30
Aug

Hodge-podge Commentary

Yeah, I know, these issues are stale already, but I have time only now to comment on them:

  • A friend from Tacloban sent me a text message one day, asking to check if the news that there was a leak in the Nursing board exams was true. He sounded sad; afterall, he passed the exams, and is in the top twenty.

    A lot of people wanted a lot of different things to happen – invalidate part of or the entire exams, retake, rolling of heads – to the point that the real issue was buried. My personal take on the issue is simple – no retake. Retaking is punishing the innocent, which is unjust. The best course of action is to find out who leaked what to whom, and heads of those found guilty should roll.

    And ironic that a person accused of lying acts on the issue – no retake. No recount, too.

  • The House of Reprehensibles – a conglomeration of Gloria Arroyo’s defenders – finally got served by the way the Fortress by the Pasig treats a co-equal branch. Their own investigation was snubbed the Fortress’ own people. Imagine, their benefactor snubbing them! Serves them right!

    The Senate should feel smug and tell those fools at the Bastusang Pambansa: told you so.

  • The Legion that is Sigaw ni Gloria at mga Kampon has finally cast the die, filed their container van-full of questionable signatures at the questionable Commission on Selection, er, Elections. The opponents of the stupid Cha-cha called for the junking of the obviously-fake initiative. Comelec is taking its sweet time on the issue.

    Meanwhile, the Speaker of the House recently announced that he was two signatures shy, and based on his view on the matter, Congress will be convened as a Constituent Assembly real soon. Arroyo and her minions are really hell-bent on changing the form of government.

    Some people had already commented on this, and I agree. The game plan, really, is to throw away the 2007 elections. In the ideal world, both houses of Congress will turn opposition, and that will be detrimental to Arroyo’s stay at the Fortress. So to prevent that eventuality, the elections should be scrapped, and the only way to do that is to tinker with the Constitution.

    The scary thought is that what if the moves to alter the Charter fail? The elections will push through, and that will be checkmate. But knowing Arroyo’s ability to foresee everything, I think she will not hesitate to do a Garci, again.

    And the fact that the PNP’s war against jueteng is taking the backseat (as speculated by John Nery, Arroyo is prepared for any eventuality. Even satisfying the jueteng lords is not out of her playbook. She will really do everything to save her stay at the Fortress.

  • So, impeachment is dead. While One Voice and other orgs are busy stopping the Chacha Choochoo Train, I hope some groups will stand up and start the grueling campaign to have the people (or their proxy) at my Wall of Shame defeated in next year’s elections. Also, to ensure that the elections is clean. Namfrel, sadly, is in tatters, its reputation damaged (beyond repair, if you ask me, unless it makes amends). Who will guard the elections?
  • The Guimaras oil spill only shows how poor we are in the enforcement of laws and safety standards. While there is a law disallowing the use of single-hulled vessels in transporting oil, here we have a single-hulled vessel hired by Petron (ironically, the government has a minority stake in the oil company) to transport oil.

    After the cleanup (which should be jointly funded by the owner of the vessel and Petron), criminal liabilities should be acted upon, those guilty should be punished according to law, and single-hulled oil carriers should be banned forever. But knowing the way law works here (and having a senile and insane Secretary of inJustice), these are just dreams.

28
Aug

The 2006 Wall of Shame

For their shameful deeds the last week, their names are in my own Wall of Shame.

See them here. If you’re congressman is on this list, please boot them out next year.

23
Aug

Pre-Burial Ceremonies

As expected (and as blogged before in this space), this year’s impeachment was dead even before it was conceived. We saw it murdered and autopsied. Now, we are witnessing the pre-burial ceremonies at the Bastusang Pambansa – the House of Reprehensibles are in plenary session to decided on the Committee on Injustice’s report on the 2006 impeachment complaint.

MLQ3 is live-blogging the event, using a variety of sources (radio, TV, even text messaging!). Based on the 6:05PM entry, it is an exciting scene, with the usual hakot crowds, and even free sandwiches for the audience (and seed money is at Php40,000!).

I will try to make comments tomorrow. By then, the grave’s been filled with soil, and the wake begins, which is a great time to talk about the dead complaint.

Long live the rule of law!

