Please talk of how you became “a sterling example of what a true-blue Mapan should be” and how we can give back to society, was the request of former congressman Benny Abante Jr., president of the Mapa High School Alumni Association. My full speech before 1,000 alumni gathered at the Metro Tent, Pasig City, on Feb. 23 may be accessed at cjpanganiban.com.
The televised testimony of Ruby Tuason before the Senate blue ribbon committee has been hailed as a grand “slam dunk,” only a “lay-up,” and a winning “three-point buzzer-beater.” These street-smart assessments of how the former Malacañang social queen pinned down her longtime family friend-senator are, of course, familiar to basketball diehards.
Ruby Tuason, who has been charged with plunder in the Office of the Ombudsman (OOO) by the Department of Justice (DOJ), executed an affidavit detailing her participation in the crime, implicating some of her alleged coconspirators and offering to return her share of the loot, which she admitted to the Senate blue ribbon committee as about P40 million. Is she now free of criminal liability?
Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza, the Harvard-educated and bar-topnotcher counsel of the Republic, argued in the Supreme Court that (1) the President “authorized the disbursements under the DAP (Disbursement Acceleration Program),” (2) the “disbursements [had] an appropriation cover,” and (3) “the government [had] sufficient savings to support these disbursements.”
My fellow alumni of Far Eastern University requested me to print my remarks on Jan. 28 at the investiture of Dr. Michael M. Alba as FEU’s 11th president. Non-Tamaraws will please bear with us.
Several congressmen are restive. They are dismayed by many alleged “flip-flopping” decisions of the Supreme Court and are threatening to disobey some of these and to impeach the justices for their “bad” rulings.
Did the “realignment” made by nine senators of their Priority Development Assistance Fund in the 2014 national budget violate the unanimous landmark decision of the Supreme Court declaring the PDAF unconstitutional (Belgica vs Ochoa, Nov. 19, 2013, penned by Justice Estela M. Perlas-Bernabe)? In short, are the senatorial “realignments” unconstitutional and void?
Unknown to many, the Supreme Court issued “motu proprio” (on its own volition) a resolution, dated Dec. 10, 2013 (a copy of which I got a few days ago), instituting five new measures or guidelines to speed up the Maguindanao massacre trial.
The Constitution states, “Members of the Supreme Court and judges of lower courts shall hold office during good behavior until they reach the age of seventy years or become incapacitated to discharge the duties of their office.” Readers ask: What do Supreme Court justices do after they retire? Given their reclusive life on Mount Olympus, how do they adjust to “normal” life?
Good news! Prior to its adjournment for the holidays, the Senate started plenary deliberation on the freedom of information (FOI) bill. Buried in the legislative mill for the last 14 years, the bill was resurrected by Sen. Grace Poe in the Senate committee on public information, which approved it last September. Senate President Franklin Drilon expects the entire chamber to pass it by the end of March.
The Supreme Court assured a “Merry Christmas” for our senior citizens when it affirmed the constitutionality and mandatory character of the 20-percent discount on their purchases from or use of “hotels and similar lodging establishments, restaurants and recreation centers, medicine… funeral and burial services… theaters, cinema houses and concert halls, circuses, carnivals and other similar places of culture, leisure and amusement… medical and dental services.” It also validated the implementing rules and regulations of the discounts.
The recent signing of the “Annex on Power Sharing” of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) is a significant milestone in the elusive search for lasting peace with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
