Well the cat is out of the bag. After a long, controversial and very heated debate on the issue whether or not the President of the Philippines could appoint the next Chief Justice within the period when there is a Commission on Elections (Comelec) ban on so-called “Midnight appointments” the Supreme Court (SC) finally ruled that the President can indeed appoint the next Chief Justice for the Supreme Court because the Comelec prohibition doesn’t cover the Judiciary. But if you think this puts an end to this debate, you’re wrong! Since we are in the midst of the political season, the debate now becomes a political fodder by the opposition.
As expected, the opposition immediately pounced on this issue stating that the majority of the SC Justices are appointees of the President. These people simply refuse to acknowledge that the Supreme Court which is the court of last resort has already decided on this case. But they never cared to look into the issue that this is not a case of midnight appointments because the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court even if they are appointees of the President belongs to a separate and independent branch of the government. In short, the opposition doesn’t respect our Supreme Court!
Like it or not, Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) has stayed in office this long thanks to this poorly studied 1987 Constitution. So if you folks do not want the President to appoint Justices of the Supreme Court, then by all means, let us amend the Constitution and put the necessary safeguards to insure that the officialdom of the SC will not be beholden to the President of the Philippines. In the meantime, deal with it!
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Talking about Constitutional changes, this was the reply of Nacionalista Party (NP) Vice-Presidential candidate Sen. Loren Legarda when I asked her that many Filipinos support the idea of returning to the tried and tested and more politically stable Two-Party system. Despite her advocacy on this, Sen. Loren said that to achieve this return to a Two-Party system needs charter changes. Alas, the NP standard bearer, Sen. Manny Villar doesn’t believe in changing the charter, so unless we change our constitution, we will just have to live with the present multi-party system that doesn’t have any clear political ideology or morals.
We met Sen. Loren at Tin Gow Restaurant where she held a presscon where surprisingly she presented to the media, Atty. Christina Garcia Frasco (Gov. Gwen Garcia’s daughter) as her spokesman for the Visayas, while another Garcia, Ms. Esperanza Garcia (GSIS Chair Winston Garcia’s daughter) was her Climate Change specialists. This led Pacheco “Cheking” Seares who normally doesn’t speak much, to ask whether Sen. Loren already got the endorsement from the One Cebu Party. We met with Gov. Gwen with The FREEMAN editorial last Wednesday night, but at that time, she said this was still up in the air.
Sen. Loren said, “I’m not presumptuous, but Gov. Gwen and I share the same advocacies, especially about women and she’s a good friend. Yes, I need Gwen! But I will never presume that she has chosen me as the One Cebu Party’s Vice-Presidential candidate.” Also with Sen. Loren was Rep. Rex Gatchalian who acted as moderator for the presscon. Indeed, while Sen. Loren has not yet been officially endorsed by the One Cebu Party, she has the distinct advantage of having the two prominent Garcia daughters under her wing. This makes us conclude that at least, she has two, not one, but her two feet through the door of the One Cebu Party.
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I’m not a bit surprised to learn that the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) has started to rise in Cebu City, up by 74 cases. While this may not yet be alarming, it is time to sound the alarm bells before things start to go out of control. Again, I pin the blame on this directly on Department of Health (DoH) Sec. Esperanza Cabral for her giving out condoms and sending the wrong signal to our people that it is okay to have sex when you are wearing a condom. In truth, HIV-AIDS in Thailand increased by 35% due to the fact that condoms do not stop the HIV-AIDS virus.
Incidentally, tomorrow the Knights of Columbus (KOC) will spearhead the Church’s Pro-Life Advocacy by holding its 2nd Annual March for Life simultaneously with all the KOC in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. For Cebu City, assembly time is 1:00PM at the Abellana National High School and pro-lifers will march towards the Santo Niño Basilica Pilgrim Center for the Pro-Life Rally and Holy Mass. The theme for this activity is, “Becoming a True Witness as Pro-Life Advocate”. Msgr. Julito B. Cortes, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cebu will celebrate the Holy Mass.