The ongoing debate concerning Fernando Poe Jr.’s neing a natural-born citizen or not, is leading me to the following conclusions.
First, it is virtually impossible to have any sort of intelligent discussion among our officials. And I mean all our officials, on both sides of the political fence. But most harmful of all is the growing certainty in my mind that the opposition, in clouding the legal issues concerned, are betraying the devotion to the rule of law they supposedly adhere to, and have adhered to, in their continuing hostility to the administration. The bottom line of their arguments, and which they’re spouting to their followers, is that one shouldn’t quibble about whether FPJ is a natural-born Filipino or not, because he’s so obviously so purely a Filipino in thought, word, and deed. Which is beside the point. In other words the opposition is embarking on exactly the sort of sweeping behavior they say they despise Civil Society and the “elite” for having.
