Well-protected fugitiveTake a look at these headlines the past days:
CEBU SCHOOL DEFIES COURT ORDER ON BIKINI GRADUATES
DE LIMA DEFIES COURT
The first headline was about officials of St. Theresa’s College in Cebu defying the temporary restraining order issued by Cebu City Regional Trial Court Judge Wilfredo Navarro directing the school to cease and desist from enforcing the penalties on five students graduating from highschool for posting in Facebook photos in a bikini and in poses which school authorities considered “lewd.”
STC Cebu decided not to allow the five students to join the graduation rites although they can get their diploma.
A call for JusticeExecutive Secretary Jojo Ochoa issued a call today, on the eve of Earth Day, to care more for Mother Nature. Meanwhile, Malacanang spits on the soul of a fallen environmental warrior. Here’s why:
A couple of months back, the nation was glued to the spectacle of government operatives barring former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from leaving the country. The incident happened in the absence of any hold order on the much-maligned former Chief Executive. There was no hold order because no court had yet issued an arrest warrant for her. In fact, no case against Mrs. Arroyo had even reached the courts yet. What the government had was a watchlist order (WLO) on President Benigno Aquino’s predecessor. This watchlist order was the subject of a Supreme Court temporary restraining order (TRO) — a TRO that Justice Secretary Leila de Lima refused to implement.
I will not discuss the merits of the TRO or the WLO — the latter the same weapon Mrs. Arroyo had wielded against her political opposition. The TRO later became part of the Aquino administration’s impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Renato Corona. Mrs. Arroyo has since been arraigned and remains in hospital arrest due to an ailment affecting the spine. The Chief Justice is still battling it out in his impeachment trial.
