In today’s news, ASEAN OKs rights body in charter. Last Sunday’s Inquirer editorial had come out in support of the proposal.
SWS: Satisfaction ratings for VP de Castro, 3 others stable.
Since 2000, more than 1,700 civilians killed, wounded in terror attacks, mostly in Mindanao. This means more casualties than, say, Indonesia. Then 1,000 families evacuated; 130 MILF, Abu forces face arrest but Warrants vs beheading suspects on hold.
Appointments merry-go-round: Palace names Defensor bank board director. There’s an interesting account of behind-the-scenes lobbying in the Palace, to retain or be given jobs: see Last-minute lobbying stalls Cabinet revamp:
Reyes, who is now on his fourth Cabinet post since he was appointed defense chief in 2001, earlier appealed to the Chief Executive during cocktails at the Palace after she delivered her State of the Nation Address last July 23…
…Also Monday, Commission on Higher Education (CHED) chairman Carlito Puno said in an interview at dzMM that it is still not yet clear whether he would indeed be replaced by National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) director general Romulo Neri as disclosed by the latter on Friday.
Court junks Trillanes bid to attend Senate sessions (and not even allow him to work from his cell? See also Judge shuts out Trillanes) In the Senate, Villar unfazed by ouster threat over choice posts but Villar and Pimentel will meet on committees. A potential compromise involves Loren Legarda as Blue Ribbon Committee chairman. John Nery says the proposal’s worth a closer look. Meanwhile, President wants to have Sen. Santiago serve in the International Court of Justice: Santiago willing to give up Senate seat for ICJ.
Things are proceeding more smoothly in the House: 2 House Arroyos get committees for aiding de Venecia. In Uniffors thinks Reyes’ appointment and that of the President’s son, Mikey, as House Energy Committee chairman, points to a previous working relationship between Reyes and the President’s son. Uniffors also connects the dots between the appointment of Heherson Alvarez as mining czar, and the designation of the President’s brother-in-law, Ignacio Arroyo, as chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources. See also More House officials appointed.
Also, apropos of my question concerning solar power (in yesterday’s entry), San Miguel eyeing solar power as alternative energy for facilities. Meanwhile, Water officials monitor levels in 3 major dams. See the Inquirer editorial on weird weather, and its effects on the energy situation.
Economics news: BIR misses VAT collection target for 1st five months (see Jan-May VAT take is 23.2% short also). Meanwhile, Strong peso cuts debt payments government says, but read Tony Abaya’s column which explains why this ain’t so:
It is not just the exporters who are hurting from the strong peso. The 50 or so million Filipinos who depend on monthly remittances from their relatives working abroad have lost some 18 percent of the peso proceeds of their dollars, compared to two years ago.
So have the enterprises that depend directly on tourism: hotels, restaurants, tour guides, resorts…
…[A] strong peso – and its twin, a record-breaking stock market – benefit only a small group of people: Players in the stock market and foreign portfolio managers who speculate with hundreds of millions of dollars, hiring no more than a couple of secretaries and messengers, but who will not hesitate to stampede out of the economy at the first hint of trouble, as they did in 1997.
The overwhelming majority of the population suffers from the strong peso.
Theoretically – and I underline that word – a strong peso makes oil imports, our biggest single import item, cheaper. But in reality, it doesn’t. The Shellane cooking gas that we used to buy at P495 in 2005 now costs P550 per canister. Our household consumed 54 kwh less than in the previous month, yet our Meralco bill is higher by P2,311.80. And premium gas is now more than P40 per liter. Of course, it is all due to the price of oil going past $75 per barrel, but it does take the sheen off the strong peso.
Theoretically, the strong peso makes our foreign debt and its servicing smaller. P20 billion less for every dollar that the peso appreciates, it is said. But only if we actually make a substantial payment in the here and now, which is doubtful considering that the government is strapped for cash and cannot even meet its tax collection targets.
