Garcius et Circensis

Garci and Circuses, to borrow the Roman saying. Cobble the papers and the columns and blogs together and what do you get? Pieces of a puzzle that’s beginning to reveal a picture.

There’s this Inquirer story: “Garcillano out next week'”: Pichay to seek custody of ex-election official. And one from Inq7.net: Palace: Opposition not interested in truth. The Manila Times focuses on Senator Panfilo Lacson’s reaction: Ping: Garci return scripted by Palace. Malaya, which is frankly pro-Lacson, thunders, Ping: Garci lining up “friendly” witnesses. The Daily Tribune, fanatically pro-Estrada, mutters, Garci smuggled in by BI, lands in Zamboanga. To round things off, the Philippine Star confidently coos, Palace braces for “Garci” circus, hopes for closure (this is better than the Manila Standard-Today, which is trying to pretend, apparently, that nothing concerning Garci is taking place). That’s as far as the papers spell things out. Add columnist Lito Banayo, who has a bracing summary of Garci’s hegira, indicating the information some in the opposition possess, and the speculation by Uniffors (that mysterious association of Department of Foreign Affairs people) that the party line will be Garci never left the country, as well as Philippine Commentary’s analysis, and you have what? A great gamble by the Palace.

The gamble, if you cobble the above together, is to write finis to the Garci story before the Catholic Bishop’s Conference can revisit its past prudence. There have been ripples of interest but no really big splash, and the Palace wants to keep it that way. The President can look forward to several things helping to distract the general population:

1. Christmas, bonuses, shopping, traffic, family reunions and gatherings of friends.
2. The South East Asian Games.
3. The more troublesome in Congress have been deprived of their bully pulpits as committee chairmen in the House.
4.Congress will go on vacation soon enough, and besides, because of 1, nothing really happens in the country in December.
5. Garci, his script, his possible willingness to spill the beans on at least some major figures in the opposition, and enough time to have practiced and gotten his alibis and stories straight.

Clearing the decks now will allow the President to attend to the fights to come next year: over charter change; with the Catholic bishops; and the possible combination of cabinet members deciding to resign (having served her through the most challenging of times, but without the stomach to do so indefinitely), and a purge being mounted to kick non-loyalists upstairs just in case a confrontation with Fidel V. Ramos and Speaker de Venecia becomes unavoidable. It’s a breathtaking gamble. And she could just pull it off.

The rape case in Subic: RG Cruz covers the first meeting of the lawyers. And lawyer Edwin Lacierda thinks the prosecution got its butt whipped. Philippine Politics links to speculation the victim may recant.

Jove Francisco says the Palace Press Corps has gotten wind of a plan to move them to the New Executive Building.

On Andres Bonifacio: The Supremo’s End is my column for today. Filipino Librarian links to Bonifacio Papers, quite a good website. And La Vida Lawyer concludes his series on Bonifacio with a legal analysis of the Supremo’s trial.

Philippine Commentary tackles People Power in a fascinating post but ignores several crucial things:

1. Joseph Estrada should have resigned, but refused to (in a sense, the President today learned her lesson from him). Even if you take into consideration the things other people did, his refusal to do so, on the advice of Edgardo Angara, constituted a great disservice to the country. Estrada’s new lease on political life came at the behest of Civil Society, which wanted him arrested and humiliated. But in January, 2001, he was as finished as Ferdinand Marcos was: though both men could have unleashed an orgy of bloodletting, as DJB points out.
2. Edsa III was People Power until it was stoked to the point the people decided to march on the Palace: at which point, the leaders melted away. If People Power is peaceful, it is also led by the leaders at the front, not the rear. People Power is more a strategy, a political technique, to get a grip on a situation. That is what keeps it peaceful.
3. People Power, as noted above, must be stoked, there must be something to focus the public’s attention and graphically remind them of what they’re up against. After 1983, there was Ninoy’s murder and in 1985-86, there was the clumsy manner with which the Marcos campaign cheated to win. In 2001 there was the Impeachment Trial which fascinated then infuriated, the nation. In 2005, the President made sure to prevent a trial at all costs, and learned from 2001 by preventing any gathering of any significant duration to take place.

