Eleven Years Ago Today

ELEVEN YEARS AGO TODAY, on Saturday, 20 January 2001, Hilario Davide, was wearing the robes of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court when he strode up to the stage at the Edsa Shrine to swear into office as President of the Republic of the Philippines, its grey-garbed Vice President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.  But it was without legitimacy that he administered this oath, for contrary to the fiction he had forced upon the Court earlier that day, then President Joseph Estrada was not PERMANENTLY DISABLED, as claimed in a towering lie of a fax sent to the Court on behalf of  Mrs. Arroyo (by her then Chief of Staff Renato C. Corona [sic!] )but watching in disbelief from Malacanang Palace, with a gun to his head held by agents of AFP Chief o Staff Angelo Reyes, their co-conspirator in a coup d'etat that would later be hailed as the Edsa 2 People Power Revolution.

I was in the hooting throng that cheered this event as liberation from a corrupt President Estrada, but we did not know of the fiction by which the Supreme Court Chief Justice was acting in utter violation of the 1987 Constitution, did not know that Joseph Estrada would not leave Malacanang until after this incredible turn of events.  Three months later, and based on an alleged diary kept by then Executive Secretary Edgardo Angara, the Supreme Court would "construe"--actually they would CONSTRUCT--an Erap resignation, in the landmark ruling Estrada v. Arroyo.

But whatever eloquent arguments are to be found in that decision, the simple fact is that to this day, Joseph Estrada denies he ever resigned, and there is no resignation letter to be found. Moreover, just four days previous, on 16 January 2001, a crucial vote at his Senate impeachment trial, the so-called Second Envelope Vote, proved to one and all that he had at least eleven votes to sustain an eventual and near certain ACQUITTAL in that trial. So that since he had submitted entirely to the processes of impeachment by the House and Trial by the Senate, he had every expectation of being found not guilty of all four charges brought against him. WHY THEN WOULD HE RESIGN except for fear of his life and that of his family at the hands of the mutineers led by Gen. Angelo Reyes in conspiracy with Arroyo and Davide?

ELEVEN YEARS AGO TODAY, a date that is hardly mentioned now in the newspapers or by any one at all, because it is in fact the date of a Filthy Family Secret, the Supreme Court of the Philippines had usurped the "sole power of the Senate to TRY and DECIDE all cases of impeachment." This, it did not by some jurisprudential act or decision, but by authorizing Hilario G. Davide Jr. to simply and illegally swear in the Vice President. Instead of carrying out his duty as Presiding Judge of the Senate Impeachment Court, and pretending to be "preventing violence" Davide threw out the Rule of Law, violated the 1987 Constitution, and forever etched his name in history as a villain who destroyed democratic rule and opened the gates to the ruinous nine year reign of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Related: When Last the Military Withdrew Support

Philippine Commentary Rides Again!

I am dusting off Ye Olde Philippine Commentary after a long period of dormancy because the impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona bids me to re-enter the old fray.

Eleven years ago today, on 15 January 2001, the Philippine Daily Inquirer published my weekly Commentary in their Opinion/Editorial section. In it I was analyzing the likely course of then President Joseph Estrada's ongoing Impeachment Trial in the Philippine Senate. In that small essay I noted that since he was on trial for four separate charges brought against him the House of Representatives, there was some combination of Guilty/Not Guilty verdicts that could either convict or acquit him depending on how the 24 Senator-Judges actually voted. After going through the combinatorics, I wrote that if there were ELEVEN Senators  behind him, he could be acquitted of all charges by them, yet each could find him guilty in at least two or three of those charges because in none of them would there be the required 2/3 majority vote to convict.

Little did I know that on the very next day, on 16 January 2001, there would indeed be a crucial vote in the Impeachment Trial, in which what would later be called the Craven Eleven Senators would propose a vote called the Second Envelope Vote, in which it became clear Joseph Estrada would surely be acquitted of all charges and be found Not Guilty by the Senate Impeachment Court. The vote was 11-10 to exclude what was thought to be a piece of evidence that would convict the President in the eyes of the Public (but which would later turn out to be the opposite, though too late!)

