Awaiting Senate probe into Miss Universe tilt

TIMELY TRO: Thank God, there is the Supreme Court, whatever its critics think of it.

The tribunal has just issued a temporary restraining order stopping the Aquino administration’s controversial attempt to suspend elections (originally set last August) in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and install officers-in-charge.

The main excuse of Malacañang in putting in OICs, in violation of the autonomous character of the region, is that the ARMM has been infected with massive corruption, waylaid programs and widespread poverty.

If those reasons were accepted, then elections in many other regions would have to be similarly suspended, and incumbents replaced by OICs at the end of their elective terms.

Then President Cory Aquino was able to replace officials with OICs, because she scrapped the Constitution and ruled by dictatorial edict.

This time, however, her president-son Noynoy operates under the 1987 Constitution, which he is sworn to honor, obey and enforce.

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PROBE IT!: Running true to form, the Senate should investigate the recent beauty pageant in São Paolo, Brazil, where our very own Chamcey Supsup was, according to countless Filipinos, robbed of the Miss Universe crown before a watching world.

To prepare the public mind, the usual senators could deliver privilege speeches denouncing the alleged poll fraud and moral plunder that marred the casting of the votes leading to Supsup’s garnering only the third runner-up title.

The inquiry, preferably by the Senate as a committee of the whole so everyone would get a chance for media exposure, should be televised live for optimum publicity.

Pushing it to the max, senators — with television crews in tow — could journey to São Paolo and inspect the pageant site, examine the electronic gadgets used and, if reenactment is no longer possible, interview any losing candidates protesting their having been cheated.

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WITNESSES: The Senate lineup of resource persons would be star-studded:

• Singer Lea Salonga, one of the pageant judges who some Filipinos accused of asking Leila Lopes, Miss Angola who eventually won the Miss Universe crown, the easier question of what she might change about her physical characteristics, if she could.

The Oxford-educated black beauty was thus given the chance to proclaim she was satisfied with who she was: “I consider myself a woman endowed with inner beauty… I have acquired many wonderful principles from my family, and I plan to follow those through the rest of my life.”

• Actress Vivica Fox, who asked Supsup, a magna cum laude from the University of the Philippines and topnotcher in last year’s board exams for architects, if she was willing to change her religion to marry the person she loved.

Supsup’s reflex reply: “If I have to change my religious beliefs, I would not marry the person that I love. Because the first person that I love is God, who created me. I have my faith and my principles, and this is what makes me who I am. If the person loves me, he’ll love my God, too.”

• Charice Pempengco’s ninang Oprah Winfrey for the media mogul to repeat under oath what she reportedly said: “Miss Philippines deserved to win. She had no seconds to rethink her answer as she had no interpreter to break the ice.”

• If inter-chamber courtesy allows it, for ring king Manny Pacquiao — also an occasional congressman — to explain why he failed to congratulate in a big way the brains-cum-beauty from his very own General Santos City.

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INTERPRETER: Miss Universe officials could be summoned, if they spurned invitations, to shed light on the criteria and procedure used, the alleged bias for/against certain contestants, as well as reported violations of women’s rights.

Without straying into the PLDT-Digitel deal, the Senate could summon telco executives to explain the integrity of the cellphone text survey that ranked, for naught, Supsup first among the five finalists and second in the swimsuit and evening gown stages of the competition.

The local franchise holder of the Miss Universe pageant could be asked to explain its reported failure to advise Supsup about using an interpreter, even if she is fluent in English, who could have dressed up and polished her responses in the Q&A chapter.

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PACQUIAO AS VEEP?: Shuffling back to Pacquiao, who is looking for an opening to take a jab at the presidency (who knows?), he got into the news for eyeing a detour via the vice presidency — apparently without realizing he is too young for the No. 2 post.

Rene A.V. Saguisag, bosom pal of Vice President Jojo Binay, could not resist firing off an email that said in part:

“Jojobama will lead the guests in Club Filipino on Friday, lunch, to mark the Sept. 16, 1991, ‘NO Vote’ of the Senate on the US bases.

“Aiming to be Prez, he more than satisfies the age requirement of 40 for Prezs and Veeps. Pitong kulo na po si Jojobama. But Manny Pacquiao?

“The Senate reported today (9/14)… that the video of Manny’s statement was cut, removing the portion where Pacquiao mentioned that there’s a bill in the Senate to lower the eligibility age for senators to 30 and vice president to 35… (further reporting) that Manny was thinking about running for Veep in 2016 ‘should the proposed legislation… be passed and signed into law.’

“This claim about a virtually secret bill may be unfair to the Senate, even with the usual suspects there. All the senators and their staffs, let alone the Palace, know that no bill can amend the Constitution. And then there’s this small matter about ratification by the people, who cannot be ignored in such a sea change.

“Have Manny and his lawyer read the Constitution?”

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