Manuel L. Quezon III
As the hearings in the Supreme Court on the martial law petitions take place, many hope to find out what ought to have been put on the record weeks ago—namely, what factors contributed to President Duterte’s decision to impose martial law in Mindanao.
Yes, Congress chose not to convene in joint session. There are arguments to be made for standing behind the President and presenting a united front in times as grave as these. But so many wish that they would have done the joint session – if only to justify Congress’ continued raison d’etre.
We know the central institutional feature of the Constitution to be separation of powers. This means limited government. It would prevent a single branch from consolidating strength to act tyranically. The best protection was the interest of each branch in jealously defending its prerogatives. That is what the framers naturally assumed. Read on…
DITCHAY ROXAS: I just heard that Gina Lopez was not confirmed this morning. That very slight glimmer of light at the end of this fucking dark tunnel has just been diminished even further. Yes she is not perfect. Yes she is an oligarch and bourgeois as hell. Yes she isn’t technical nor legalistic. Yes she is an imperfect human being like all the rest of us but goddamn it she carries a torch for the country and our people, a torch of hope and light that glows from a distance and brightens the horizon. We live in a world that is crumbling, an environment that is dying, and one of the very few in government who has the guts, the heart and the vision to do something about it gets tossed out like rotten fruit by maggots eating at the flesh of our gangrenous society. May they wallow in their stinking rottenness!!!
c’mon, mr. president! you promised. a war on drugs. and. on. mining. pinaasa mo kami, sir!
For our sake, we better understand what is happening and act collectively to avert the worst outcome.
First, there was the filing last Friday of the impeachment complaint against President Duterte by Representative Gary Alejano of the Magdalo party list. The timing was perfect, with Congress having just adjourned, surprising the Duterte administration and its supporters.