History repeats itself

Here is an e-mail message we received that we believe reflects the state of our nation:

An Israeli doctor says, "Medicine in my country is so advanced that we can take a kidney out of one man and put it in another and have him looking for work in six weeks. A German doctor says, "That’s nothing, we can take a lung out of one person put it in another and have him looking for work in four weeks. A Russian doctor says, "In my country medicine is so advanced that we can take half a heart out of one person put it in another and have them both looking for work in two weeks." The Filipino doctor, not to be outdone, says, "You guys are way behind. In the Philippines, we took a former movie actor with no brains out of San Juan, put him in Malacañang Palace, and in no time at all half the country was looking for work. And just to prove it was no fluke, we’re going to do it again!

Another joke going around is about the telephone survey allegedly conducted by the Bishops Conference. This is supposed to be the way it is being conducted. They ask: Will you vote for DA KING? If NO, press 1. If YES, press 9,999,999.

Even my esteemed friend, Susan Roces is now a victim of the so-called Erap dumb jokes. Here is her supposed real-life participation.

Susan Roces : Knock! Knock!

Mother Lily : Who’s there?

Susan Roces : Effigy

Mother Lily : Effigy who?

Susan Roces : Effigy my husband.

And now the Supreme Court has finally decided that Fernando Poe, Jr. is a natural-born citizen. We believe it’s a fair decision. There are only two determining factors for determining whether a person is a natural-born citizen or not – the person’s parents and where he was born. Fernando Poe was born in this country and his father was a naturalized Filipino. We also want to add that we don’t agree with the provision of our Constitution that stipulates that only natural-born Filipinos can run for president. There are two kinds of wrong: Malun in se and malum prohibitum. Malum in se is what of itself is wrong even if no law existed against its commission. Examples are murder, theft and lying. Malum prohibitum is what is wrong only because it has been forbidden. Classic example is the downfall of man because Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. It was wrong only because it was forbidden.

At any rate, we commend FPJ for his commitment that he would have abided by whatever decision the Supreme Court would have made. We are glad that he got justice.

We hope that the elections would continue to be conducted at a high level. We hope that FPJ would change his mind about boycotting the forthcoming debates among candidates and that the discussions would center on the issues truly confronting the nation and the individual candidates response to the challenge. We also hope that there will be no vote-buying. May the best candidate be elected to the presidency.