Category: Malaya

As calls for Gloria Arroyo’s resignation, to avoid another extra-constitutional regime change, mount, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye again brought out fantasy mantra: “President Arroyo has a mandate to serve until 2010.”

It’s good that he brought that up because this is a good time to once again to trace where that so-called “mandate” came from.

The blatant bribery that took place in Malacañang last week, which underscored the depth of moral degradation Gloria Arroyo has dragged this nation down, was in connection with the “scandal-ridden joke of an impeachment”, in the words of House Speaker Jose de Venecia.

Out of your comments in a previous thread, I wrote this piece:

I asked visitors in my blog what they would have done if they were in the shoes of Fr. Ed Panlilio when Malacañang handed out paper bags full of money and later knew the money could be tainted.

Cvj said not only would he not have accepted the money but he would have reported it to the Commission on Audit. “Each act of acceptance perpetuates a corrupt system.”

The first item in our Constitution’s Bill of Rights states: “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor shall any person be denied the equal protection of the laws.”

AFP chief Hermogenes Esperon must think he is above the law and that he is not covered by the Constitution.

For almost one and a half years, 40 soldiers have been languishing in detention in Camp Capinpin, without having been told of their offense nor charged with any violation of the law. This is an “open secret” in Camp Capinpin in Tanay where 28 officers led by Maj. Gen. Miranda and Brig. Gen. Danny Lim are also detained. The 28 officers are accused by Esperon of mutiny for allegedly planning to withdraw support from Gloria Arroyo in February 2006.

‘Abnormal times require extraordinary actions.

Last week journalist Jarius Bondoc wrote in his column in the Philippine Star some of the things that Romulo Neri, former chief of the National Economic and Development Authority, had told him in confidence about the controversial National Broadband Network-ZTE deal, the latest anomaly shaking the Gloria Arroyo’s shaky presidency.

It will be recalled that when Neri appeared before the Senate, he revealed the “Sec, may 200 ka dito” bomb that did in Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos. But when the trail reached the doorstep of Gloria Arroyo, he invoked “executive privilege” which is defined as in the Supreme Court ruling on EO 464 as “the right of the President and high-level executive branch officers to withhold information from Congress, the courts, and ultimately the public.”

I perfectly understand the outrage of Filipino-Americans over the racist quote of the character of Susan Mayer (played by the lovely Teri Hatcher) in the hit series in the United States, “Desperate Housewives”.

In the premiere episode of its fourth season aired last week, Mayer asked for the credentials of the gynecologist who examined her and told her that she was approaching menopause. She said, “Can I check those diplomas ‘coz I just want to make sure that they’re not from some med school in the Philippines.”