To crow about the strong peso and the record-breaking stock market, as President Arroyo does, and to be annoyed when told that it is harming the economy, as she is, makes one wonder where she got her doctorate in economics.
Add to this, Average monthly bill for water to rise 24%. In his blog, here and here, Philippine Politics 04 has been covering the rise in electricity rates.
also, State lawyers to meet Marcos son on Lucio.
Jonas Burgos-related news: Jonas hearing focuses on car plates while Jonas looked at me for help, says witness (see Witness tells how 4 men took away Joe Burgos son also).
Overseas, Second South Korean hostage killed while Germany may end ransom payments for kidnap victims. In Indonesia, Indonesian Radical Leads Campaign on Anti-Terror Police. In Malaysia, Elite Malays and Mixed Marriage. In Thailand, Clashes in front of a royal advisor’s house irk the junta. In Japan, LDP failure in election to change Japan’s political, economic outlook. This is interesting: Pig disease hits southern Vietnam (in light of a similar outbreak here at home: Execs say hog cholera in Bulacan under control).
Nouriel Roubini’s Blog asks, Are We at The Peak of a Minsky Credit Cycle?
Specifically, the crucial macro question that we should ask ourselves today is whether we are at the peak of a Minsky Credit Cycle. Or as the UBS economist George Magnus — an expert of financial instability – put it: “Have we reached a Minsky moment?”
Hyman Minsky was an American economist who died in 1996. His main contribution to economics was a model of asset bubbles driven by credit cycles. In his view periods of economic and financial stability lead to a lowering of investors’ risk aversion and a process of releveraging. Investors start to borrow excessively and push up asset prices excessively high. In this process of releveraging there are three types of investors/borrowers. First, sound or “hedge borrowers” who can meet both interest and principal payments out of their own cash flows. Second, “speculative borrowers” who can only service interest payments out of their cash flows. These speculative borrowers need liquid capital markets that allow them to refinance and roll over their debts as they would not otherwise be able to service the principal of their debts. Finally, there are “Ponzi borrowers” cannot service neither interest or principal payments. They are called “Ponzi borrowers” as they need persistently increasing prices of the assets they invested in to keep on refinancing their debt obligations.
The other important aspect of the Minsky Credit Cycle model is the loosening of credit standards both among supervisors and regulators and among the financial institutions/lenders who, during the credit boom/bubble, find ways to avoid prudential regulations and supervisions.
Minsky’s ideas and model fit nicely the last two US credit booms and asset bubbles that ended up in a recession: the S&L-based real estate boom and bust in the late 1980s; and the tech bubble and bust in the late 1990s. But the experiences of the last few years suggest another Minsky Credit Cycle that has probably now reached its peak. First, it was the US households (and households in some other countries) that releveraged excessively: rising consumption, falling and negative savings, increased in debt burdens and overborrowing, especially in housing but also in other categories of consumer credit, an increase in leverage that was supported by rising asset prices (housing and, more recently, equity). We know now that many sub-prime borrowers, near-prime borrowers and many condo-flippers were exactly the Minsky “Ponzi borrowers”: think of all the “negative amortization mortgages” and no down-payment and no verification of income and assets and interest rate only loans and teaser rates. About 50% of all mortgage originations in 2005-2006 had such characteristics. Also, many other households (near prime and subprime borrowers) were Minsky “speculative borrowers” who expected to be able to refinance their mortgages and debts rather than paying a significant part of their principal.
In his column, Adel Tamano says there’s a way to define who belongs to the opposition:
First, the following three broad issues will determine one’s true political leanings: (1) Corruption; (2) Charter change (Cha-cha); and (3) Human Rights or extra-judicial killings. Obviously, a senator who claims to be with the opposition but refuses to push a Senate investigation on Joc-Joc Bolante, “Hello Garci” and Jose Pidal, the top three corruption scandals according to our surveys during the elections, is not an authentic oppositionist. Similarly, a GO senator who supports Cha-cha prior to 2010, against the obvious sentiments of the Filipino majority, will be shown to be a phony. In the same vein, a GO senator who refuses to take the administration to task over its lousy human rights record should rightly be viewed as an administration hack.