Senator Tessie Aquino Oreta would dance an infamous jig for joy whilst then freshman Senator Loren Legarda would weep in front of the cameras. House Prosecutors led by then Congressman, now Senator Joker Arroyo, would walk out of the trial. At the famous Edsa Shrine small groups of anti-Erap demonstrators began to gather and cell phones which had only then began to be used in the Philippines would call out more and more of them until their numbers swelled throughout the night. In the next three days anti-Erap demonstrations would continue 24 hours a day under continuous television and radio coverage, until on 19 January 2001 Armed Forces Chief of Staff Angelo Reyes would walk onto the podium and announce that the AFP had mutinied against the President and were joining calls for him to step down.

We all know what happened next (or perhaps we don't know!) but in any event, on the very next day, on Saturday 20 January 2001, the Presiding Officer of the impeachment trial, then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Hilario Davide would swear in Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as President of the Republic of the Philippines!  The full story is told in dozens of posts right here on Philippine Commentary to which I shall have occasion to refer in the coming days.

Suffice it to say, that from that historic event to this very day, everything that has happened has seemed to conspire to produce the event upon whose brink we stand, as the House has impeached Renato Corona, then Chief of Staff of Vice President Arroyo, and whose trial begins on 16 January 2012, the self-same anniversary of the historic Vote on the Second Envelope!

Much has transpired in the intervening eleven years, dominated by the ill-fated Presidency of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who today is under arrest for electoral sabotage and is now under "hospital arrest" at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center.

We shall have several opportunities to re-examine all those events of yesteryear, and since. Suffice now only that I welcome back old readers of Philippine Commentary, and greet many new ones who were perhaps too young to have participated in or remember those important events. But all are witness again to another cataclysm in Philippine politics which I am honored to reflect and write upon in the impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Comelec Allows Erap to Run For President

Today is the 9th Anniversary of the EDSA DOS coup d'etat. There is no lack of irony, I suppose, in the news just breaking that the Commission on Elections has decided to allow former President Joseph Estrada to seek the Presidency again in the upcoming May national elections.

"Let the people decide who will be the next president," said the resolution released by the poll body’s Second Division, junking the petition filed against Estrada by lawyers Oliver Lozano, Evillo Pormento, and Elly Pamatong last December. 

The controversy has been brewing ever since President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo pardoned Erap after his overthrow in 2001 and a plunder conviction, in which what figured most prominently was the resolution therein restoring all his civil and political rights.

It has been suggested that PGMA has allowed Erap to get this far in order to splinter the opposition (as if they needed help doing that!) and possibly derail the candidacy of NOYNOY AQUINO whilst secretly supporting MANNY VILLAR.

Personally I think she's thinking farther than 2010, when she will indubitably lose the reins of power, no matter who wins.  I think she is already looking with moist eyes at 2016, when she will be a young 67 or 68 years old, and may now be just as eligible to seek re-election to the Presidency as Erap.

Although Joseph "Erap" Estrada has lagged third in the polls behind Aquino and Villar, no one should count him out!  His mass base is largely intact and with a still fragmented field he can still become a decisive factor in case the race gels into a two man race.

Erap Bids For Historical Redemption

DEPOSED Philippine leader JOSEPH "ERAP" ESTRADA today announced his intention to seek the Presidency in May, 2010 in an obvious bid for historical redemption. His survival and present candidacy is testament to the historic failure of Edsa Dos, which would certainly be repudiated if he wins.  He will run along with Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay as vice-presidential running mate, and a nearly full slate of senatorial candidates including Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Senate Pro Tempore Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada, Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, Representatives Teodoro "Teddy Boy" Locsin Jr., Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. and Rodolfo Plaza, lawyer Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III, Mary Grace Poe-Llamanzares, Jose "Joey" de Venecia III, Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim and Edu Manzano, former chairman of the Optical Media Board. Running under the United Opposition (UNO) flag, a twelfth senate seat has been left open for a guest candidate.  It appears Erap has put together a pretty strong senatorial lineup, with members of the Senate, Congress, provincial and local government, the military, entertainment, legal and political professions.

Aquino Ally To Run With Estrada-Binay Senatorial Ticket?

But perhaps the most interesting senatorial candidate of Erap is Rep. Teddy Boy Locsin, who is among other things, well known as Cory Aquino's long time speech writer, Press Secretary,  advisor, confidante and friend.  Teddy Boy wrote her famous speech before the US Congress and one of the best eulogies  after she died.  I think it is a political minus for NOYNOY AQUINO who has nonetheless just topped the 3rd Quarter SWS survey.  I recently analyzed this Choose 3 form of the survey here. In this connection check out also the report (via Cesar Purisima and MLQ3) of the existence of a "private rider" question in the above SWS survey, wherein Noynoy and Mar both are preferred over the other candidates in their respective races in a "Pick One" situation (100% total).   

