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Edsa II Frankenstein monster DIE HARD III Herman Tiu Laurel 03/22/2010

Monday, March 22, 2010

Edsa II Frankenstein monster



DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
03/22/2010

It has slowly been assembled right before the nation’s very eyes: The set-up of a monstrously messy automated election system, along with the appointment of a lapdog military chief, and now, a Supreme Court (SC) blessing the midnight appointment of a Chief Justice beholden to the outgoing power. All these point to the unavoidable conclusion that a perpetuation of the current regime is in the final stages of completion. Civil society groups were reportedly holed up at the SC gates the other day. Winnie Monsod was among those protesting. But wasn’t she one of those who created this monster that’s replicating itself and rooted for the Davide SC’s formulation of a so-called “constructive resignation” dogma back in 2001? How ironic indeed.

Before the protests, an opinion from Gloria Arroyo’s former Ombudsman, Simeon Marcelo, evinced “shock” over the high court decision. He apparently thinks that people have forgotten how he countenanced all those SC decisions since Edsa II that smacked of arbitrariness and abuse and have contravened jurisprudence.

From the Davide Court’s illegal constructions, to its blessings of a declaration of a “State of Rebellion” against unarmed Edsa III protesters, to a “State of Emergency” in 2006 against Gen. Danilo Lim’s “conscientious objection,” up to the controversial decision on Arroyo’s “executive privilege,” it now seems that this erstwhile shapeshifting fixture in Arroyo’s Cabinet is much too late to be complaining about this Gloria Frankenstein court!

Reading Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s 19th century novel, one cannot tell who really should be considered the monster — Dr. Frankenstein, who assembled a creature from parts of various corrupted bodies, or that very creature which came to life out of the mad doctor’s violation of the laws of nature.

Seeing that the Frankenstein monster in RP’s current political milieu is none other than the menacing extension of the Arroyo regime to a second dreadful decade, we should be reminded, too, that this monster has its creator.

Edsa II, that black mark in our nation’s history, along with all those who supported it, such as Monsod, Marcelo, and their ilk, plus their collective violation of the laws of the land in tandem with “their” most esteemed high court, created this hideous political monster that we see today.

The Monsods, Marcelos, and, it must be said, the Noynoy Aquinos of the Edsa of yore assembled different corrupted institutions of Philippine society into their Edsa II coalition. That mangled union, sewn together by such corrupt foreign corporatists as Mirant (which siphoned off $10-billion worth of our PPA payments) and AIG; by local oligarchs, as well as, leftist power mongers of various stripes; by treasonous AFP generals with rogue jueteng cops and gambling lords like Chavit Singson; and, last but not least, by the Davide SC, all created this monster that has become the country’s horror story of the past nine years.

Now coming to full term, this monster is ready to give birth to its baby: The third unelected tenure of Gloria Arroyo. This, as the monster child has matured from the first power grab of 2001 to its second more vicious assault that was 2004’s “Hello Garci.”

Strangely, what is happening today in Philippine politics is very much like the way Mary Shelley’s story unfolded, with the monster finally taking vengeance on its creator. Gloria Arroyo is defying the insistence of her masters to cease and desist from power by the end of “her” 10th year.

Clearly obsessed to continue beyond the artificial lease given her, Gloria still tries to dig in, such that even though the monster’s creator in the story hunts it down to finally end its sordid, tragic existence, leading it to run off to the North Pole to disappear, here, the Edsa II monster stays and attempts to consume its creators — like a revolution or counter-revolution gone wrong. So in its demented mind, it’s either the monster stays or it takes down everybody and everything with it.

But what’s even more tragic is that, through it all, we are the hapless victims of this Edsa II monster’s mindless fits and paroxysms.

Mary Shelley didn’t live long enough to do a sequel; but we all would like to have an end to this political Frankenstein story in our shores. The only question is how.

All through the past nine years, calls to end the monstrosity had been consistently and forthrightly issued by Joseph Estrada, while still in detention and upon being freed; by FPJ who could have ended the monster’s reign but was cheated out of victory.

Only when the nation finally learns to heed its true heroes and debunk the Frankensteins of this land can the monster’s savagery be undone. Like the abomination that was in Shelley’s Frankenstein, the monster in our midst is now a wild beast lost in the shivering wilderness. It’s time we put an end to it (and its maker’s monstrous madness)!

(Tune in to 1098AM, Suló ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.; Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 21, Talk News TV, Tuesday, 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on “May 10 Elections’ 25% Chance of Success;” also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)



(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Herman Tiu Laurel)


SourceThe Daily Tribune

ALTERNATE URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/commentary/20100322com5.html

Fatwa is an endorsement EDITORIAL 03/22/2010


Fatwa is an endorsement



EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
03/22/2010

Political expedience, more than anything, is the most stubborn enemy of peace in Mindanao. And the secessionist and other rebel movements should have been stopped a long time ago had the Armed Forces been given the full backing of Malacañang.

Former President Joseph Estrada was on this path of winning the ever elusive peace in Mindanao after the military captured Camp Abubakar, a 2,500-hectare stronghold of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Maguindanao, on July 10, 2000.

