Punchline
The High Court called a spade a spade
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
The recent rejection of the People’s Initiative by the Supreme Court meant different things to many people depending on where their sympathies lie. In my case, a couple of things stood out from the majority decision and the subsequent reactions.
1. The Supreme Court did not hold back its punches by labeling Sigaw ng Bayan’s version of the People’s Initiative “a gigantic fraud on the people.” It didn’t mince words in castigating SnB’s spokesman Raul Lambino. On page 31 of the majority decision, it said: “Atty. Lambino and his group deceived the 6.3 million signatories and even the entire nation.”
2. The High Court said the SnB’s petition was an attempt to hoodwink the nation by resorting to “logrolling” – when the petition incorporates an unrelated subject matter in the same petition, putting “people in a dilemma since they can only answer either yes or no to the entire proposition, forcing them to sign a petition that effectively contains two propositions, one of which they may find unacceptable.”
3. The SnB proposition veiled its intention to keep congressmen in their parliamentary posts longer and beyond the terms provided for the senators.
4. Atty. Lambino can be disbarred for attempting to deceive the people.
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WHEN TECHNICALITIES ARE UNFOUNDED. I cringed when I read that the most hypocritical reaction had to come from our own Speaker Joe de V!
He said, “It is with deep regret that [the high court’s] eight members, a majority of one, seem to have focused on the technicalities, instead of on the real and urgent political problems that impoverish the masses of Filipinos, demoralize our idealistic young people, and cause our country to lag behind its vigorous neighbors in the world’s fastest-growing region.” How I wished he had not said that.
He seems to have forgotten that “technicalities” were what he and his allies in the House used to kill the impeachment complaint not only once, but twice before using sheer numbers, not conscience, to finally bury the complaint!
Recall how the opposition in the House had appealed to their colleagues in the majority not to use technicality to render the complaint moot but to no avail. Speaker JDV’s allies used every trick in the book to assail whatever they could find in the complaint unmindful of the gravity of the charges and implication of the move to junk the complaint.
Now that the shoe is in the other foot, Speaker JDV sees it fit to rebuke the High Court for refusing to resolve the issue beyond the “technicalities.”
But certainly, one can appreciate the difference between the Speaker’s and the opposition’s source of lament: the Supreme Court decided on the “technicalities” with a conscience vote while the congressmen decided on the “technicalities” by the prospect of pork barrel and guaranteed reelection.
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LIM VS. VENDORS. Nobody but nobody can fault the Lim administration in Dagupan City for strictly enforcing the law and ordinance on the illegal use of sidewalks. He and his officials certainly cannot be seen being remiss in their duties especially when the targets of their duties are the weak and the poor. That’s the easy part.
Unfortunately for the sidewalk vendors and hawkers, they don’t have the means to protect their rights and interests. What rights, you might ask?
While they cannot expect to be protected by law when violating another law, the sidewalk vendors can rightfully seek the protection of the local government to be able to avail of and enjoy economic opportunities by being provided a viable location for their business activities.
The knee-jerk reaction to arrest and simply dump all the hawkers and vendors at the MC Adore premises is a real no-brainer. They simply don’t have a chance of earning anything in that location. It is not only devoid of any vision or forward-planning for an urban setting but a cruel punishment that the vendors don’t deserve.
One wonders how the families of vendors and the hawkers, who earn a measly P200 a day crisscrossing the streets and parking on the sidewalks, can even hope to survive now that they are told to part with P2,000 a month just to pay the city government for the “right” to be at MC Adore?
The police in the underworld have a word for that type of operation – hulidap!
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A NIGHT MARKET OR A BOARDWALK. This corner has long suggested the development of a safe, brightly-lit and organized night market (with all the sanitation safeguards) in the city. A well-managed clean night market is always a sure-fire come-on for tourists.
Or why not a boardwalk or a promenade fronting the Pantal river? Taking the cue alone from the success of Original Dawel and Silverio’s, the development of the Pantal area as a food center as one finds them in Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam should be a boon to many enterprising vendors.
These prospects will certainly impact on many Dagupan households more than what the graft-ridden Malimgas market promised or certainly a lot more than what Mr. Benjie Lim promises for his vaunted bangus processing plant.
Aaah… but I guess the Malimgas and the bangus plant promised him and others more!
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UNSANITARY DEAL FOR THE LANDFILL. As the first public hearing on the proposed sanitary landfill in Bayambang has borne out, there is more than meets the eye about its adoption and approval.
Just like the aborted sanitary landfill project of Dagupan City, it is becoming evident that the proposed construction is primarily motivated by business and personal interests, not by community good.
That the approval of the project at the town level was actually rushed by a number that could hardly be considered a majority of the council, one cannot help but suspect that money has changed hands to ensure the project, regardless of its merits and capabilities of the proponent.
This is the first sign that the sanitary landfill project will be a bane instead of a gain for the town. A bunch of bribed town councilors can never be expected to right a wrong at anytime.
If a project is as good as the proponent claims, then there should be no reason to shortcut a well-defined process for its adoption and implementation.
Let’s see how Vice Gov. Oscar Lambino and the provincial board will pursue the issue from hereon. If the process is again “fast-tracked” on their level, then the residents of Bayambang have reason to fear for their future.
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CONGRATULATIONS. I join others in congratulating Chief Supt. Pol Bataoil for his appointment as PNP Region 1 director. His accomplishments as commander of the Northern Police District Command and Pangasinan Provincial Director are enough to make everyone agree that it was a well-deserved appointment and promotion.
Let’s hope that jueteng and political patronage will not eventually destroy the same values that brought him this far, earning the respect of both his superiors and subordinates along the way.
(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/punchline/)
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