Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Arangkada for September 21, 2005

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       P1.2B NGA ABUSO

 

Dihang among gipangutana ang mga tigpaminaw sa DYAB Abante Bisaya angay bang ilubong ang patayng lawas ni Ferdinand Marcos sa Libingan ng mga Bayani, nisupak sila ug nipasabot nga di bayani ang diktador nga nipahamtang og martial law ug nanamastamas sa demokratikanhong mga institusyon sa nasud. Pero pipila nila niingon nga bisan unsa pay mga abuso nga nahimo ni Marcos angay gihapon siyang pasidunggan tungod sa daghang mga proyekto nga napasiugdahan sa 21 ka tuig niyang pamunoan.

Ang mga nisuporta ni Marcos niingon nga kon itandi sa mga presidente nga nibanos pagduma sa Malakanyang—silang Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada ug Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo—mas daghan gihapon og nahimo ang iyang diktadura. Kon wa pa mong kabantay, way kalainan ang sinultihan sa mga niawhag nga pasayluon na si Marcos tungod sa iyang ka-maayong laki sa mga nangugat nga kalimtan na lang ang pasangil nga nanikas si Pres. Arroyo sa niaging eleksiyon ginamit ang minilyon ka pesos nga payola sa jueteng kay way laing takos nga makapuli niya.

-o0o-

Niay makapakugang nga kasayuran sa laing posibleng abuso sa administrasyong Arroyo: Nasobrahan og P1.2 bilyones ang gasto sa gobyerno para sa intelligence sa niaging duha ka tuig. Matod ni Sen. Ralph Recto ang pinatuyangang pagasto sa intelligence fund mas dako pa kay sa anomalusong kontrata uban sa Venable LLP, ang lobby group sa Washington nga gitahasan pagpangayo og kuwarta sa Estados Unidos para sa charter change (cha-cha).

Nakapait kay confidential ang intelligence fund. Ug kay sekreto man, labihan kalisod nga subayon. Nipasangil si Recto nga gipahimuslan ning Pres. Arroyo di lang sa pagpaburot sa pondo kon dili sa pagamit sab ini para sa laing katuyoan. Gikahadlokang may sukaranan ang pagduda nga ang intelligence funds apil sa abundang mga tinubdan sa kuwarta sa mga magbubuhis nga gigamit pagsuburno sa mga kongresista ug mga sakop sa media aron paglawgaw sa impeachment sa presidente.

-o0o-

Nabisto ang higanteng anomaliya tungod sa dakong kang-a nga nakit-an sa Commission on Audit (COA) tali sa confidential ug intelligence funds nga gigahin sa Kongreso pinaagi sa general appropriations act (GAA) ug sa kantidad nga aktuwal nga gigasto sa administrasyon:

  • Sa 2003, ang gahin P1.225 bilyones pero ang gigasto niabot og P1.555 bilyones, sa ato pa, nasobrahan og P330 milyones o 27%; ug
  • Sa 2004, ang gahin P1.225 bilyones pero ang gasto niabot og P2.062 bilyones o 69%, nasobrahan og P837 milyones.

Matod ni Recto nga tungod sa COA report

klarong giilad sa Malakanyang ang mga kongresista ug mga senador sa ilang pangangkon sa gisugyot nga nasudnong budget para sa sunod tuig 2006 nga ang confidential ug intelligence expenses niabot lag P1.885 bilyones sa 2004. [30]  leo_lastimosa@abs-cbn.com

Impeachment: Double Dead?

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Posted by Alecks Pabico 
PCIJ

ALL hopes for a "Lazarus act" harbored by congressmen seeking to resurrect the impeachment complaint against Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo were completely dashed when the House of Representatives, which resumed its regular session today, adjourned shortly after it convened for a lack of quorum.

With only 104 out of 236 House members responding to the roll call sought by majority leader Rep. Prospero Nograles, the presiding Speaker, Rep. Emilio Espinosa Jr., ordered the adjournment, denying any recourse by the pro-impeachment lawmakers of filing a motion for reconsideration of the plenary decision that, with a vote of 158-51, junked all the impeachment complaints against Arroyo.

The pro-impeachment congressmen had hoped to exhaust one final legal option available to them only today at the Lower House — which the Supreme Court even pointed to when it dismissed late last week two petitions filed in connection with the Arroyo impeachment case. The petition filed by lawyer Ernesto Francisco was deemed premature as the pro-impeachment congressment could still file a maotion for reconsdieration. The other petition filed by lawyer Oliver Lozano was dismissed for violating the rules of civil procedure as he already filed a motion for extension when he has yet to file a petiton.

