Category: congress

midas marquez, cj sereno, and the senate

according to my facebook newsfeed, it is midas marquez, court administrator, who is leading the wear-red / sereno-resign campaign inside the supreme court.  check out this march 12 post by jovy acosta-nisperos:

Did you see a lot of people in red at the courts today?

Then you probably heard that Midas contacted courts all over the country telling them that he will visit them today, and that they should wear red for his visit. Deceptive, no? There was also innuendo that if they don’t wear red, they will lose their benefits under “the new Chief Justice.”

As court administrator of 2000 courts in charge of leaves, benefits and supplies, this Midas person is really using his position to bully judges. No wonder Sereno irks him, her decentralization reforms are really going to clip his wings.

And of course you know about the Philippine Judges Association (PJA) and some SC employees’ unions issuing statements calling for CJ Sereno’s resignation.

Well, did you know that there are a total of FIFTEEN – yep, FIFTEEN – employees’ associations in the judiciary? And that only four of them issued a resignation call? FOUR. And the boards of those four didn’t even get a vote from their members.

Did you also know that there are 1200 judges in the PJA but only 20 of them signed the PJA’s statement? It has reached a point where RTC judges are reaffirming their oath to uphold judicial independence and expressing disdain for those who try to curtail it. Have you seen that statement that RTC judges are using as their cover photo? Cool, huh?

Oh, but you have to read that post by Judge Lutero of RTC QC in PJA’s closed group. She gave them a piece of her mind. With judge-ly finesse, of course.

Wait, there’s more. MetCJAP, the association of MTC judges, has refused – with one solid voice – to join the fray. Just in case it wasn’t clear, the President of MetCJAP, Judge Leilani Grimares, changed her profile pic to one where she states her stand for judicial independence.

i remember midas, of course, when he was spokesman for the puno court, and then the corona court.  i especially remember that very gay shriek when a mic accidentally fell off the podium, lol.  i didn’t realize though that he was also court administrator, a very powerful position, and highly ranked at that —  “justice marquez” ang tawag sa kanya sa lower-house hearings where he made sereno sumbong about this and that.

dami niyang isyu against cj sereno, some of them verging on, if not downright, petty.  after googling him all day, i can see why.  he was identified with corona and when the latter was dismissed, he was replaced by ted te as spokesman.  and of course he has no chance of being promoted to associate justice, not while sereno is cj.  so it’s like he’s going for broke, so to speak?  no guts no glory?

here are some links to midas stories on the web 2012 to the present.

from Midas Marquez: Spooksperson of the Supreme Corona by ross del rosario @BeKindToUs Troll

Lawmakers are calling again on Marquez to resign … because of his ardent call of allegiance and defensive statements in support of the Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Impeachment prosecution panel spokesman Rep. Miro Quimbo said Marquez must choose between being the spokesman of Chief Justice Renato Corona or the court administrator. “Para na rin sa kapakanan ng buong SC — ayaw nga nating maapektuhan ang buong SC– magdesisyon siya. Siya ba ay magiging personal spokesman ni Corona o magpapatuloy gampanan ang makapangyarihan at sensitibong posisyon ng court administrator?” Quimbo said.

from World Bank bares Supreme Court misuse of loan for judiciary reform

The diminished internal auditing mechanism in the court was exemplified by the uncanny appointment by Corona of Jose Midas Marquez as court administrator, head of the Public Information Office, and chair of the Bids and Awards Committee of the APJR or the court’s Action Program for Judicial Reform.

…Without naming Marquez, the bank said that “this senior official, due to the combination of his appointments and functions, was the requestor of the services, the approver of the terms of reference, the end-user of the services provided by the firm, the authorizer of contract extensions, and the authorizer of payments to the firm.”

from Did Supreme Court Spokesperson Paint Himself into a Corner? 

Marquez will soon find himself in a no-win situation. Having firmly tied his fate to that of the Chief Justice; should Corona lose his impeachment trial, an Aquino-appointed replacement will likely not want Marquez around. And even if Corona keeps his job, Marquez has shown one and all that he is unfit for the job because he lacks that level of professionalism that allows him to understand that his loyalty is to the institution of the high court itself, and not to the person who happens to sit as its Chief Justice for the time being.

from The Midas Marquez touch by Ted Te

When he started speaking for the Court, it was for his former boss, Reynato Puno, for whom he served also as Chief of Staff.  When Chief Justice Puno retired, his successor, the now-removed former Chief Justice Renato C. Corona retained him to speak for the Court, on top of his now new assignment as Court Administrator. It became evident early on that he was fiercely loyal not to the Court itself, as an institution, but to one person, the then Chief Justice.

