No, you don't November 28, 2006
HOUSE Speaker Jose de Venecia is fuming. In a press conference last week, he lashed out at the justices who voted against the "people's initiative."
Those eight justices, he suggested, have no "utang na loob." He did not actually use that phrase, but that was what he meant. He nearly lost his speakership, he said, when he defended Hilario Davide from being impeached. And this is how the justices repay him!
Clearly, he said, the eight justices were biased. They refused to hear the oral arguments of the petitioners. "Does this mean that they had already made up their minds?"
Taking a populist stance, he delivered his coup de grace (or so he thought): "Political, electoral, and structural reforms as well as reduction of corruption are the reasons we are pushing for Charter change. These are the things that we are fighting for to give us, the people, a chance to vote on it, 'hindi yung' [not those] eight men and women who would kill it and prevent it from being voted upon by the Filipino people."
What's wrong with his tirade?
Everything.
To begin with, how can you believe that this guy is capable of undertaking reform, structural or piecemeal, political or personal, when all his utterances show him to be the most incorrigible "trapo" [traditional politician] of all? What is he saying, but that this country's leaders should make decisions not on the basis of principle but on the basis of "pakikisama"? That is the mentality his remarks on Davide show. He made "pakikisama" to the chief justice when he was beleaguered, Davide's protégés in that Court should return the favor by making pakikisama to him when he is beleaguered, or "atat na atat." You can't get any more trapo than that. That is the politics of "I scratch your back, you scratch mine." Would you trust a man like that to have a mind that reform could possibly inhabit?
But that is nothing. This guy is truly a piece of work, lamenting as he does that the eight justices had closed minds, they were unwilling to listen to the merits of the initiative because they had decided beforehand that they were going to kill it. Does that charge sound familiar? But of course. That was what he and his Mafia in Congress did to the bid to impeach GMA. Mafia is the word. How else does one call those thugs who cited the majesty of the law to wreak a travesty upon justice? If they lived up to anything, it is only to what Shakespeare said about the devil himself loving to quote Scripture to suit his purposes.
What was Edcel Lagman's favorite phrase? A cadaver. The impeachment bid, he said again and again (he loved the term, imagining it to be the height of wit), was a cadaver when it got to them.
Not so. It was every inch alive and breathing until it got to them. They murdered it, mangled it and threw it to the dogs. The justices had decided beforehand they were going to kill their initiative? Look who's talking.
The irony is all the richer for one thing. Which is that there is no peep emanating from the bowels of the land to change the Charter but everyone was shouting his head off to change the Usurper. To hear a non-existent "sigaw" but be deaf to a thunderous one, well, only someone whose ears are constructed that way can do that.
While at that, how can you believe that reform can possibly originate from someone who, occupying as he does one of the highest offices of the land, can't seem to grasp its fundamental tenets? The most fundamental of them being the separation of the branches of government. The executive may not interfere in the affairs of the legislature and the legislature may not interfere in the affairs of the judiciary. Legal affairs are the provenance of the judiciary, not of the legislature. Certainly not of the House of Representatives and certainly not of Jose de Venecia.
His coup de grace is truly a coup de grace -- on him. Why the Supreme Court can't see that Charter change will usher in political, electoral and structural reforms and stop corruption, he says, only it can say. Well, why he sees that it will do so, only he can say. There is easily one thing that is absolutely, unqualifiedly, 100-percent, guaranteed to usher in political, electoral and structural reforms and stop corruption. That is for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to resign for being an illegitimate president. And that is for De Venecia and his ilk to follow suit for propping her up.
They all resign and, presto, we have epic electoral reform. Finally, we will have clean elections. Or never mind clean elections, finally we will have real elections. We haven't had one since Arroyo came along. All we've had are comedies parading as that. They all resign, and, presto, we have epic political reform. Finally, we'll put an end to "trapo" politics. Or more than that, to the ultimate worst of "trapo" politics, which is dictatorship. That is its natural culmination. They all resign, and, presto, we have epic structural reform. At least the structural integrity of human beings, in the particular form of journalists and political activists, will not be impaired by murdering them.
They all resign, and, presto, we have epically stopped corruption. Indeed, corruption of the worst sort, which is not just the corruption of the body but the corruption of the soul. Not just the theft of public money but the theft of public morals. More than Marcos, who stole this country's wealth and freedom, this government has stolen this country's pride and honor.
The equation remains the same. The Charter is real, they are fake. Don't change the Charter, change them.
* * *
Tonight, the Stop the Killings Bar Tour stops at Pier 1, Ortigas Home Depot, between Julia Vargas Avenue and Ortigas Avenue, back of Metrowalk. It's the last stop. True Faith, Paolo Santos and Pido are playing. Like I said yesterday, we're hoping to raise money for a Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day, gig to end the first leg with a bang. Maybe you can help?
