At the End of the Day

EACH TIME February 24 comes each year, it must be a deluge of painful memories that will haunt the hearts and minds of the the Marcos heirs. The triumph of the People Power in 1986 meant the downfall of the Marcos family's clutch on political power. And I cannot blame Imelda and the Marcos children if they will feel bad each time the country celebrates the Day. It is simply natural to grieve the memories of so much loss. The news report today the post that Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. wrote for his Facebook account. The gist of it all is, after 26 years of freedom from his father's dictatorial rule, not much has changed. He asked: "Has poverty been alleviated? Is the wealth of the country more equitably distributed? Do we have more jobs available at home? Has there been a rise in the quality of our education? Are we self sufficient in our daily food requirements? Is there less hunger? Crime? Insurgency? Corruption? Basic services? Health?"

THE THEORY OF Constitutional Checks and Balances in government grew from the classical theory of separation of powers in goverment--between the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary. This allows a branch of government to provide a check on the other branch when it falls into the decadence of corruption and abuse of power. In theory, the legislative and judicial branches can reign on a rouge executive; the executive and the judiciary on a rouge legislative, and; the executive and legislative branches on a rouge judiciary. In fact, however, the executive and legislative branches of today have a hard time checking a rouge judiciary. In the general rule of the majority, a judiciary with majority behaving like they are not accountable to their wrongdoings, who can put a check on an institution that supposed to have "absolute" power in the interpretation of the Philippine Constitution? Of course, the problem is not the Constitution. It is the interpretation that

WITH THE CORONA counsels seeking the Supreme Court intervention to stop the Impeachment Trial on Chief Justice Renato Corona, and the Impeachment Court junking the Santiago motion for reconsideration (MR) against the issuance of subpoena on two banks to furnish the court records of Corona accounts, a showdown is offing between the Senate acting as an impeachment court and the Supreme Court known for its rulings "perceived as not impartial." There are two good things that will come out of this development. First, it will demand a show on how far the balance of power in the Constitutionally-mandated branches of "democratic republican government" work when such balance is assailed by no less than the Chief of the high court himself. With majority of associate justices known to be Corona allies as far as certain controversial rulings are concerned, there is a strong possibility that the majority of SC justices en banc will favor the petition to stop the impeachme

APPARENTLY, LIBERAL Party (LP)-National continues to have confidence in Hilario "Junjun" Davide III, despite his defeat in the 2010 elections. And when it comes to the election of the governor of Cebu in 2013, he heads the list of those that the party will support. But former senator John Henry "Sonny" Osmena has someone else in mind. Instead of Davide, Sonny wants a choice from four personalities--Vice Governor Agnes Magpale, Cebu 4th District Benhur Salimbangon, former tourism secretary Joseph Ace Durano, and 6th District representative Luis Quisumbing. These choices reflect more how Sonny's politics work, or how his mind works, than how LP thinks in choosing candidates for government offices. Because incidentally all these four politicians are One Cebu allies, a local party that opposed LP in the 2010 national elections. But that way of thinking is not surprising for Sonny. Although he started his political career as a Liberal in 1963, he was no so

SECTION 13 of the New Code of Philippine Judicial Conduct (27 April 2004) stated: Judges and members of their families shall neither ask for nor receive any gift, bequest, loan, or favor in relation to anything done or to be done or omitted to be done by him or her in connection with the performance of judicial duties. Its annotation explains that: Public officials and employees shall not solicit or accept, directly or indirectly, any gift, gratuity, favor, entertainment, loan or anything of money value from any person in the course of their official duties or in connection with any operation being regulated by, or any transaction which may be affected by the functions of their office." The key phrase here is--"in the course of their official duties." It means that as long as a judge remains a judge of Philippine courts, this Code applies, prohibiting any receipt, directly or indirectly, from any person. The question then is: Is a discount a gift? On 3

INSPIRATIONAL SPEAKER John Maxwell was in full logic when he said in one of his public presentations when he came to the Philippines. He said that a leader who is a two in competency range of 1 to 10 will not be able to get or develop leaders who are nines. Nines attrack nines. And there is no cutting short that law of nature. The dismal performance of public school principals in the recently results of the 2011 National Qualifying Examination for School Heads (NQESH) tells us in bleak terms a good part on the reason while public education in the country is a disgrace. If the third-richest person in the world Warren Buffett insisted that his children get their education from public schools, I wonder if he would change that policy had he been staying in the country. Of the 11,778 head teachers around the country, only 1,024 passed? I used the question mark at the end of an obvious statement in order to emphasize that something must be wrong in the figure. If the testakers wil

IF YOU CANNOT prevent the truth from getting out into the open court, move instead to eliminate judges that may likely vote for the truth. Despite the official rationale that the defense broadcasted in its move to oust Senator Franklin Drinlon as a senator-judge in the CJ Corona Impeachment Trial, it is obvious that the hidden motive is to bring down the percentage of potential votes towards the truth that may be adverse to the interest of their client, Chief Justice Renato Corona. It is a number's game. The required minimum voters to affirm the Article 2, which is 16, will not be met. And their chance increases with one judge out. The defensive move once again telegraphs their fear to get the truth of the complaint out into the open. If the fear among the defense team advocates exist, then truth may not be on their side. And the Filipino people know exactly what they are up to. And yet again they have to realize that the rules of judicial court does not apply in the