Unless something develops overnight, chances are the Commission on Elections will be waiting until the last minute to act with finality concerning the nuisance suit filed by the real candidate Congressman Alan Peter Cayetano versus a manufactured namesake under the KBL.
Even if the Comelec actually acted, it would be too late for anyone to inform or re-educate teachers counting the votes who have been told that if the ballot contains Cayetano only, they should not count it.
This is the result of the Comelec’s deliberate decision to recognize and allow a nuisance candidate totally devoid of qualification to run as a senator. Sources claim that the commission will wait until the end of this week to declare the KBL candidate as a nuisance but will not act on correcting previous instructions.
This will result in killing two birds with one stone. Cayetano will certainly lose so many votes, while the Commission on Omission will wash its hands of any wrongdoing.
If Alan Peter Cayetano chooses to pursue the matter, he will have to pursue an expensive protest for a recount.
This particular case is just one of the many sins which the commission and some of its members have been guilty of. The Comelec has a rich and putrid collection of offenses which have gone unpunished.
The Genuine Opposition has its priorities and strategies all wrong! Instead of priotizing the impeachment of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the opposition should focus on the Comelec instead.
PGMA would not be in office if there had been no GARCI. Many political setbacks to the opposition were from the hands of the Comelec. Much of the expense in dagdag-bawas has always been attributed to Comelec officials in certain provinces in Mindanao.
The opposition should dedicate the next 3 years to investigating the Comelec, all its officials including those in regional offices, as well as their relatives, mistresses, business associates, and golf partners.
Instead of verbal attacks on the office of the Ombudsman, the opposition should revisit the decisions of the Ombudsman on cases concerning the Comelec. The opposition should revisit a lot of cases and focus on the sins of the Comelec instead of PGMA.
Following the saying "if at first you don’t succeed, try and try again", a company engaged in real estate and high-rise development has repeatedly appealed to the Malacañang legal department concerning a suit filed by one of its customers with the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board or HLURB.
After receiving an unfavorable decision from the HLURB dated January 30, 2002 the Meridien High Rise Development Corp. and Century Properties, Inc. filed a motion for reconsideration which was denied May 22, 2002.
To exhaust their legal rights, they brought the matter to the Malacañang Legal Office for reevaluation. Presidential assistant Manuel Domingo affirmed the judgment of the HLURB commissioners on June 18, 2003.
Again the defendants filed a motion for reconsideration with the same office under the same person, and again on September 4, 2003 Domingo denied the motion of Meridien and Century Properties.
A few months later on December 1, 2003 acting on the motion of the complainant, the Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs Manuel B. Gaite issued an order that the case records be remanded to the HLURB for proper disposition.
Unhappy with this rebuff, Meridien and Century Properties went to the Court of Appeals to contest the decision of the HLURB. The 14th division of the CA cut, diced and sautéed the petition of Meridien and Century Properties by pointing out that their loss were self-inflicted by not following the law and court procedures.
In its decision the 14th division brought to light certain practices in real estate development that have long gone unpunished. In this case the petitioners marketed 35 stories, physically reduced 3 floors and according to a source simply jumbled the numbers of the floors the same way hotels don’t have a 13th floor.
The CA decided against the petition on January 31, 2006. Of course the company filed for reconsideration. The CA again rejected them on April 18, 2006 for lack of merit.
As expected, Meridien and Century Properties took the case to the Supreme Court.
After 6 long years the case is still ongoing and has taken a very twisted turn! While waiting for the Supreme Court to decide on the petition, the case has taken a u-turn.
Again an appeal has been filed and again the matter sits before the Deputy Executive Secretary Manuel Gaite who sent it to the HLURB to finish three years ago.
I hope Dep. E.S. Manuel Gaite can check with the Supreme Court because as I understand, the matter is with the SC and his office may end up being in contempt or find themselves before the Ombudsman.
Just-tiis in the Philippines!
Certain medicines may be great for one medical condition but could wreak havoc on the other. Having a damaged spinal column, I have suffered long-term osteoarthritis, pinched nerves and muscle spasms.
For this I was prescribed Arcoxia at 120 mg. The medicine was so effective it became my regular drug of choice and something I can buy over the counter.
What I was not aware of was that the drug "which is widely prescribed outside the US at 90 milligrams to treat rheumatoid arthritis, is linked to elevated rates of blood pressure, tissue swelling that can lead to heart problems and congestive heart failure."
Imagine if Mike Arroyo had been doing what I did with the medicine?
I also discovered that this medicine was not given market approval by the US Food and Drug Administration because they required additional data in support of the benefit-to-risk profile for the proposed dosage of Arcoxia.
Next time your doctor prescribes you a medicine, get the information leaflet and if you can, look it up on the internet and finally comply with the prescription. One man’s medicine can be another man’s poison.