My column for today is Dark victory. In their blogs, Philippine Politics 04 and [email protected] strongly disagree with me, and are more inclined to echo the views of Conrado de Quiros.
Placeholder points out why Zubiri attributes everything to Mama Mary (only Divine intervention can explain things). While Ricky Carandang points to what he says was a “loyalty vote” in the Supreme Court.
My entry, The wisdom of crowds, will explain the basis for my column clearly enough. This is the lesson of the past few years, and those who would go far simply have to recognize that in some ways, they have gone too far, and in other respects, not gone far enough, and in others, having gone as far as a certain point, it’s the leadership that’s retreating from the line drawn by the public.
People Power as a means of regime change, as well as variations thereof (transitional governments, etc.) I do believe, were roundly rejected by the people, though they did -and continue to- roundly reject the President’s legitimacy. What the public did accept were two options. First, the option of the President resigning. but since the public also left resignation as a decision for the President to make, and the public, ironically, wouldn’t forcibly demand it, and institutions or groups were fatally divided and thus unable to fully exercise influence, nothing happened.
The second was the option of her being impeached -but again, without arming impeachment with People Power, the only effective veto on party loyalty. So party loyalty won out. The public, in both cases, never ceased disliking the President, but reserved its dislike for a more predictable arena: elections. That is as far as the public would go; but when it did go that far, rejecting the President’s senatorial slate: well, it’s the senatorial slate voted into office that has retreated from the field of battle by forming a new majority.
Now, unless the public takes it upon itself to boo and hiss Miguel Zubiri every chance he appears in public, then we will have, as I said, what we will have: and that’s Zubiri in the senate until and unless Pimentel’s protest bears fruit. But he (Pimentel) had a chance to prevent that from happening; the first chance was the real chance; the second chance was like praying for a miracle -a Hail Mary pass, in sports- but the momentum had been lost.
And since the battle lines in the Senate have become hopelessly muddled, well, each member of that chamber will have to be lobbied with, by the public, all over again. An appeal to the ambition of an unelected senator is as valid, at this point, as appeals to the principles of indubitably-elected senators -which have failed.
Over the past two years, the Supreme Court has allowed people to be “saved by the bell,” so to speak. But as its vote on the 2nd attempt by Pimentel to ask for judicial relief proved, one shouldn’t expect to be “saved by the bell” all the time. And it only takes one failure to permanently screw things up.
The warning in plain sight, I think, is that if it’s the Supreme Court that’s served as a brake on where things have been grimly going since 2005, our luck can run out at any time. We can create new luck by trying to make the best of the people that are there, or we can simply keep drawing the line, which would then reach the point where it accelerates, instead of delaying, the inevitable.
Cause-and-effect. Pimentel blows up his appeal; the opposition morphs into a new majority; Charter Change not only becomes inevitable, but now, probably successful. Without Pimentel there, one public figure traumatized by supporting Cha-Cha the last time around -Zubiri- might still be inclined to vote against it, or support an institutional position for the Senate. Of course, it would have made more sense to write him off -if the Opposition bloc could be counted on. But can it? And if not…
I mourn with you too, Manolo, the turn of events as predicted. But I wonder if there is bright side to this? While it is true that GO seems to have morphed into a new majority as you put it, I wonder if the arrival of Zubiri, reeking of Sharif Aguak, might not goad the New Minority into slapping themselves awake and giving tit for tat now.
Let us note that the Senate Electoral Tribunal, unlike the Supreme Court, IS a trier of facts. Indeed, as Atty. de Lima revealed on tv, they can go down to the ballots and open all the election related documents of Maguindanao. Now the SET will have six members from the Senate and three from the Supreme Court. But the SET trial of Pimentel vs. Zubiri could be the story of the year. It definitely represents a golden opportunity for the Senate Minority to perform FORENSIC SURGERY on the Maguindanao Corpus of 2007 Midterm elections documents.
If the theory is right that the Maguindanao vote was rigged, cooked and railroaded through, then all the evidence is there of the crime, in the statistical improbabilities, inconsistencies, and physical documents that are just waiting to be opened by the SET.