It is your actions that determine your opposition status, not your press releases or comments to media. That said, the choice of Senate president, alone, cannot determine one’s status as opposition or administration.
Second, another more exact method of determination of the real political sentiments of the GO senators is to see if they will remain true to their campaign promises, specifically the 10-point program of the GO. This 10-point program was approved by the GO candidates and was the basis for the policy statements and debates during the heated election period.
An interesting thing about Connie Veneracion‘s columns is her clearly enlightened view towards parenting. In her column today, she discusses what se sees as the merits of an untraditional approach to education.On a related note,see The Myth About Boys by David von Drehle.
I can only dream department: Chin Wong writes about running applications directly from a flash drive… But apparently Apple is behind in this department.
In the blogosphere, David Llorito asks some interesting questions. A Nagueno in the Blogosphere demonstrates how executive leadership is undertaken.
Technorati Tags: Blogging, House of Representatives, Marcos, military, philippines, politics, president, Senate, surveys
Check out this site about entitled Mar Roxas for President 2010 at http://marroxas2010.blogspot.com
Gloria nominated Brenda to ICJ.
Gloria’s campaign to destroy all the hallmarks of civilization has just gone global.
Miriam in ICJ might be useful in flashing Joma out of the Netherlands. Joma vs Miriam in the Battle of The Big Mouths. I’ll go for Miriam.
I mean flushing not flashing.
and here’s instapundit’s podcast interview with conn iggulden, author of “the dangerous book for boys”.
http://www.instapundit.com/archives2/005253.php
(off topic, kailan kaya lalabas yung podcast nyo ni nery?)
ingmar bergman’s death is one of the big news in the blogosphere, altho i haven’t seen any of his works yet. mahirap maghanap sa Quiapo.
There’s nothing wrong with traditional education. Look at the chinese. education is not about making students feel good about themselves or making them “feel special” in their own “unique way”.
para sa akin, teachers teach, students listen. teacher commands, students obey. old skool.
The story of Bill Gates, for instance, the hero of modern-day capitalism, is the true-to-life success story of a school dropout. Let’s not even look that far.
not everybody can be a basketball player. in the PBA, there are 10 teams with 12 players each. do the math sassy. only 120 players can make to the big leagues. you’re better off getting a good education than try to become a pro player.
There’s nothing wrong with traditional education. Look at the chinese. education is not about making students feel good about themselves or making them “feel special” in their own “unique way”.
para sa akin, teachers teach, students listen. teacher commands, students obey. old skool.
not everybody can be a basketball player. in the PBA, there are 10 teams with 12 players each. do the math sassy. only 120 players can make to the big leagues. you’re better off getting a good education than put your eggs in your basketbol basketbol…
and no, not everybody can just drop out of college and be a gazillionaire like bill gates 😉
john, i don’t think either our schedules can bear it.
also, i’ve never seen a bergman movie.
San Miguel should get its power from BEER.
“FuelCell Energy Inc., a manufacturer of ultra-clean electric power plants for commercial, industrial and government customers, recently announced the upgrade of its 1-megawatt (MW) Direct Fuel Cell power plant at Sierra Nevada Brewing Company to use fuel created from a waste byproduct of the brewing process. With this enhancement, Sierra Nevada furthers its sustainability and energy-efficiency goals, while realizing substantial cost savings by offsetting its purchase of natural gas.”
Are you aware of your own biases when you distort the facts to spin everything against the administration and paint a picture of destruction? Or are you really just as stupid as you sound?
so trillianes is not going to physically sit in the senate afterall, if the trial court’s decision holds. i think we have enough brain-dead clowns in there anyway, we don’t need another.
let this be a lesson to those inclined to disregard the hard realities of life. as i see it, the vote for trillianes was either a prankster’s joke or a comical act against the “establishment” that backfired on everyone’s face.
