their sovereignty; it is a question involving fears as old as Edmund Burke’s condemnation of the French Revolution:

Were all those dreadful things necessary? Were they the inevitable results of the desperate struggle of determined patriots, compelled to wade through blood and tumult, to the quiet shore of a tranquil and prosperous liberty? No! nothing like it. The fresh ruins of France, which shock our feelings wherever we can turn our eyes, are not the devastation of civil war; they are the sad but instructive monuments of rash and ignorant counsel in time of profound peace. They are the display of inconsiderate and presumptuous, because unresisted and irresistible, authority. The persons who have thus squandered away the precious treasure of their crimes, the persons who have made this prodigal and wild waste of public evils, (the last stage reserved for the ultimate ransom of the state), have met in their progress with little, or rather with no opposition at all. Their whole march was more like a triumphal procession, than the progress of a war. Their pioneers have gone before them, and demolished and laid everything level at their feet. Not one drop of their blood have they shed in the cause of the country they have ruined. They have made no sacrifices to their projects of greater consequence than their shoe buckles, whilst they were imprisoning their king, murdering their fellow citizens, and bathing in tears, and plunging in poverty and distress, thousands of worthy men and worthy families. Their cruelty has not even been the base result of fear. It has been the effect of their sense of perfect safety, in authorizing treasons, robberies, rapes, assassinations, slaughters, and burnings, throughout their harassed land. But the cause of all was plain from the beginning.

But we are heirs, not to Burke, but to the Frenchmen he condemned; even Rizal was convinced, if not of the desirability, then at least of the inevitability, of revolution; else our national narrative would still be that of a province of Spain or State of the Union. We can detect at least a familiarity with his arguments, by way of Rizal: who ultimate advice was, you cannot force events, they will unfold in their own good time (see my disquisition on Rizal’s Pilosopiya ng Pagtitiis).

Well, things are unfolding, but it would be wrong to assert they will unfold in a precise, pre-determined manner. But they are unfolding in a manner that is demolishing the arguments used, so far, by those who wanted to keep rationalizing their implied or overt support for the administration.

This is just political noise? The increasing decibels of public protest are preferable to the silence of the tomb or the cold vaults where even colder cash is piling up for the President’s favored few.

They are all the same? Perhaps when they could moderate their greed; but the greed is unmoderated, it is accelerating, and along with the avarice is an out-of-control contempt for every Filipino, rich or poor, educated or not, urbanite or rural dweller, who dares defy the administration.

What will it achieve? An end to the insanity, closing a chapter to the hubris, restoring the enfeebled democratic muscles of the electorate, reviving the dulled sense of right and wrong of a public.

What about the economy? For those who believe in trickle-down, removing the dam that has held captive the people’s money; for those who wanted prudence and professionalism in the management of our natural and financial resources, the chance this will finally happen and not be feigned.

It boils down to the administration’s scale of greed at the very least matching, if not exceeding, that of the government that preceded it. And a public realizing that it must stand up to it, end it, punish it, for now it sees its your style, or lack of it, but your performance while in office, that must be the sole, standard, measure of a leader’s fitness for office. The mafiosi in slippers and the mafiosi in an expensive suit are both plain thugs.

The President overturned her policy of preferring BOT deals, to add to the debts of the country, to obtain foreign funding for a project whose cost was bloated by the demands of her family and allies. To consummate this deal, she left the bedside of her potentially dying husband to please her allies. She would have pursued it, if the public hadn’t opposed it. Yet she has kept trying to find more and similar deals. This is just part of the pattern, one that consists of her recklessly spending government finances, then figuring out a way to blunt the effects of her spending, only to find new ways to spend that involve accumulating unnecessary and indefensible obligations.

Minguita Padilla asserts that the inflated commission demanded by Abalos equals the annual budget of the Philippine General Hospital: multiplied five times. I’ve heard another assertion that the amount equals the annual budget of the Department of Agriculture.

A few weeks back, a dispirited critic of the President asked another critic (an agnostic if not an atheist), “Do you think God put her here to teach us something?” And the agnostic/atheist critic instantly replied, “Yes, to teach us freedom isn’t gained so easily.”