A Hundred Years Hence has heartening news: the effort to organize buses has helped make routes more profitable. So now the government will try to organize jeepneys -and the jeepney unions are actually OK with it.

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Manuel L. Quezon III.

64 thoughts on “Garcius et Circensis

  1. Garcia lawyer goe to supreme court to stop warrant of Arrest

    Tatad claims Garci in Zamboanga….

    to many topics for people to be tired of talking about

  2. acknowledgements to reader Dawin from RGCruz’s Blog…..
    “When he resurfaces, he will:

    (1) admit that he is the voice heard in the tape;

    (2) remonstrate that the recorded conversations are in violation of his right to privacy and a violation of the Anti-Wiretapping Act;

    (3) dispute the seemingly clear fact of cheating and will say that his conversations were taken out of context and proceed to cite some unverifiable information that will lead media to eden;

    (4) deny that he ordered Gudani reassigned since that was not his COMELEC jurisdiction at the time of the election;

    (5) dismiss Marlon Mendoza’s testimony as pure hearsay and that he was inflating his self-importance to a wide-eyed subordinate;

    (6) dismiss his nephew Zuce’s comments as ramblings of someone who sold himself to the opposition;

    (7) goes on the offense and say that opposition members have also called me up and asked for assistance which he gave freely and in the same manner as pro-administration candidates;

    (8) state that he is constantly in touch with people that he trusts and asked for their advice for the right time to reappear;

    (9) and finally, to say that he is surfacing because he would want to belie all the accusations against him, that he had to hide first to make sure that his family is secure because someone was out to kill him without identifying that someone and that he is now ready to face the music or suffer the consequences.

    Of course, all these will be stage-managed by the administration and from a distance. His re-appearance will take the facade of the administration feigning incredulous surprise and equally eager to hear his testimony in order to create the semblance of credibility and government non-intervention.

    But his re-appearance will be godsend to those opposed to GMA. The resurrected Garci will consolidate the middle forces and where outrage was once absent, outrage come to a boil and spread like wildfire, especially, after collectively hearing what could be Garci’s most ludicrous rationalizations

  3. maybe in 2007 we would elect Garci for senator…

    crazier things have happened …..

    remember Honasan Biazon patintero(89-90’s) ending in a party in the senate(95-..)

  4. One last for the night

    my take of what Garcia might say form Rg’s blog….

    Uy biro lang to ha…
    “Pasensya na po mga kakabayan wala po akong magawa sinama ako ng kaibigan sa tour nya around the world…..”

    On a serious note

    Akoy lumabas na dahil hindi kaya ng aking konsyensya
    giamit lamang po ako ng mga makapangyariahng gusto paikutin lahat ng sambayanan
    ngayon lang po ako nagkalakas ng loob magpakita

    magugulat po kayo kung sino ang nasa likod ng lahat then mentions a name……..
    sa totoo nga po ang venable binigyan ng kulay palilitawin na parang bago ang lobyists
    kahit na wala pang talong linggo me dalawang bill na lumitaw na parehong pareho

    palitawin daw ng media na parang bago ang nangyari

    lahat po pati po ang pagka speaker me plano na din daw po sila para di matuloy ang chacha dahil ayaw po nila mawala sa ere

    lahat po ng lobby group ikakalat nila lahat kokontrahin
    simula pa po nung Bataan Nuclear plant me kinontrata na po sila para paikutin tayo

    pati po napocor me kiniontrata para paniwalain ang presidente na mas maganda para sa bayan ang murang kuryente
    sagutin at abonohan muna para sikat

    lahat po ng project merun napo nakakontra dyan basta di para sa kanila kontrahin

    marami pa po pero pasensya na po mga kababayan magbasa na lang po kayo ng dyaryo nandun lahat….

    Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!

  5. My principal thesis is that Erap was deposed illegally and that the two Supreme Court decisions, Estrada vs Arroyo and Estrada vs. Desierto would not stand the scrutiny of even first year Law students, given what we have learned from Gloriagate about how exactly a Presidency legitimately ends.