Bencard,
Actually the judge’s decision, which pitted Trillanes’ voters against the interests of the rest of the nation, raises some legal questions, foremost among them is this:
Can those 11M who voted for Trillanes be charged for conspiracy to legitimize a mutiny against corruption in the military?
Judge Pimentel position was law based on judicial decision and precedence rather than legal statues and on the merit of compassion. And to my opinion Here’s what a case law is and how it is formed his decision. When a person appeals his case, a judge’s decision, it sometimes will make its way to the highest court, the Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court deems the initial trial judge to have made a mistake when rendering his judgment or if they feel the defendant was not granted a fair trial the Supreme Court will overturn and reverse the initial trial judge’s decision .It isn’t a law so to speak, but rather it is a ruling a higher court has ruled upon and the lower courts must follow it. It is used as sort of a guide the lower courts will follow.
In Trillanes case, Judge Pimentel adopted his ruling on the case of Martinez vs Morfe from the supreme court. If the judge overturned this ruling and granted Trillanes motion. What about the child rapist Jaloslos? He can appeal his case to have the same grant of motion.They have both the same appeal motion and similarities. However, If Trillanes was granted bail he can have that free will.The way I look at it, the only chance he can attend a Senate hearing is by bail, have his case withdrawn or he can prove that he is not guilty as charged.But,how long before the court will have a trial on his case? Trial date postponement kills a lot of days,months or even a year and this is allowed in court with a valid reason.The trial will be postponed if the prosecutor inform the court that he can not proceed the trial because his wife beat him badly with black eye,the court will postpone it for another date,until 6 years Trillanes term as a senator expired and he no longer a senator when he get out in the slammer.
Honasan case was purely political maneuvered. He probably made a deal because he knew that even he win in the election his senate seat is in jeopardy. The case attributed to him was withdrawn by the prosecution. So, he is on his own free will.
Judge Pimentel is just doing his job and I am not prejudicial with him that he is bias. It is so happened that the court is under the command of the despotic regime of Arroyo. Even Trillanes will appeal his case to the Supreme Court, the verdict will be no difference. The judge did not made any unethical error on case for any reason of appeal.
buencamino,i give you the benefit of doubt that you are not stupid to swallow trillianes’ still unproven, vague excuse (that his act was “mutiny against corruption”). since anyone could make that claim, and no one was privy to his state of mind when he committed the alleged act, he has nothing but his own allegation which, in turn, depends on his own credibility. what judge would believe the words of an accused traitor?
wait for him to prove his claim, then i will try to answer your question.
Bencard,
Maybe you are being too harsh against those who voted for Trillanes. Can it not be interpreted that, by voting someone who had the risk of not being able to serve his mandate, the electorate just wanted to deliver a message to the administration that it is on thin ice? I hope they got the message.
Tama si Adel!
Sir MLQ3,
Kahapon may nakaaway ako sa isang Net forum. Nag-private message siya na wala daw kwenta ang blog ko. Binalikan ko siya. Tapos kanina nag-sorry. Ang sabi naman ngayon galit lang daw siya sa blog niyo. Hanggang ngayon iniisip ko kung bakit ako ang tinitira niya tapos kayo pala ang dahilan nang galit niya. Pag napunta siya dito wag niyo na lang pansinin. Jose Pidol ang Internet name niya.
jaxius:maybe. but what difference does that make to the law – whether statutory or jurisprudential?
Rom,
It has nothing to do with the case being faced by Trillanes. It is a mere reaction to Bencard’s seeming putdown of the Trillanes victory. If I were part of the administration, I’d read the writing on the wall before it completely spells out “mene mene tekel upharsin.”
“what judge would believe the words of an accused traitor?” – Bencard
Isn’t an accused presumed innocent until proven otherwise? Bencard, the lawyer, has already convicted accused Trillanes of treason.
