The investigation of the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee should not be stopped until we get the whole story. Not because, as Palace spokesperson Edwin Lacierda seems to imply, the Senate cannot trust the Office of the Ombudsman and the NBI to do the job. And not because, as Sen. Nancy Binay insists, the court is the only place where the issue can be resolved.
But because those entities are, from experience, going to take their own sweet time about it. And time is what the Filipino people do not have. They are going to the polls in 2016, and the information that the Senate investigation provides them about the presidential candidates (Binay is the only declared candidate, but Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano and Trillanes seem to be hopefuls—their behavior can also be judged) will be invaluable.
via Is P-Noy being soft on Binay? | Inquirer Opinion.
Only Ayalas didn’t give Binay condos–Mercado | Inquirer News
Testifying at the resumption of the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee inquiry into supposed Makati irregularities, Mercado alleged that Binay used dummies to hide his ownership of these condominium units—a charge the Vice President’s camp denied.
As examples (mga halimbawa), Mercado cited six buildings where Binay allegedly had units and presented a notarized affidavit from Ariel Olivar, an engineer who admitted he was used as a front for Binay’s unit at The Peak condominium.
Mercado also alleged that among the other buildings where Binay owned a unit were the Le Triomphe condominium; the Makati Sunrise Tower, now the Berjaya Hotel; Perla Compania de Seguros Mansion Condotel; Prince Plaza II Condotel; and Avignon Tower.
via Only Ayalas didn’t give Binay condos–Mercado | Inquirer News.
Mabini in America | Inquirer Opinion
The day Mabini was buried saw an unprecedented outpouring of support and sympathy [I have written on this before]. Thousands of people joined the funeral procession. A visiting American woman, whose name I [still] have not yet been able to determine, wrote a vivid account for a Boston newspaper [which included this extraordinary passage]: “It seemed as though the whole city of Manila had gathered, and I could not help noticing the large proportion of strong and finely intelligent faces, especially among Mabini’s more intimate friends. Most noticeable, also, and with a certain suggestiveness for the futrue sic, was the extraordinary number of young men, many of them evidently students, keen, thoughtful and intelligent looking.” [She saw Mabini in his mourners.]Mabini was never in America, of course. At the turn of the 20th century, Guam [his place of exile] was a new possession of the United States, American soil-in-the-making. So the man whom LeRoy called the “chief irreconcilable,” whom Gen. Elwell Otis labelled the “masterful spirit” behind Philippine resistance to American occupation, was only present in the United States in the sense that he represented a new idea—an intellectual at the head of a revolution, an ideologue.In Mabini’s America, he was the un-Aguinaldo.
via Mabini in America | Inquirer Opinion.
Nothing there | Inquirer Opinion
The first committee hearing on the alleged overpricing of the Iloilo Convention Center showed that the complaint for plunder was based on mere hearsay, that there was no evidence of any overprice, and that there was no showing of corruption. Would that Vice President Jejomar Binay, who faces exactly the same kind of controversy, also show up before the same committee, and answer any and all questions about the allegedly overpriced Makati City Hall Building 2.
via Nothing there | Inquirer Opinion.
Binay and the Senate inquisition « Harry Roque's Blog
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.
John Oliver's Last Week Tonight is better than The Daily Show and The Colbert Report: Here's why.
We need a show like this in our country. Currently the media is subservient only to its need for eyeballs.
Oliver’s show threw a wrench into that possible outcome by taking core bits that once were the sole province of The Daily Show (the punny/smart-assed headlines, the “gotcha” deconstructions of political chicanery, the “Does this person I am interviewing know I am putting them on?” segments, the occasionally surreal imagery) and putting them at the service of education. I’ve watched every installment of Last Week since its debut. Every time, I’ve come away feeling that I’ve truly learned something. In an increasingly degraded journalistic landscape, that’s an astonishing achievement.
via John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight is better than The Daily Show and The Colbert Report: Here’s why..
