"I had other plans, but…."
"I had other plans, but…."
When I have nothing to do except sit on my Lazy Boy, I become nostalgic and look back on my experiences.
I ask myself, for instance, why I became a journalist, depending only on the salary from the publication I’m working for. Since I was a teenager, I had dreamed of being a lawyer like my older brothers. I was influenced by Hollywood movies where lawyers try seemingly impossible cases and win in the end.
Aside from this, for Ilocanos, to become a lawyer or a doctor of medicine is a badge of honor.
So why, instead of practicing law, did I choose to be a journalist? I think I will continue to be one until I write “30.”
In college, I took law electives, so that when I finished my AB, it only took me two years to finish my Bachelor of Laws at the Philippine Law School, then a prestigious institution from which many legal luminaries graduated.
But when I was at the Ateneo, I became an associate editor for The Guidon, the college paper, where I had my column called “In My Opinion.”
And then, there was an opportunity to write for a real newspaper. I took up the challenge to write for The Mindanao Cross, a publication run by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Cotabato.
My editor-in-chief at The Guidon, Rudy Tupas, also became a magazine editor for the Manila Times. He was also editor of the Oblates publication for all Notre Dame schools all over Mindanao and Sulu.
After two years among Christians and Muslims in Mindanao, I came back to Manila to teach at the old Ateneo de Manila High School where I taught English, history and literature. I still yearned to practice the law, but circumstances beyond my control took the better of me. I married the love of my life.
It was somehow the will of God that I became a journalist. At that time, Botica Boie hosted businessmen, professionals and media daily. People would talk about everything under the sun.
One day, a friend who worked for the late Don Vicente Madrigal asked me if I wanted to work at the Philippines Herald. This friend knew I was jobless. I said yes. He then took me to see Don Vicente, who told me to see Felix Gonzales who was then editor-in-chief.
Gonzales was known as “the judge” because he used to cover the judiciary. His first words to me were: “So you are an Atenean. I hate Ateneans. But there’s your desk.” He pointed to the desk of the business editor, who was then taking the Bar.
This was how I became a journalist, forsaking my law profession to take the place of another journalist who wanted to become a lawyer. Ironic, isn’t it? That started my career as business editor of a national newspaper.
I must say that my background in law helped me a lot as a journalist. I am a fierce advocate of due process and the rule of law. I am a champion of press freedom.
* * *
The recent controversy over a requirement of the Securities and Exchange Commission requiring all corporations, past and present, by virtue of the SEC Memorandum Circular no. 17, series of 2018, to disclose their ultimate beneficial owners—defined as natural persons who ultimately or effectively own or control the corporation—in their General Information Sheet, brings to fore the need to amend the Constitution’s economic provision that foreigners can only own up to 40 percent of Filipino corporations.
In the wake of the outcry of business against the order, the SEC has since dismissed that requirement.
Some geniuses at the SEC, knowing that some Philippine corporations are effectively owned by foreigners, issued that controversial memorandum without realizing that it was illegal because only Congress can pass a law requiring all corporations to disclose their ultimate beneficial owners.
Aside from the fact that the SEC requirement is illegal and unconstitutional, the circular intrudes on Filipino citizens’ inherent constitutional right to privacy.
Since the SEC is not a lawmaking body, and it is tasked only to execute laws, it certainly went out of bounds.
Another factor to consider is that the circulars would deter the development of the capital market to the prejudice of the investing public.
In the wake of all these, the SEC wanted first to delay the implementation of the circular. And then it decided to scrap it.
Santa Banana, I have said in this space that this was a surefire formula for graft and corruption. It gives corrupt SEC people to extort money from corporations suspected to have foreigners as their beneficial owners.
* * *
In the wake of reports that there are now foreign jihadists in Mindanao, I see the need to extend martial law throughout Mindanao. Martial law has somehow prevented terrorism and violence down South.
I have talked to many Mindanaoans, and they agree to extend martial law throughout the island to enable the military and the police to prevent further violence.
* * *
President Duterte’s decision to lift the ban on all outlets of the lotto shows that while he is gung-ho on his war against corruption, he also listens to the people. Imagine lotto workers becoming jobless.
This is what I like about Duterte. He cares for the people.
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