The Senate on Trial

After hearing from Amici Curiae in the Senate Impeachment Court, my first reaction was, bakit puro lalaki?  Dahil walang former Chief Justice na babae? Pero Associate Justice din lang yung isa, kahit pa kasali siya sa nag-frame ng 1987 Constitution. Wala bang former AJ na babae na qualified to weigh in, just in case may naiibang pananaw o angle o retorika?

Not that the men disappointed. Adequately explained naman ang two sides of the argument: yung 16 as immutable or fixed threshold (AJ Adolf Azcuna) VS. yung adjustable 2/3 of the members in attendance (CJs Hilario Davide, Artemio Panganiban, Reynato Puno). Ibig sabihin: 16 votes needed to impeach — kung 2/3 of 24 senators; 14 votes needed — kung 2/3 of 20, absent Estrada and Marcoleta, Bato and Loren).

BALL’S IN YOUR COURT, SENATE….
My major major take-away is that  the ex-CJ Supremes were unanimous on: the Senate Court’s “sole” power  to interpret and to promulgate rules relating to the Impeachment. Ibig sabihin, the Senators will have to resolve the issues by their collegial lonesomes. Hindi maaasahan, as of the moment, ang Supreme Court to decide the matter for them. Unless, of course, the Supremes of today deem otherwise?

Siyempre the DDS bloc (7 of 11 show up intermittently) deeply wish to abide by the fixed 16 votes (kunwari everybody present) — yan daw ang ibig sabihin ng Constitution sa “2/3 of all the members,” na pinanindigan pa ni Justice Azcuna. Pahihirapan ang current Majority of 13 to come up with 3 more votes.

At siyempre the DDS bloc want Estrada and Marcoleta to be allowed to attend the hearings either electronically or in person, and supplied with copies of transcripts atbp. para makaboto din sila. Ang tanong, para que? For what? For the numbers man lang, para madagdagan ang bilang nila, in case mabawasan pa dahil BAKA may makasuhan at makulong pang iba?

WHAT IF WE RAISE THE BAR
What kind of Senate is this na ang daming miyembro na may kaso, o may nagbabadyang kaso, for plunder atbp. What if, sa 2028, i-ban ng Comelec from running for election anyone with a pending corruption case? Itigil na yang innocent-until-proven-guilty eklat. Lalo pa kung flood-control-scam related ang kaso — itrato silang guilty-until-proven-innocent, and, therefore, not qualified to run for public office or deserving of public trust until declared innocent by the courts.

GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT
Believe it or not, the legal maxim “innocent until proven guilty” is based on the long questioned, always challenged, premise that humans are inherently good — isinilang tayo na mabait — therefore daw, if accused of wrongdoing, it is more likely that you are innocent rather than guilty.  Pero hindi ba kabaligtaran iyan ng Catholic premise of “original sin” na ating kinagisnan kinalakhan at pinaniniwalaan, and which is why mayroong Baptism, Confession, and Communion, even Extreme Unction, ang Simbahan as cleansing Sacraments?

Maybe the two most famous opposing views on this debate are those of Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Hobbes describes humans as ‘nasty’ and ‘brutish’, needing society and rules to reign in their instincts in order to thrive; later Rousseau openly criticised him, arguing instead that man would be gentle and pure without the corruption of greed and inequality caused by the class system imposed by our society. https://www.bbcearth.com/

Let the burden be on the accused senators and congressmen — first come first served — to prove that they’re innocent, and if they cannot, likely because their SALNs and bank accounts and maybe new whistleblowers say otherwise, then ipagkukulong sila. No ifs or buts, no house or hospital arrests, No Mercy.

FOR NOW, LOOKING FORWARD TO ORAL ARGUMENTS

Sept 23 the Court is set to hear oral arguments from the prosecution and defense on the threshold question, after which the Senators will decide, although Sen Ping is asking to sleep on it before voting. Nang mapag-isipan nang mabuti. Oo nga naman. It will be quite a show.

September to remember

Even while a “junglegate” tempest is currently brewing in literary circles, we, journalists who do not belong in that ivory league, continue to write from the trenches. But we must stand with the hurt and the hurting, literary brilliance on the part of the suspects with their proclivities notwithstanding.

That’s from Inquirer columnist Ceres P. Doyo‘s “Soliloquy in D flat major”, also an invitation to the Manila International Book Fair (MIBF) where her signing sked for a new book — How I Became a Writer 2: Essays by Filipino Writers, edited by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, published by Vibal — and other titles is 4 p.m. tomorrow Saturday.

