The decision of the Senate Electoral Tribunal to dismiss, by a vote of 5-4, the disqualification case against Senator Mary Grace Poe Llamanzares says a lot.
First, the fact that the three Supreme Court justices—Antonio Carpio, Teresita Leonardo de Castro and Justice Arturo Brion—voted for the disqualification showed that the three justices certainly know their Constitution. A foundling, which Mrs. Llamanzares was supposed to be before her adoption by Fernando Poe Jr. and Susan Roces, cannot automatically be a natural-born Filipino citizen.
Santa Banana, if I were Mrs. Llamanzares, I’d be worried sick since the residency and disqualification case against her would certainly be elevated to the Supreme Court. With the three respected Supreme Court justices saying she is not natural born, that’s already three sticks against her at the Supreme Court.
The second revelation is that some senators, like Bam Aquino, Loren Legarda, Pia Cayetano, Cynthia Villar and Tito Sotto, who are supposed to be legislators mandated to frame laws in accordance to the Constitution, voted on the basis of personal and political considerations.
The fact that Villar said that she’d vote according to what the people want reveals much about her thinking as a senator. I am also disappointed in Loren and Pia. Pia is a lawyer, and she voted in favor of Poe for personal reasons. I thought, too, that Loren was independent-minded, so why did she not follow the Constitution?
Well, that’s the Senate for you. Senators will always protect their kind.
If I were Grace I would still be worried sick. All the election commissioners are lawyers and I assume they know their law. The Comelec must have a decision by December 10—when the ballots for the May 2016 are supposed to start printing.
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In an effort to show the leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation economies that our country doesn’t hesitate to spend P10 billion of people’s money, we have thousands of commuters who go to work on foot. Street dwellers are rounded off and people suffer traffic gridlocks for hours on end.
All for what? So that BS Aquino III can boast to the Apec leaders and their delegates that he is the most gracious host?
Does BS Aquino really think that the Apec leaders are that stupid not to know the truth? It would seem so. He is upbeat that after the Apec summit, foreign investors would be scrambling to pour their investments to the Philippines.
It does seem ironic that in the wake of all these preparations, PricewaterhouseCoopers said that Metro Manila ranks near the bottom of the most livable and business-friendly city in the Asia-Pacific region. Metro Manila placed 22nd among 28 cities included in the study called “Building Cities.”
Toronto, Vancouver and Singapore emerged the top three most livable cities. At the bottom are Cebu, Surabaya and Port Moresby. Metro Manila lagged behind the Southeast Asian cities like Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok, but ranked better than Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh.
Whenever I travel to other countries, my heart bleeds a little.
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The fact that BS Aquino III is afflicted with the disease of finding fault with everybody else except himself for problems he cannot solve is no longer news. We have heard him tossing all the blame on his predecessor, former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, a sick woman languishing under hospital arrest without any means of getting relief from a vindictive President.
Mr. Aquino has shown us that he has no iota of mercy and compassion in his yellow-stricken veins. He blames her for poverty which has remained a problem when it’s precisely his duty and obligation to address it.
Santa Banana, BS Aquino III also blames the Judiciary for its slow process of not jailing immediately those who he said “committed wrongdoings.” The President obviously doesn’t believe in due process if he had his way. He’d want all those he charged with alleged acts of corruption jailed immediately.
I know this for a fact that when a justice of the Sandiganbayan told me that as early as last year when the three opposition senators were indicated for plunder at the Sandiganbayan, Mr. Aquino wanted the justices to convict Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla immediately. The justices resisted, knowing their law and due process.
Well, that’s BS Aquino III for you, ready to blame everybody else for the problems he should be solving.
And he would like us to continue with Daang Matuwid?
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Anti-mining advocates claim that world doesn’t need mining and that economic development can be attained without it.
They forget that responsible mining can produce a huge income per hectare of land used, have no off-site effects, and leave a useful rehabilitated landscape.
One case in point is a study done by the Japan International Cooperation Agency which bounded off the alarm of Boracay’s “imminent loss” of its marine and ecosystems if the status quo of over-development prevails.
In a five-year study of the tourist spot, Jica and a group of Japanese and Filipino scientists discovered that the island’s coral reef and ecosystems have been seriously degraded by tourism activities. The study is part of a larger Jica project called Coastal Ecosystem Conservation and Adaptive Management.
Analyzing satellite images, the team calculated that coral cover in Boracay declined by 70.5 percent between 1988 and 2011. They also noted that the highest decline over the 23-year period happened between 2008 and 2013 as tourist arrivals at Boracay rose by 38.14 percent.
These findings by Jica prove the danger of over-development of tourism sites and that the environmental degradation is not caused by mining alone.
What makes mining more viable is that mining firms are mandated by law to rehabilitate the areas which they have mined. Within their operational life span, they provide direct employment to the communities where they operate.