… When the smoke settled and the former Chief Justice was removed, it became a question of “when,” not “if,”  he would be relieved as spokesperson of the Court.  And it came as a surprise to very few that one of the first acts of the Court, in its special session after the removal of the former Chief Justice, was to confirm that Atty. Marquez was no longer speaking “for the Court,” as the post was coterminous with the former Chief Justice. That, by itself, was telling — that the Court itself would acknowledge that its own spokesperson was not speaking for the Court but for one man alone because of the coterminous nature of the relationship.

from Court Administrator Marquez joins nominees for SC justice 

Historically, court administrators are promoted to the SC. Court administrators, through whose office the SC exercises its administrative supervision over all lower courts in the country, who have been appointed to the SC were Senior Justice Josue Bellosillo (retired), Presbitero J. Velasco Jr., and Jose Portugal Perez (retired).

from Sereno impeachment: RCAO, JDO, and Midas Marquez

When Sereno was still associate justice, she was vocal in her criticism of Corona’s management decisions. She also once criticized Marquez for supposedly misinterpreting a court decision. Marquez stood as court spokesman during Corona’s time.

Marquez has also been nominated to be Supreme Court justice under the Duterte administration, but has yet to make the shortlist.

In 2012, when Sereno’s AO generated controversy, Senator Francis Pangilinan said in a statement that then chief justice Corona “suspended the decentralization of courts during his helm”, contrary to what Marquez claimed in his testimony.

“I cannot help but ask if this controversy stems from the OCA refusing to give up the powers it had enjoyed under former Chief Justice Renato Corona. Former Chief Justices Hilario Davide Jr. and Reynato Puno both implemented the decentralization. Why was it right then and wrong now?” Pangilinan said in a statement then.

from Sereno camp: Court administrator’s presentation ‘low blow, fake news’

Marquez appeared at the impeachment hearing at the House of Representatives on Tuesday. He said TWGs (Technical Working Groups) formed by Sereno in 2015 caused a delay in the release of benefits for retired judges and justices, and in the approval of survivorship benefit claims of spouses.

It took the committee and TWGs two years before 12 of 29 applications were approved, Marquez added.

Sereno’s camp first disputed that the groups were formed by the Chief Justice alone. Lacanilao pointed out the committee also consisted of Associate Justices Antonio Carpio and Presbitero Velasco Jr., and Sereno only signed the document.

… Lacanilao denied the TWGs are causing delay, saying there was only one application pending in the committee level, 79 in the Office of the Court Administrator, and around nine pending in the Supreme Court en banc.

The spokesperson slammed Marquez’s presentation as “selective,” saying he only picked five cases which probably had administrative issues — which therefore took a long time to process.

“The data [was] not complete. He didn’t say when the en banc gave it back to the committee, how long the committee worked on it, when these people applied to him,” said Lacanilao. “It was unfair, it was very unprofessional for him to do that.”

from SC records show Midas, not Sereno, sat on Mamasapano transfer request

In a statement Thursday, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II blamed Chief Justice Sereno for the delay … in transferring the Mamasapano murder trial from Cotabato City to Metro Manila.

It’s the Office of Court Administrator (OCA) Midas Marquez, said the Supreme Court (SC) Public Information Office (PIO) on Friday, January 26.

… Citing SC records, the PIO press statement said, “Under the applicable procedure, considering the request involves the lower courts, the Office of the Chief Justice wrote an endorsement letter dated February 9, 2017 which was sent to the Court Administrator on February 13, 2017 and stamped received by the Office of the Court Administrator on February 14, 2017.

from Sereno: Marquez likely behind ‘Red Monday’ protest 

Embattled Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno believes Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez was likely behind the “Red Monday” protest at the Supreme Court that sought her resignation.

“Marami ang nagsasabi sa akin na ganun. Marami akong nabasang report na ‘yun ang impression. Palagay ko no, oo,” she said Wednesday in a Bandila DZMM interview.

It was last year, she shared, that she faced mounting pressure to step down.