    1. Regarding Erap and resignation, I agree he shouldve resigned, but that is the point of the word voluntary. And the shouda, coulda woulda of Gloriagate. Also you cannot blame Erap for Davide’s actions.

    Also the Supreme Court is the final arbiter of any question only until the “next” Supreme Court decisionon that matter. I say those two decisions are really bone in the throat of the Law and that is in fact why there is an insane insistence on Chacha, because reality is, the “Law” cannot proceed unless those bones are cleared.

    I wonder if I am the only one who agrees that Erap was deposed contrary to our common understanding of the five exact ways a Presidency ends? And if so, how can we let Davide just waltz away from an act that has in effect poisoned the democratic well.

    2. You’re doing the same thing as PCIJ is doing, denying that Edsa III was a people power event, because it failed. Also, there were a lot of backroom political controllers of Edsa Dos — they were in the Ayala Boardrooms and the Supreme Court! Just think, there wouldn’t have been a successful people power at all on Edsa II IF he had just said, Madame VP, we have to think for more than half an hour on a claim that the president is permanently disabled before we can swear you in. They might have rallied for another couple days, but if the SC took a month, it might’ve died down, just like in Gloriagate. Even PCIJ said the opposition now is fiercer than during Erap and the quantum of evidence against her greater. It is important for the Left to mythologize “people power” as being “peaceful” because street protests are their one and only tactic.

    Note also that in the two decisions, “permanent disability” has disappeared. It was “constructive resignation” — a clear mockery of the Law.

    And to think they called Allan Paguia a clown. He was the only one to understand this little piece of English composition we call a Constitution.

    Edsa Dos was mob rule plus judicial putsch. And that didn’t have anything to do with Erap or his ugly ways. It had everything to do with Davide’s “Zionism”, which may get into the title of my next post.

    3. If you don’t call all this last six months of sturm und drang stoking, I don’t know what is. Like I said, I agree with PCIJ that all the ingredients at Edsa Dos are present, save two: military mutiny and judicial putsch. Without those two, its all a bunch of Gloriagate.

  6. I hope we hear from the Left on the fact that an American neoconservative hawk may actually have been responsible for the peaceful outcome of the 1986 Edsa I People Power Revolution!.. I won’t say anymore to let others have the bandwidth. Thanks for the whetstone.

  7. Following DJB’s train of thought, allow me MLQ3 to re-print my letter to the editor of the INQ:

    NEAL Cruz asked, “Was Joseph Estrada removed constitutionally?” (Inquirer, 10/21/05)

    When lawyer Alan Paguia said Estrada wasn’t, he was disbarred by the Supreme Court.

    Now, it seems people have come to their senses — they are arriving at the same conclusion or are at least, asking the same question.

    The breakdown in social and political order in the magnitude we see today started from the day the Constitution was breached by the very people who were supposed to uphold it for the common man. President Estrada is almost an incidental issue.

    What the justices of the Supreme Court, the Vice President (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) at the time, the generals, the legislature and the civil society did — manipulating and plotting to overthrow the incumbent president without due process — was totally unacceptable. They should not have short-circuited the Constitution. They should have tried him and allowed the law to run its full course and, if he was found guilty, sent him to the gallows. That would have been the right and the only moral thing to do.

    It’s never too late for a nation to rectify a collective moral and legal wrong.

  8. DJB:

    There was definitely a decision by Cory, the Cardinal, and the Chief Justice (with then VP Arroyo) to resort to some sort of legal maneuver to prevent a great division taking place -between the middle forces and the Left, which was hell-bent on marching on the Palace. I agree with you to the extent that the decision led to both muddled law and an unsatisfactory conclusion. I was there at Mendiola and saw how the protesters steamrolled over the PNP and military. The Left will, I think, always rue the day they decieded to hold back at that point, and stage a show, rather than unleash the protesters on the Palace. Perhaps the PSG would have mowed them down, perhaps not, but it was the closest we’ve come to lynching a president.