22
Aug

Epilogue

(Edited version)

A proud owner of a Canon A620, a lover of the arts, a budding photographer – don’t be fooled by Kat‘s cool demeanor. She has an incisive and inquisitive mind, asks a lot of questions, and wants to know the reason why this is this and that is that. Now a shift lead herself, the shift where she is now leads in the number of virus report rejections due to her formidable analytical skill.

Spiritual, enthusiastic passionate, creative – Jovi probably will be proclaimed a martyr soon enough, for her dedication to the job, most of the time even beyond the call of duty. Her love of writing and of anything Japanese drives her to excel in whatever she does, which is not a bad thing. Too bad not everyone sees that.

Emotional, short-tempered, boring, snobbish – that’s Arbet for you. Shift lead for just a month and a half, he has managed to capture his shiftmates’ love and respect. Blame it all on his being trustworthy, honest, and idealistic. Arbet enjoys playing PS2 on his spare time, and likes to pour his heart out on his personal blog.

Sadly, July, which have been fun-filled and very memorable, is their last shift together as Arbet will be moving on to another place.

This piece is dedicated to my very first shiftmates, who had moved on – Jan,
Dione, and Glenn. And to Jovi, too.

10
Aug

The Explainer Explained

Finally, I saw a complete episode of The Explainer last Tuesday. The topic was “Separation of Powers/Checks and Balances“.

When she saw the show, my mom said that there should be a Filipino version of the show and should be shown on ABS-CBN Channel 2. Normally my mom doesn’t watch shows like this; in fact, she skipped Calla Lily just to know something about presidential vs. parliamentary system. People need to know this, specially since Sigaw ng Malacañang insists on the change of system of government.

(Ironically, in a break, a Sigaw advertisement was shown. More later.)

I find the host moving from a plasma screen to a blue wall (was it blue?) rather distracting; my mom said it was irritating at the very least. Since the cameras couldn’t really catch up with the host’s movement, the transitions were jarring. Can’t they design the set so that the two walls are at 45 degrees? That way, all the host has to do is to make a small turn, making transitions more smooth.

Also, I feel that the explainee was just a token, with her questions obviously scripted. Which is not bad, per se, but the delivery was so dry. And the interview portion was rather sad. You have an articulate host, and you have a guest who is almost tight-lipped (I am exaggerating); my father thought that the interviewer was more knowledgeable than the interviewee. Too bad I missed Teddy Boy Locsin; he is so articulate and talkative, you will be sorry if you missed one word.

The content was great, and with sources being cited, the viewer can always verify and see for himself. That is, for me, the beauty of this show.

I find one hour to be too short for a good topic, thus the frantic pacing of the show. And also, the timing of the replay remains to be desired. It will probably take a while before I see another episode, since the time slot guarantees that I will be on the way home by that time, and by the time of the replay I will be sleeping already.

Overall, the show was great (minus the glitches stated above) and informative. This is clearly the kind of show that the people should watch.


I found the Sigaw ng Malacañang advertisement to be tacky and foolish. In the said ad, a girl was shown giving her grandmother a mug, then the grandmother looked at the mug given by her dead husband back when they were still you. The old mug was shown to be broken, with pieces joined together by glue. Then, the grandmother was shown placing the old mug besides her husband’s picture at a display cabinet, and showing gladness with new mug. When asked by the granddaughter if she liked the mug, the grandmother said yes.

Then cue in the Sigaw catch-phrase: Pagbabago! Ngayon na! Yes to Charter Change!

Now, more than ever, I feel that the so-called people’s initiative being led by Sigaw should not be heeded.

By comparing the Constitution to a mug, the Sigaw group is showing the simplistic thinking of its leaders. A broken mug is not the same with a Constitution that some see as faulty. Charter change is not as easy as buying a new mug. The comparison was ridiculous.

The so-called Sigaw was questioning One Voice’s source of funding. Now we – the people – should begin to question Sigaw’s funding.

If there’s something that needs to be changed, it is to change the brains of people like Raul Lambino. If I was his law professor, I would be appearing in all talk shows, beat my chest, and shout Mea maxima culpa for allowing such a character to see the light of the law. In fact, Lambino is the same as any politician that holds office in the Bastusang Pambansa – balimbing to the core.

We really need to change our selves. And our leaders.