The long road began, for some, in 2001, for others, in 2004, for others, in 2006 and so on. They have come together, taken time to understand each other, hammered out consensus, taken stock of past mistakes and appropriate things to do; all the while hounded by those united in support for the President because she dressed better, spoke better, was better-educated and showed better executive control, than her predecessor.

But when, as now, she’s revealed as nothing better than him, and in many ways worse because if he was slothful, she has been industrious in undermining institutions, intimidating any organization critical of her, and corrupting the various petty crooks and mulcting officials who have always been there, but who have grown fat, proud, and left stupefied by her drowning them in money and in stripping them of whatever self-control and professional values they had left.

The result is that the enemies of the people should really be named Legion -for they are many; the ones in the cabinet who serve her with enthusiasm and no scruples; the soldiers she has infiltrated into sensitive civilian posts; the business communities she has turned into her propaganda organs; the rank-and-file who have lost even the nominal prestige their positions should accord them.

The line of men and women who have abandoned all pretenses to serving the public, who are reduced to serving the President and her family, according to their humiliating whims, has grown so long that the President’s leaving office will only be the first step in a process that will many of the formerly well-connected turned potential social and political pariahs.

But it’s that first step that can and should unite us. It unites those who wanted it years ago, with those who have come to see as a necessary thing, only now. We are together now, having seen not only the best, but the worst, in each of ourselves; but collectively, better for coming together now.

What to do? Make a list. Those who can no longer deserve a position paid for from the public coffers, and who must resign immediately. Those who supported the government to the extent they advocated means no genuinely democratic government would have conceived of adopting in the past. Those whose perks and power are made possible by their closeness to the President, who cast aside their own reputations in her service.

And make a list of the things that failed to work: impeachment, presidential commissions, appointments to departments and the judiciary, the military, only to cause those institutions grave scandal and the gutting of professional pride and esprit de corps.

And make a list of the things you want, and not the things you hate; for it is easy to hate but difficult to be for certain things. Clean elections? Greater or less party discipline? Efficient and honest tax collection, social services as a right of the people and not personally-bestowed patronage? The list is yours, but armed with similar lists, there we will have the chance to come together with a truly meaningful reform agenda.

But until then: march.

Until then: make noise.

Until then: write, call, text, to share what you feel.

From now on, forget your past mistakes, or disappointments, and focus on the task at hand.

They say: they represent public opinion.

We must say: we do!

You must say, I have had enough with feeling helpless, or fearful, or embarrassed over past loyalties; instead, I will stand, not someone, but for me; and if there are many like me, I will link arms with them; and whatever happens, let it not be said that at the country’s present opportunity for redemption, you were will trying to find excuses to postpone the inevitable.

The Black and White Movement gives you three opportunities to register your protest:

1. Log on to our website — www.blacknwhite-movement.com and register your name to declare your support for Jun Lozada.

2. Send text “Sa Totoo Tayo” to 0915-3296830 to be counted. Also, text this message to all of your friends and relatives: “Kung naniniwala kayo sa sinasabi ni Jun Lozada, text “Sa Totoo Tayo” to 0915-3296830. Visit www.blacknwhite-movement.com for latest count and activities.”

3. And if you’re in Metro Manila, join us on Sunday, February 17, 2008, 10 AM at La Salle Greenhills for a Mass organized by President Cory Aquino and the La Salle brothers in support of Jun Lozada and his family.

The time to act is now. Sa Totoo Tayo. Now na!

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Manuel L. Quezon III.

509 thoughts on “What to do? (concluded)

  1. The Prieto clan that holds a a large bloc of shares in the Inquirer are related to Big Mike. Defense Secretary Teodoro is married to the daughter of the late Jaime Prieto who is the sibling of the owners of the Inquirer.

    I know for a fact that they do not interfere with the running of the paper. However the executives who do are well aware of the personal relationships of the owners with the powers who run the country.

    Jess Arranza (Chua) is a well known PR advertising practioner who is deeply embedded with the coconut industry. His Godfathers are Danding, Enrile and Lucio Tan. He is well known in business circles in FPI, PCCI and MBC. His is also well known amongst the Binondo Business Club.

    The power blocs amongst the elite are the neo-Kano’s (Wash sycip of the MBC, the old sugar/coconut plantation blocs, and the newpower brokers, the Binondo based Chinese. If Big Mike and GMA loose the Chinese she’s history. The Americans/Europeans who control the MBC and MAP would love to embarass the Chinese government.