    I recall in the aftermath Teddyboy Locsin was furious at Civil Society protesting outside the Supreme Court, pushing it to issue a ruling. He said, “this will be a decision for the ages.” Or should be. Furiouser still when the SC decision came out -lame, based on Angara’s “diary,” and so forth. The Chief Justice will indeed have to answer for that ruling (I recall Teddyboy saying the SC had to come up with something on the level of the Indian Supreme Court’s decision that ended Indira Gandhi’s attempt at dictatorship).

    My personal view is that the statement issued by Estrada and flung out the Palace gates was a resignation without the signature; his leaving the Palace validated it. But that’s not what the SC said: so, if you argue the SC had a flawed decision, then yes, based on that decision, Estrada’s being removed from office was unconstitutional.

    2. I do believe Edsa III was People Power, I went there and talked to the people. They were there sincerely and it was a spontaneous outpouring, too. In both cases, Edsa II or III, regardless of the maneuvering going on in the background and sidelines, both needed spontaneous (or as near to spontaneous as is politically possible) combustion. I’ve never claimed it wasn’t people power, but it did, indeed, fail -because it was poorly led (and, at the crucial point, the battling hours around the Palace, not led at all). I disagree, though about People Power being mythologized by the Left. They are extremely ambivalent about it, this is one of the reasons I called Atom Araullo intellectually dishonest on TV. He was trying to redefine People Power according to the latest Party line, and I said you can’t change your definition of terms with regards to something widely understood. The Left opposed street demonstrations as they developed in the 1980s, it missed the bus with Edsa I, it got into Edsa II as a rent-a-crowd to keep the venues filled when the middle class took naps or had lunch and dinner. But just as they stumbled in 1986, they stumbled in 2001: had the crowd done to Estrada what the Italians did to Mussolini, it might have been a brave new world. But not one dominated by the Left -so they held back.

    But you do suggest why Edsa II succeeded and nothing’s happening now -no one is lavishly funding it, providing logistical support. No major corporations are in danger, the cronies and so forth of the present dispensation are content with below the radar stealing or smuggling. Nothing to concern the board rooms.

    3. Stoking, yes, but part of the problem are the people doing the stoking. Like I said before, the targets of People Power yesterday cannot be its beneficiaries tomorrow. I think people understand this on a basic level. Imee Marcos, the Estradas, and so forth, helped dampen the enthusiasm of people to do something. And there was no continuing, focused, drama. Had there been an impeachment, people might indeed be on the streets. Or had Garci not fled, and been grilled in Congress. And had the Church not fallen silent: because the soldiers need their banners blessed, and the judiciary in its present religious state needs the consolations of a higher power.

    But without a focused and focusing activity, without a set of new, credible (or old, credible) leaders, without bishops saying God says the president must go, then what incentive did the soldiers and the judges have? None at all -certainly nothing worth risking their necks over.

  9. a de brux, I always felt arresting Estrada was a stupid thing to do. Try him, sentence him, and perhaps then, imprison him. But not before. But what’s left to do now? Only either drop the charges, and let him retire in peace, or hasten the trial and execute him?

  10. Thank you MLQ3.

    The unconstitutionality of Estrada’s ouster given the circumstances was illegal, therefore his arrest is also illegal – he remains or should remain immune from legal suits (legal pundits could perhaps clarify). To my mind, Estrada therefore deserves to be set free while trial is ongoing.

    Trial must continue whatever it takes so that truth may prevail if this is at all possible. If or when he is found guilty, then appropriate sentence must be rendered.

    Hastening Estrada’s trial in order to execute him is not the moral, (and I suppose) neither the legal tack to adopt.

  11. People may think I have no faith in Davide. Quite the opposite. Though it is running out and will be gone by the time he retires in 2 weeks. Never mind him. I just hope people don’t forget its a human story too with Alan Paguia. He had a great job as Professor of Law at the Ateneo and PLM. He was a quiet, unassuming person before someone approached him to take Erap’s case. He told me one of the reasons he took the case was he had read a 1953 Commentary by one, JOrge Bocobo, on the impartiality of judges as the core and foundation of the Justice system, and he realized right there the illegality of what Davide had done. It was two fold: (1) there was unusual haste to decide such a weighty thing as the Presidency, by Panganiban’s account, about 45 minutes. Yet there is a detailed procedure in the constitution for validating a “permanent incapacity” – a majority of the Cabinet must agree, medical certificates, etc. But one fax from Carpio and less than an hour later GMA was president. (2) Judges do not attend political rallies — that is a culpable violation of their own Rules.