Raising the validity of the declaration of a lack of quorum, the opposition's pleas, reminiscent of the justice committee hearings, were again conveniently ignored by the presiding Speaker.

Rep. Rolex Suplico asked how the quorum was computed, citing that many congressmen who were reported to be Arroyo's travelling companions in her recent trip to New York to preside over the United Nations summit and general assembly, should not be counted as they cannot be compelled to attend since they are not within the coercive power of the House, citing the Supreme Court ruling on Avelino v. Cuenco.

In that 1949 case, the deposed and replaced Senate President Jose Avelino questioned his successor's title claiming that the latter had been elected without a quorum. Though it initially dismissed the petition,  the Court assumed jurisdiction and ruled on the existence of a quorum, declaring respondent Cuenco as the legally elected Senate President.

Suplico said the Supreme Court decision on the Avelino v. Cuenco case affirmed that the issue of a quorum can be applied only for House members who are within the country. 

It has also been the practice of the House, he said, not to declare those who are on official mission abroad as absent. House journals, in fact, list them among members who were present during sessions, their status — whether on official foreign or local trip — noted by the use of asterisks.

Akbayan Rep. Loretta Ann Rosales, who was able to obtain a list of the 31 congressmen who are on "official mission abroad", also insisted that the correct way of computing the quorum is to exclude those on the list from the roll.

On the said list were the following representatives:

  • Matias Defensor (LP)
  • Junie Cua (LP)
  • Aurelio Umali (Lakas)
  • Jose Ignacio Arroyo (Kampi)
  • Augusto Baculio (Kampi)
  • Claude Bautista (NPC)
  • Federico Sandoval II (LP)
  • Rene Velarde (Butil)
  • Antonio Cuenco (Lakas)
  • Roque Ablan Jr. (Lakas)
  • Eduardo Zialcita (Lakas)
  • Vicente Garcia Jr. (NPC)
  • Eulogio Magsaysay (AVE)
  • Generoso Tulagan (Kampi)
  • Prospero Pichay Jr. (Lakas)
  • Amado Espino Jr. (Kampi)
  • Rodolfo Antonino (Kampi)
  • Raul del Mar (Lakas)
  • Jose Solis (Lakas)
  • Uliran Joaquin (NPC)
  • Eladio Jala (Lakas)
  • Roberto Cajes (Lakas)
  • Cesar Jalosjos (PDSP)
  • Catalino Figueroa (KNP)
  • Edgar Chatto (Lakas)
  • Abdullah Dimaporo (Lakas)
  • Ma. Milagros Magsaysay (Lakas)
  • Josefina Joson (NPC)
  • Arthur Pingoy Jr. (NPC)
  • Herminia Ramiro (Lakas)
  • Antonino Roman (LP)

Of these, eight have already returned — Baculio, Velarde, Magsaysay (Eulogio), del Mar, Jalosjos, Tulagan, Pichay and Espino. Pingoy is on a local mission while South Cotabato Rep. Darlene Antonino-Custodio was erroneously listed as abroad.

Even with only 22 "on official mission", Rosales said that adding this to the number of House members present would add up to 126, well within the needed quorum to conduct House business.   

"By hastily calling the roll and declaring a lack of quorum, this only added to the malice and the cloud of doubt that attended the impeachment process," Rosales said, lamenting the majority's continuing "obstruction of justice."

On the motion of Nograles, the roll was called at 4:30 p.m., earlier than the standard practice slated at 5 p.m. on session days scheduled on Mondays to allow time for members, especially those coming in from the provinces.

In the abovementioned list, only Reps. Umali (Nueva Ecija) and Cuenco (Cebu) were reported to have joined Arroyo in the U.N. trip. Others mentioned include:

  • Bulacan Rep. Lorna Silverio (Lakas), chairperson of the Committee on Interparliamentary Relations and Diplomacy
  • Cebu Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz (Kampi) and Bulacan Rep. Reylina Nicolas (Lakas), who were invited by Speaker Jose de Venecia;
  • Occidental Mindoro Rep. Amelita Villarosa (Kampi), Pampanga Reps. Francis Nepomuceno (NPC), Anna York Bondoc (NP), Isabela Reps. Rodolfo Albano III (Kampi) and Anthony Miranda (Kampi), Bataan Rep. Albert Garcia (Lakas-Kampi), and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez (LP), all reportedly invited by Arroyo. 