    PR companies must be all working overtime.

  2. parang ikaw yata ang kawawa kabayan. hindi ka magiging presidente kasi iki-kick-out ka din nila ni satur, et al.!
    sorry ha. hehehehe….

  3. Sige mang_isko, subukan mo silang i-BI, mabibisto mo sila. Wag mo silang itanong ng direktahan, itanong mo sa mga nakapaligid sa kanila 😀

    ========

    hvrds said:

    “The Prieto clan that holds a a large bloc of shares in the Inquirer are related to Big Mike. Defense Secretary Teodoro is married to the daughter of the late Jaime Prieto who is the sibling of the owners of the Inquirer.

    I know for a fact that they do not interfere with the running of the paper. However the executives who do are well aware of the personal relationships of the owners with the powers who run the country…”

    —–

    Hi hvrds,

    Does it necessarily mean that Inquirer is beholden to Big Mike because of these relationships? I’ve noticed however that the volatile Inquirer.net blogsite is now down, bug ridden or non-functional; not sure if it’s a related incident though.

  4. kabayan mag-ingat ka sa rally ha bukas. huwag kang magpa-front line. masakit yong pukpok(sound porn?) at nakakahiya yong matapos mapukpok tumatakbo. dapat laban!

  5. Huwag ka kasing maniwala sa bosing mo kasi eh mang_isko,… tingin ko tulog na iyon. Wag ka magpa-uto sa kanila. Kinukuripot ka na naman. O sige na, baka sabihin ng mga bloggers dito at ni Manolo na ginawa na natin tong personal na blogsite. Tandaan mo sinabi ko ha,… umangal ka, wag kang pumayag ng gamitin ka ng ganyan. Good night na 🙂

  6. si mang_isko taga usa ata kaya gising pa. pero ‘wag nyo pansinin yong manga panakot ni bencard na mahanap kayo pag mangyari kay mang_isko, malayo naman ang amerika para may mang yari sa kanya, di naman kami ganyan ka traidor at si joma binabantayan you, di makagalaw yong manga ‘agents’ n’ya..makatulog na nga…

  7. All it took for W. to go back to the Clinton based six party talks was for the crazy guy in N.Korea to explode a small nuclear device. So after calling him evil W. wrote the crazy guy with the weird hairdo in N.Korea a love letter praising him for dismantling his nuclar facilities. They are also giving him free oil.

    By the way W. invaded Saddam’s Hussein for WMD, while pouring in aid for Musharraff. Meanwhile there was this guy with Pakistan’s government support who was exporting nuclear bomb making know how to Libya, Iran and had already spoken to Iraq’s Hussien about helping him build a nuclear device.

    Can you beat that Americans go to guy in the war on terrorism was indirectly involved in spreading nuclear bombmaking know how.

    People should read up on the close relationships between the House of Saud, House of Bush and the house of Bin Laden.

    Oil money paid for the making of the Pakistans nuclear arsenal.

    W. concentrated on Iraq’s Hussein and the Taliban and Bin Laden are making a comeback in Afghanistan. The fundamentalists are getting more powerfull in Pakistan and the Americans have contingency plans of taking over Pakistans nuclear arsenal. NATO is refusing to send more troops to Afghanistan. The next battelground in the global war on terror is going to be Pakistan. Thank you W. Thank you.

  8. ang kay clinton, direct talk towards the north koreans. bilateral talk baga.
    ang gusto ni bush iba. yon nang six-paty talk, kasi parang nablackmail si clinton sa bilateral. kaya ang policy ni bush towards the n. korean is six-party talk or none at all.
    pero sa pinas lang muna tayo.
    hehehehe

  9. cvj, constructive resignation refers to the MANNER or FORM of resignation. it has nothing to do with voluntariness, or consent, or the lack of it. – Bencard

    On the contrary, ‘manner or form’ is relevant in so far as it reveals intent to resign. The SC decision (in Estrada v. Desierto) made it clear that:

    It is a factual question and its elements are beyond quibble: there must be an intent to resign and the intent must be coupled by acts of relinquishment.