    Alan was just doing his job. He lost it when he wrote “12 Questions” to the Supreme Court detailing his analysis of the case. He was suspended indefinitely from the practice of the Law, for writing a letter! His family was put into disrepute, by the unethical namecalling the Inquirer did against him. He lost his job and cannot work as lawyer. They cut his nuts off for doing his job. Brilliantly and with valor in the face of small minds saying they are inquiring minds. Believe me, Philippine Commentary will write the history of this despicable event so that its vast audience will know the truth, not the hideous lies, not the unfair, inhuman treatment of a great and honorable man, a man of the Law, fearless, unashamed, ten times taller than the snivelling little “justices” that sit on that bench now, most of them GMA appointees and sycophants with hardly five years on the bench among them. The Supreme Court is a legal Mafia. When Davide leaves, it will be the most lucrative Mafia next to the Palace, which will send it the most juicy cases and split the profits. You know what makes Alan Paguia great. He’s the only one I know who practices the Law in a way that proves Justice is Blind. For he defended a man he secretly despises, I think, yet never let that interfere with his clear and honest vision. The Supreme Court is the seat of an evil dictatorship, a dictatorship of the spirit that will forever weight us down unless it is utterly destroyed, by the exposure of their invalid decisions to the scorn and amusement of freshmen law students for generations to come.

  12. DJB,

    Thanks for writing on Alan Paguia.

    I admire him for his tenacity, his moral courage or in the same breadth I despise Tony Carpio.

    May Paguia’s tribe and the likes of him multiply.

  13. DJB, well, you’ve met him. I’ve only read him, and can’t escape the suspicion that another lawyer with the same case would have managed to craft arguments without inviting reprisals from the SC. But then again, I am not familiar with how lawyers phrase their arguments in general, so perhaps his wasn’t unusual in its tone. So what happened, after being disbarred, did he just lose it? Because he sure helped bungle the handling of the Garci tapes.

  14. No they just got tired of him writing letters to the editor and bugging them. People may say oh well erap must’ve paid him handsomely anyway. But you have to know alan, the TRUTH made him mad, to some extent. Same thing with the UP Law Center guys and that Northrail contract : Harry Roque! Let that be a warning to all. We can be so obsessed with the truth that we lose our moorings in reality. But then who is to say that there lies not the boundary between greatness and mediocrity? Myself, I don’t care so much about the truth. What I really want is JUSTICE, even if it is merely, poetic.

  15. When DJB asked was he the only…..to think that davide…….

    I thought he was Alan Paguia

    Walang pikonan alam ko seryoso usapan to….commercial lang po

  16. Lugar Encourages President to Increase Funding for Biofuels

    U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar led a bipartisan group of twelve senators in urging President George W. Bush to “include robust funding” for biofuels such as ethanol, biodiesel and other renewable fuels in the FY 2007 budget request to Congress.

    “As has been often noted, the United States’ dependence on imported petroleum poses a risk to our national security and economic well-being. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita also reminded us of the vulnerability of our own refinery infrastructure. By developing alternative fuels, we have an opportunity not only to reduce these risks, but also to create jobs and enhance economic growth here in the United States.

    “Our nation should lead the world in developing advanced technologies for converting crops and plant wastes to energy. Feedstocks for biofuels are widely available across the country, and biorefineries can be constructed almost anywhere. Federal investment now will greatly benefit all Americans in the near future as these technologies allow more energy to be produced at home,” the letter states.

