Month: April 2015

Binay warned on joint development with China in Spratlys

Published by Ellen on April 30, 2015

While in Jakarta last week representing President Aquino in the 60th anniversary of the Asia-Africa Conference, Vice President Jejomar Binay articulated what could be a foreign policy shift for the country if he succeeds in his ambition to become president.

“China has all the capital and we have the property so why don’t we try and develop that property as a joint venture?”he said.

Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio

This is not actually new. Binay disclosed this in an interview with Manila Times’ Efren Danao last year.
Amid concerns expressed by President Aquino and Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario over massive reclamations being done by China around their occupied reefs in the disputed Spratlys in South China Sea, Binay further said: “Personally, my feeling is we will continue to insist (on) our sovereignty over those properties but at the same time we hope we can create a situation where we can improve bilateral relations with China.”

Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, who has been conducting a series of lectures on the South China Sea dispute, said in his lecture last April 27 with judges and justices that joint development of the Spratlys with China is not possible without violating the Constitution.

Edith Burgos to Aquino: ‘End this suffering of not knowing the truth’

Published by Ellen on April 28, 2015

Edith Burgos: today's Mater Dolorosa — Edith Burgos: today’s Mater Dolorosa

Yesterday, while many joined the mother of OFW Mary Jane Veloso in prayers , another mother continues the agonizing search for her son.

Edith Burgos, mother of missing farmer/activist Jonas Burgos, together with relatives of persons who have disappeared, went to the Aquino house in Times St., Quezon city to deliver a letter to President Aquino on the on the 8th anniversary of the abduction of Jonas Burgos.

They were blocked by about 50 policemen.

The letter that Edith Burgos was carrying was an appeal to Aquino “to end this suffering of the family of not knowing the truth about what happened to Jonas.”

On April 28, 2007, past noon, Jonas Burgos was at Ever Gotesco Mall in Quezon City waiting for friends. Before his friends came three military agents, one was a woman, approached him and forcibly brought him out to a waiting vehicle. Jonas was never seen after that.

Life’s normal cycle starts with birth and ends with death. To just disappear violates life’s natural cycle.

The disappearance of Jonas and many other Filipinos is an assault to humanity and an outrage especially in a democratic country like the Philippines.

In her letter Edith gave the President an update of Jonas’s case and appealed for him to order the military to return Jonas to them “at whatever state he is in.”

No Asean-China COC until China completes Spratlys military bases

Published by Ellen on April 26, 2015

The standard press statement of Malacañang and foreign affairs officials prior to the President’s attendance in the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is for the Philippines to push for the adoption of the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea.

President Aquino did that a week before he took off for Malaysia for the 26th Asean summit. He said, “It’s imperative to push for the formulation of the Code of Conduct” especially now that “even the DOC seems to have been violated.”

The violations of the 2002 Declaration of the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea that Aquino was referring to are the massive reclamations and construction of military facilities in the seven reefs that China occupies in the disputed waters of the South China Sea.

Maritime Silk Road plan could ease South China Sea disputes

Published by Ellen on April 26, 2015

The following article is a reprint from Want China Times

This part is interesting (6th paragraph): ” After a new president takes office in June 2016, the Philippines is expected to postpone the arbitration and step up bilateral or multi-lateral contacts with China.”

Staff Reporter 2015-04-26 09:23 (GMT+8)

The relationship between the construction of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and the territorial disputes in the South China Sea is drawing increasing public concern along with the implementation of Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative. Observers wonder whether the disputes will produce a turning point for settling the disputes or whether the South China Sea will become the most likely area for potential conflict between China and the US. To answer the question, one should first dig out the exact crux of the disputes and then grasp the latest developments of related parties involved, particularly changes in China’s South China Sea strategies, according to South Winds, a bi-weekly magazine published in Guangzhou.

PH, Vietnam to hold naval drills, scientific research in South China Sea

Published by Ellen on April 24, 2015

By Tessa Jamandre and Ellen Tordesillas
VERA Files

President Aquino and Vietnam President Truong Tan Sang met during the 2014 APEC Leaders’ Meeting in Beijing, China . (Malacañang Photo Bureau)

The Philippines and Vietnam have agreed to conduct joint naval drills and scientific studies amid concerns over China’s intensified reclamations in the South China Sea.

The planned activities are part of the soon-to-be signed “Joint Statement on the Establishment of a Strategic Partnership between the Republic of the Philippines and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” a copy of which was obtained by VERA Files.