    The Supreme Court then concluded that resignation took place because there was an implied intent based on Erap’s actions as documented largely by Angara’s diary entries.

    Watchful Eye, i don’t think that would be considered a constructive resignation since there is lack of intent on the part of the office holder. I suppose that if the government resigns from under Arroyo, then that is a form of civil disobedience or peaceful rebellion (in the spirit of Gandhi). Whether it turns into a Constitutional crisis depends on subsequent events.

  10. so what are you arguing about, cvj. do you or don’t you agree that “constructive” resignation, as opposed to “actual” resignation, is a FORM of relinquisment of office.
    intent is an element of voluntariness. force or duress vitiates intent and therefore makes an act involuntary. again, i suggest you consult with an attorney of your choice rather than rely on your gut instincts to understand these legal principles.

    re civil disobedience. in our scheme of things, no one in public office is indispensable – hence any civilian office holder could voluntarily resign at any time . however, nonfeasance or willful dereliction of official duty, without proper resignation, is a criminal offense.

  11. Bencard, i suggest you read Estrada v. Desierto so you can understand that in that matter, form is relevant only in so far as it embodies intent [to resign]. I have no arguments against Constructive Resignation as a concept in itself but, because of the compelling point you made above (at 6:47pm), i now realize its inapplicability in the case of Erap.

  12. akala nang mga nananakot dito libre sila because of their relative anonimity. hayaan mo, mang isko, pag may nangyaring masama sainyo, may paraan para malaman ang mga likely suspects.

    Pag mga pikon, ganyan talaga, nananakot na.
    Ako takot sa maraming tao dahil baka may magsamantalang magpasabog para lahat ng grupo paghinalaan. MAraming nagsasamantala ngayon para sumakay sa mga isyu.

    kaya ang mga sasama sa rally, ingat din kayo.

  13. I hope walang pikon pag walang nangyari sa rally.

    Cat, just the simple fact na mai-express ng taumbayan ang tunay nilang nararamdaman, maipakita sa adminsitrasyon kung gano na talaga kami kapuno, di man marami pumunta…

    just that, may nangyari na.

  14. mang isko, sa lahat ng posters dito, ikaw ang pinaka walang kwenta. kaya ipinapataw ko na sayo ngayon ang pinaka mabigat na penalty ng blogging world.

    dedma.

    simula sa puntong ito lahat ng papansin sayo ay kuto rin.

    wag nyo na pansinin. at least si Bencard, Geo at CaT at iba pang anti anti-GMA eh may sense pinagsasasabi.

    ok? mang isko? who?

    lol. there’s no coming back from that one.

  15. i think i can say that the way manolo is practically begging everyone to join the protest march belies any claim to spontaneous outpouring of oust-gloria sentiment from a substantial-enough portion of the population. this looks more like a partisan campaign, pure and simple, couched in revolutionary, almost inflammatory, language.

    using lozada as their rallying symbol, the b&w movement must have hit rock bottom. and they expect a million marchers, well… let’s see.

  16. But it’s that first step that can and should unite us. It unites those who wanted it years ago, with those who have come to see as a necessary thing, only now.

    remember how i said i was against GMA right from the very start? before she was even sworn in? well, i became vocally agst her at that first instance when her very admirable “maximum tolerance” policy agst rallyists (which was used in EDSA III) was overturned. when this govt declared permits were needed to rally, that’s when all benefit of a doubt vanished for me.

    you just cannot trust a govt unwilling to listen to its citizens. a govt that prefers force over dialouge is always suspect.

    What to do? Make a list. Those who can no longer deserve a position paid for from the public coffers, and who must resign immediately.

    i have a much more interesting list in my blog. link is below..

  17. Good luck for today’s Protest march. I hope it will be peaceful and that everyone can exercise their right to non-violent expression of disgust at this administration.

    I want to be counted,
    Nash Toledo

  18. Freedom of speech/expression and freedom of assembly are in the constitution, but these rights are not violated when local government requires for permits to be obtained first before rallies can be held.

    Rallies that can snarl traffic or can pose either a nuisance or a threat to other people/groups need to be managed.

    ————–
    Naturally, there is no stopping a spontaneous or a near-spontaneous rally (ala swarming when the group of people are called together by text messages). But once such spontaneous rallies happen, the local police still have the obligation to ensure that such a rally does not pose a nuisance or a threat to other groups.

