Leftists: Fix own script, don’t hate on Pia
Bayan Muna, Gabriela and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan attacked newly crowned Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach in our country’s moment of glory. They criticized her “pro-American” 30-second answer on US bases during the pageant’s Q&A.
As killjoys go, I expected national artist F. Sionil José to be the one to lambast Wurtzbach for not being Filipino enough and ask her to proclaim her loyalty or go back to Germany.
Our leftist friends might fix their own script before hating on Wurtzbach.
The same leftist groups filed a Supreme Court case in 2014 against alleged US bases allowed by the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca).
Solicitor General Florin Hilbay, in his first SC appearance, complained that the leftist representative gave a political manifesto more appropriate for a Mendiola rally, one that would not not survive a bad law school recitation much less a formal SC hearing.
The leftist lawyer was grilled at length by justices and had great difficulty responding.
Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno made the leftist lawyer read the Edca line by line. Nothing in the actual agreement supported her claim that it would turn over bases to the United States and that our government would have limited access to these. The leftist lawyer tried to cite Jennifer Laude but Sereno cut her off so as not to prejudge her alleged killer’s trial.
In a viral tweet, comedian Ethel Booba slammed Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño for criticizing Wurtzbach, saying he had more than 30 seconds to address the Edca in Congress.
Justice Marvic Leonen explicitly cited Casiño during the 2014 hearing because he was introduced as an activist in the court pleading. Leonen correctly raised that “activist” is a nonexistent category of litigant allowed to sue the government.
Justices raised the leftists failed to establish the SC’s jurisdiction. Among other grounds, the SC does not try factual issues. The leftists arguably raised facts that had yet to take place because the Edca was not yet implemented.
The leftist lawyer tried to invoke her experiences as legal basis, which justices dismissed as speculation. Sereno scolded that her claim that the government could negotiate better terms is no ground for a lawsuit. Leonen told her to complain to senators, not judges.
Hilbay decried the case as a fifth attempt involving the same parties and the same arguments.
The leftist lawyer, to her credit, did succeed in stealing the limelight from legal luminaries who preceded her, former University of the Philippines law dean Pacifico Agabin and former Sen. Rene Saguisag. I wrote: “The hearing’s belabored last hour imparted the frustration of being on the same team as Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, and still losing.” (“Attack on Edca bungled in high court,” Opinion, 2014/11/21)
Should we focus on Wurtzbach’s 30-second extemporaenous answer in a beauty pageant or the leftists’ outlandish arguments in the formal SC hearing?
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