If no judge would believe, or even take into consideration, the allegations of an accused, why have a trial at all? What accused could get a fair trial if all judges had that kind of mind-set?
I’m glad Bencard is just a lawyer and not a judge.
“Isn’t an accused presumed innocent until proven otherwise?”
Now if only this declaration could be made to apply by everybody, to everybody.
jaxius:i see what you mean.
jaxius, you’re right, it could very well have been a protest vote. but what a costly way to make a point! they have already said a lot by electing a shameless blabbermouth in cayetano, a certifiable charlatan who loves to shoot from the hip (whose only claim to fame is his insane hatred for the presidential family). but why also a jailbird who is accused of wanting to destroy the very government he is now ostensibly seeking to serve? are half of the filipinos so masochistic or just plain slow ‘up there’? now they know, the big joke is on them but hardly anyone is laughing (yes, including me) because almost everybody is hurting.
Are you aware of your own biases when you distort the facts to spin everything FOR the administration and paint a picture of a wonderful goverment? Or are you really just as stupid as you sound?
Bencard,
It would have been costlier if the people would just go on with their lives as if everything is alright. While, as you continue to point out, nothing has been proven about corruption in the Arroyo government, it undeniably exists and someone has to take accountability for it. You don’t need to see a carcass to conclude that something is rotting, it reeks. As the President, the buck should stop at her.
But jaxius, its been years now that people has been talking about corruption . Yet no one is being convicted. For christ sake, can anybody just subtantiate that charges and go to court? We can not just keep on talking about it. You know, if you smell a rotting carcass you better do something about it or you will be constantly annoyed by the foul smell.
That is why I really dont understand Villar at all. If he really wanted to arrest corruption, then appoint the person that he believe will really go after the corrupt officials. And that should be Lacson or Cayetano or naybody from opposition. After all, he claimed that he is not afraid of the threat withdrawal of support by pro admin senators. So he is confident enough that he will retain the Senate presidency no matter what. No need to meet with Pimentel. The more he delays his decision on the Blue Ribbong chairman, the more his image as a leader is being tarnished. Ther is just no way that I can vote for Villar for president if he continue to act like that.
And hats off to Joker for giving way!
sayang. pero ito yung example ng mga podcasts na pinapakinggan ko:
– yung kay glenn reynolds and wife dr. helen, they do their podcasts “whenever they feel like it” (raw).
– pajamasmedia’s david corn and miniter do their weekly 15-min podcast during lunch hour sa loob ng restaurant.
The Senate is not the right body to prosecute corrupt officials. It can only investigate anomalous transactions. It is the Tanodbayan who must file a case with Sandiganbayan to get a conviction. But so far, the record of Tanodbayan is dismal. We have the fertilizer fund scam, the AFP cash conversion scam, the Comelec computerization scam, all sorts of scam, and yet nobody has even been indicted. Worse, the Tanodbayan cleared Abalos and his gang despite the Supreme Court’s finding of irregularities – a situation where there is a crime but there are no criminals. Onli in da Pilipins.
So, Rego, if you want a conviction for corruption, look at the Tanodbayan.
Bencard,
Forget his claim. Let me rephrase my question instead.
Can the 11M who voted for Trillanes be charged for conspiring to legitimize the Oakwood mutiny?
Or should they be charged with treason?
Kawawa nga naman itong si Trillanes.
He got himself in jail for what he thought was right, and he got himself elected by what a bunch of people thought was right.
This bozo is in quite an interesting situation. Although there really is nothing in his funny situation that helps us answer two really simple questions:
Did he do the right thing (partcipate in a mutiny)?
Did the people do the right thing by voting what is (by the clear letter of the Law) nothing more than a misguided crook?