“Kung hindi ka magre-resign, pahihirapan namin ang buhay mo. Kung hindi ka magre-resign, ipapahiya ka namin. Sisiraan ang iyong character. Yuyurakan ang pangalan mo,” she said.

i’m not even all that crazy about cj sereno.  i was most disappointed when she did not inhibit from voting on torre de manila, considering that her husband once worked for DMCI.  and in the oral arguments i was dismayed when she pointed out how other monuments are in the midst of malls and high-rise buildings — the unsaid being, why should jose rizal deserve better?

associate justice carpio was no less dismaying:

“his (Rizal’s) dying wish was to face east but the captain of the guard said no so he died facing west.” …“Now, Rizal is still facing west. We still deny him his dying wish…”

ironically, it was associate justice teresita de castro i lauded for hitting out at the NHCP’S inefficiency and inconsistency.  it’s too bad that she went along with midas and the lower house on sereno’s impeachment.  dami rin niyang isyu against the chief justice, but the biggest, i bet, is that she will have retired by the time sereno retires, the cj being so young, which means no chance no hope no prayer of herself rising to chief justice.  unless na nga sereno is impeached by congress, or unseated by the supremes themselves via a ruling that her 2012 appointment was illegal.  or something desperate like that.

which brings me back to midas marquez, who is relatively younger.  but wait.  the internet has no data on his birthyear so i don’t know, is he maybe the same age as the CJ, and so he has no chance of making it to associate justice man lang while sereno seats?  or is he younger than sereno but simply impatient, nagatungan nga ba ng duterte diehards?

i visited his facebook page.  top post is a Duterte Kami 13-minute video of erwin tulfo, iniisa-isa ang mga kasalanan ni noynoy aquino. including, i guess, corona’s dismissal.  below that is an araw ng kalayaan video 2017 by presidential comms, and below that, this, on revenge:

Atty. Jose Midas P. Marquez
5 April 2017 ·
Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone. Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, “I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the Lord . Instead, “If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads.” Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.
Romans 12:17‭-‬21 NLT

hmm.  if what he is alleged to be doing to unseat the CJ is not revenge, i don’t know what is.  but what appalls, if true, is that it’s like he thinks he can swing a PNoy?  oust a chief justice?  in the lower house, yes, it would look like it, though it’s certainly taking forever, but in the senate?  umm, come to think of it, i’ve seen facebook posts warning that the senators are puro bayaran.  well, whoever’s behind midas marquez must have very deep pockets.

the senate will be tested.

the sereno shebang

read raul palabrica’s Ominous precedent in the hight court, narciso reyes’s Supreme Court quandary, rene saguisag’s …cost of judicial independence, jose sison’s Wrong move, ana marie pamintuan’s Shortcuts, and elinando cinco’s If the impending Sereno impeachment were a new- product launch, it sorely needs industry endorsements.

clearly, the solgen’s  big idea (or was it the speaker’s) of asking the supreme court to remove cj sereno from her position via a quo warranto proceeding instead of letting her go through an impeachment trial is actually a very bad idea.

hindi bale sana if the supremes had stayed above the fray, distanced themselves from the lower-house impeachment hearings, as behooved them.  then it would be a different story, then we would not be under the impression that the supremes would kick her out in a heartbeat if it were up to them, and that’s not fair.  sereno deserves to be heard, must be given the opportunity to respond to accusations in the proper court, that is, the senate trial court.  she was right to stay away from the snakepit, the cesspool? that is the lower-house.

hindi rin bale sana if we were not under the impression that the case against the chief justice is weak, or why else did the honorable reps need some seven months, over some 15 day-long hearings, to come up with something, anything, as in, best efforts ang peg? anyway it’s more a political rather than a judicial matter, the senate sitting as an impeachment court cannot NOT take into consideration that very powerful ones in the  duterte admin want her out, full stop? by hook or by crook? no ifs or buts?

the “honorable” reps should stop appearing on tv, trying to convince us that the chief justice is as bad, as evil, as corrupt, even, as crazy, as they are, i mean, as they say she is.  and media peeps should stop giving them airtime.  they’ve had seven months.  it’s the cj’s turn and we badly want to hear her defense, yes?

tama si cj,  tapusin ng congress ang sinimulan nila.  wag tayo pumayag na basta na lang sipain ng supremes si sereno.  we need to hear her side, so we can all make up our minds who and what to believe.  they made us suffer through 7 tortuous months of lower-house hearings, we deserve the closure that a senate trial will bring, whatever the outcome, for good or ill.

at the moment i’m not sold on the notion na walang panalo si sereno.  na kahit hindi pa siya ma-convict sa senado di na siya makakabalik sa supreme court, that the damage to the institution would be reparable only if given a fresh start, without sereno.  yeah, right, armed with a whole new set of precedents to judge by, how fresh is that.