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The bad news is, the Supreme Court reversed the November 2018 Sandiganbayan decision that convicted Imelda Marcos of 7 counts of graft. The decision, penned by Associate Justice Rodil V. Zalameda, seems uninformed of the 2003 Supreme Court ruling that the recovered funds from Swiss foundations, involving more than $200 Million, to be ill-gotten wealth, stolen from public monies. Biglang may reasonable doubt kuno. “An ‘insult’ to decades of public accountability efforts,” say ni former PCGG commissioner Ruben Carranza to Karmina Constantino on ANC Alerts. Nakakainit ng ulo. Obviously the campaign to whitewash the Marcos name, even if only for their history books, continues apace.

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Nakakataas naman ng kilay ang drama ni Senate majority floor leader Migz Zubiri, first complaining about how tired he is, what with the impeachment trial and budget deliberations, and then suddenly admitting, agreeing with the DDS, na dapat ay may pahintulot muna ng local courts bago inilipad si Digong sa Holland, and this on the heels of VP Sara exclaiming for all to hear that she doesn’t trust our courts, or something like that. Tila gulung-gulo’t hirap na hirap si Sen Migz, taga-Mindanao ba kasi? Closet DDS bai, for whatever reason? At masakit sa ulo at sa puso ang impeachment trial ni VP? Smile, Migz, you’re on candid camera ;-)

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Babalik pa kaya sina Sen Alan Peter at Sen Pia Cayetano? Babalik pa kaya sina Sen Loren Legarda at Rep Leandro Leviste? May mga nagpupustahan na malamang, in the hundreds, some in the thousands, of pesos, maybe more, just like noong nabalitang aarestuhin si former Speaker Martin. Parang championship match, pustahan na lang. Either hindi na babalik dahil takot makulong a la Marcoleta and Estrada. Or babalik dahil innocent sila until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt. The latest though from NBI director Melvin Matibag to Tony Velasquez on DZMM is, pabalik ang mga Cayetano over the weekend. Sana all.

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Split personality: Vlogger-Journalist

Una kong napanood ang Facts First ni Christian Esguerra back in 2024, soon after the SONA when PBBM boasted of more than 5,500 completed flood control projects nationwide and the very next night into the next morning, bumuhos ang katakutakot na ulan at bumaha nang bonggang bongga, waist- if not chest-deep, even in places that never used to flood, so reminiscent of Ondoy 2009. The following day a state of calamity was declared in all of Metro Manila, Bataan, Bulacan, Batangas, and Cavite.

Na-konfirm ang tsismis, nabuking, na walang epek ang flood control projects dahil puro substandard — halos kalahati kasi ng pondo ay luma-landing sa bulsa ng Congress proponents (Upper | Lower House),  DPWH district engineers atbp., at mga kontratista — o kaya’y “ghost” pala, as in, wala lang, kahit na-release ang pondo.

Miss na miss ko noon ang public affairs TV talk shows — yung tipong Tell the People ni Jullie Yap Daza, Viewpoint ni Dong Puno, Public Forum ni Randy David — na siguradong tatalakay sa krisis with resource persons capable of explaining  what’s going on and why.

Sa YouTube ako napadpad, and ran into “Facts and Fiction in President Marcos Jr.’s 2024 SONA” kung saan mga guest ni Esguerra sina Pulse Asia prez Ronnie Holmes, PNoy political adviser Ronald Llamas now of Akbayan, UP econ prof and ex-Finance USec Cielo Magno, and PR strategist Alan German na anak ni PR OG Reli.

Napa-blog ako noon: “SONAkakaduda #FactsFirst“. At the time, I felt like nakahanap ako ng kakampi.

Holmes, Llamas, and Magno are better informed than most, with a sense of the true state of affairs, past to present, and who clearly care about nation. German is a glib PR  tactician who always seems to know more than he’s telling and teases with tips on how-to-sell politicians, among other powertrippers. Host Esguerra, once of ANC, steers the talk with a GenZ’s take on national concerns that tends to provoke discussion, though only up to a point.

