At the End of the Day

THE ENORMOUS FIGURES of seized ivory smuggled "through" the Philippines--5.4 tons in 2009; 6.1 tons from China in 2006; 7.7 tons in 2005--prove the huge market of ivory in the country. It may be argued as a mere transhipment affair; but from all indications, it may not be so alone (why in the first place would smugglers from China passes through the Philippines? Does that make Philippine shipments to China safe by reputation?). By these figures alone we can surmise that these smuggling activities happen year in and out. With 2007 and 2008 reporting no cease or seizing of shipments, you can only presume that the supplies reached their intended receivers. I noticed in Brian Cristy's National Geographic article "Ivory Worship"  the perceivable excitement in the Catholic clerics he interviewed when speaking about the ivory icons. The reports from icon-makers in Manila on the regularity of Catholic clerics, religious and laity in their shops to purchase icons

IN THE ANCIENT magical arts, alchemy involved the use of myriad substances blended together in order to produce a special potion that witches and wizards use in their tradecraft. It is believed at times that using invisible ingredients can produce something out of nothing. That is, something visible out of things invisible. At least. Today, political journalism in the Philippines has a way of conjuring things from thin air. Sometimes to the shaking heads of readers who felt aghast at such violation of what is rational versus the propagandist slant in newsmaking. When senior Supreme Court associate justices had been bypassed in the appointment of Associate Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno as the new Chief Justice, attendance in the flag-raising ceremony every Monday seems to transform from a mundane routine in the High Court into an exercise "abundant" with political interpretations; a politico-alchemical conjuring, so to say. Should the absence of certain justices

I CAN ONLY describe the hilarious development in the appointment hearing of former senator Mar Roxas at the Senate Committee on Appointments as kadramahan sa buhay Senador , so heart-pounding and drama-filled worth the best soap opera in television today.   Early today as she did yesterday when concluded her controversial probe on resigned DILG Undersecretary Rico Puno, Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago short of calling all the fires of hell to descend upon Roxas for not attending her Committee's hearing. She considered his absence as a "snob" of her invitation. And today must be her chance to make do her threat of blocking the appointment of Roxas as Secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government.   But like an opera written with the versatility of a virtuoso in placing with the viewers emotions, the story shifted from drama, and potentially an action, into a fascinating comedy. Santiago indeed filed her motion to block the Roxas appointment. And

IN A DEMOCRACY, the banging of ideas in the hall of learned opinion puts in motion the equality of people among people in contributing for the best of the greatest number. It is therefore immature to condemn the adversary simply because he is winning the argument. If truth has to win the bearers of truth must succeed in arguing for it. A proponent of truth that cannot argue successfully must be the last person to be considered in such a critical occupation. Never was a time in our history as a Christian nation that the life of the unborn hangs in the balance of a word's definition.  The House Representatives is entering the phase of the legislation process where amendments of the very controversial and highly divisive RH Bill can be done by the proponents of the opposing camps. In this stage, a proponent who sleeps in the cause will bring the cause into a tragic end. Instead of staging social unrest, it is now the right time for the Roman Catholic Church and the prop

I CANNOT IMAGINE how an operative of the Special Counter-Insurgency Operations Unit (SCOU), when caught by insurgents and subjective to the worse torture imaginable, can ever survive with their mental faculties intact. But that's exactly what's going to happen if the recent products of SCOU Training cry foul, or more specifically 'hazing,' when they are subjected to the hard realities of law enforcent that handles counterinsurgency operations. Operatives must be physically hard and mentally sturdy to survive the prospect of getting captured without squelling reserved information to the enemy. I am disappointed to hear that the recent batch of SCOUT trainees considered their physical ordeals during training as 'hazing.' Have they entertained the thought that they were in Camp Ceferino Genovia in Barangay Bahay for an exotic 45-day vacation? If they cannot endure physical pain during training, they must ship out because real life counterinsurgency work

SERIOUS SUSPICIONS START to surface lately on the probability of a fix fight in the Pacquiao-Bradley split decision that had the Pambansang Kamao on the losing side. I thought I was the only one on this suspicion; but apparently not. Many are actually asking this difficult question: is Manny Pacquiao involved in the fix? If you still can remember rounds one through five, Manny behaved so much like the Manny we know--strong, fast, both in hands and feet. But when the bell rang to start Round 6, Manny slowed down significantly, perhaps around 70 percent of the Pacquiao we know. Could that slow down be a cue for the "fix" mechanism to proceed? There are many benefits for a setup of such a fix. First, that's supposed to be Manny's last fight before he hands his boxing gloves. Losing a fight that can be convincingly one later on after Manny has tested what Bradley can dish out was no unavoidable loss, but a strategic one. It gives Manny an excuse to figh

THE THING WITH the latest pull out of the Philippine military vessels from the disputed Panatag Shoal gives me a feeling that we have embarassed ourselves for getting duped into withdrawing from standing put in defending that claim. The current statement from the Chinese foreign ministry seems to say that the Philippines has the only responsibility to keep the tension down in the area; not the overreaching China. Somehow China managed to stand pat on its stubbornness in "defending" what is "hers" from the Philippine claim. If the Philippine politicians fail to get the message, then we as well admit our claim as much weaker (of low resolve) compared to that of China. Imagine leaving the Panatag Shoal on the excuse of protecting the government military vessels from bad weather. That's hollow-sounding to me considering that Chinese policy considers such a move a non-issue on their part. So much for our resolve to claim what is rightfully ours. And I be

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

RECENT EVENTS brought by the nature of things in this life tend to favor certain direction in overall events. Is it grace? Or, is it simply a painful joke that decides fortune and misfortune? Yesterday, Negros Occidental Representative Ignacio Arroyo sufferred a heart attack while in his home in London. He had been there for his regular checkup on his liver ailments. But this time the cardiac event proved fatal as he cruised to coma, declared clinically dead, and then finally remove any life support as the medical team handling his case pronounced him dead. He died at age 61. This event has huge and unprecedented impact on the legal battles of his brother former First Gentleman Miguel Arroyo (FG) who is facing a criminal rap in connection to the purchase of three used helicopters by the Philippine National Police (PNP) during the time of his wife's presidential term. Iggy, as Congressman Arroyo is known to his friends, had been a valuable shield of FG in various lega

DAY SIX in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona showed confusion in the court. And it centers on a tax reporting document that even Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile was not familiar of--the Alpha List. It is a list of single-income employees that their company submit to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) in lieu of an employee's individual filing of her annual income tax return (ITR). Prosecution private lawyer Arthur Lim knew the Alpha List well enough; he got serious problem cross-examining the witness, BIR Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares, without touching on the issue of ill-gotten wealth that the Senate, acting as the Impeachment Court, ruled as inadmissible for presentation of evidence. He attempted to continue at least three time, stumbled into the non-issue again and again. Defense lead counsel Serafin Cuevas was in his elements. He obviously knew what is an Alpha list is. But nevertheless strategically tried to throw the prosecution off the tr

IT IS NO accident that we refer to God as the Truth with the capital "T." Truth has a way of getting through no matter the obstacles that those who want to deny it will put up on its way as long as people of good will do something actively to uphold it. In fact, even in the denial of truth, truth itself can be revealed. At this early point of the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona, the truth made itself unsuppressable despite the attempts of the defense team headed by former associate justice Serafin Cuevas. It is understandable that the defense lawyers are doing what they think their job is in preventing their client from getting convicted for the Second Article of Impeachment. It is understandable, and in fact expected, of them to do what they usually do in criminal courts, going to technical objections on every turn in the hope that objections can suppress the truth with so much adversarial hullabaloo. But what the defense failed to see is the fact