of course the supreme appeal of the quo-warranto scheme was that it would save the lower house from the hard work of  prosecuting the case vs. sereno in the senate.  it would seem, however, that the “honorable” ones have recovered from that moment of weakness.  the news is that former senate prez juan ponce enrile himself, who supported the midnight appointment of, then presided over the trial court that impeached, corona has joined the prosecution panel, woohoo, let the games begin.

from cj puno to cj sereno #lookback

cj sereno’s quick rise to the judiciary’s highest post in 2012 was far from auspicious, coming as it did on the heels of the ignominiously controversial impeachment and conviction of her immediate predecessor, cj renato corona, in 2011.

and then, again, the reverse might also be true:  that pNoy’s appointment of sereno was auspicious because it was a matter of righting a wrong — the corona appointment by outgoing prez gloria arroyo was a (post)midnight appointment, expressly prohibited by the constitution; it was for incumbent prez benigno aquino III to appoint the replacement of cj reynato puno who was due to step down may 17 2010.

(Article 7, Section 15) “Two months immediately before the next presidential elections and up to the end of his term, a President or Acting President shall not make appointments, except temporary appointments to executive positions when continued vacancies therein will prejudice public service or endanger public safety.”

katatapos ng may 10 2010 elections, obvious winner na si pNoy, pero presidente pa si gloria, when on may 12 she appointed corona sc chief justice — ni hindi pa bakante ang posisyon — with the backing of the puno supreme court, no less (even if puno himself abstained), and some very powerful figures in legal and political circles.

it was the culmination of a scheme initiated as early as december 2009 by arroyo diehard, rep matias defensor, so the backstory goes.  read marites danguilan vitug’s Inside the JBC: The appointment of the Chief Justice in 2010.  

Those who rallied for the appointment of a Chief Justice despite the ban during the election period stood on shaky ground. Their main argument hinged on an imagined scenario that revolved on a forthcoming novel experience. With the country’s first-ever automated polls, they foresaw confusion and a deluge of election protests that would eventually reach the Supreme Court. It was important, therefore, to have a Chief Justice to preside over the resolution of these contentious cases.

more than a decade earlier, says marites, cj andres narvasa was faced with the same kind of pressure but he withstood it.

Chief Justice Andres Narvasa refused to convene the JBC to fill up a vacancy on the Court because it fell during the appointments ban. He fiercely stood his ground despite pressure from Malacañang.”

unfortunately, cj puno was (is?) made of different stuff.

In March … In a 9-1 vote, the Court decided to exempt itself and the rest of the judiciary from the appointments ban. President Arroyo could appoint the next Chief Justice.

so accommodating of cj puno, diba? making an exception for arroyo, on such flimsy grounds, when an acting chief justice would have done as well during the transition.

what if

what if puno had done a narvasa instead.  what if he had stood firm about following the constitution?  he would have saved nation the aggravation and expense (!) of the corona impeachment and trial and, even, this whole sereno shebang.  i guess it tells us whose side former cj puno was really on then, and whose side he’s really on now, as he shepherds the crafting of a draft constitution.  (gma, is that you?)

matakot tayo.  magtanong tayo.  ano ba talaga ang agenda ni ex-cj puno?  who / what convinced him to be part of this scheme to sell charter change and federalism as the solution to all our problems, which are legion and complicated.  does it not bother him that many think him a sad sell-out?  is he?  pa-executive session executive session pa ang consultative commission (just heard it on dzmm).  what’s all the secrecy all about?  what do they think they’re cooking up.  other than more chaos and anarchy, mabuhay ang elite rule?

what if cj puno had insisted, first, on an intense multi-media information campaign, and shown some semblance of taking the time to listen to and discuss with the people.  twould  be great to have a national conversation about this.  and it’s what we need.

but back to cj impeachments  

if puno had not played along with arroyo, and if arroyo had not appointed corona cj when she did, then pNoy would have had to choose from a list that could not have yet included sereno dahil i-a-appoint pa lang niya ito as associate justice in august 16 2010.

malamang ay napilitan si pNoy to choose from the eminently more qualified and next-in-line, and the supremes might not now be so restive and vulnerable to political nudges from left right and center, what a shame.

which brings me to the 2012 sereno appointment and the perception that it was a good, an auspicious, beginning, because a matter of righting a wrong.  i have a real problem with this.

