Category: personal AnGoL

Notice the word smear and how he has turned the issue towards the political ambitions of Alan Peter Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes.  This is another reason to thank Binay he has exposed who Harry Roque is fighting for. None other than Harry Roque, and his Ego!
 

 The on-going Senate smear against Binay though is not new. This is why despite the fact that the Senate’s power to conduct investigations in aid of legislation is plenary in nature, meaning that only the Senate itself can say if when its investigations are indeed pursuant to law making, the Supreme Court has recently ruled that these investigations, bereft of genuine legislative basis, is prone to abuse. This is why plenary or not, the Court has ruled that the Senate cannot investigate without a legislative purpose.
The starting point in this long line of Jurisprudence is Arnault vs Nazareno. In this case, the Supreme Court first ruled that Senate inquiries are plenary in nature and that witnesses may be cited in contempt of the Senate where they fail to appear before the investigation and when they are found to be lying before the body.  Said the Court: “The power of inquiry – with process to enforce it – is an essential and appropriate auxiliary to the legislative function. A legislative body cannot legislate wisely or effectively in the absence of information respecting the conditions which the legislation is intended to affect or change; and where the legislative body does not itself possess the requisite information—which is not infrequently true—recourse must be had to others who possess it.”
Much later, during the administration of President Corazon Aquino, the Court ruled in the case of Bengzon vs. Blue Ribbon Committee that despite the plenary nature of legislative inquiries, the Senate could no longer pursue an investigation on a matter which was already pending in Court. This is because parties to the Senate investigation, when they are already charged in Court for the same subject matter being inquired upon, have the right against self-incrimination. In other words, the rationale behind the prohibition is because persons appearing in the legislative hearings may be held criminally responsible for matters, which they may state before Congress.
via Binay and the Senate inquisition « Harry Roque’s Blog.

Oscar Franklin Tan is slowly becoming required reading for the simple reason that The Bangsamoro Bill will define how a fourth of the country’s citizens and probably a third or maybe even half of it’s natural resources will be used. I believe and this is based on some calculation I did way back in college that we could with some luck and effort inch our way towards Malaysia’s Per Capita GDP. We desperately need a workable solution to our problem in the South.

The formidable array of legal experts tapped by the House of Representatives’ ad hoc committee on the Bangsamoro Basic Law will not be able to resolve the bill’s constitutionality. This issue turns on whether or not one chooses to interpret our fundamental law broadly to accommodate the idea of an unprecedented autonomous region in Mindanao. No clear legal standard governs this central question. It is ultimately not legal but political, and will be resolved with a political stand that the Supreme Court must respect.
The ad hoc committee’s first hearing last Oct. 27 opened with a representative of our retired generals. He asked that we ensure that our armed forces’ deployments are not restricted and that a de facto Bangsamoro army that may turn against us not be allowed. He insisted that the law contain an explicit provision prohibiting secession. With great conviction, he expressed the hope that his grandchildren would not spit on his grave for failing to protect our territory’s integrity.
The night before, I had coffee with an old Maranao schoolmate. He spoke animatedly about the Aquino administration’s cleanup of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, with more roads built there this term than in the rest of the ARMM’s history. About the need to properly manage Lake Lanao’s crucial biodiversity and hydroelectric resources. About organizing idealistic, young Moro professionals.
In a student magazine feature I wrote in 2000, my Muslim schoolmates narrated both the discomfort of being served pork at our freshman orientation and appreciating the beauty of Catholicism as a Muslim in Jesuit Ateneo. “All-out war” against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front was declared that year. Female students wearing head scarves were searched more closely in Manila malls. In Quiapo’s Golden Mosque, a friend was accused of being a dupe in a Christian plot to use Atenean Muslims to subvert others in Manila. He told me of aspirations for a dignified space of their own and that dream’s many meanings for different people. He lamented how the deep resentment of our Muslim peers in the University Belt translated into refusing to call themselves Filipino or having the flag on display at interfaith events.
via Bangsamoro bill can’t be analyzed legally | Inquirer Opinion.