    Regulations to manage a “throw out the non-Catholics!!!!” rally should be no different than regulations to manage a “TALSIK DIYAN!” rally.

  19. yong mga kababayan kong walang trabajo sa pilipinas, magabang-abang kayo dahil seguro maraming mababakanteng puesto sa gobyerno. isa sa mga hinihiling ni manolo at iba pang b&w at oust-gloria movers & shakers ay ang pagre-resign sa government service ng mga tao. sigue nga para mapalitan naman yong ma nga deadwoods diyan at young walang inatupag kundi mag bitbit ng mga placards at magsisigaw ng “patalsikin si gloria, now na”.

  20. I can’t believe that 22 years after Marcos was deposed, Filipinos are fighting again for freedom. It doesn’t make sense.
    Now I’m sure that the bloodless EDSA People Power is a failure. It should have been bloody and traumatic like the French revolution so no one will attempt to take away that freedom again.

  21. what is this “list of enemies of the state”? sounds like a clarion call for a witch hunt – reminiscent of the infamous “people’s court” inquisitions for alleged collaborators after the japanese occupation. one thing i have to compliment these people for – they sure don’t hide their intentions, and revenge is on top of their agenda. why should some gofers let themselves be used as pawns for the ambitions and selfish designs of a few demagogues?

    let them have it. another eggs (or worse) on their face, but not on yours by staying away from them.

  22. Freedom of speech/expression and freedom of assembly are in the constitution, but these rights are not violated when local government requires for permits to be obtained first before rallies can be held.

    actually, they do.

    Section 4.No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances.

    and that includes requiring permits. eh kung ganon eh that’s just tantamount to saying you have only that freedom upon the govt’s permission.

    anong klaseng freedom yan na kelangan pa ng by leave?

    the constitution is very explicit: NO LAW, ABRIDGING – get that?

    Rallies that can snarl traffic or can pose either a nuisance or a threat to other people/groups need to be managed.

    then let the police manage it all they can. (it doesn’t take imagination. the police can direct traffic, secure the area, but in NO WAY, does it have the right to disperse peaceful assemblies) but to deny people to peaceably assemble bec of the absence of a permit…

    Manong police, the people doesn’t need a permit higher than that which the constitution already gave it

    tsk, tsk. it isn’t freedom if you need a permit to practice it.

    and to violently disperse people who are not even rioting?

    whatever happened to the “once admirable” maximum tolerance of that EDSA III PNP? and no one can argue that THAT was a riot of magnitude proportions…

  23. It is sad that when we discuss issues in this blog people tend to downgrade the issues to one of personalities and denigrating some political bloc.

    Edas I,II and III were all well funded. Anyone who believes or thinks that the mass movement of people was entirely voluntary without logistical support is totally unaware of what transpired. Money flowed. Threatening the business sector is a double edged sword. When crunch time comes business will always rush to fund the turning of the tide. The extreme left did not participate in Edsa I. This time they have no choice but to participate. But they are already a spent force. They speak in the language of the 19th century. They have never changed their form of discourse. If they are not careful they will simply become a cult.

    However the funeral of Ninoy was another thing.

    The case of W. and his monstrosity is a case in point. He changed the well worn successful containment with engagement policy of the U.S. to one of direct confrontation and direct military action. It was a dramatic policy change that he had to reverse as he unleashed and deepened the Islamic insurgency. Now his successors will have to live with his creation all over the globe of remaking the world through democratic birth pangs. Together with the U.S. military the export of dollars is America’s primary export. The world is reeling from it. The Chinese have to turn their dollars into assets they can sell or use and this is where Big Mike and GMA comes in. They both wanted a piece of it.

    Clinton was pursuing the old tested policy but W. changed it and we saw the first instance of nuclear blackmail.

    In the case of Big Mike and GMA as differentiated from Marcos and Imelda was the Marcos gift for legalizing his actions. A lot of his executive orders are still laws of the land. The dramatic change in world interest rates in the early 80’s caused the heavily indebted economies of Latin America to collapse together with the Philippines. That happened in 1983 together with Ninoys assassination. The perfect storm happened.