the wrong done was the midnight appointment, the wrong was done by president arroyo with the complicity of cj puno and the supremes.  BUT the wrong found and for which corona was punished — undeclared wealth — had nothing to do with the midnight-appointment itself that was a brazen violation of the constitution.

bakit ganoon ang nangyari?  because no one dared take gma to court?  or it was easier, took less courage, if a lot of money, to find fault with corona, anything that would get him out of the way?

in my final analysis, corona was faulted and removed for accepting the arroyo appointment — he could have said no, it was against the constitution, he’d take his chances with the new prez.  ironically enough, sereno too might well be faulted and removed for accepting the aquino appointment — she could have said no, she was too young, she had no court experience.

neither anticipated that their SALNs would be under scrutiny.  after all, according to senator rene saguisag who helped craft the law, violation of the SALN law was NOT an impeachable offense until the enrile senate sitting as an impeachment court dared declare it so in the 2011 trial.

in any case, pareho lang si corona at si sereno, it would seem.  and she, too, deserves her day/s in court, let the chips fall where they may.

at itigil na please ang quo warranto eklat na iyan, mr. solicitor-general.  nagmamalinis naman masyado ang duterte admin.  after six months of impeachment hearings in the lower house that practically tore apart the cj, let s/he who is without sin cast the next stone.  i would so like to meet him  and shake his hand.

con-ass for federalism, NO! con-ass for BBL, YES!

read edilberto c. de jesus’s Con-ass for federalism?

The shift in political structure is major surgery. What benefits will federalism bring, and by what means will they materialize? Which limbs or organs will the surgeons amputate? What foreign elements will they implant?  How much will the operation cost? How long is the expected period of convalescence? The doctors prescribing the cure have not yet given a comprehensive explanation of the process to the patient.

…  Federalism, for instance, seeks to address the disparity in regional development and prosperity. The taxes extracted by the national government from the regions and the often tardy and inequitable flowback of budgetary resources to local government units present only one source of disparity.  It also stems from the difference in God-given resource endowments among LGUs and the stewardship practiced by their respective political leaders, many of them during decades of dynastic rule. Political restructuring will not magically give poor, badly governed LGUs more natural resources or better leaders.

Research has demonstrated that even if they retained all the 2015 revenues they raised, 88 of 93 provinces (95 percent), 87 of 152 cities (57 percent), and 1,937 of 2,044 municipalities (95 percent) could not support even half of their operating costs.  National-government efforts to improve the fiscal position of the poor LGUs through the 1992 Local Government Code have not succeeded. Success can come only if the richer LGUs, whose control over their resources federalism will reinforce, voluntarily agree to share their wealth. Changing systems will not necessarily displace current LGU leaders or their political priorities.

The benefits of the change are hypothetical, but the higher cost of running a federal system is inevitable.  Education Secretary Leonor Briones, once the national treasurer, has expressed doubts that the government can sustain these costs.

The experience of other countries gives us more understanding also about the risks of undertaking a systems overhaul. The first risk is the constitutional change process itself, which erases anything good in the old constitution and leaves a blank slate on which anything can be inscribed. Joaquin Bernas, SJ, and former chief justice Artemio Panganiban have both sounded this warning, which has led other analysts to prefer the piecemeal amendment of the Constitution, focusing only on provisions that have become dysfunctional.

This fear also reinforces the argument that an elected constitutional convention (Con-con) should craft a new constitution rather than legislators convened as a constituent assembly (Con-ass). Even if we naively assume that serving congressmen will robustly resist the temptation to promote personal interests, they would likely be more prone to focus on immediate political concerns. A Con-con would allow for a more diverse, deliberative body that will have a better chance to take a longer-term, more inclusive perspective to produce a constitution to which unborn generations of Filipinos will be subject. Is this not worth the investment in a Con-con?

read satur c. ocampo’s Differing views on con-ass may check federalism rush

…the larger concern over Charter change and the proposed shift from unitary to a federal system of government is the meagerness of the information made available to the public on what the precise proposed changes are. What is made known is that there are two drafts submitted to the House: a Resolution of both Houses filed by two congressmen, and a draft constitution for a federal system prepared by the PDP-Laban – the ruling party led by Pimentel as president and Alvarez as secretary-general.

read al s. vitangcol lll’s Charter changes must broaden the power of the people, not of politicians

I got a copy of the draft Constitution of the Federal Republic of the Philippines, as proposed by the federalism institute of a major political party.