One important aspect of this case is that unlike all other SET cases, the whole controversy boils down to what happened in a single province, and not a diffused cheating in many places on a nationwide scale.
I say, if a complete dissection of how cheating was done in Maguindanao could be accomplished via Pimentel vs. Zubiri, it could be the occasion for really going after Abalos and the whole manual election system.
You see I think the real enemy now, that must be destroyed ultimately first by impeachments, and then by chacha, is the Comelec itself.
WHY?
Because automation, I’ve concluded, is logically and legally impossible under the current constitutional system where Comelec IS the system!
The whole system has to be razed and rebuilt. It cannot be made from Comelec’s crooked timber.
So if chacha must happen, could a people’s initiative be the engine for ramming through automation and pre-empting the unicameral movement.
I think automation is now a POLITICAL issue, not a technological one! It will take a veritable crusade to make it reality.
I predict that the battle for automation will be the monumental crusade and struggle of the next ten years or more, to which many patriotic filipinos will give their hearts and minds and lives for!
The first shot will be fired by Koko Pimentel at Migz Zubiri in a Senate still wrapped in immemorial slumber!
MLQ,
I think the basic disagreement with your column is what we believed was your willingness to give Zubiri a break. To buy his line about blaming the system and not the candidate.
Mama Mary’s favorite son may turn out to be a good senator (that’s expected of all senators) he may even turn out to be the greatest ever but that doesn’t change the fact that he entered the Senate through Maguindanao.
So we will take whatever good comes from his senatorial stint, if any. But he cannot expect anything from us except contempt for shamelessly whining his way into the Senate.
In short, I think the attitude of many of us who couldn’t see it your way is “it’s thanks for all the good laws you passed, Migz and fuck you too.”
Just like his boss in Malacañang, his ability to sleep at night with the reality that his Senate seat was the product of fraud and cheating is truly jaw-dropping and appalling.
Grabe, ang tigas talaga ng mukha!
manolo,
if i will follow your line of argument re zubiri, then i have also to swallow the line of anyone who rams his way no matter how fraudulent or unfair it could be.
is that the line of argument i have to teach my children and grandchildren.
Zubiri is a fresh face , in the Senate that is. So what. Is freshness, faces or ideas, a license to … ?
For me, it does not matter if a man is presenting the stalest of ideas or possessing the most wrinkled face as long as he has the sense of justice and fairness.
Zubiri can do 2 things. He can change his nickname to Magz or change Maguindano’s name to Miguindanao. Either way I will still give him my middle finger every time I see him.
if Pimentel fails, as he did in the Supreme Court, to prove that he was cheated, will everyone then accept Zubiri as having won?
if the SET shows that Zubiri cheated, but proves that Pimentel cheated as well, will both be booed out of the Senate?
Rom, it would require ignorance of current events as well as statistics to believe that Zubiri did not win through cheating.
“the end justify the means…”
that is a principle i’ve always hated right from the start i heard it and learned what it meant. Migz Zubiri then, becomes no different from GMA, no different from the folks so appaled at an FPJ presidency that they were willing to do anything, jz to prevent another Erap-like presidency.
No matter if the cheating was never done by him, no matter if he didn’t have any hand in it, didn’t even know abt it, the fact is, accepting that win w/the knowledge of how tainted it is, makes Migz accessory to it by explicit approval. he can rationalize all he want, to his Mama Mary, to his wife, to himself, but Migz know deep inside, he has just sold his principles for a worthless seat.