    However in the case of the couple in Palace today. GMA has expanded her GTEB tactics to a point where it is simply down to stealing. Will Big Mike and GMA blunder and commit a strategic mistake. Will Lozada be shot? The scenario is being played out to charge him with a crime. Can you imagine the scene when the police and NBI come to arrest him.

    Will the SC rule that Neri will have to testify. The coming days are pregnant with possibilities.

    Mahirap talaga kasi, maraming tao dito ay hindi mulat o mahirap mamulat.

    Ginawang babuyan ang Palasyo.

    The word “tanga” comes into mind whenever I read some entries. Tanga to mean ignorant to me.

  24. my blogswarm entry for today is an excerpt from one of my very first entries in my blog…

    Now to the Arroyo administration, which incidentally has a frightening resemblance to George Orwell’s fictional government in his book, The Farm, I say this: You may use all your powers to thwart, hide behind, or use inappropriately the rule of law, yet ultimately you are bound to fall. For all tyrants and tyrannies have an end, and that retribution will always come to those who warrant it.

    I am disheartened when professionals and the so called “educated” middle class are the first ones to call for the rallies to end simply because it is to their discomfort. We forget that it is when we start to think more of our comfort than of what is right that injustice occurs. We forget that when we start to disdain rallies because they are, so to speak: pampagulo lang, pampa-trapik lang, gawa ng mga taong walang magawa sa buhay, that we start to kill that same freedom we enjoy, and embolden the government to be tyrannical. I am disheartened to think that the middle class have become so elitist that when they see poor people rallying, they immediately assume these rallyists have been paid. I am disheartened, because we were so quick to unite against Erap because he was stupid and had no educational class, that when his graft and corruption was exposed, we immediately clamored for his resignation. While when it was Gloria’s turn to be grilled, having been exposed of BLATANT wrong-doing, we, the supposed “educated” middle class turn a deaf ear and a blind eye, simply because: we have no other choice but Gloria. Gloria who is supposed to be an economist but employs the stupidest economic decisions of all.

    I would rather remove an inept president (for that is what Gloria is) than endure her rule simply because the one who may succeed her is deemed by the “educated” (haha) middle class to be inept.

    I call on all Filipinos, who are still guided by reason and morality, to ACTIVELY participate in the formation of our country. For only with our actions can we guide our country towards a fruitful development.

    To the police and military, this is my call: Do not mistake the title of the president as Commander-in-Chief to mean that she is at the top of the chain of command. For that is what you so moronically repeat like brainless monkeys when questioned about your continued enforcement of her obvious anti-people policies. Calibrated preemptive response my ass, is just another term for oppression.

    Never forget that the president’s office gets its mandate from the people, and that in a democracy, the power emanates not from the president, but from the people. So when you robotically mouth the beloved phrase: All faithful soldiers must follow the chain of command, why then, it is the people you should follow, for they are above the president, and therefore at the top of the chain of command. First among your duties is to protect the people and its sovereign will, not the presidency.
    – posted Oct. 4, 2005

  25. devilsad, what cannot be abriged is the right to PEACEABLY assemble. whether an assembly is peaceable is a question of fact, and it’s the police’s prerogative to determine that in the first instance, before the court settles the question with finality. if the assembly impedes traffic to the annoyance of other people, the police has the authority to declare it to be not “peaceful” and must be dispersed. the constitution implies that a law can be passed prohibiting assemblies that are not peaceable.

  26. Devils-at8: You plus-3-others do not have the right to hold a rally inside a church while a mass is going on, or even while a mass is not going on. You plus-3-others do not have a right to hold a rally on the runway of NAIA or the domestic airport, much less in the middle of EDSA at five in the afternoon on a weekday. And you do not want anyone to just be able to do a flash-rally and tie up the entrance to the hospital especially when Mang Isko’s uncle, some government worker or you after you’ve been shot or stabbled and may need medical attention. Do these examples make sense to you?
    Now this may or not be a hard request to make, especially because the Constitution may not have it written down, but really, intelligence is needed.

