With due respect to the Commission on Elections, I find no legal and factual basis for the proclamation in installment of six senatorial candidates (Grace Poe, Loren Legarda, Alan Peter Cayetano, Chiz Escudero, Nancy Binay and Sonny Angara) on May 16, and another three (Bam Aquino, Koko Pimentel and Sonny Trillanes) on the next day, May 17.
Despite scathing criticisms damning the PCOS (precinct count optical scan) system, the automated elections will be held tomorrow (Monday) as scheduled. Let us all go out and vote.
The Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro forged last year was merely a road map, or a work in progress to attain peace and prosperity in Southern Philippines. Still to be fleshed out are four vital annexes that would lead to the enactment of a Bangsamoro basic law and the eventual creation of a Bangsamoro homeland. (For details, see my Oct. 21, 2012, column.)
April 2, 2013, is a sad day for the poor and powerless. On that day, our Supreme Court in Atong Paglaum vs Comelec decreed that the party-list system may now be invaded by the privileged and powerful. It is no longer the sacred domain of the marginalized and underrepresented.
Days ago, I visited the Supreme Court of Japan to advise the justices of the construction and full operation of the Philippine Judicial Academy (Philja) Training Center in Tagaytay. I handed to Justice Masaharu Ohashi (Chief Justice Hironubu Takesaki was out of town) an album of photos and brochures showing the completed center and how it provides continuing education for our judges.
Bold and forthright was Joan S. Largo, dean of the University of San Carlos (USC) School of Law and Governance in Cebu City, when she characterized the Philippine judiciary as no longer the “weakest and least dangerous” branch of government. In fact, if its powers and duties are compared with those of its counterparts in the United States and other countries, our Supreme Court can be termed the most powerful in the world.
Why did the United Kingdom so easily cede its sovereignty over Sabah to Malaysia in 1963 despite knowing that its rights over the territory arose merely from the lease granted by the Sultan of Sulu to the British North Borneo Company? Why did it ignore the Philippine claim and voluntarily relinquish its sovereignty over Sabah to the new emerging state of Malaysia?
Both our Constitution and the United Nations Charter prohibit war and the use of force in settling disputes. Article 33 (not 51, as I wrote two weeks ago; thanks to eagle-eyed reader Zara Mari Dy of the College of Law, Silliman University) of the UN Charter obligates its members, including the Philippines and Malaysia, to “first of all, seek a solution by negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice.”
I am glad the Commission on Elections (Comelec) re-enfranchised 238,557 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and professionals. Earlier this year, it deleted their names from the National Registry of Overseas Absentee Voters for their failure to vote during the last two consecutive elections held in 2007 and 2010. But on March 5, the poll body interpreted the law more liberally, reversed its earlier decision, and allowed our overseas kababayan to remain on the voters’ list.
To understand (1) the claim of the Sultan of Sulu over Sabah, (2) the standoff in Lahad Datu town in Sabah, (3) the stand-down admonition of President Aquino directing the followers of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III led by his brother Datu Raja Muda Agbimuddin Kiram to withdraw and return peacefully to the Philippines, and (4) the enforcement actions of the Malaysian authorities that sadly resulted in death and injury, I think it is best to begin by discussing the concepts of sovereignty and ownership.
Unconstitutional, unfair and unwise in my humble view is the resolution of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) restricting candidates for national posts (senators and party-lists) to an “aggregate total” of only 120 minutes of TV ads and 180 minutes of radio ads for all stations. Candidates for local positions were given a maximum of 60 minutes of TV ads and 90 minutes of radio ads. Due to my limited space, let me just discuss for now the TV limits on national candidates.
The resignation of Pope Benedict XVI opened the real possibility for His Eminence, Luis Antonio G. Cardinal Tagle, to become the first Filipino (also first Asian and first non-European) leader of the 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide. Theoretically, anyone can be chosen pope, but in practice, only members of the College of Cardinals are elected to the papacy.