  17. Marcoa was astrongman but he was never a Fidel Castro

    the only man who liberated Cuba since the USS maine explosion trigerred Spanish American War
    he was the only to go in between the two super powers in the cold war with the Cuban Misile Crisis who knows people associated with him from behind the curtain silenced the great Kevin Costner

    Loby groups boon or bane
    Nuclear Powerplant:Lobbyist Group
    First gulf war:California Power Crisis:Lobbyist Group
    Second Gulf war:Oil:Lobbyist Group

    The oil crisis;alternative power paranoia to rp agriculure:lobbyist group
    Mark Jimenez:Lobbyist

    I beg your indulgence for such an imagination….

  18. Enough conspiracy theories: back to life

    If we can unite as seen in the various people powers
    whomever is the lead role or accidental hero

    we can channel that unity to unleash our resident evil against the dragon called ..oops careful

    As MLQ3 explicitly pointed out the strings attached with our indepence….
    fear of our sugar potential,fear of our mango potential,fear of our coconut potential

    one thing they never thought of is our unleashing and deployment of technopreneurs around the world who started as teachers,househelp,nurses,engineers,scientists ….and inventors who all could gather in their enterprising spirit
    to bring the philippines back on the map

  19. So what do we do?

    we must know what we really want and together we will get there!

    (I have done enough national interest 101, in the past
    but not this time let us all know what our problem is before solving it together)

  20. Going back to Garci

    What could be the result of his lawyer going to the supreme court to prevent his arrest….

    is he afraid of the anti wire tapping law

    or he’s been watching too many murder she wrote

    where the cilprit gets thrown to the books after beng exposed by a taped message taped secretly by whomever…

  21. When you are all awake

    can we talk about the lawyer of Garci going to the supreme court to suppress the warrant of arrest by congress

  22. To all those who drop by here
    read Basics of reforms by MLQ3 the Long View INQ

    if I cannot help directly might as well do a little bit indirectly

  23. Hundred Years Hence has heartening news: the effort to organize buses has helped make routes more profitable. So now the government will try to organize jeepneys -and the jeepney unions are actually OK with it.
    ……

    di mawawala ng trabaho ang mga barker o iiabsorb ba sila ng kinauukulan

    translation

    The barkers will lose their jobs unless absorbed by the proper authority

  24. On the Subic Rape Case:

    Why in the world did we field women lawyers? Why didn’t we send big burly young attorneys backed up by a fatherly figure and an even more senior old lawyer. It is international political theatre and we have the home field advantage. We should be projecting the message that the whole country cares about this case, that we protect and cherish our women, not just protest their conditions. It’s all about optics, yet we always have to play the victim, because that is the ideology that has taken hold: victimology. I think it is because the Left actually wants for the Filipino people to lose whenever they get into some issue involving America. To prove their persecution complex.

    The whole “prosecution” team should be replaced with men that are smoldering with rage, but are holding it back at every step. Not screaming, metaphorically speaking, that we are being GANG RAPED by the whole process, or our own govt.

    There is honest puzzlement about our behavior, even among Americans who support our case and wish those men, if found guilty, will find harsh boyfriends in Bilibid. For they have done more than allegedly rape an ally, they have endangered a serious mission of the US military. That believe it or not is my greatest hope for justice in this case.

    Not the helpless howling that doesn’t realize we are actually in a position of moral strength if only we would play our cards right.

  25. i will try to write this in English so tht the staff of Sen. Lugar will understand…..

    We Filipinos should have wanted a level playing field in this playground of yours

    instead we have only those who ride the swing not the marine training equipment

  26. Until we can defend the long term integrity of Justice, even if it were to somehow benefit a jerk like Erap, we shall always be a weak and juvenile country.

    We scream about GMA’s illegitimacy, not realizing that as far as LAW is concerned she IS legitimate. Half a million words proclaim her legitimacy in Estrada vs. Arroyo and Estrada vs. Desierto, speaking with the Voice of Omniscient Justice.

    If we cannot demolish those two decisions, they will stand as history’s understanding of this era, whereas our blogs and arguments will see nothing but the dustbin of the indifferent.

  27. will try to write this in English so tht the staff of Sen. Lugar will understand…..