    As the examples I’ve written down are intended to illustrate, that a group wants to express themselves does not mean that they have the right to any place and any time that they choose. Beware the stupidity 😀 or evil 👿 that lurks in the hearts of men. In all likelihood, a group’s desire to demonstrate can be accomplished by doing the demonstration an hour later and 1/2 kilometers away, with TV crews always welcome to film away and the press welcome to take pictures and do interviews.
    And if intelligence is lacking, then somewhere in the scheme of the Constitution, you’ll find reference to the Supreme Court being arbiter.

  27. bencard, so where is the need for a permit there?

    did you know na just last week there was a rally violently dispersed by the police? a rally held at a “freedom park” (yeah, what a stupid name) designated by this own admin? a rally not even obstructing traffic?

    and the rallyists were already running from the police, hinabol pa sila at ng mahuli, pinagpapalo, sinipa, at sinuntok kahit nakataas na ang kamay at sumisigaw ng: tama na! (captured by media)

    a rally that was peaceable until the police decided to disperse it violently.

    again, answer me. kung hindi pwedeng i-abridge ang RIGHT to peaceably assemble, bakit nire-require ang permit? di ba “abridging” yan?

  28. I saw several small rallies held before Friday. Everyone wants to have a piece of the pie of being in the limelight. Suddenly many unheard of organizations are again waving their flags. Sheesh.

    They pre-empted the big Friday rally because they wanted to be in the media. Should they join the Friday rally, they will just be a small fish in the ocean.

    Do I see anything new? Nothing. The running priest is there again making his presence. Baka pag-naaresto na naman niya, tatawagin niya nanay niya para magcertify na he was just in the vicinity.

    Teofisto Guingona is there again. Pag nahuli, he will feign sickness again. I can still remember the old man Tanada, linking arms with the young students. No excuse, no alibi.

    Just like EDSA 86 and 89, if the mass movement to remove GMA is going to be a success which I DOUBT (sorry, my crystal ball says so) the salawikain, ako ang nagtanim, ako ang nagbayo, ako ang nagluto, iba ang kumain (another civil society perhaps) will explain why the cycle continues.

  29. “You plus-3-others do not have the right to hold a rally inside a church while a mass is going on, or even while a mass is not going on.”

    actually, we do.

    “You plus-3-others do not have a right to hold a rally on the runway of NAIA or the domestic airport, much less in the middle of EDSA at five in the afternoon on a weekday.”

    in EDSA, yes. at any given time, any day of the week. in NAIA runway? of course not. and i will explain in a bit

    “And you do not want anyone to just be able to do a flash-rally and tie up the entrance to the hospital especially when Mang Isko’s uncle, some government worker or you after you’ve been shot or stabbled and may need medical attention. Do these examples make sense to you?”

    crystal clear.

    look, freedoms and right are only limited by this principle: that it does not step on the freedoms and rights of others.

    so your example of a hospital rally-cum-blockade is rhetorical. it goes w/o saying that a person’s right to life is more impt than my right to be heard at the moment. and so is posturing at a runway, even though danger to yourself is more likely, danger to others is possible as well. so that, unquestionably limits my right to “peaceably assemble.”

    so, again, on past dispersals. were any of the rallyists tying-up hospital entrances? clogging airport runways?

    justify the need for the violent dispersals, if you can.

  30. “UP n student” has been scrupulously careful about his post regarding rallies.

    Rightly or wrongly, violent dispersal is a reality, DevilsAdvc8, that you would have to contend with if it is your intention to attend a rally.

    Given the penchant of the current administration to disperse some rallies violently, don’t you think it is reckless to go to a rally without taking safety measures?

    At the very least, you have to inform your parents or relatives if you have to attend a rally, since you will have to rely on someone to submit a writ of habeas corpus or amparo to save you should you experience the worst — being picked up by the military or the police.

  31. devilsadv, police permit is necessary so it can manage the event and ensure that it will be peaceful and will remain peaceful. as upn said, it can only be held in designated areas open for such events. the permit will make sure that the place will be reserved to the permit holder for the occasion, and not conflict with opposing groups who have equal “rights” to use it. i think reasonable police regulations such as those are permissible under the constitution. no “right” is absolute otherwise there will be anarchy because of competing rights and interests. a balancing is necessary.

    in your example, it looks like a good case of civil rights violation, except that you did not mention if there was a permit. if there was a permit, a court action seems warranted to determine whether the police action was legal. in any event, it would be a good test case as to the constitutionality of the permit requirement.