De Quiros' Column

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There's The Rub : Legacies

Conrado de Quiros dequiros@info.com.ph
Inquirer News Service

(Conclusion)

EVEN in my youth, despite yielding for the most part to small-town blues, I've tried to do things differently, even if it risked derision. To this day, it is a source of ironic pleasure for my high school classmates to recall that I have the dubious distinction of being the only one from Ateneo de Naga to have lost the intra-Bicol essay contest. Indeed, not just to have lost it but to have lost it big-time. I decided to write creatively about an uncreative topic (I do not even recall now what it was) remembering that the humorist Robert Benchley wrote his college thesis in Economics on fisheries from the point of view of the fish. I suffered the same fate. Benchley flunked; I finished last in the contest.

But it's that drive to experiment -- call it daring or call it recklessness -- that drew me to activism in the first place, like moth to a flame. Not everybody rushed into its embrace at that time, which suggests that luck is often made, accidents are inevitabilities waiting to happen. You thrust yourself into the world as much as get thrust into it. It's a matter of discovering the familiar, or recognizing the strange. I don't know how else to put it.

So you ask me: Would I have supported my wife and daughter if they were fighting for the women's vote?

Well, I suppose if they were fighting for the women's vote, they would scarcely need my support, or ask for it. They would probably be women of strong character whose support I would be glad to have in my times of adversity. Quite incidentally, less than hypothetically, my wife and two kids, a girl and a boy, were all born under the sign of the Dragon while I was born under the sign of the Rabbit. I can assure you I've known dragon's breath to singe the fur on my back.

I don't know that any hypothetical answer to your hypothetical question would really go beyond platitude. I think I'll do better answering a very real question in the here and now, which is: What are you doing to help your kids at least, girl or boy, if not your lover, woman or man, get a crack at a better future?

My answer follows from what I've narrated above.

First off, I am trying, these days almost desperately, to leave them a better world.

We are the product of our time and place. We are weighed down, or buoyed up, by the values, attitudes, and convictions or biases of our time and place. I figure I'd try to leave them one with fewer biases than I got. I may not be able to change the world for them, but I'd like to think, or hope, I may be able, along with kindred spirits of my time and place, to create the space, or refuge, or sanctuary for them to let their dreams run wild, the way activism did for me. Who knows? Maybe not just run wild but come true. Winners in competitions often say they would not have been able to look at the world from their dizzying heights if they had not stood on the shoulders of giants.

That is what I want to do for my kids: help them stand on the shoulders of giants.

There is a complement to this, or indeed a more important undertaking. It is that I am trying, these days much more hopefully, to help the next generation think for itself. I want to develop in them the capacity to question their world and themselves, to rebel against fixation and tyranny -- even if they are my own.

Not the least of the reasons for this is that there are limits to the kind of world we can leave the kids. Ultimately, the best treasure we can give them is not the abundance of worldly goods, it is the hunger for knowledge. The best security we can give them is not an answering machine, it is a questioning mind. We affirm this implicitly when we strive to give our kids the best education they can get. That is far better than all the money we can put in their bank deposits, particularly if that money comes from the "jueteng" illegal lottery, or all the insurance we can buy, particularly if that insurance comes from the pre-need firm College Assurance Plan. Leaving the kids with a good mind, apart from a good name, is the most precious legacy we can bequeath.

But there is an even bigger reason why I want my kids to develop a capacity to think for themselves. It is not just to equip them to defend themselves from the world, it is also to equip them to defend themselves from me. Or at least from my generation. I go back to the proposition I made at the beginning, which is that the hardest enemy to fight is oneself. The hardest enemy to see is oneself. It's a truism, but it's true: The rebels of yesterday are the tyrants of today.

Some very literally so. Nothing for me constitutes a bigger irony than that the same activism that taught us to question everything under the sun also demanded that we never question the cause we were espousing. Or indeed the methods it employed. To do so was to be called a revisionist, not unlike being called heretic by the Church, and suffer the same fate. That is being burned at the stake. The "killing fields" are a testament to how backward those who demand that the world move forward can become, advancing only the cause of the Holy Inquisition.

I want my kids to be able to think for themselves, to say no to what is wrong -- even from me. That is not as easy as it sounds. To prove that, and as a parting shot, let me throw back your question at you. I won't ask you if you would rally behind your wife and daughter if they were fighting for the women's vote. That is easy. I will ask you instead: "If your kids were fighting for priests to have the right to marry, would you rally behind them?" "If your kids were fighting for gays, women and men, to have the right to marry, would you rally behind them?" "If your kids were fighting to have marijuana declared legal, would you rally behind them?"

Who knows? Maybe if I'm doing the right thing today, one of my grandchildren will be standing here 68 years from now to answer those questions.