    We Filipinos should have wanted a level playing field in this playground of yours

    instead we have punters instead of homerun hitters,field goal hitter,touchdowners

    You know what I mean

  28. In have my own thoughts of what DJB is saying

    but I am sure with in the year OOps maybe next year

    we could have looked at the blogs of even ranging 2 months back to 2 months hence

    we could reflect

    Waht I do in the night is tryn to read some back issues even my own comments….

    make me reflect long enough not to make my head explode or implode

  29. MLQ3,
    Been bloghopping the local blogosphere early this morning. I think DEFEATISM is starting to look attractive to me…boy my head aches from the awesome state of our defeat. What devastated minds we reap…

  30. I think ABSCBN is basically a SOFT PORN and CIRCUS enterprise whose public morality is nationalism and communism. That’s how they get away with it with the masses. They are Joma masquerading as Erap.

  31. Since DJB is talking only a weeks time of change of heart
    I have a counter proposal

    Why not have the JBC have their college entrance tests more transparent and open it to the public so we know if theypass even the psycho analysis part

    and why not expand the powers of the ombudsman to run after ex justices and oh i forgot we already have tried it with presidents

  32. I think we should adopt a civilized etiquette in Commenting threads. All comments are addressed to the Host, not to each other. When I come here it is purely to have a conversation with MLQ3.

  33. MLQ3

    The etiquette on commenting threads is an excellent advice
    I for one have been saying that I must learn how to comment
    Unfortunately this is one those”a work in progress” situation….

    Will do MLQ3

  34. MLQ3 Advise is well taken but should I just forget these happened
    First time DJB addressed something to me
    7. DJB wrote on November 7th, 2005 at 3:59 pm
    KARL:
    I am more optimistic about the French than you seem to be. I think Paris could be Europe’s Pearl Harbor in the War on Terrorism
    Last tmee JDB addressed me
    11. DJB wrote on November 23rd, 2005 at 4:45 pm
    KARL: This is political theatre on an international scale. We should strut our stuff and play to all our moral strengths, not show sweat. Where’s that ED Lacierda when you need him? We gotta show that we protect our women folk, not just protest the gumminess of the Law.

  35. Pwede na talaga?….

    Don’t want to complicate things..what is this Atty Tamondon saying that if he wants to he could sue all that listened to the spliced Garci tape….

    pano yun mga nag download sa PCIJ

    baka naman iba ibig sabihin nya…ewan ko po

  36. Re Alan Paguia-

    I’ve met him, and spoken to him about his run-in with the SC. He has NOT been disbarred–and that’s the anomalous thing. (I’m no lawyer but afaik disbarment involves some sort of due process.) The Davide court has simply forbidden him from practicing law (including the teaching of law). Apparently SC justices can act like absolute tyrants, depriving a man of his right to practice his profession.

  37. MLQ3: Renmin is exactly right. He has been “suspended indefinitely” — a cruel limbo that can only be escaped by acts of personal humiliation which no man in the right, and in his right mind would ever do.

    But the development of a Supreme Court case about to be filed by GARCI may have some interesting consequences. His lawyer told the (divine) Pinky Webb that they would file a suit to have the arrest warrant for Garci by Congress VOIDED by the Supreme Court. Atty. Tamondong was even shrill in threatening to charge the people involved in the Garci hearings with crimes under the Wire tapping Act. I assume that would be Alan Paguia and Kit Tatad.

    This development is VERY interesting because it says something about HILARIO DAVIDE’s status at the Palace War Room: they don’t trust him! They will force the last act of his Court to be one that will surely taint him in the eyes of the Public…or…may Allah be just..he may just opt for a D in History and not an F Minus! Remember he doesn’t have to vote in the Affirmative for Garci to have his way. I think the focus of bloggerdom’s attention should really shift to the Chief Justice in these waning days of the Davide Court!

  38. MLQ3: A cold, cold hand has just touched my shoulder. It foretells of a coming era of judicial-executive dictatorship that will be far worse than anything we saw under Marcos. After Davide leaves, the degree of vassalage to the Palace from the Bench will be, to the machinery of Justice, a corrupt and tyrannic monkey wrench — fixing what it wants, breaking what it wants, and collecting every time. The one thing Filipinos have surrendered — in their defeatism — is the prerogative of preventing such evils before they take hold. They are but cold-comforted by the idea that they can always PROTEST any injustice done them, later. But they are too lazy to act upon the day of their bondage — and so, perhaps they are undeserving of the rights and duties of free men. (Philippine Commentary is depressed!)

