My media colleague, Cecil Arillo, has published a book—The Marcos Legacy—enumerating the achievements of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos.
The Marcos haters will say Marcos has no legacy to leave except years of persecuting the people, particularly during the martial law years. They will cite human rights violations and the suppression of civil rights and freedoms.
As former Justice Manuel Lazaro wrote, by way of introduction to Arillo’s book: “This book presents a glimmer galaxy of multi-dimensional signals of events known but ignored and unpublished, spiced by the constellation of episodes overlooked and neglected for unexplained reasons.
“It exudes a classic panorama of events and episodes that metamorphosed to chronicled history of the country. It rights the wrongs and omissions wittingly or unwittingly omitted and rectified. The great playwright William Shakespeare said: The evil that men do lives after them; the good is often interred with their bones.”
“It is typical of some people to have short memories of another’s good deeds, but long memories of bad or perceived wrongs,” Lazaro added.
Every year when we mark the anniversary of the People Power Revolution of 1986, we read and hear about the bad things that Marcos did. But we forget that he also did good things for the people.
Arillo’s book chronicles the other side of Marcos. Was he a hero or a heel? This book provides an answer.
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It is basic in law that when the Supreme Court justices rule on an issue, we have to accept that decision whether we like it or not, whether we agree with it or not.
President Duterte ordered Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales to suspend overall deputy ombudsman Arthur Carandang for 90 days for allegedly making Senator Antonio Trillanes get hold of confidential information from the Anti-Money Laundering Council on the bank accounts of President Duterte and his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte. This, despite an existing Supreme Court decision that the President cannot do so. Malacañang lawyers—presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo and Solicitor General Jose Calida—painted the President in a corner.
Way back in 2014, the Supreme Court settled the controversy on whether the President can order the suspension of the Ombudsman’s overall deputy in the case of Emilio Gonzales III.
The High Court then ruled against then-President Benigno Aquino III in an effort to check abuse of power.
The decision holds unless the Court reverses it.
The problem is that Panelo and Calida are trying to stop the Ombudsman and her deputy from carrying on with their investigation to ferret out the truth about the accounts of the Dutertes.
The President is now in a no-win situation.
***
There are a few times when I am actually happy that the Senate conducts hearings in aid of legislation. Specifically I talk about the probe on the death, by hazing, of University of Santo Tomas Horacio Castillo III.
Barbarism has no place in civilized society, much less among those who represent the legal profession. But I found myself perplexed at which aspect many decided to focus on.
In the aftermath of the inquiry, headlines focused on the recommendation of the Senate committee to disbar UST Faculty of Law Dean Nilo Divina. Many reports opened with his name in the headlines, relegating those who were actually involved in the hazing in the background.
What is going on here?
Foremost, my sympathy goes to the Castillo family. But I also cannot help but feel bad for Divina.
During Atio’s wake, Divina was present. He vowed to the family that he would help bring justice to them. He kept his word, too, since he was instrumental in convincing John Paul Solano to speak out.
During the hearing, certain senators were obviously trying to link Divina to the case. The best they could come up with were implausible conspiracy theories. Santa Banana, even the Manila Police District ultimately cleared Divina of any wrongdoing!
He is now being presented as the one ultimately responsible for the death of Castillo.
***
During the Christmas, while nobody was looking, the Commission on Elections approved the purchase of vote counting machines from Smartmatic. The en banc was chaired by retiring commissioner Roberto Lim. The deal involves billions of pesos.
I don’t know what love potion Smartmatic executives gave the Comelec. Despite the many cases against Smartmatic, for fraud and vote manipulation, the commissioners still voted to buy the VCMs used in the 2016 polls.
The deal was done without public bidding—and it was a midnight deal. Congress must investigate this.
***
It is now clear that Sanofi Pasteur vaccination program, negotiated by President Benigno Aquino III and implemented by then-Health Secretary Janette Garin with former Budget Secretary Florencio Abad providing the funding was illegal. Those behind it should be held accountable!
We now see the accountability of Aquino, Garin and Abad for this vaccination program used right before the 2016, in all likelihood to boost the candidacy of Manuel Roxas II.
Now parents are wary of vaccination altogether!
I say prosecute those accountable. This is criminal!
