Brother Yoyoy Villame has passed away around 2 pm today at the Las Piñas Medical Center. His doctor pronounced him dead due to cardio-pulmonary arrest. My condolences to his family.
Many Filipinos will best remember Yoyoy as The Novelty King. Among members of the Church of God International, however, he will be remembered as a fellow brethren and journeyer who was there to lend what he can for the church's cause. [READ MORE]
We, the people, are in a crisis of irrelevancy.
As Bystander hinted at the creeping irrelevance of the legal profession in the Philippines so too we, the Filipino people are increasingly reduced to apolitical irrelevance.
Assuming a psychology of absolute impunity, the power elite has decided to lift Proclamation 1017 as if they have in fact a moral basis for making the declaration in the first place. Indeed, they did it as if they owned democracy that they can withdraw it from public domain anytime at all and give it back if and when they so decide. How noble of Gloria! We the people are now forever in her debt.
Lately, Gloria became the most popular search string in Yahoo Asia. Maybe it proves that budding dictators the must be watching us closely here in the Philippines to study how they may in turn crush People Power in their domain with Orwellian flair.
The Malacanang ruling elite call this set-up a democracy. And they seem to succeed in fooling the Catholic bishops who now say "everybody is happy" with the lifting of 1017.
People Power will only work as a solution of last resort in a democracy for it would merely be an act of withdrawal of confidence by the people, on whom power resides.
Rollo May has a chilling insight on the nature of power. He said
..."Power cannot, strictly speaking, be given to another, for then the recipient
still owes it to the giver. It must in some sense be assumed, taken,
asserted.For unless it can be held against opposition, it is not power and will
never be experienced as real on the part of the recipient."
Political victory by wholesale electoral mockery is, to put it mildly, evil. Who's to tie the hands of this power grabber to any legal, social or moral contract?
The usurper might as well be tell the public "I am the state" and would merely state a fact.
Come to think of it, Manolo is right. Gloria must really be planning to be President for life. An opportunity like this is quite rare for a politician. And since she can't bear to allow her grandchildren suffer when future historians berate the Arroyo and Macapagal name, Gloria must be planning right now how to make sure history will be kind to her.
Now if only she could make the presidency somewhat like a hereditary priviledge, maybe history will be very kind to her...
Gloria's next stop, as everyone knows, is Charter Change. Expect her to use every coup and rumors of coups as pretext for dismantling the 1987 "People Power" constitution. Expect her to pre-empt every traditional public holiday when people crowd en masse with a rumor of coup and a mandatory re-imposition of 1017 or a new declaration of whatever.
All these in an effort to buy time because she pins her hopes of resolving her own crisis of legitimacy with, of all things, a brand new constitution. And we must never stop to thank Ramos for giving her the idea.
A new constitution, of course, will legitimize her claim to power. But only because, by then, legitimacy will no longer be defined as we understand it today.
A brave new republic awaits us all!!!
MRS. PRESIDENT, WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE COUNTRY?
The DOJ filed coup d'etat charges against former Senator Greg Honasan for his alleged involvement in the failed Oakwood Mutiny, which happened two years ago.
Anakpawis Representative Crispin Beltran was arrested by the CIDG on the strength of a Warrant of Arrest issued in 1985! And government plans to charge him with inciting to sedition with no bail recommended.
Goodness gracious and they say we are not under Martial Law.
[READ MORE]
Defiance in the face of arrogance.
The Arroyo administration was on a verge of self-destruction friday when it decided to yield to its lust for emergency power.
Again, it blamed everybody but itself for all that ails Philippine society. She had, indeed, little choice in this shame game she herself authored when she decided not to heed the people's call for her to resign...
[READ MORE]
LAST year, there was reason to hope for a creative fix out of the quagmire we're in.This time, people are just tired. They're just waiting. Waiting. Waiting for something to happen. Waiting for hope. Waiting to take their cue to act.
[READ MORE]
Wow! Pre-new year's fireworks display! Now, Ramos is really talking! Read all about it in the Inquirer!Ramos said he had received minutes of the con-com's discussions until December 12. Apparently that was when the con-com has yet to take flights of fancy to propose a NO-EL and term limit extenders. But something mysterious happened within the last 12 hours after Tabako received his last report until it was hastily endorsed to Congress. . .
[READ MORE]
Ramos is worried that federalism "could lead some regions to secede". I'm sorry but this worry betrays his utter lack of vision and leadership. His distrust for the people in the regions surely must make them want to secede from Manila as soon as The Ramos Parliament is in place. . .
[READ MORE]
Gonzalez orders: Put evangelist Soriano on watch list First posted
06:07pm (Mla time) Nov 10, 2005 By Tetch Torres
INQ7.net
JUSTICE Secretary Raul Gonzalez has ordered the Bureau of Immigration (BI)
to put "Ang Dating Daan" (The Old Way) leader Eli Soriano on a watch list.
In a one-page memorandum, Gonzalez ordered Immigration Commissioner Alipio Fernandez to put the TV evangelist on the BI's watch list because of a rape complaint filed against him.
Daniel Veridiano, Soriano's former deputy secretary, lodged a rape
complaint before the Pampanga Prosecutor's Office against Soriano.
The Pampanga Prosecutor's Office requested the Department of Justice to put Soriano on its watch list.
Thanks to INQ7 the news was immediately brought to our attention in the Church of God International. Some of us, myself included, thought the news was stale since the latest development we know of the news was that of the liftingof the watchlist order...
Come Friday night on Ang Dating Daan TV program live over UNTV37 the news was independently confirmed bro Eli Soriano himself and Atty. Batas Mauricio. In the face of the blatant irregularity of the situation surrounding the order, this time by "Justice" Secretary Gonzales himself,Atty. Batas, in exasperation, concluded that "Gonzales may have acted on compulsion by a higher official (read: Gloria ) or some entity with a great political influence (read: INC)." In his personal meeting with Gonzales, Batas said the DOJ Secretary never said anything about anyone making a request to him as was claimed in the INQ7 report. Bro Eli asked Batas if Gonzales may initiate the order "moto propio" and Batas said that can't benoting that the law is very specifically states that no one in government can put anyone on the BI's Watchlist or bar anyone from leaving the country with a Hold Departure Order unless there's already a court case. In this case the alleged case of rape lodged againstbro Eli is still in the preliminary investigation stages. What gives?
Remember that Virgillio Garcilliano, after being accussed by the opposition of brutally raping the electoral laws, was able to freely leave the country because the government refused to put him on the Watchlist or initiate a Hold Departure Order on the pretext that there has yet to be a court case against him.
Political observers in the country don't bother to look deeply into the political undercurrents generated from the religious sidelines.If and when they do, they'll be shocked to learn that a minority religious sect is already running government from within.
Calling on PCIJ! Have you already investigated on how many sensitive posts in government have been given as a political payback to certain religious leaders in exchange for block votes? Have you already asked yourselves questions like "who jumped the gun on the impeachment case and what does his religion got to do with his move"?
© Blogger templates 'Neuronic' by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008
Back to TOP