A principled man never puts himself in a position that will make his honesty and integrity questionable, even if that question mark itself is not that great. But our leaders nowadays are cheap, burdened w/little minds. Their sense of right and wrong warped, possessing little conviction, if at all, that conviction will only be for themselves. The new politicians are especially vicious, having been bred and grown by TRAPO parents. They’ve grown up and been accustomed to politics for sale. Is it any wonder at all they think it’s all natural? how can we expect them to have any sense of right and wrong in the 1st place? if their conscience’s development has been flawed right from the start?
to be sure, i can never forgive opposition senators who will turn back on their constituents, and allow that CHA-CHA to pass through. i voted most of them in the 1st place bec. of that, and if ever it comes to that, that the senate itself will do what the house once did, to try to sneak cha-cha into the night, expect me to be the first to ask for their heads. literally. and i will not accept a calculated retreat and a feeble “sorry, testing lang” attitude like the previous house showed. rebellion it must now be, and everyone of them must be removed. EVERYONE.
are you advocating a battle of hissing and booing? you talk like you are certain pimentel has a monopoly of hissers and booers. i think that’s a juvenile thought that can only resonate with half-wits and crazies. i don’t think out-hissing and out-booing zubiri, by itself, would change things for pimentel. i believe, he is where he is now because he failed to get enough votes to join his father who, himself, wants to become senate president.
i really think that if the shoe is on the other foot, migz is the more likely to concede, stateman-like, than pimentel who would squeeze the last ounce of possibility to become a senator, no matter how remote. i think its time for filipino politicians to re-invent themselves, and learn to accept defeat when they are defeated, instead of endlessly demonizing the institution empowered to carry out the process, and the process itself.
oops, my last post is addressed to mlq3.
dark victory? it’s only dark for the loser who wants to win at all cost. is it too lucrative a position that it must have to be won by one never-say-die candidate at the expense of the entire nation?
Bencard,
“dark victory? it’s only dark for the loser who wants to win at all cost. is it too lucrative a position that it must have to be won by one never-say-die candidate at the expense of the entire nation?”
you described Migz or Magz perfectly.
buencamino, i though migz was the one proclaimed the winner, and your koko was left yak-yakking with his lawyer and his old man. get real, will you?
“Thank Maryâ€Â
Zubiri
Victory?
To the contrary…
It’s “Thank crookeryâ€Â
Mr. Manolo. I’m so sorry I ‘misspelled’ the name of your show in my post. O___o It’s one of the sins of a student in pisay who is choked up with too much homework and ended up not focusing on the TV when she should have been. Like whenever the name of the show was flashed on TV. Eeeep. Nice post. Sorry if the comment is unrelated.
Thanks.
Yada…yada..yada. We always read, hear this from losers. Koko lost, thats it! Our barangay captain lost in the last barangay elections and he protested (cheating daw), the SK chairman candidate here in our barangay who also lost protested – again allegations of cheating daw. The case still to be resolved. Upto the Mayor,board members, congressmen etc…every elections. Losers always complain, issue threats, file a case of cheating….hay. Koko should set an example to our youths and our promdi politicians,concede with grace and be a stateman, whatever that means.
or he han scream, kick, shout, and protest all he can ( i suggest everyday) to show our youth how a loser should behave, hehehe.(joke).
Who is this Bencard that keeps praising Migz Zubiri?
Please explain the 95% to 100% voter percentage share that Migz Zubiri received in Maguindanao, but why he only received a 42.15% voter percentage share in Pagalungan where our hero Musa Dimasidsing died in order to protect the sanctitiy of the ballot.
Please explain the stealing of municipal election documents and the subsequent loss of these documents by Lintang Bedol..
Please explain why there were no watchgroups allowed in the provincial canvassing in Maguindanao…
Please explain why in the first canvass of LIntang Bedol, Chavit Singzon was the topnotcher in Maguindanao, but in the recanvass of other “legitimate” documents, Zubiri suddenly and conveniently became the new topnotcher, garnering an impossible 95% voter share, which was even more than his home town…
Ricky Carandang who has first hand account, is just one of many thousands who doubt the Maguindanao Canvassing of votes.
And yet, you who try to pass yourself off as being in the right, and analyzing that Pimentel should be the one to concede, don’t realize the overwhelming fact that it is Fake Senator Zubiri who has clearly benefited in the Cheating Machinery in Maguindanao.
Think before you write, maybe you won’t look as foolish for your analysis (or non analysis)…
In The Philippines, there is a joke that there are only two types of candidates, those who win and those who say they were cheated..