 

How Erap Can Become President Again

I now seriously doubt that Joseph Estrada could file his candidacy for President of the Republic in the May 2010 elections, and survive the certain challenge in the Supreme Court (SCoRP)to disqualify him  based on the 1987 prohibition against any re-election to the Presidency.   By then, all the sitting justices will have been appointed by Gloria, too.

But there is no prohibition against Erap running for the Vice Presidency in 2010, which he would surely win by a huge landslide. And his Long Coattails could easily sweep whoever his running mate might be into the Presidency.  Said Running Mate could then validly resign (or *wink* send a fax to the Supreme Court declaring himself or herself "permanently disabled" and inviting the Honorable Supreme Court to administer the Oath of Office to the Vice President, say in front of the Edsa Shrine?).

An important ingredient of this idea is that the presidential ticket would also bring to power a political party to control the House and Senate for a series of impeachments and trials, investigations and prosecutions of errant government officials under the Arroyo administration.   The Ombudsman would have to be impeached since her term does not end in 2010, in order to straighten out the graft and corruption cases, from JocJoc to Mike Arroyo to DOJ. Everybody!

The 1987 Constitution declares

Section 1. The judicial power shall be vested in one Supreme Court and in such lower courts as may be established by law.

Clearly, not ALL of the judicial power is invested in the Supreme Court, since the Congress can apparently establish lower courts which would share such power. Indeed the Congress can even abolish any lower court than the Supreme Court.

Observe that in this case the Judicial Power is being shared by the Supreme Court and the Congress.  That is not unusual under our system of Separation of Powers, which might be more illuminative if it were termed "Sharing of Powers"!  Consider further that the Legislative power is also shared by the Congress and SCoRP since the decisions of the courts become a "part of the Law of the Land."

Of course SCoRP gets the lion share of the judicial power and its jurisdiction over civil and criminal cases is unmatched by any other department of the government. Except in one very special category of legal cases involving the highest officials of the land, including the honorable Justices of the SCoRP itself.  

I am referring to all CASES of IMPEACHMENT  of the exactly 31 impeachable officers of the Republic, the so-called "Constitutional Officers": 

15 Supreme Court justices; 

7 Comelec Commissioners; 

3 Commissioners on Audit; 

3 Commissioners of the Civil Service; 

President, 

Vice President and 

Ombudsman (now na!)

In a stunning display of how Separation of Powers works, consider that all cases of impeachment under the 1987 Constitution, from beginning to end, are entirely under the jurisdiction of the Congress.

Article XI Accountability of Public Officers.

Section 3. (1) The House of Representatives shall have the exclusive power to initiate all cases of impeachment.
...
(6) The Senate shall have the sole power to try and decide all cases of impeachment.

These categorical provisions covering all cases of impeachment are not controversial. They mean that the verdict of the Senate Impeachment Court in all cases of impeachment is final and executory. It may not be appealed to the SCoRP or reversed, amended, or diddled with in any way by SCoRP.

For in all cases of impeachment, the "supreme court" is not SCoRP but the Senate of the Republic of the Philippines.

This may seem to be a totally academic point. And of course it is.  Except for one thing. Edsa Dos and what happened there.  Remember that all of that folderol happened in the middle of the biggest Case of Impeachment ever in Philippine History: the trial of then President Joseph Estrada at the Philippine Senate. 

This blog has been all over the ground that covers Edsa Dos.  But in this post I simply want to make the point, that the roots of today's seemingly dysfunctional  and cuckolded Senate suck deep waters from what happened at Edsa Dos, and bears everyone's careful consideration as we approach the point at which Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her avaricious gang of bloodsuckers are gonna have to let go of the Teats. 

The only deserving Next President is whoever understands what happened and has the moral authority to investigate, prosecute, and punish the craven vampires that have bled us dry for eight long years, robbed us blind, brought us to the brink of partition, and feasted on moneys both domestic and foreign through bid rigging, bribery, graft and corruption, the works.

Who would that Next President be?  Now of course there would be so much poetic justice in it, that a President Joseph Estrada would make for a very interesting turn of events.  