Hmmmm.. 😉
for those who can read the law but cannot understand how it works, “presumption of innocence” is only an initial presumption. once an evidence is produced that tends to support the charge, the presumption vanishes like a bubble and the accused must produce his own proof to rebut the prosecution’s evidence. if all that trillianes has is a vague claim that he mutinied “against corruption”, he could be in big trouble.
btw, lack of credibility has nothing to do with presumption of innocence, shaman. an accused can have that presumption, but a trier of fact can still find his words unworthy of belief because of his reputation for lying.
that’s why an accused with bad credibility is better off not testifying on his behalf.
jaxius, i do not exactly claim that there is no corruption in the arroyo administration. i know, however, that where there is clear viable evidence, eg., gen. carlos garcia, et al., prosecution and/or conviction follow. still, i don’t think incidence of corruption justifies any soldier to take up arms against the government. if that is o.k., then God help us!
Bencard,
I am with you when you say that there is no reason that would justify an uprising or a mutiny among our soldiers. It is the highest violation of their oath and a desecration of the noble profession of arms. I would even forward the idea that a soldier has no right to rebel against an oppressive government. The most they could do is not to follow illegal orders. A legal order from the duly constituted authorities must be followed even if a soldier does not believe in its wisdom.
“It is the highest violation of their oath and a desecration of the noble profession of arms. I would even forward the idea that a soldier has no right to rebel against an oppressive government”
See this is the kind of stuff that Pinoy voters cannot seem to grasp. And it extends to the way they regard legislators. For most Pinoys, a senator rallying in the streets amongst them is more noble than the a senator sitting in his airconditioned office DOING HIS JOB.
Which is what I meant by the hollow-headed extremist romanticism burnt into the very fabric of the Pinoy psyche. Which seems to be the fundamental cause of our addiction to Edsa “revolutions” and bad-boy senatorial candidates like Trillanes.
This bozo Trillanes, it turns out, had a pregnant wife when he joined this silly mutiny. Anong klaseng tao yan? He presumes to do this dubious “heroic” act putting an this abstract conceot of the “public good” above the welfare of his own child?
Engot nga talaga is all I can say about this guy.
Benigno,
This bozo Trillanes, it turns out, had a pregnant wife when he joined this silly mutiny. Anong klaseng tao yan? He presumes to do this dubious “heroic†act putting an this abstract conceot of the “public good†above the welfare of his own child?
Siguro ginawa niya yun ginawa niya kasi gusto niya na yun anak niya ay magkaroon ng magandang kinabukasan.
Baka naman ganun klaseng tao siya, si ba?
I know, shaman, I know! But before the tanod bayan can do their dont they need evidence to substantiate the charges?
And this is where the senate investigations investigations come in. Yes? So Senate investigations is critical for the prosecution of the corrupt official. That is where the evidence shoull and filing of the proper charges will be coming from. The fertilzer scam investogated by Senator Magsaysay is a very good example of this process.
I for one can not support anyone who took up arms and attempted to commit the highest violation of a citizen duties, rebellion, treason, insurrection and a person or group of person do it either they succeed or suffer. Trillanes did not succeed, then he has to suffer the consequence, but again in the country it is always not true, Gringo for example..
Then, one Louis Riel was voted twice or more as a Federal MP while in exile in U.S. but he did return and took up arms against his government, he didn’t succeed, he was hanged….
Survey firms discovered a goldmine when they started making political surverys and made lots of money from both sides of the political divide. They even make the issues by making surveys on hunger, and popularity of politicians and government institution. Its time our lawmakers enact a law that will regulate these survey companies by requiring them to reveal the names of the sponsor/s, the people they surveyed, their addresses and their respective replies to their questionnaires. Its only 1,200.00 people, just for transparency.
benign0, if your logic’s to be followed, women in the uk wouldn’t have the vote (no suffragettes throwing themselves under the king’s racehorse to the trampled to death, truncheoned, waterhosed and imprisoned, etc.), the blacks in the usa wouldn’t be allowed to vote in the deep south, and schools, buses, etc. would be segregated, europe wouldn’t have developed the welfare state (or permitted labor unions), all of these things arising from romanticism and public protest, including sympathetic officials joining in the protests.
romy, that’s like repealing the law of supply and demand. surveys are an integral part of modern democratic practice and government that acknowledges public opinion.
manuelbuencamino,
“Siguro ginawa niya yun ginawa niya kasi gusto niya na yun anak niya ay magkaroon ng magandang kinabukasan.
