After only a little over 100 days, US President Donald John Trump finally realized that his job is not a walk in the park. But who told him it was? Living in the Trump Towers which is just three blocks from New York’s Central Park, he should have known there is no such thing as a walk in the park.
Even Central Park is a dangerous place for early-morning joggers or cyclists out for a little exercise. Horrific stories of mugging and rapes are reported to the police by unsuspecting New Yorkers who find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. The park’s north entrance is also near to Harlem, the black community. No, don’t think I’m a racist but most of the crimes committed in the park are done by blacks, according to the NYPD.
Donald J. Trump is such an unpredictable president. He now says he would be “honored to meet” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un whom he considers “a smart cookie.” This, even as he dispatched the USS aircraft carrier Carl Vinson to intercept any long-range ballistic cruise missile heading for South Korea, Japan and the US West Coast.
Former Secretary of State and defeated presidential candidate Hillary Clinton expressed the view that Trump meeting with Jong Un is ill-conceived and goes against sending the right signal to the berserk North Korean leader. Behind the scene, it was reported that the US is asking China to control its wayward ward.
Let us not be surprised if China, working with the military clique in Pyongyang, unseats Jong Un and breaks the three lines of the Kim dynasty rule in North Korea. Who would then replace the North Korean leader? The possibility of a military junta rule is not remote, considering it’s really the generals who call the shots.
Gina gets the boot
The bicameral Commission on Appointments finally gave the book to Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Regina Lopez. Voting 16 to 8 in a closed-door executive session, the CA rejected Gina Lopez’s nomination as DENR secretary. It found her unfit to hold the position.
There is a lesson to be learned from Gina’s rejection by the CA. It does not work to be arrogant in defending your fitness for the job. Belonging to a rich family that owns the ABS-CBN television network is no guarantee that you are untouchable. The second is to learn how to balance a passion and advocacy for the protection of the environment and consider the revenues and livelihood the mining companies provide millions of Filipino.
She is President Rodrigo Duterte’s second Cabinet appointee to be rejected by the CA. The first was Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay whom I first exposed in this column as a foreigner secretary. After lying for several months after he was appointed, Yasay finally admitted to being an American citizen after pointed and sharp questioning by CA member Rep. Josephine Sato.
Gina Lopez’s woes are not yet over. Citinickel Mines Development Corp. has filed graft charges against Lopez for using her position to impose additional requirements for the mining firms she unilaterally suspended for alleged violation of environmental rules. The case is filed with the Office of the Ombudsman.
Now, what’s this we hear Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales is willing to step down and accept an ambassadorship to The Hague or a judgeship to the International Criminal Court?
The appointment as one of the ICC justices was turned down for reasons of health by the late Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago. who finally succumbed to cancer. The word, although unverified, is that Carpio-Morales could face impeachment if she does not resign and accept the position being offered by the President. She could go the way of the late former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Renato Corona who was removed by a Senate Tribunal. Recall that former Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, an Arroyo appointee, was forced to resign in the face of an impeachment case being prepared by the Aquino administration.
The Office of the Ombudsman is a constitutional post whose term of office is longer than the president’s six-year tenure. Will Ombudsman Carpio-Morales take the easy way out and accept the ambassadorial appointment or the ICC nomination?