Since  there is no prohibition against Erap running for Vice President and succeeding to the Presidency should the elected President resign. Erap would become President the same way Gloria did, and from there punish the principal crooks of this administration.

Art Panganiban, Religious and Judicial Fascist?

Perhaps reacting to Cory's apology to Erap for Edsa Dos, and remembering his own pivotal role in those anomalous events, former Chief Justice Artemio V. Panganiban, (now a columnist for a tabloid-broadsheet) defends SCoRP and Edsa Dos with the self-serving claim that "our Constitution has mandated the Court to be “activist,” to be an “interventionist” in all gravely abusive acts."

I think it is time to challenge this interpretation of the 1987 Constitution, which is so often repeated that it is becoming public dogma. Panganiban's assertion of a Constitutionally-mandated activist-interventionist role for the Supreme Court is of dubious durability and legitimacy. In fact, I believe it to be outrageous, and if commonly held by the members of the Court, it helps to explain the pitiful failure of SCoRP to rise above the quagmire of its own embarrassing past.

1987 Art. 8 Sec. 1 The judicial power shall be vested in one Supreme Court and in such lower courts as may be established by law. Judicial power includes the duty of the courts of justice to settle actual controversies involving rights which are legally demandable and enforceable, and to determine whether or not there has been a grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of any branch or instrumentality of the Government.

As examples of how this "extraordinary Court" has discharged what he calls a "duty it cannot evade" he cites:

For example, in 1997 and 2006, it stopped imprudent efforts to revise the Constitution through a peoples’ initiative. In 2001, it defrocked Joseph Ejercito Estrada and validated Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s ascent to the presidency. It has also annulled presidential issuances (like Presidential Proclamation 1017 declaring a state of national emergency), nullified acts of Congress, and voided government contracts.

I'll say SCoRP has nullified acts of Congress, alright. For example, the virtual acquittal of Joseph Estrada, the attempted impeachment of Hilario Davide, and the virtual shutdown of investigations into bribery allegations surrounding certain members of the Supreme Court itself.

He claims that SCoRP "defrocked Joseph Estrada". But I think SCoRP grievously abused its own discretion since Edsa Dos was about a case of Impeachment over which SCoRP has a total lack of jurisdiction under the Constitution.

PANGANIBAN: "It seems ironic that unelected justices are required by our Constitution to check the elected leaders of the country. This is because those lodged with political power tend to violate, shortcut or ignore the law. The democratic constituency of the Supreme Court is the Constitution, which has been overwhelmingly ratified by the people. Hence, the Court’s loyalty is always to the Charter, not to the President or Congress."

There you see, it's all the fault of "those lodged with political power" who "tend to violate, shortcut or ignore the law." So this is how Pundit Panganiban justifies the unjust and damnable actions of Justice Panganiban, co-conspirator of Hilario Davide, Angelo Reyes, Jaime Cardinal Sin and GMA!

Ahem. Recall that it was then Associate Justice Panganiban who came up with the idea of swearing in Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on 20 Jan 2001 upon a claim that Joseph Estrada was permanently incapacitated, and even bragging about the whole thing a year later in his book, Reforming the Judiciary [sic!]. Recall further, that it was Panganiban, who together with Davide, out-argued the incomparable Cecilia Munoz Palma on that fateful Saturday morning in January, 2001, and got the Supreme Court to authorize what amounted to a judicial-miltary coup d'etat against a democratically-elected, if incorrigibly dipsomaniacal Joseph Estrada.

So, what was that about those who "tend to violate, shortcut or ignore the law??"

PANGANIBAN: "Extraordinary judicial duties. Because of our sad experience during the martial law regime of Ferdinand Marcos, our 1987 Constitution granted our judiciary both ordinary and extraordinary authority to check the abuses and excesses of the other branches of government."

