Playing with Fire
Fear the verdict not of the court, but of history
By Gonzalo Duque
MOST Pangasinenses are looking forward to the province’s hosting of the Palarong Pambansa next year.
This is something Guv’nor Spines and his hard-hitting provincial board will consider another good opportunity to “show off,” we mean, our ability to play host, super host, to be exact, as we banner our great performance as a local government unit.
You see, it was tough enough to bid for hosting a national event; tougher still when we got what we bidded for.
But no problem, because Spines is determined to go for it. He has been there. In the l990’s, he, then as police provincial director, was overseer of the province’s hosting of Pambansang Palaro, and he passed it with flying colors.
That was during the presidency of Fidel V. Ramos. There should be no reason we won’t succeed again this time. Go, go, go Spines! We in the private sector are l00 percent behind you.
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Whatever comes out of the controversy involving former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and hubby Mike Arroyo in her quest for cure abroad, we should not forget that ours is a government of laws, and not of men. Ours is a rule of law in which the last word on what is legal or illegal should come from the Supreme Court.
With this frame of mind, we should rally behind the SC’s decision to allow them to leave. But as events stand now, we can only remind our countrymen that a more painful verdict is not what the courts, especially the Supreme Court, will say but what history would.
President Aquino and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima should ponder this stern reminder.
While we go through the pro and con of the controversy there are incontrovertible facts of history that should illumine our understanding. Then President Marcos allowed his arch political foe Ninoy to seek cure in Dallas, Texas. And so, many are asking if what was applied to President Noynoy’s father couldn’t be applied on Gloria. It should be sobering for all of us to know that Time heals wounds … when the people are able to see things on a clear day, when truth would is at its shiningest.
Look, what we used to hold as the world’s Number One Thief, as the encyclopedia would describe Ferdinand Marcos, has run smack into an awesome reality: Filipinos voted into office Imelda, Imee and Bongbong to their present positions in government. Bongbong even topped the senate race in Pangasinan. What does this mean?
It means let’s not be stampeded into condemning anyone at the height of hubris. Let time heal the wounds.
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The following item was bumped off in our last column, sorry.
Friends in the US the likes of Sammy Macasaet and wife Mita wish to inform loved ones in the Philippines that many Fil-Ams out there, in spite of Barack
Obama’s mediocre performance, are okay, in fact, tip top shape, and want to share their blessings to friends here.
Mita reports that Diosdado Macaraeg, president of Friends, Inc., and lovely wife Dr. Arlene; and Larry and Cora Casem, who threw out an enjoyable party for us recently want to felicitate Pinoys, especially Pangasineses with great love.
Many are impressed how Dado is able to run his organization with aplomb despite the harsh times in the US. It’s because they love a lot of love for everyone, and as you know, love makes the world go round.
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