Has Harry Roque lost his marbles? | The Society of Honor by Joe America
I cannot endorse this more!
I have decided that Roque is an intimidator. It is a form of extortion, a way to get his political way by using . . . stepping on, threatening, attacking . . . the innocent or vulnerable. First, the American soldier is clearly, by all moral standards, innocent until proven guilty. Second, Laude was murdered by a person, not the United States of America. Third, the AFP was simply doing its job. Roque attacked all three, soldier, US and AFP. Bluster. Press conferences. Intimidation. Lawsuits.
No evidence in hand . . .
As an intimidator and extortionist, Roque is not armed with guns and he does not have a gang of bullies behind him. But make no mistake, his method of operation is forceful if not brutal. He uses the courts as his weapons, and they are pliable to his manipulations. He files fast and furious, plays the press, and he makes life hell for anyone who crosses him. He will make the AFP . . . or rather, Philippine taxpayers . . . pay a lot of money to defend the AFP’s responsible behavior and punish his irresponsible behavior.
As if anyone with a grievance can sneak people into a prison and stand complicit as they scale jailhouse walls in protest. Free speech, that?
via Has Harry Roque lost his marbles? | The Society of Honor by Joe America.
BusinessWorld | Understanding (and not just exposing) corruption
If Binay is saying that his entitlement to respect as the country’s Vice-President outweighs the public’s right to the truth about an individual who could very well be President of this country from 2016 to 2022, the media need to point it out as one more indication of what’s wrong with the political system.
Binay cannot just keep on doing what he’s been doing for one simple reason: his approval ratings as well as his numbers as the leading candidate for the Presidency in 2016 are falling, indicating that much of the public believes the charges against him to be true, in all probability because neither he nor his spokespersons have been doing a credible job of refuting them. For his own sake as well as that of the electorate, 41% of which, prior to the airing of the allegations against him, had declared that they would vote for him in 2016.
On the other hand, the media need to go beyond merely reporting the juicy details of the charges against Binay and, such as it is, his attempts at responding to them. Rather than empowering citizens, the incessant reports on corruption in the public sector, among them the current focus on Binay among other officials, are reinforcing mass apathy and disaffection with political engagement.
via BusinessWorld | Understanding (and not just exposing) corruption.
Bangsamoro bill can’t be analyzed legally | Inquirer Opinion
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.
Who’s footing ‘Binay’ farm’s bills? | Inquirer News
Some enterprising lawyer should get the names of all the local farmers who are apparently unwittingly acting as dummies and file for Affidavit of Loss then try to sell these lands as fast as possible and just migrate.
He, too, was a dummy
It turned out that he had been one of them, he said.
Mercado said he remembered Binay directing him to go to President Jose P. Laurel Bank in Batangas to sign the deed of sale for the property. An original certificate of title was later issued in Mercado’s name.
But while his name was used, he said, it was not he who paid for the property and, for that matter, he was also not the one paying taxes for it. The tax payments are up to date, he said.
“I did not pay for that. They did. They just asked me to go there to sign [the documents],” he said, as he resumed his testimony into the alleged irregularities in Makati City.
He said he had not signed any document authorizing Gregorio to sell the land to Tiu.
Mercado also said that as shown by the documents, he is still the owner of the 4.2- hectare property that is supposed to be part of the Sunchamp estate.
“Up to now, that’s mine because it has not yet been transferred,” he said.
Even if the original title is not with him, he can file an affidavit of loss and get a new copy of the title, he said.
Mercado also showed copies of tax declarations in the name of Anna Marie Gregorio for 5,000 square meters of the so-called hacienda.
No DAR clearance
He alleged that the property was sold to Gregorio by an agrarian reform beneficiary, but without a clearance from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
Cayetano said the implication of Mercado’s testimony was that Tiu’s investors had been duped. Tiu said he had paid P11 million for the P440 million transaction and had spent P50 million for improvements on the property.
via Who’s footing ‘Binay’ farm’s bills? | Inquirer News.