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Friday, March 29, 2024

Immoral and dangerous

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I KNEW that sooner or later, PDP-Laban presidential candidate  Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte would cross the line and show himself as somebody without morals. True enough, he has admitted to having two wives and two girlfriends and that he would not hesitate to kill in the name of peace and order.

Santa Banana, would we Filipinos vote for a man who cursed Pope Francis?  As a Roman Catholic who believes that the Pope is the successor of Jesus Christ, I cannot tolerate anybody cursing the head of my church.

And for that, my gulay, I will not ever vote for Duterte and will in fact campaign against him in my column. He may ignore and disregard me, but I must make my point.

Can you imagine Duterte, obviously in an attempt at bizarre humor, bragging about killing a group of kidnappers and then burning their bodies during his time as Davao City mayor?  

If there are some who think that Duterte is their man because he can stop criminality and corruption, let them. But I must warn them: Duterte is not only a dangerous man. He is a public official without any sense of morality. 

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If he is elected, God save the Philippines!

I cannot understand why a senator like Alan Peter Cayetano is so enamored with Duterte. He is sticking to him like a leech and  toning down the profane rhetoric. 

Does Cayetano really believe Duterte stands a chance?

* * *

The camp of candidate Mrs. Mary Grace Poe Llamanzares is asking the Comelec to defer to the decision of the Senate Electoral Tribunal in dismissing the disqualification case against her as a senator.

The lawyers of Mrs. Llamanzares do not realize that the 5-4 majority decision of the SET was made possible because five of the six senators who voted against the disqualification did not follow the law. They instead decided based on personal/ sentimental reasons.

The composition of the Comelec is entirely different. The commissioners are lawyers, who are presumed to know the law. They are mandated by law to decide cases based on legal and constitutional grounds.

Nonetheless, whatever the Comelec decides before the printing of election ballots on Dec. 10 will surely be relegated to the Supreme Court, like the SET decision. 

And then, whatever the high court decides will rule the day. Whether we like it or not, that’s the law. 

* * *

Along with the government proponents of the Bangsamoro Basic Law, Senate President Frank Drilon is optimistic that the BBL will also hurdle all objections in the Senate.

To me, and a lot of others observers, the BBL is already dead in the water. First of all, how can the BBL be enacted by the House of Representatives when for all intents and purposes, the election period for 2016 has already started? This is resulting in the lack of quorum in the House.

In the Senate, there are still many senators who want to interpellate and debate over the BBL. Minority Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, for instance, believes that the BBL is a local or municipal law, and thus, should first be enacted at the House of Representatives.

Santa Banana, how can you justify having a parliamentary system of government in the Bangsamoro juridical entity when the national government is unitary in form and presidential in system?

We had a parliamentary system under strongman and dictator Ferdinand Marcos which was embodied in the 1973 Marcos Constitution. But, when the revolutionary government of the late President Cory Aquino came into being, the country’s parliamentary system was abrogated and we returned to the unitary presidential system. My gulay, how incongruous would it be to have a parliamentary system for the Bangsamoro under the  unitary presidential system of the central government?

* * *

The intramurals within the Iglesia Ni Cristo with the alleged kidnapping of INC ministers who refused to toe the line of the INC Sanggunian or Council is still pending in Court. Nonetheless, it has already done enough damage to the sect. It has made Iglesia fanatics doubt their faith.

While the charges of kidnappings of ministers who refuse to kowtow to Iglesia council members have not really put a dent on INC followers, the charges of money laundering and evasion of taxes being brought about by expelled INC ministers in the United States have once again rocked the sect.

If those in power at the Iglesia cannot patch up things with their former ministers, it could mean a bigger problem for them.

Lest I am misunderstood, I’m not saying that the Iglesia will  be shattered. What I’m saying is that while the faith of INC members will remain with the sect, their faith in their leaders will not be as strong and committed as their faith in their founder Felix Manalo and his son Ka Erdy Manalo.

* * *

I heard Leni Robredo answer difficult questions from among students of the University of the Philippines. The questions were  on the failure of the Aquino administration to solve day-to-day problems like the MRT and traffic gridlocks in Metro Manila.

I must admit I admire her sincerity and her candid answers to questions, like when she said that there is need to address the problem of mass transit. She also said that she did not agree that the worsening traffic problem is a sign of progress.

What is needed, Robredo added, is an effective mass transit system. On this, I agree with her. 

The problem with President Aquino and Transportation and Com-munications Secretary Joseph “Jun” Abaya is that they cannot seem to understand Metro Manila’s traffic problem and what the people need.

Or, better still, they refuse to understand the problem because of incompetence and insensitivity. 

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