  39. MLQ3: Sensing that the Opposition is almost totally discredited after that self-inflicted wound of a People’s Tribunal, I predict a MASSIVE OFFENSIVE by the Palace to rout the opposition and crush the centers of future dissension and attack:: Paguia, Tatad first, but the Hyatt Ten, Drilon, even Cory may be vulnerable to a “Zionist” Supreme Court. Next would be PCIJ that still has the incriminating evidence posted on their site; recalcitrant Media holdouts; individual personalities of the Opposition that have not sold out; and others like those Military Generals dreaming at Club Pilipino.

    They will put Garci like a rag doll in the pit bulls mouths and make them foam for a while.

    Maybe we are about to see the 21st century version of a ZONA or areawide crackdown They may not succeed, but it is to demonstrate brutal strength and supreme confidence to their bailiwicks, that, as we say in chess, the board belongs to the ruthless. She has a mean streak and would lay waste all the enemies of Zion!

  40. What’s this about Miriam as chief justice

    (anything mentioned above?parang wala)

    If they hide the results of the evaluation as I said the backround,reputation,psycho analysis it would no longer be relevant because Miriam is already an open book…

    but Pleaaaaase Miriam?whose worse than chicken little and the boy who cried wolf combined

  41. Miriam Santiago may be RP first woman chief justice
    Nov 25, 2005
    Updated 01:53am (Mla time)
    Juliet Labog-Javellana
    Inquirer News Service

    IF SHE GETS IT, Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago would be the Philippines’ first woman chief justice of the Supreme Court.

    The administration senator yesterday confirmed to the Inquirer that she was in the running to replace Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., who’s retiring next month.

    “The truth is the President (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) and I talked about it but I haven’t made up my mind,” Santiago told the Inquirer.

    Another senator first told the Inquirer that Santiago was “interested” in the position.

    But Santiago said the Young Lawyers Association of the Philippines asked for her permission to nominate her and she gave her consent.

    “It would be immodest of me to turn it down flat,” she said, saying she was willing to have her name passed upon by the Judicial and Bar Council.

    Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan, a member of the JBC which recommends nominees to the President, is reportedly planning to ask for an extension of the deadline for nominations to the high court to accommodate Santiago’s nomination.

    But Santiago said that when the President called her up, she told her: “I’m interested, but not now.”

    She said she was more inclined to consider the position toward the end of her six-year term in 2010.

    Santiago said that being only 60 years old, she would have to sit in the high court for the next 10 years, or until she turns 70, the mandatory retirement age for justices of the court.

    In that case, she said the chief justice position would be a “dead-end job” for her.

    “Of course, I find it attractive but I just cannot see myself sitting as chief justice … sitting in isolation, surrounded by books. I’ll be bored out of my skull,” said the outspoken senator.

    Obstacle

    Santiago said she was also concerned about her moral obligation to the voters who elected her to the Senate as well as the opportunity for an incumbent associate justice to become the chief justice.

    “I don’t want to serve as an obstacle for the professional rewards that are due the other justices,” she said, adding that younger associate justices who have been in the high court a long time expect to at least be given the chance to be appointed to the top.

    Santiago said other presidents in the past had offered her the position but she had consistently declined it.

    Santiago said there was no obstacle to the appointment of an outsider like herself as chief justice of the Supreme Court.

    Second term

    Now on her second term as a senator, Santiago is a graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Law and served as a regional trial court judge in Quezon City. She served as agrarian reform secretary and commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration and nearly won the presidential election in 1992.

    Supreme Court of the Philippines

    Senate of the Philippines

  42. Am expecting differsnt twists then when the government will be asked to explain the situation…

    they will be saying we have a new chief justice,. a new ombudsman

    Let us now work on the national budget so we could get going……………

    ay naku budget na naman

    bat nga ba di pwede 3 yr budget bat kelangan kalahating taon para dito

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