  32. And while I’m on the subject, DevilsAdvc8, it is only fair for anyone planning to attend a rally to ask themselves: what are the organizers of the rally doing to ensure the safety of the participants?

    I commend Black and White for taking a list of those people who support them. This is a necessary first step towards ensuring the safety of these people, should B&W opt to eventually organize mass actions.

  33. I’m appalled by the stand of some people here about freedom. Freedom is freedom. There is no need to ask for permission to exercise your freedom. If you have to ask for permission then you don’t have freedom.

  34. DevilsAdv8: “kung hindi pwedeng i-abridge ang RIGHT to peaceably assemble, bakit nire-require ang permit? di ba “abridging” yan?”

    Not so thus spake the Supreme Court. See
    Bayan et al. v. Ermita et al. (G.R. No. 169838) on the issue of the constitutionality of B.P. Blg. 880.

  35. supremo, you may have freedom to live wherever you want but you need a permit (visa) to stay in another country. you may have freedom to pursue a career but you need a license to practice a profession. you may have freedom to own a car but you need a license to drive it. you may have freedom to own a gun but you need a permit to possess and carry it. got the drift?

  36. Kongresso ng Mamamayan came out with the attack ad against Lozada.

    Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei

    Hitlers party was named National Socialist German Workers Party. It was fiercely anti-people and anti-communist.

    It remains to be seen but the Congress of the Citizens or Citizens Congress is probably also anti-people and anti-left.

    Both groups sound progressive but are anything but. They never learn.

  37. On the dispersals turned violent. For crying out loud, go ask the police what happened? And if they don’t answer, then charge them in court to get them — the PNP — to state their reason or reasons. Harvey Keh, where are you and your talking-things-through skills?

    I seriously doubt that the police captain or whatever rank who ordered the police to “move in” will say that he ordered the crowd dispersed because they were speaking their mind. Among the traditional reasons will be that the crowd had turned violent, e.g. had started to throw stones, or that the demonstrators needed to be dispersed because they were blocking traffic or were disturbing the peace. OR, the crowd did not have the permit and refused to obey an order from the police to disperse quietly.
    Now, “peaceful disobedience”, in some countries, is practiced where the demonstrators allow themselves to be arrested. Some walk to the police vans, as ordered; some let the police carry them off into the vans.
    And what is this expectation that once the engagement has turned violent, that running away means that the police will not chase you down to arrest you? “Unlawful flight” and “resisting arrest” are quite common terms. And I say this with clinical detachment — whacking a possible “baddie” on the legs is one way that this person goes down to the ground and pose a lesser threat.
    ———
    The PNP may be trained badly, but not that badly —- they are using sticks, not bayonets. My perception is that the organizers of the rallies have trained their people poorly. I don’t think the demonstrators know what line is the demarcation between “free speech” and unlawful action on their part. I suspect the organizers do not even let the youth know of the possibility of arrests, much less tear gas and stick-flailing. After all, the sight of demonstrators being struck by sticks, or worse, make good TV.
    ——–
    There is a lot of education to do on both sides of the fence. “Eyes wide open!” is a good rule.
    ———
    Maybe the demonstrators should bring press cards?

  38. “I’m appalled by the stand of some people here about freedom. Freedom is freedom. There is no need to ask for permission to exercise your freedom. If you have to ask for permission then you don’t have freedom.” – supremo

    This brilliantly illustrates the whole trouble with Pinoys — this tune of “freedom” that hollow-heads are constantly dancing to.

    Pinoys are seriously MIS-LED to believe that the whole point of democracy is “freedom”.

    Babies have the freedom to poop in their pants. But that’s because they have yet to understand the stink that eventually comes out of this exercise of “freedom”.

    Same with Pinoys. We freely and regularly poop on the pavement of Edsa whenever we feel like it.

    It’s simple, really.

  39. DevilsAdvc8: If you and-3-others claim the right to hold a rally inside a church or a mosque while a religious service or oganizational meeting is going on, then allow the members of that church the right to throw you out using an amount of force and violence of their choosing.

  40. Same with Pinoys. We freely and regularly poop on the pavement of Edsa whenever we feel like it.

    shit happens, benigs, especially when you get diarrhea of lies and deception.

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