Unlike public affairs TV talkshows of yore, there’s a lot of banter, chortling, private jokes, whatever, between Esguerra and German, Esguerra and Llamas, apparently to keep the talk from getting too serious,  or maybe his followers like his GenZ sense of humor, I’m not sure. Whatever, it’s medyo nakaka-put-off, but the serious exchanges were | are worth staying for.  https://stuartsantiago.com/sonakakaduda-2024-factsfirst/

TWO YEARS LATER. Hindi nakakagulat na pinuputakte si Esguerra ng pro-BBM vloggers for saying some two weeks ago, in no uncertain terms, that the prez is either “tanga” or “kasabwat” vis a vis budget insertions atbp. Siyempre hinanapan siya ng resibo nina USec Claire Castro and Atty Rene Bueno kasi kung walang resibo, para lang siyang DDS vlogger calling the president “bangag”.

The problem, methinks, is Esguerra’s split socmed personality. When he said that about the prez, he was on vlogger mode, opinionating like a columnist and like most other vloggers and “content creators”, with a dash of taray (or patawa or pakwela or pa-shock), the better to get liked, shared, and subscribed to.  When he is doing interviews with resource persons – experts, academics, economists, scientists, etc. — and asking “hard questions”, he is on pa-objective journalist mode, out to clarify the facts and discredit disinformation re current issues and events. But when it’s just him and Llamas on tag-team mode, he’s mostly vlogger na tuwang tuwa sa sarili at kay Llamas.

But, as he has always insisted that he is not the usual vlogger because he is also a Journalist! as a result, every other vlogger holds him to that higher standard, including USec Claire. Coming from one who insists na hindi siya “kung sino-sino lang,” of course, papatulan siya, idi-dispute, hahanapan ng resibo. Even if he also sometimes says, pa-deprecatingly, or sarcastically, na “walang kakwenta-kwenta” ang podcast niya.

This is why I’m not convinced that the blowback vs Esguerra was coordinated, orchestrated, may nagtimon. Seemed quite spontaneous to me, the synchronous dismay of BBM vloggers who were following his podcasts, considering him a possible, undeclared, ally vs the DDS in the run-up to 2028. That is, until he made tira the president.

There are also political vloggers who really try to be neutral, airing both sides of an issue, and feeling free to be critical of both the VP and the President, depende sa isyu. Pero ang real revelation ay itong mga pro-BBM na bukás sana sa pakikipagkaisa sa mga PinkLawan vs. the DDS candidate in 2028. At tunay ang pagka-dismaya nila sa walang patumanggang hirit ni Esguerra vs the prez.

Bakit nga ba inihirit ni Esguerra yung “tanga… or… kasabwat” just then. Tracking back it seems (korek me if I’m wrong) that he was responding to criticism na he’s defending PBBM —  presumably from a pro-DDS troll or PinkLawan even? And it was his way of defending himself, using such absolute terms, no benefit of the doubt, as if to shout out, Anti-DDS ako! Anti-BBM ako!

Brave, yes, but not very bright. Because nagulantang ang mga pro-BBM: Ay, hindi pala kakampi! Ay, pinklawan kasi?! Whether spontaneous or orchestrated, damage has been done and Esguerra has only himself to blame. The OG sin was his choice of words. He laid himself wide open for that kuyog. Lalo na’t he refuses to apologize or take it back.

SAMANTALA his sparring pardner Llamas has been defending him — damage control kumbaga. In an exchange with Enzo Recto, he said Esguerra is a “significant journalist” who is not a member of any group:

LLAMAS: Na-a-identify lang siya dahil nga bumabanat siya sa mga Duterte. pero never siya naging miyembro ng kahit anong pink or yellow organization.

… Sa balanse ng puwersa, we are insignificant. wala tayong posisyon e. … Ako, puwede siguro ako ma-identify na pinklawan dahil chairman ako ng Akbayan. pero si Christian, wala namang organisasyon si Christian e. Bakit siya dinudumog. At bakit nila ire-reduce sa away between the reds and the pinks , the reds and the yellow …  Ang mahalaga dito, yung anti-Duterte.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFknIQVSZpY

Then at a gathering of vloggers to which Esguerra had not been invited because hindi naman siya personally kilalá ni birthday celebrant Marc Gamboa, kung saan umapir si Llamas, vlogger Batang Maynila Toits asked him about his frequent regular guesting on Facts First, what kind of talent fee is he getting, considering that Esguerra is raking in quite a fortune from You Tube.  Wala daw, no talent fee, so the pro-BBMs are scandalized. What!?! E kung hindi kay Llamas, makaka-700k subscribers ba si Esguerra?!? tanong nila, sabay shocked halakhak.

Why is Llamas doing it for nothing? Because it is NOT nothing, the free exposure he gets. Quits-quits lang sila. Esguerra gets Llamas as resource person on call for free. Llamas gets a platform to pontificate on politics, ideologies, corruption, dynasties, good governance, and everything else under the sun without paying for his own show.