But in analysis, I hope those who comment, don’t try to generalize, and look at specific situations in order that they may realize, that there are indeed those cases, in which a candidate has truly been mauled over by a cheating machinery.
Remember, lest we forget, that it is not only the candidate that loses in the case of cheating, but it is also the people who lose their democratic will to choose their candidate.
the most ominous of the fatima’s secret is yet to be revealed.
the first among them was russia’s conversion from communism to hiphop capitalism.
then probably down the line is mm’s political intervention in maguindanao.
omg, the end is near! repent, people, repent!
i think that as long as we, the Filipino nation, can tolerate cheats, we can be assured that there will be no great civil strife in this country.
but that is the paraodox, tranquility under immorality.
so let us move on and rejoice that at least the Senate race has finally ended even if it was resolved questionably. at least in the minds of many.
then in 2010, another massive cheating. when we will ever learn.
frombelow, we may never learn, as long as people such as Bencard close their eyes to the cheating in order to advance their political views and political leanings, to turn what should be a meaningful discussion as to why cheating in Maguindanao was able to take place, and turn it instead into a situation in which we should all bend over backwards and have our asses spanked by a political machinery unknown except in the years of Marcos as well as look forward to another occasion in which we can all be screwed again in our right to suffrage..
Ah, but all is alright, as long as the loser doesn’t complain, even though the acts of cheating was so brazen, that our Fake Senator Zubiri had to cry out to the heavens in his proclamation of redemption, but we all know that it was the lower house of Hell itself that was rejoicing..
Cheating occurred, Pimentel lost his legal cause because of his stupidity to represent himself, but in the end, the voters decided on May 14th, but was overturned by the machinations of the almighty election operators that rule our land every election season.
When do we learn? Some of us already have. It is high time we try to teach others, however hard headed they may be.
nick, i am who i am. do you think you – whoever or whatever you are – are smarter than your idol koko, his dad, and his lawyer (delima, or something) together not to ask those questions before the comelec and the sc? why don’t you just read and try to understand the comelec’s resolution and sc’s decision dismissing (not once but twice) koko’s t.r.o. petitions? why do i have to explain anything to you? if you don’t believe comelec and sc, why should you believe me?
“i think that as long as we, the Filipino nation, can tolerate cheats, we can be assured that there will be no great civil strife in this country”
I think the problem goes beyond this.
If we step back for a moment so that we are able to regard a broader swath of the situation the country is in yet again, we will see that that we can trace all the stupidity going on (not that there was ever a moment of collective intellectual achievement in Pinoy society) back to the stupid way Pinoys regarded the last election — it was all about who was in Team Unity and who was in the “Genuine” Opposition.
As if there were not enough farces of “united” oppositions in the past to prove that there is no such thing as a united opposition in ANY election. Oh yes, I do forget from time to time how learning-disabled Pinoys are.
As we now observe today, barely a few months out of the election, this so-called “Genuine Opposition” of Fiesta Election 2007 is reduced to nothing more than a bunch of bickering bozos.
The only thing consistent about Pinoy politics is that it consistently reflects the nature of our society — intellectually bankrupt and collectively impotent (that a beefy chunk of our economy is propped up by ex-citizens is a sad sad pathetic testament to the failure of our society to live up to the half-brained of its founding fathers).
As de Quiros said in his column today (17th Jul):
=========start
What is dismaying about this is not that the opposition cannot get its act together in the simple matter of choosing a Senate president, mounting one failed meeting after the other. What is dismaying — no, disgusting — about this is that this so-called opposition should try to mount one meeting after another to discuss nothing else.
=========end
Pathetic.
Migs Zubiri won in the COMELEC canvassed and in the Supreme Court when they failed to issue a TRO. I am happy that the son failed to make it to the Senate where his father is a candidate as President. What gives you the right to judge that the votes counted were all rigged and spurious when even the SC could not decide? How about the obvious cheating in other parts of the country, especially in Metro Manila where vote buying was everywhere? How about the rigged elections in the NPA influenced provinces where the people were coerced into voting GO and Bayan Muna? I dont think it is fair to investigate the cheating in Maguindanao but not in Metro Manila.