The Philippine flag was planted on the captured rebel camp by proud Filipino soldiers led by Estrada on July 11, the next day.

Estrada confident of Muslim vote; MILF denies backing 'fatwa' vs Erap

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Angara wants Senate vote for new leader

TO HEAD OFF POWER VACUUM

Angara wants Senate vote for new leader


03/22/2010

The Senate can head off a feared power vacuum if the elections on May 10 fail to proclaim new leaders by electing a new Senate president when the chamber resumes session on May 31, Sen. Edgardo Angara said yesterday.

Fears of a military junta takeover had grown after President Arroyo’s deputy spokesman Charito Planas floated such possibility at a Palace press briefing.

Planas, however, backtracked, saying yesterday that Arroyo will definitely step down on June 30 and that the junta rumors, which she floated, are all conjectures and wild speculations.
The line of succession will practically be empty if the elections fail since leaders of the House of Representatives and the Senate are all seeking reelection while Arroyo and Vice President Noli de Castro’s terms will expire on June 30 based on the Constitution.... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

ALTERNATE URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/20100322hed1.html


The business of impeachment

The business of impeachment

FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
03/22/2010

It is all of course the Yellows and their anointed who have been talking about impeachment, as their inane way of putting the pressure on the Supreme Court (SC) for it to reverse its latest ruling vesting Gloria Arroyo with the power to appoint the next Chief Justice (CJ).

Threatening to impeach the high court justices just isn’t going to work as a pressure point, and neither will the Yellow marches nor for that matter, the lawyers groups plugging for their anointed justice do the pressure trick.

The irony of it all is that it was the yellows and their anointed justices who made it impossible for the Congress — even an independent one — to impeach any impeachable official, especially the high court justices.

Recall the time when an impeachment complaint was lodged against then SC Chief Justice, the disgraceful Hilario Davide Jr., where the majority of House members.... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

ALTERNATE URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/commentary/20100322com2.html

The golden boys of gastroenterology II

The golden boys of gastroenterology II



ZOOMING IN
Rudy Romero
03/22/2010
This is not a column on medical science, but because of the very good reception that “The Golden Boys of Gastroenterology (March 17)” received, I have decided to do a follow-up column.
The timing is perfect for a follow-up column on gastroenterology because this week will see the holding of the conventions of two societies whose members are involved in medical practice involving eight of the human body’s most important parts, namely, the liver, stomach, gall bladder, pancreas, large intestine, small intestine and rectum of an individual. The societies are the Philippine Society of Colorectal Surgeons (PSCRS) — its convention will be its first — and the Ostomy Association of the Philippines (OAP). A participant in those events will be the Enterostomal Therapy Nurses Association of the Philippines (ETNAP).

Greater public awareness and treatment of gastroenterological diseases could be neither more important nor more timely. Cancer of the colon (large intestine) and rectum or colorectal cancer (CRC) has become the third most common cancer and cancer-death cause in the Philippines.
.... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

ALTERNATE URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/commentary/20100322com3.html

Poll failure, no; No-proc, maybe

Poll failure, no; No-proc, maybe



C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S
Jonathan De la Cruz

03/22/2010

It  was Senate Minority Leader Nene Pimentel who advised at our Kapihan sa  Sulo forum sometime back that there can be no failure of elections under  the 1987 Charter and current election laws. The reason for this is  simple, according to the long term senator and veteran street  parliamentarian.


Unlike in other countries where a  specific percentage of the registered voters, say a simple majority,  have to vote in order for the elections to be upheld and stamped okay,  ours does not have such a numerical requirement. So, let us say only 10  percent of registered voters did vote, that will not impede the  proclamation of a winner for as long as the candidate garners the most  number of votes. The Mindanao solon posited that.... MORE



SourceThe Daily Tribune

ALTERNATE  URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/commentary/20100322com4.html


Color blind

Color blind



HE SAYS
Aldrin Cardon
03/22/2010

I love summer fashion.

The bright colors blend well with the minimal use of materials for clothing. They help in the preservation of things, and I am sure earth lovers would love it benefits.

But earth lovers — not only the conservationists but scientists as well — have raised the alarm that these are not ordinary summers. The El Niño — the dry spell, is here to ruin the party, and we are experiencing quite an abnormal rise in temperature that lessens our chances of seeing girls in skimpy bikinis because they simply won’t go out, else they will be ruining their glutathioned skins, which they think make them pretty.
.... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

ALTERNATE URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/commentary/20100322com6.html

The heat is on

The heat is on



SHE SAYS
Dinah S. Ventura
03/22/2010

I often get asked, in line with my work in this paper, what’s hot or what’s new in many different aspects of life: What’s the latest trend, where is the best place to eat, what new places have opened, where to go for summer break, who are the people to watch, what are people talking about now and so on.

It’s an interesting job, and I’m happy to get first dibs on information such as those mentioned above and being able to share them with others. But sometimes I feel people miss out on some of the more important issues that concern their lives just as much as they affect their lifestyles.
.... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

ALTERNATE URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/commentary/20100322com7.html

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