Last Sunday, a friend texted me to read the column of former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban in the Inquirer, and “be afraid.”
Panganiban’s column is titled “Can Arroyo reign beyond 2010?”
His answer is “yes” and he thinks she will opt for constituent assembly aptly called Con-Ass. Under Con-Ass, the two branches of Congress, the Senate and the House of Representatives will convene jointly to amend the Constitution including a shift to a parliamentary system.
Today’s editorial of the Philippine Daily Inquirer unmasks Sen. Francis Escudero:
Referring to the present dispensation and his political plans, (Sen. Francis) Escudero has said, “We have already suffered and sacrificed for seven years, what is two years?” This is a cunning statement, at once reinforcing his opposition credentials while paving the way to give the present suspects a free pass should they relinquish power.
He laid the predicate for this some weeks back when he said: “GMA [President Arroyo] is not running in 2010, and it would be unfair to the people if presidential candidates should still use her as an issue. Any candidate who runs on an anti-GMA platform is insulting the intelligence of the people. The people will vote for a presidential candidate because of what he or she intends to do if victorious, not because he or she is against GMA.”
The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is looking into the case of Senator Antonio F. Trillanes IV.
During the 122nd Session of the IPU’s Committee on Human Rights of Parliamentarians held last week in Geneva, Switzerland, the Committee heard the case filed by Senators Panfilo “Ping” Lacson and Ana Consuelo “Jamby” Madrigal last year in behalf of Senator Trillanes. In their
letter-complaint dated 25 March 2007, Lacson and Madrigal condemned the fact that the Philippine gvernment has been preventing Trillanes from attending Senate sessions and from performing his duties as a Senator despite being elected by more than 11 million voters and
despite of Senate Resolution urging the executive and the courts to allow Trillanes to serve and to attend Senate sessions.
Executive Secretary is finding it hard to understand why the Filipino people do not like Gloria Arroyo despite her working so hard, traveling all over the country doling out crumbs from the billions of pesos that she rakes in from the citizenry.
Following the release of the SWS survey for the period June 27 to 30 where dissatisfaction over how Arroyo runs the country was reflected in an all-time low rating of -38 , Ermita said, “Of course people have to wonder why after the many things that she is doing for the well-being of our citizens that that should still be the perception.”
Read this article by former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban in the Inquirer and be afraid:
President Macapagal-Arroyo’s present term expires on June 30, 2010. Can she legally extend her reign beyond that date? My answer: Yes, if our Congress, Supreme Court, Commission on Elections and people will agree to a revision of our Constitution.
Failed Cha-cha bid. Let me begin my thesis by recalling the most recent bid for Charter change (Cha-cha). In 2006, during my term as chief justice, the allies of the President, led by then Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., launched a “people’s initiative” to alter our form of government from presidential to parliamentary.
Sabi ni Gloria Arroyo sa Baguio City noong isang araw, “Kung alisin ang VAT sa gasolina at kuryente, ano ang ipapalit sa P80 bilyon na kita na ginagamit para sa mahihirap>”
Hindi ko alam kung siya ay tanga o nanloloko?
Ang VAT o value added tax ay 12 porsiyento sa presyo ng gasolina. Ibig sabihin noon, sa bawat isang daang na binabayad sa gasolina, ang P12 ay pumupunta sa pamahalaan. Kung wala ang VAT, dapat P88 ang ibinayad sa halip na P100.
Malacañang has a standard retort to accusations of thievery: File a complaint with the Ombudsman. With Merceditas Gutierrez, the classmate of Mike Arroyo, at the helm of the anti-graft body, accusers rightly let the Palace challenge pass. A complaint is likely to sleep the sleep of the dead, unless, of course, the grafters in question are inconsequential clerks or minor officials without close links to the bigger thieves.
Now Malacañang has come up with a new line when it comes to constitutionally questionable actions: Bring the case before the Supreme Court.
The Social Weather Survey of June 27-30, 2008 found 22% satisfied and 60% dissatisfied with the performance of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, giving her a Net Satisfaction rating of -38 (% satisfied minus % dissatisfied), which is a new record-low for Presidents since 1986, surpassing the previous record of -33 in May 2005.
The new net rating is a 12-point drop from net -26 (27% satisfied, 54% dissatisfied) in the First Quarter 2008 Survey of March 28-31 .It is the fourth consecutive quarterly drop in her net rating since June 2007, when it was a neutral -3.
In all areas, majorities are dissatisfied
The government will hold a plebiscite early next year in more than 700 barangays to set up an ancestral homeland for Muslims, part of a deal with the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
Hermogenes Esperon, presidential adviser on the peace process, yesterday said the proposed Muslim homeland would also be empowered to collect about 75 percent of taxes from oil, mines and fisheries in the area.
Once again, it is the words of the “Great Dissenter,” as Chief Justice Reynato Puno is called these days, that captured the real issue in the petition of Akbayan for full disclosure of the terms of JPEPA which the Supreme Court rejected in a 10-4 vote.
JPEPA stands for Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement which is awaiting ratification by the Senate.
In his dissenting opinion, Puno said: “We elevated the right to information to constitutional stature not without reason. In a democracy, debate – by the people directly or through their representatives in Congress – is a discussion of and by the informed and not an exchange of surpluses of ignorance.