… The proposed amendments are all in broad strokes and generalizations, making it subject to various legal and technical interpretations. What is obvious is that “preference for Filipinos” was removed from the National Economy and Patrimony article. How about foreign ownership of our lands?

read florangel rosario braid’s Are we ready for constitutional change?

… it is generally known that in countries with a federal structure, each state would have its own laws (and constitutions which would complicate the administration of justice. Imagine having different ways of dealing with concerns such as death penalty, divorce, abortion, and similar controversial issues. An example is the United States with 51 states and with varying policies on certain issues.

The shift to federalism would involve expense of billions of pesos in the setting up of state governments to support the cost of human resources, infrastructure, and additional layers in the bureaucracy.

read frank e. lobrigo’s Visible roadblocks to federalism

Rappler reported that as of the end of June 2017, the Philippines’ foreign external debt amounted to $72.5 billion. Converted into pesos at P50 to $1, it comes up to a whopping P3.625 trillion — roughly equivalent to the country’s annual national budget. Alongside this foreign debt is the domestic debt reported by the Bureau of Treasury at P4.152 trillion as of August 2017. With the administration’s “build, build, build” economics, the external debt should be expected to balloon in due time.

Amid the federalism frenzy among its advocates or proponents, no one is explaining to the public how a federal government with a diminished share in the national income pie will deal with the humongous foreign and domestic debts. No one is explaining how the constituent regions will equitably partake in the debt burden.  Any default on the foreign external debt will negatively impact on the economy. The country ably deals with its loan obligations because of the fusion of incomes from the affluent regions even with the concomitant fiscal dispersal to the nonaffluent ones. The vaunted economic progress under a federal form of government might just be buried neck-deep in the foreign and domestic debts.

read luis teodoro’s Conspiracy 2018

Effecting the shift is one of the Duterte campaign promises that seems to be following his timeline, unlike his pledge to end the illegal drug problem within six months. No one can blame the more skeptical for suspecting that that’s because everyone in the regime stands to benefit from what its own people would decide should go into the amendments or even into a new constitution, since the plan, as announced by Mr. Duterte’s henchmen in Congress, is to convene that body as a constituent assembly rather than to call a constitutional convention to which delegates would be elected at large. The expense of the latter has been invoked to justify the former. What’s closer to the truth is that the regime is not going to risk the election of non-regime friendly delegates to a convention.

read artemio v. panganiban’s What Alvarez wants, Alvarez gets

… four hurdles to speedy Cha-cha. The first is the “thinking” Senate, which, according to Sen. Panfilo Lacson, cannot be dictated upon, not even by the President. The senators will not agree to decide in only three months. Neither will they assent to joint voting, especially if the Con-ass would abolish the Senate.

The second is the Supreme Court, which may not go along with a joint vote. But if it does, the first obstacle would be simultaneously hurdled.

The third is the lack of popular support for federalism. The latest opinion surveys show either ignorance of or objections to it. Verily, the proposal is still vague and complicated. Of the several models floated, none has gained traction. If at all, they merely added to the confusion.

… The fourth: The 1987 Charter requires the plebiscite to “be held not earlier than sixty days nor later than ninety days after the approval of such amendment or revision.” Can the speedy Con-ass comply with this tough timeline?

what alvarez wants, alvarez gets?  but why?  because alvarez wants only what president duterte wants?  but  in september 2017 the president practically begged congress to pass the BBL asap, he would be certifying it as urgent.  and we know what happened to that: the president was ignored.  sey ng ilang representante at senador, unconstitutional daw kasi ang BBL, (because?) the relationship of an autonomous bangasamoro region with the national government would be asymmetrical, correct me if i’m wrong, and in that asymmetry allegedly lies danger of secession, que barbaridad!    

que awful indeed.  unthinkable even.  IF true.  pero kahit sabihin pa nating true, for the sake of argument, then go ahead and do a con-ass — but a con-ass properly done, i.e., separate voting (let’s have some thinking, please!) and a con-ass dedicated solely to amending / addressing provisions pertinent to BBL and the imagined secession scenario.

NOT a con-ass meant to fast-track a shift to federalism on grounds that such a shift would make BBL moot and academic.  please, no.  BBL is a matter of justice — we have debated it enough.  alvarez’s desired shift to federalism is another matter altogether, to decide which requires, nay, demands, all the trappings of a constitutional convention (a duterte campaign promise, btw) and, necessarily, an engaged media in the service of an engaged people for the sake of informed votes come the plebiscite.  it’s the only acceptable way to go.