Oh Bencard, I’m glad you still believe in The COMELEC.. while you’re at it, maybe you should write to Santa Claus too.. Who’s getting real now?
The Supreme Court ruled on a technicality and a split decision was the result, notwithstanding political considerations most believe that the result would have been different.
But in the end, even the Supreme Court decision not to extend the TRO was still more acceptable than any resolution coming from COMELEC.
I haven’t said that Koko was my idol, nor do I need to even say that, the issue is that cheating should not be tolerated, no matter who the candidate is..
No explanation is needed from you to me, I don’t need any. I just thought maybe people may actually want one for your sake, so that maybe just maybe, they may take you seriously with all the (non analysis) you try to inject into your comments.
Maguindanao is the issue, COMELEC is the issue, Lintang Bedol is the issue, cheating is the issue, and the right of suffrage is the issue.
If you want losing candidates to just be silent, then maybe the democratic will of the people has become secondary in your mind…
bencard, i’d agree with you if political exercises were conducted fair and square. then of course candidates would have to accept you win some, and you lose some. but since the cheating is a reality, there comes a point where it would actually be irressponsible to concede gracefully in the face of massive fraud.
as for booing and hissing, it’s an idea as old as the marcos years. the late finance sec. bobby ongpin once made the remark that fighting corruption would never succeed, until filipinos learned to ostracize corrupt officials.
And so, going back to the issue, as to why Migz may never be able to shake the shadow of doubt cast upon him because of the Miraculous Maguindanao vote, is that performance is not the main ingredient of a good senator. Rather, performance with integrity should be the hallmark of a good Senator, because this ensures the public of his willingness to sacrifice self for the greater good of the nation. And not to sacrifice the nation for the greater good of self.
Romy, you’re right, focus should be on some cases in Manila in which there was coercion in the form of garnering votes. But, what we saw in Maguindanao was totally different than that of Manila, because in Maguindanao, the act of cheating was so brazen that it could have been considered an Institutionalized form of cheating in which key individuals and officers participated on a grand scale so that the entire province was literally hijacked by election operators and local warlords with the blind eye of the COMELEC to oversee the operations.
But in the end, Romy, both cases, small or grand, are cases in which democracy and the will of the people were never to see the light of day, and thus both should be condemned.
nick, believe you me! i’m not here to be taken seriously by the likes of you. i couldn’t care less about what you call my “non-analysis”. your approval or disapproval would not add to or detract from its validity or non-validity. don’t do me any favor. none is needed, none is asked for.
Come on Bencard, don’t be so sore, go on with your non analysis and the Maguindanao vote canvassing legitimacy…
and while you’re at it, please expand on your theory as to why every losing candidates should shut up even in the light of the current state of our elections and those who oversee it (COMELEC)???
I may not “add or detract to or detract from its validity or non-validity”, but I think the proposals and arguments I put forward, as well as what others put forwards, of which you always seem to overlook, are the substantial elements that will prove the non-validity of many of your statements.
Again, as I said, focus.. Maguindanao, Lintang Bedol, COMELEC, Pagalungan, percentage voter share, missing documents, no witness to provincial canvassing, and so on and so forth…
In the light of all of that, your solution of silence is the only thing you could think of?
nick,
When do we learn? Some of us already have. It is high time we try to teach others, however hard headed they may be.
So, that is the problem. What you will teach to others. That we participate in every rigged election and then cry that massive cheeatng occurred.
Or you teach them how to fight and prevent elections from being rigged.
How about doing away with elections. We can do that. How by not participating. People then will ask why a great segment of the population is not participating. And then the teaching begins.
My point is this. If I believe that lections are being rigged and want to teach people that they are being rigged. I will not participate. Then will tell them that there will only be participation if there is a guarantee of a clean and fair elections. Sound Quixotic.
But under the circumstances, we need a lot of Don Quixotes.
nick:not having evidence to back up your claims is a technicality?
frombelow, the solution you have put forward do not come from the words I wrote, your inference is beyond me.