To what end? Is he hoping to run for public office in ’28? Along with Esguerra, Cielo Magno, Barry Gutierrez, and Michael Mogato whom he has “endorsed” for the Senate not once or twice, hindi ko na alam kung nagbibiro lang siya. Nakakapagpatanong rin kung bakit, balita ng mga bubwit, si Leni pa rin ang kinukulit niyang tumakbo. Bakit ayaw niya kay Risa ng Akbayan mismo? Dahil ba hindi na siya makakaporma kung si Risa ang mapuwesto? Just asking.

And please, huwag naman tayo gawing tanga ni Llamas tungkol sa kulay ni Esguerra. Malinaw naman na magkakulay sila — dilaw at pink — at na okay lang kay Esguerra the vlogger-Journalist na hindi ungkatin o banatan ang dating boss ni Llamas na si PNoy. Obvious yan, pati sa BBM vloggers, na nagpípigíl lang, alang-alang sa 2028.

Marra Lanot of the charmed literary circle (1944-2026)

Never met Marra or Pete Lacaba, but knew of them, of course. In ’99 our paths sort of crossed when Eggie Apostol asked for a copy of Himagsikan sa EDSA — Walang Himala! (2000) after it won an Honorable Mention in Erap’s 1998 Centennial Literary Contest. Her Tagalog wasn’t good, she said, so she was going to ask Pete to check it out first. She got back to me a few days later with the good news that Pete said yes to the People Power Foundation publishing it but that the manuscript needed editing, which Marra would be happy to do.

I looked forward to Marra’s edit because it was a puzzle that only the Sanaysay category named no major prizes, just four (4) Honorable Mentions. Was our Tagalog, Pilipino, whatever, not good enough? I had dared ask the Judge at a post-awards party and he said, “Dapat nagpa-edit ka.” Eh di eto na nga, thanks to Eggie.

And thanks to Marra who didn’t touch my prose, what a relief. Pero marami akong natutunan tungkol sa pagsusulat sa Pilipino. Ipinaalala niya ang mga patakaran sa paggamit ng “rin-din” at “raw-daw,” gayon din ng “ng-nang” (that I thought I had down pat from HS Balarila days, though I did tend to play around with them, haha). Idiniin din niya ang mga bagong patakaran sa mga salitang inuulit, tulad ng “sunudsunod” at “libulibo” na “sunod-sunod” at “libo-libo” na, at wala na ring kudlit ang “ngunit subalit datapwat.”

And finally my spelling. Yes, my ispeling of certain words: “Coryista” not “Corysta,” “tsismis” not “chismis,” “taumbayan” not “taongbayan,” how was I to know, and what if I preferred “taongbayan”?  Matagal ko ring pinag-isipan ang “aksiyon” at “tensiyon” imbis na “aksyon” at “tensyon” until I saw my “leksiyon.” Sabi nga ni Marra, sanayan lang. Sa pagsulat ng Pilipino, hindi necessarily sa bigkas ibinabatay ang baybay.

Salamat uli, Marra. I remember the big smile you gave me as you rushed off to class (late ka na!) from an Ateneo tribute to Eggie. And I still have our FB chat back in 2018 when I invited you and Pete to an Ishmael Bernal exhibit sa UP Film Center. I so wanted to give you a copy of Pro Bernal Anti Bio (2017) that has marginal notes by Pete on the First Quarter Storm. You didn’t make it but messaged back with kuwentos of dancing the tango with Nick Joaquin in Ishma’s Grey November in the ’60s, and when Pete was arrested in ’74 for sneaking past Marcos censors the acrostic poem “Prometheus Unbound” — hiding in plain sight the bold phrase “MARCOS HITLER DIKTADOR TUTA” — how Ishma would visit you, even asked you for a script, and kept in touch, making sure you were okay. And when Mang Nick, upon accepting the National Artist  for Literature award in ’76, got Marcos to release Pete, it was kind of magical and awesome.

Marra Lanot of the “charmed literary circle,” I wrote of you in a 2017 EDSA essay. To my mind, “charmed,” for having survived martial law despite standing up to Marcos, even displaying, in Mang Nick’s words, “a most enjoyable recklessness” in a “climate of fear.”

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“Prometheus Unbound” by Pete Lacaba
https://ndfp.info/prometheus-unbound/

“The Writer in a Climate of Fear” by Nick Joaquin
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/640001/nick-joaquin