In his recent visit to Brunei and now to China, President Duterte hasn’t uttered a single cuss word. This is because Duterte chooses his audience. He knows these expletives resonate with Filipinos. Duterte is being street smart; he knows what a particular audience wants him to say.
I believe that in due time, when illegal drugs and criminality are no longer a menace to society, the President will finally metamorphose into the statesman we want him to be.
When a man is humble enough to acknowledge his mistakes and apologize for them, he is still capable of doing great things for the country. I think real change will come, eventually – and I am not being an apologist for the President.
In the same breath, I worry that the majority of Filipinos seem perfectly fine with the killings of thousands of alleged drug dealers and users. Have we become desensitized to violence? Can we no longer discern what is wrong?
Santa Banana, without the rule of law and due process, where are we headed?
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The Supreme Court was set to decide last Tuesday on the many petitions against the burial of the remains of the late strongman President Ferdinand Marcos. Instead the high court decided to extend the status quo ante order to November 8. What could be the reason?
Insiders tell me that while the majority of the justices have already voted for the dismissal of the petitions against the Marcos burial, the “Yellows” in the Supreme Court—led by no less than Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, together with Justices Benjamin Caguioa, the assigned “ponente,” Marvic Leonen and Francis Jardeleza—sought the postponement of the decision. They are still hoping they could influence the other justices to side with them.
That’s the problem with the gods of Mount Olympus at Padre Faura—they adhere to the “tayo tayo” system on many controversial cases. Some members of the judiciary decide not on the basis of the law but on “pakikisama.”
My sources tell me, however, that the decision would still be in favor of burial at the Libingan.
In the meantime, there are moves by Congress to rename the LNMB as simply the “Soldiers Cemetery.” After all, the LNMB was patterned after the Arlington Cemetery. Along with this move, there’s a plan to build a pantheon for heroes. Santa Banana, that could well be the answer to this controversy.
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Securities and Exchange Commission chairperson Teresita Herbosa has directed Philweb, an online gambling company, to tender an offer to stockholders after businessman Robert V. Ongpin divested himself as chairman. This after President Duterte tagged him as an “oligarch who must be destroyed.”
But Bobby, who was my student at Ateneo, is far from being an oligarch embedded in government.
Thus, when Ongpin sold his 771,651,896 shares to Gregoria Ma. Araneta III, son-in-law of the late strongman President Marcos, at P2.60 per share amounting to more than P2 billion— representing 53.76 percent of Philweb—Araneta wrote the SEC chairman that while he was willing to abide by the SEC requirement of the tender offer. He would sell to minority stockholders shares at the earliest possible time; such an offer should be made after his transaction with Ongpin is over.
Araneta wrote Herbosa: “I have on several occasions confirmed my willingness to abide by the requirements of the tender offer at the earliest possible time. However, it should be obvious to all concerned that because the transaction price is P2.60 per share and the current market price is above P9 that no shareholder will tender his shares at P2.60 when he can dispose of those shares at the market at anytime at the prevailing market price of P9 or better.”
That’s logical enough for anybody to understand. Why would Araneta make a tender offer to stockholders at only P2.60 per share when the stockholders can always buy at the market price of P9 or over?
Thus, the SEC should have no choice but to approve the block sale to be executed the soonest possible time. The tender offer requirement, if required to be accomplished prior to the block sale, will only cause unnecessary expenses on the part of Araneta.
It should be clear by now to observers that in effect Ongpin lost more than P20 billion after Philweb’s share price plunged. But, if only to have Philweb continue its e-Games operations where Philweb and e-Games employees numbering over 6,000 since August 11 have been out of work and the 131 operators of e-Games, and their investments of P1.8 billion could be wiped out, Ongpin sold his share at only P2.60 per share.
Pagcor had stated that “the issue is not RVO (Roberto V. Ongpin) or Philweb per se. It is the President’s and his governments opposition to on-line and on-site electronic gambling because of the social ills and decay that they foist on our communities as they cater to the more economically vulnerable position of our population.”
It also stands to reason that after the President allowed on-line and off-site gambling so long as they were far from schools and churches, and since Ongpin had already divested his shares, Pagcor must now grant Philweb its license to operate anew.