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Angara also raised a question that emerged in the wake of the deal’s exposure: how is Binay able to remain as BSP national president for nearly two decades? Binay led the BSP from 1998 to 2000, and again in 2001 up to now.
The senator said that for other government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs), the President can change the head of the agency.
via Boy Scouts ‘so shortchanged’ in Alphaland deal – senators.

 
 
Besides the usual trio heading the investigation into alleged anomalies of Vice President Jejomar Binay, senators Juan Edgardo Angara, Sergio Osmeña III, and Ferdinand Marcos Jr joined the inquiry on Wednesday, February 18. Senators Aquilino Pimentel III, Alan Peter Cayetano, and Antonio Trillanes IV led the probe.
via Boy Scouts ‘so shortchanged’ in Alphaland deal – senators.

I am sure their answer would have been no different from that of the MILF: They didn’t know. I think that we are in no position to demand of the MILF what we do not expect our own officials to know.
Let’s face it. In our heart of hearts, we know that, despite the existence of the formal institutions of national government, political control over many parts of Muslim Mindanao is at best tenuous and unstable. The Philippine state cannot claim monopoly of force in these parts. We know only too well how every adult in Muslim Mindanao aspires to own a gun as a means of personal protection in frontier-like conditions. No one bothers to have these weapons licensed by the Philippine government.
Our local officials and police in these areas know this, but choose to look the other way. All kinds of armed groups operate in this region. They put up checkpoints demarcating the territories they consider theirs, and collect fees in exchange for passage. So long as they do not kill or abduct people for ransom, or destroy government facilities and private property, our authorities do little to suppress them—in prudent observance of peaceful coexistence. But, out of ignorance or for reasons of our own, we in Manila continue to promote the fiction that Muslim Mindanao is an integral part of the Filipino nation-state. On paper, it is so. But, in practice, Filipino sovereignty over Muslim Mindanao is at best a work in progress.
via The myth of control | Inquirer Opinion.

Who won? Plainly, the government won because the Court partially granted its motion for reconsideration by limiting personal liability only to the “authors” of the DAP, and only after other tribunals find evidence showing bad faith and culpability. Otherwise stated, the DAP decision cannot, by itself, be a source of liability.
Clearly, the above-quoted constitutional exception is quite difficult to comprehend. In fact, on March 5, 2013, the Court itself asked for the cross-border transfer of P100 million from the Department of Justice’s budget to the judiciary for the construction of the Malabon Hall of Justice. This request was, however, withdrawn on Dec. 23, 2013, after the petitions questioning the constitutionality of the DAP were filed.
This shows that even the keenest legal minds can misconstrue the exception. Hence, it is fair and reasonable that the doctrine of operative fact should validate past acts, and that everyone, including the “authors,” should be given the presumptions of innocence, good faith, and regularity in the performance of official duties.
Far from condemning it, the DAP, said the Court, “is a policy instrument that the Executive, by its own prerogative, may utilize to spur economic growth and development.” Moreover, unlike in the case involving the PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund), the Court did not find any public money malevolently flowing into private pockets, or to pseudo foundations, or to fake nongovernment organizations.
At bottom, I think it is reason, logic and fairness that really won.
via Who won in new DAP ruling? | Inquirer Opinion.

Who won? Plainly, the government won because the Court partially granted its motion for reconsideration by limiting personal liability only to the “authors” of the DAP, and only after other tribunals find evidence showing bad faith and culpability. Otherwise stated, the DAP decision cannot, by itself, be a source of liability.
Clearly, the above-quoted constitutional exception is quite difficult to comprehend. In fact, on March 5, 2013, the Court itself asked for the cross-border transfer of P100 million from the Department of Justice’s budget to the judiciary for the construction of the Malabon Hall of Justice. This request was, however, withdrawn on Dec. 23, 2013, after the petitions questioning the constitutionality of the DAP were filed.
This shows that even the keenest legal minds can misconstrue the exception. Hence, it is fair and reasonable that the doctrine of operative fact should validate past acts, and that everyone, including the “authors,” should be given the presumptions of innocence, good faith, and regularity in the performance of official duties.
Far from condemning it, the DAP, said the Court, “is a policy instrument that the Executive, by its own prerogative, may utilize to spur economic growth and development.” Moreover, unlike in the case involving the PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund), the Court did not find any public money malevolently flowing into private pockets, or to pseudo foundations, or to fake nongovernment organizations.
At bottom, I think it is reason, logic and fairness that really won.
via Who won in new DAP ruling? | Inquirer Opinion.

If, say, 500 MILF rebels join the BIFF in rejecting the final shape of the Bangsamoro, that would still leave some 11,500 of the MILF ready to join the Philippine mainstream for the first time. That would make the deaths, not only of the SAF 44, but of the 120,000 killed in the conflict since the 1970s, worth the sacrifice.
via Ignorant, or arrogant, in the Senate | Inquirer Opinion.

There is much more to this issue than the bluster of Santiago, the opportunistic emotionalism of the Cayetanos, or the insidious obtuseness of Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr.When Marcos pretends to be shocked! shocked! that the MILF still considers itself a revolutionary movement, before the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro takes full effect, does he even remember that his own mother negotiated with the Moro National Liberation Front when it was still an insurrectionary movement? Of course something remains what it is until change is complete; to think otherwise is to raise impossible expectations.
via Ignorant, or arrogant, in the Senate | Inquirer Opinion.