Taking a bullet for one’s country

Tom Friedman, New York Times’ respected columnist wrote a beautiful piece he called, "Medal of Honor" to pay tribute to Al Gore after he gave his concession speech. He starts the column with Al Gore’s admission that when he was in Vietnam he never saw much combat. "Throughout his presidential campaign , though, he insisted he wanted to ‘fight " for every American. Well, Wednesday night, in his concession speech, Mr. Gore took a bullet for the country. With Erap and Co continuing to kick and rant and rave to get back the ‘presidential candy,’ I suggest that Erap or his lawyers read the Friedman article because it may have something to teach the former president.

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This is how Friedman explains why Al Gore, in conceding victory to George W. Bush "took a bullet for the country": "That shot was fired at the heart of the nation by the five conservative justices of the US Supreme Court with their politically inspired ruling that installed George W. Bush as President. Essentially the five justices said it was more important that Florida meet its self-imposed deadline of December 12 for choosing a slate of electors than for the Florida Supreme Court to try to come up with a fair and uniform way to ensure that every possible vote in Florida was counted and still meet the real federal deadline, for the nationwide Electoral College vote on December 18. The five conservative justices essentially ruled that the sanctity of dates, even meaningless ones, mattered more than the sanctity of votes even meaningful ones. The Rehnquist Court now has its legacy: "In calendars we trust."

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"The rule of law is most reinforced when even though it may have been imposed wrongly or with bias – the recipient of the judgment accepts it and the system behind it, as final and legitmate. Only in that way when we reaffirm our fidelity to the legal system, even though it rules against us – can the system endure, improve and learn from its mistakes. And that was exactly what Mr. Gore undertook when he bowed out with grace: "This is America and it’s the only one we’ve got.

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"If Chinese and Russians spies are looking for the most valuable secret they can steal in Washington, here’s a free tip: steal Al Gore’s speech. For in a few brief pages it contained the real secret to America’s sauce. That secret is not Wall Street, and it’s not Silicon Valley, it’s not the Air Force and it’s not the navy, it’s not the free press and it’s not the free market – it is enduring rule of law and the institutions that underlie them all and that allow each to flourish no matter who is in power. It comes from this remarkable system of laws and institutions we have inherited; a system they say that was designed by geniuses so it could be run by idiots."

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That is also how Filipinos wish Erap and his lawyers would comport themselves – to place the welfare of the country above personal interest. This is not to say that he has no basis for his grievance. Perhaps he has. But this is not the time nor the reason to rock the country. It might help if he took to heart some of the roles he played as a hero in the movies so loved by his many fans. Perhaps if he translated the psychological make-up of those heroic roles into real life, he would understand the Gore mystique. Then like Gore, he will be remembered as a patriot in an important moment in our history and mitigate whatever judgment will be made against him on the charges of plunder.

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OFs will be strengthened under revised 1987 Constitution. Before the enemies of constitutional reform rabble rouse the populous overseas Filipino communities that the revised constitution will nullify all the work they have done for the passage of the Absentee Voting Bill, let me disabuse that charge. Indeed the draft of proposed amendments for a revised 1987 Constitution specifically tackles the enfranchisement of overseas Filipinos. Rather than being merely at the mercy of a secondary body like Congress or Parliament, the revised constitution will protect the rights of overseas Filipinos in specific provisions. That means, Filipinos will have the same rights whether they are at or abroad do not need to be at the mercy of an enabling legislation. It is good that the dual citizenship bill has been approved. To put matters in the right perspective issue of dual citizenship was one of the five points in the agenda of Lakas-CMD for overseas Filipinos cobbled by the London-based Confederation of Overseas Filipinos headed by Ambassador Alberto Pedrosa. It was known then as the Ramos Manifesto for overseas Filipinos and the consequent legislation was put in the hands of Speaker Jose de Venecia. In the years that followed, de Venecia never flagged in seeing to it that each of the five points were enacted into law — no double taxation, lower passport fees, dual citizenship, the right to vote and better treatment from embassies. With the passage of the dual citizenship bill, that Manifest for overseas Filipinos, written a decade ago, is completed

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The sleepless Japanese envoy. I had the good fortune to be seated next to a top executive of one of the biggest Japanese trading agencies recently. I immediately engaged him to talk about the hornet’s nest kicked by his ambassador. Well, folks, he did not bite. He did not want to be quoted but he did not say a word critical of his ambassador although I am sure that he, too was appalled that Ambassador Takano could have been more discreet. What he did say was that the problems that Takano talked about facing Japanese investors in the Philippines are all true – their concern for personal safety, conflicting policies and a growing budget deficit. The ‘sleepless’ nights phrase was an exaggeration and unfortunate but having studied in Japan and known many Japanese, English can by a trying language to them. I would like to believe that what Takano perhaps meant with ‘sleepless nights’ was "general anxiety" that he wished would go away if he could see that Philippine authorities were trying hard to tackle their complaints. But since he and other Japanese doing business in the Phlippines have not seen improvements about their concerns, he came upon the phrase of ‘sleepless nights’ to describe a frustrating situation. "I have so far spent one year (in the Philippines), but… I did not have even one night I could sleep well. Almost every day is a daily threat. We are under constant danger," Takano said. I think his problem, apart from a lack of diplomacy had more to do with his inability to tackle semantics of the English language.

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