It’s only Quixotic because of what you inferred from my words of “some of us already have. It is high time we try to teach others”, of which I don’t know how you thought we should all participate in rigged elections…
But, maybe the logical process is to overhaul the system, or maybe the heads of that system, so that:
(1) We have honest elections
(2) We have participation
(3) and we participate, and keep fighting to always improve our elections
That to me doesn’t seem Quixotic..
Benign0, you cannot blame the people for the defects inherent in the system of representative democracy, i.e. the risk of misrepresentation by the candidates running for office. If you step back for a moment from your standard analytical template, you will see that the in the recent elections, the voters chose their Senators based on the issues. That a number of these elected Opposition Senators betrayed their mandate is entirely the fault of the person who was elected, and is the reason why we have this chronic crisis of representation.
What is ‘stupid’ is not the act of choosing from a [limited] set of candidates but rather the prevalent attitude of not holding these public officials to their promises afterwards. In your adopted home country Australia, or in any other mature democracy, such betrayal is politically costly. Over here, such behavior is rewarded or condoned.
nick
(1) We have honest elections
(2) We have participation
(3) and we participate, and keep fighting to always improve our elections.
That to me doesn’t seem Quixotic..
Doesn’t “seem” Quixotic. Haha . Then really Quixotic.
frombelow, please quote the whole section, so that “overhaul the system or maybe those who head it” comes before those three bullet points…
it misrepresents my writing to further your own point
Rom, I have said my peace in terms of all that has happened in Maguindanao. just go to the blog and search Maguidanao.
The Supreme Court denial for a TRO was never based on any evidence, because if it were, then the trial would still be ongoing and we would have opening of ballots. So, the lack of evidence claim is not related, because evidence was never even introduced.
To truly get to the bottom of Maguindanao, as DJB points out, is to wait for the Senate Electoral Tribunal, that is the concrete evidence that is needed.
Even without that, there is enough cloud of doubt, including those that I have said (missing documents, no witness to canvassing, statistical improbability), to have the TRO granted. And as i have asserted, let us not be delusional about the politics within the Supreme Court itself, and how that politics played into the decision on Friday.
Be that as it may, the technicality is not on the evidence, but as to where The Supreme Court told Pimentel to address his grievances, and that was to the Senate Electoral Tribunal.
Anyway guys and gals, thank you for the delightful discussion, let’s have more in the future when I have more time.
Keep up the passion and patriotism..
“Over here, such behavior is rewarded or condoned.”
Precisely my point. What you described is a manifestation of one of the aspects of the collective character of Pinoys that contribute to the reason why a bunch of bozos populate the halls of power of Pinoy society.
Ergo, our penchant for not only condoning but rewarding stupidity is a trait you yourself attribute to the Filipino people.
Ergo, the politics reflect the character of the people; specifically, in this case, our sad sad deep well of tolerance for stupidity, inappropriate behaviour, lack of substance, and, above all, dishonest behaviour. 😉
the problem with you, nick, is you are so gullible as to believe every allegation of cheating that a losing candidate or his supporters make. why don’t you demand proof from the accuser – like the SC did – or do you understand what proof means? over here, you cannot qualify as a juror because of your utter lack of open-mindedness. if you were a prospective juror in a case in which i was the attorney, i would promptly challenge your qualification on that basis, or else use my peremptory challenge to keep you out!
nick:the denial was not based on evidence. it was based on absence of evidence. and yes, the SET is the proper venue for that.
but are you saying that the SC cannot be trusted to do the right thing? is everyone and every agency that does not agree with koko then suspect?
But Benign0, going by your previous pronouncements, you are also one of those who have actively condoned our politicians’ behavior. Ergo, that would mean that also possess the same political character, i.e. the “sad sad deep well of tolerance for stupidity, inappropriate behaviour, lack of substance, and, above all, dishonest behaviour“.