In the strategic partnership agreement, which is considered a final draft until it is signed, the Philippines and Vietnam “reaffirm their commitment to resolve territorial and jurisdictional disputes by peaceful means, as well as to the freedom of navigation in and over flight above the SCS (South China Sea) all in accordance with universally recognized principles of international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).”

A golden opportunity for the Supreme Court to right a wrong

Published by Ellen on April 21, 2015

The Supreme Court has been presented the golden opportunity to right a wrong that has spawned corruption and a culture of impunity by elected officials.

In the hearing of the case on the suspension by the Ombudsman of Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay, Jr. before the Supreme Court, lawyers of Binay invoked the “”doctrine of condonation” also known as the “Aguinaldo doctrine” that immunizes an elected official from being removed for administrative misconduct once re-elected.

The doctrine does not apply to criminal cases.

The condonation doctrine over-stretched the proverb, “The will of the people is the will of God.”

Justice Jardeleza against condonation doctrine when he was SolGen

Published by Ellen on April 19, 2015

Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay Jr. has invoked the “condonation doctrine” for the dismissal of his cases in connection with the allegedly overpriced (P2.3 billion) Makati City Hall Parking building before the Ombudsman.

The condonation doctrine has no legal bases. It is a legal principle established by the Supreme Court in the 1959 case of Pascual vs Provincial Board.

Arturo B. Pascual was elected mayor of San Jose, Nueva Ecija, in November 1951 and reelected in 1955. In October 6, 1956, the Acting Provincial Governor of that province filed with the Provincial Board three administrative charges -Maladministrative, Abuse of Authority, and Usurpation of Judicial Functions – against Pascual committed during his first term.

In dismissing the case against Pascual, Supreme Court Justice David J. Gutierrez said, “When the people have elected a man to office, it must be assumed that they did this with knowledge of his life and character, and that they disregarded or forgave his faults or misconduct, if he had been guilty of any. It is not for the court, by reason of such faults or misconduct to practically overrule the will of the people. against the said appellant.”

The condonation doctrine had been used in several Supreme Court cases including the one the public is more familiar with: Aguinaldo vs Santos.

Del Rosario’s wishful thinking

Published by Ellen on April 19, 2015

Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario sounded very pleased that the United States is preparing for an armed confrontation with China in the South China Sea without any concern of its constitutional complications for the Philippines.

In an interview with ANC, del Rosario once again held on to a pronouncement by an American official, this time Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, who said the United States and many other countries “are deeply concerned about some of the activities China is undertaking.”

He must be referring to the intensified reclamations of China on reefs and islets that they occupy in the disputed South China Sea. They have not overtaken any island or reefs occupied by other claimants that include the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan. But the reclamations and constructions are massive that the United States has described it as “Great Wall of Sand.”

Mei Magsino

Published by Ellen on April 15, 2015

From Mei's Facebook, Feb, 2015 — From Mei’s Facebook, Feb, 2015

Mei Magsino once told a foreign reporter interviewing her on the challenges journalists who take on the powerful face in the Philippines, “The list of murdered journalists here is too long. I have to survive.I don’t want to become another statistic.”

Last Monday, Mei was added to the growing list of journalists killed in the country, which boasts of having the freest press in Asia. The Philippines also bears the ignominious distinction of one among the countries considered to be the most dangerous working place for journalists.

It was a shock to learn about Mei’s murder.

Mei was shot dead by motorcycle riding gunmen (riding in tandem again!) high noon, Monday while she was walking near her house in barangay Balagtas in Batangas.

The killing was so brazen, all we could say do was echo the lament that then Vice President Emmanuel Pelaez asked when he survived an ambush, ” “What is happening to our country, General?”

Centerlaw: Documents belie De Lima’s claim of misinformation

Published by Ellen on April 8, 2015

Statement of the Prof. Harry L. Roque Jr., chair of the Center for International Law (Centerlaw), an NGO dedicated to the promotion of binding international legal norms in the Philippines and Asia:

“We take exception to the veiled threat in the statement made yesterday by Secretary Leila De Lima that the Vera Files special report on a recent Note Verbale given by the Philippines to Malaysia over the Spratlys islands concerned a confidential matter that should have been kept as it is.

“In the first place, our Justice Secretary should be first to know that such a threat is in the nature of prior restraint with a chilling effect on speech, as held by the Supreme Court in the case filed by the late former Solicitor General Francisco Chavez against a predecessor of hers at the DOJ, the late Raul Gonzales.

“A mere press statement of a threat of prosecution coming from a government functionary, according to this 2008 Supreme Court decision, is unconstitutional precisely for that reason.