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=35080
Those eight justices, he suggested, have no "utang na loob." He did not actually use that phrase, but that was what he meant. He nearly lost his speakership, he said, when he defended Hilario Davide from being impeached. And this is how the justices repay him!
Clearly, he said, the eight justices were biased. They refused to hear the oral arguments of the petitioners. "Does this mean that they had already made up their minds?"
Taking a populist stance, he delivered his coup de grace (or so he thought): "Political, electoral, and structural reforms as well as reduction of corruption are the reasons we are pushing for Charter change. These are the things that we are fighting for to give us, the people, a chance to vote on it, 'hindi yung' [not those] eight men and women who would kill it and prevent it from being voted upon by the Filipino people."
What's wrong with his tirade?
Everything.
To begin with, how can you believe that this guy is capable of undertaking reform, structural or piecemeal, political or personal, when all his utterances show him to be the most incorrigible "trapo" [traditional politician] of all? What is he saying, but that this country's leaders should make decisions not on the basis of principle but on the basis of "pakikisama"? That is the mentality his remarks on Davide show. He made "pakikisama" to the chief justice when he was beleaguered, Davide's protégés in that Court should return the favor by making pakikisama to him when he is beleaguered, or "atat na atat." You can't get any more trapo than that. That is the politics of "I scratch your back, you scratch mine." Would you trust a man like that to have a mind that reform could possibly inhabit?
But that is nothing. This guy is truly a piece of work, lamenting as he does that the eight justices had closed minds, they were unwilling to listen to the merits of the initiative because they had decided beforehand that they were going to kill it. Does that charge sound familiar? But of course. That was what he and his Mafia in Congress did to the bid to impeach GMA. Mafia is the word. How else does one call those thugs who cited the majesty of the law to wreak a travesty upon justice? If they lived up to anything, it is only to what Shakespeare said about the devil himself loving to quote Scripture to suit his purposes.
What was Edcel Lagman's favorite phrase? A cadaver. The impeachment bid, he said again and again (he loved the term, imagining it to be the height of wit), was a cadaver when it got to them.
Not so. It was every inch alive and breathing until it got to them. They murdered it, mangled it and threw it to the dogs. The justices had decided beforehand they were going to kill their initiative? Look who's talking.
The irony is all the richer for one thing. Which is that there is no peep emanating from the bowels of the land to change the Charter but everyone was shouting his head off to change the Usurper. To hear a non-existent "sigaw" but be deaf to a thunderous one, well, only someone whose ears are constructed that way can do that.
While at that, how can you believe that reform can possibly originate from someone who, occupying as he does one of the highest offices of the land, can't seem to grasp its fundamental tenets? The most fundamental of them being the separation of the branches of government. The executive may not interfere in the affairs of the legislature and the legislature may not interfere in the affairs of the judiciary. Legal affairs are the provenance of the judiciary, not of the legislature. Certainly not of the House of Representatives and certainly not of Jose de Venecia.
His coup de grace is truly a coup de grace -- on him. Why the Supreme Court can't see that Charter change will usher in political, electoral and structural reforms and stop corruption, he says, only it can say. Well, why he sees that it will do so, only he can say. There is easily one thing that is absolutely, unqualifiedly, 100-percent, guaranteed to usher in political, electoral and structural reforms and stop corruption. That is for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to resign for being an illegitimate president. And that is for De Venecia and his ilk to follow suit for propping her up.
They all resign and, presto, we have epic electoral reform. Finally, we will have clean elections. Or never mind clean elections, finally we will have real elections. We haven't had one since Arroyo came along. All we've had are comedies parading as that. They all resign, and, presto, we have epic political reform. Finally, we'll put an end to "trapo" politics. Or more than that, to the ultimate worst of "trapo" politics, which is dictatorship. That is its natural culmination. They all resign, and, presto, we have epic structural reform. At least the structural integrity of human beings, in the particular form of journalists and political activists, will not be impaired by murdering them.
They all resign, and, presto, we have epically stopped corruption. Indeed, corruption of the worst sort, which is not just the corruption of the body but the corruption of the soul. Not just the theft of public money but the theft of public morals. More than Marcos, who stole this country's wealth and freedom, this government has stolen this country's pride and honor.
The equation remains the same. The Charter is real, they are fake. Don't change the Charter, change them.
* * *
Tonight, the Stop the Killings Bar Tour stops at Pier 1, Ortigas Home Depot, between Julia Vargas Avenue and Ortigas Avenue, back of Metrowalk. It's the last stop. True Faith, Paolo Santos and Pido are playing. Like I said yesterday, we're hoping to raise money for a Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day, gig to end the first leg with a bang. Maybe you can help?
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=35080
posted by dqfan06 @ 9:01 AM
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