Baka naman ganun klaseng tao siya, si ba?”
Some people believe he did what he did on Oakwood for that reason. However, they say it was in a far less noble way than what you probably think.
buencamino, in the first place, there is no equivalence, moral, legal or otherwise, between voting for trillianes and “legitimizing” the oakwood mutiny. about the only thing in common between them is that they are both foolhardy.
treason is a war crime. unless you now believe that we are in a “state of war” with the NPA and MILF, then we can talk about treason and conspiracy to commit it.
…or it could be far more.
bencard,
Daniel Smith has been found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of raping “Nicole” in Subic in 2005, by a Regional Trial Court.
According to your understanding of the Law, has Daniel Smith lost the presumption of innocence?
If yes, do you believe the “burden of proof” at the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court has shifted to the Defense, who must now establish innocence beyond a reasonable doubt?
Is that your description of the Philippine Justice System?
“Which is what I meant by the hollow-headed extremist romanticism burnt into the very fabric of the Pinoy psyche.”
Because of George Bush and the war on terror, passion for truth, freedom and other inviolable, God-given rights are now labeled extremism.
“PThen, one Louis Riel was voted twice or more as a Federal MP while in exile in U.S. but he did return and took up arms against his government, he didn’t succeed, he was hanged….”
People seem to learn from history and change their principles based on what happened in history even if what made history was just a bunch of random happenstance that have no direct bearing on the principles being fought in the first place. It’s like saying if an innocent fought for his life and for the life of his family with a bolo and his enemies have machine guns and tanks, he’s the immoral idiot. But he’s neither immoral or an idiot.
“Siguro ginawa niya yun ginawa niya kasi gusto niya na yun anak niya ay magkaroon ng magandang kinabukasan.
Baka naman ganun klaseng tao siya, si ba?â€Â
I think he did it because of classic disillusionment. He can’t take it after being raised on principles and taught principles in the PMA, after seeing brothers killed in battle and after killing some (brothers) himself, he can’t take the fact na lahat lokohan lang. I feel the same way.
It doesn’t make him a leader, but I voted for him because we need someone who’s got nothing to lose, someone who won’t play for political points and someone who won’t make politics a “career.”
Media may give us some transparency but that transparency is too complex for most people. You need to be a pundit or a degree in political science or you need to be a columnist thinking politics all day. Trillanes should serve a simpler avenue for transparency. A man who will say it out loud, someone who repect truth over polite behavior or etiqutte (friggin etiquette for thieves and murderers). I suppose if he doesn’t turn out to be like that he’ll disappoint a lot of people.
He may have been helped by his other co-accused, by them agreeing to a compromise deal, which he turned down. This made a very good impression from those who already believe in him.
djb, i’ll be patient with you. you said he has already been convicted “beyond reasonable doubt”. does he lost “presumption of innocence”? what do you think? you don’t have to be a lawyer to discern the correct answer, do you?
assuming his appeal is based on issues of fact, he has the burden of proof that his appeal is meritorious. the quantum of evidence required of him is merely “preponderance of evidence”, not proof beyond reasonable doubt. if he meets the required proof, he gets acquitted.
So logically, if a guy has been found guilty beyond reasonable doubt, all he has to do on his appeal is collect evidence that will swing “guilty beyond reasonable doubt” back to reasonable doubt?
Yeah I think bencard is right on this one.
“I would even forward the idea that a soldier has no right to rebel against an oppressive government.”
Now this discussion is going somewhere. Do you mean, soldiers cannot be judge and jury of their own government or do you mean something more profound, i.e. a soldier does what he is ordered and nothing more.