Rom, the actions of the SC and the SET have to be consistent with the facts, otherwise their credibility suffers. Why do you think the present COMELEC is so discredited?
cvj:absolutely. but every side will present it’s version as the ultimate facts, which is why it is so dangerous to swallow either side’s submissions whole. the SET is precisely there to sort the grain from the chaff, so to speak; whereas the SC is supposed to rule on legalities.
the sc has already made it very clear that whatever doubts may linger about zubiri’s win, these doubts have yet to go through the mill of the SET, and that there is nothing patently illegal in the proceedings of the comelec, as in fact, they are not illegal. listen to de lima, cvj. and you will realize that under all her protestations is the implicit acknowledgment that the comelec is doing the legal thing. her beef – and koko’s – is that she wants the comelec to allow her to do something not allowed by the very same rules she has so far insisted everyone else follow.
and she justifies this request for special treatment by raising all sorts of ominous pronouncements without actually providing any solid basis for her and her client’s apprehensions.
just as any lawyer aspiring to greater things will do.
Manolo,
Why should we mourn for the loss of Koko?
Is n’t the candidacy of Koko unfair from the very start? Its definitely a form of panloloko sa taong bayan. He is basically a non entity before the senate election was only recognized through his father. Where is he was during the impeachment circus? Oh yes his father is one the leading “clowns” of that circus….
If Koko has really a case then just let the SET do its work. igilan na ang pa melodramatic…
Oh I know. Koko has to keep crying loud para sa susunod na election. Maybe that should make him the topnothcher.
It work well with Chiz and Alan Peter.
And we just have another formula for winning election.
mlq3, your assertion about “reality” (cheating) is a conclusion of fact. what is your basis for that. is this another one of your “composite picture” that journalists paint to convince their readers to adopt their way of thinking? why don’t you guys give some measure of “faith and credit” to our established institutions?
i saw abs-cbn’s twink macaraig interview comelec’s atty. james jimenez regarding comelec’s action to proclaim migz. slogans keep flashing in the midst of the show saying something like “it is fraud to allow election fraud” and “election is not decided by the vote but by the counting” (attributed to hitler). this is an example of a bias show that employs subliminal devices to manipulate the unsuspecting audience in order to fulfill a desired agenda.
“bobby ongpin once made the remark that fighting corruption would never succeed, until filipinos learned to ostracize corrupt officials.”
which is truly right on the mark.
no respect should be shown to someone who doesn’t deserve that respect. too much hypocrisy tolerated, just bec Filipinos by nature are non-confrontational, and would rather be polite in front of someone distasteful, rather than be frank and risk getting into an uncomfortable argument.
i remember this event where some1 from the PDI, having had to endure too much bullshit, threw water at some congressmen at a press briefing. the lady who stood up to decry the act, saying it is rude and that we should respect our congressman if only bec they held office was right. it was rude. but in the light of the fact that those congressmen didn’t deserve respect, throwing water at them is just right.
enduring bullshit jz bec we’re afraid to rock the boat…
again i advocate the silent uprising.
here, this may amuse you:
http://bhapu.blogs.friendster.com/rendezvous_in_dreams/2007/06/deathnote.html
and that, is one way we can show these pricks how much they’re truly hated.
Rom, your description of the roles of the SET and the SC is technically correct in terms of form. However, besides form, you also have to take into account the context in which these institutions exists. A lot of those in the SC are appointed by Gloria, and the Senators and the members of the House (who will become part of the SET) also have their political leanings. This doesn’t automatically mean that they will be unfair, but even the best of them will be subject to political pressure coming from those who are in positions of power. That means that these institutions cannot be expected to do their jobs without countervailing oversight from the public.
It is our role as citizens to verify whether these institutions have properly taken in and evaluated the facts. That is not equivalent to what you characterize as “swallow[-ing] either side’s submissions whole“. It is just you and me using our own eyes and ears and evaluating the situation accordingly. All these discussions about the legal process, Pimentel’s defects should not make us lose site of what happened in Maguindanao which is what this matter is about. I see that, just like Bencard, you try to seek certainties in rules, but by continuously ignoring the context, those rules eventually become meaningless.
Respect to the institutions is a mutual aspect both to the person in charge of it and to the people. The person in charge should also keep his “faith” and “respect” to the institution he is tasked to be in charged with.
My symphaty to Koko’s lost.