Ironically and paradoxically, it is SCoRP leading us back to Ferdinand Edralin Marcos, in the diminutive but deadly guise of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Related Posts

Angie Reyes, Unpunished Mutineer, Do-nothing Scumbag

ANGELO T. REYES, presently Secretary of Energy, together with Hilario Davide and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, will go down as one the most despicable scumbags to litter the shit-strewn by-ways of Philippine History. As the unpunished, self-confessed Mutineer of Edsa Dos, who conspired with Mike and Gloria Arroyo to steal the Presidency, and with then Chief Justice Hilario Davide, actually did it, he went on to be rewarded by his patroness with no less than five major Cabinet and government positions, including head of the National Disaster Coordinating Agency, Secretary of National Defense, Environment, Local Government and now of Energy. You would think him the most talented Filipino ever to be born, considering how indispensable she makes him out to be. Yet his accomplishments in all these positions are next to NIL. Yesterday he issued a gag order on oil companies against informing the public of price movements in the oil industry because he claims this unduly alarms the public. I guess he wants them to find out how bad things are just when they go to fill up at the gas station. What a fruitcake. I feel nauseam vomitus whenever I think of Angie Reyes, because of the fact that we have to live in a regime that exalts excrement like him. To all those who still somehow support People Power madness like Edsa Dos, you need to have your heads examined!

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Ninez Cacho Olivarez, editor and publisher of the Daily Tribune, has been found "guilty of criminal libel beyond a reasonable doubt" by the Makati Regional Trial Court, and has been sentenced to 6 months - 2 years imprisonment plus a hefty 5 million peso fine. Ninez is a personal acquaintance, I sympathize entirely with her predicament, and agree it is probably an unjust ruling. She has been granted bail pending appeal. But I disagree with the outright decriminalization of libel in the Philippines as Vergel O. Santos of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility came on ANC-TV at noon to pitch. That would be throwing the baby out with the bath water and will only empower those many arrogant and corrupt people in media whose occupation is less like Journalism and more like Extortion and Blackmail. I only wish real examples would be made of some of the worst of this ilk, for example on AM Radio.

Now here's a guy that OUGHT to be in Bilibid Prison right this instant, and not just on the front page of the Daily Tribune: Joc Joc Bolante, who will soon be deported from the US back to the loving arms of the Philippine Senate.

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The Greedy Group Wants It All

Tongue in, anew has a massive post on the assault on Meralco launched and directed from Malacanang Palace using Winston Garcia (GSIS) and Presidential son Mikey Arroyo. The title says it all: Meralco vs. the Mafia. The analysis is superb and substantial, from someone who's evidently seen a lot of these things up close and from the inside. Read it all but prepare to be infuriated. 'Tang ina ninyo! indeed. His concluding paragraph:

With the generation, transmission, and now distribution (soon, maybe fuel, too!) under the exclusive control of the same greedy groups and Mafia families, this whole friggin cursed nation of syndicates and ninety million cowards should cease to exist.

I would only add that as this issue moves forward, there is surely going to be a role for the Arroyo-controlled Supreme Court, which will soon be the cause for even greater fury at how the Rule of Law has been replaced by the Rule of Organized Crime masquerading as Government. Artemio V. Panganiban (former Chief Justice turned Innuendo Pundit) is acting the Innocent One in his weekend piece. As if he had nothing to do with the High Court's descent into the nether depths of intellectual dishonesty and dereliction of duty at Edsa Dos--the seminal anomalous event which demolished Constitutional Separation of Powers and laid the foundation via Judicial-Military Coup d'etat for our present Judicial-Executive conjugal dictatorship that now rules with utter impunity in an uncheckable regime of supreme Graft and Corruption.

Update:

New York Times Op/Ed features a piece entitled: Invading Myanmar For Its Own Good

I think many of the arguments apply to invading the Philippines--and not just for its own good but for the Asian region, if not the world! It's leaders are adept at foisting tragedy on their own people...even without the natural disasters, though they know how to when that sort of thing happens too. Will somebody please save us. Honestly this is worse than Burma because we know better and we just don't deserve this Hell. Most Pinoys will surely help! How about it Uncle Sam?

I think the Philippines could easily become so ungovernable and descend into social chaos--say a combination of Somalia and Myanmar--that in its own interest the United States would be forced to take drastic action, much as she would not at all like to, or given her stretched-too-thin military, be unable to! The scenario under which this might happen is easily imaginable with the CPP leadership struggling with its aging kidneys and running out of time, and the Malaysians running out on the increasingly al Qaeda influenced Moro insurgents.

People Power Fatigue, Faith-Healing, and Psychic Dentistry

person with a painful toothache can think of nothing else but how to gain freedom from it and will often have a dentist pull the tooth--a bloody but largely painless and inexpensive operation that speedily solves the problem. Unless of course the underlying problem is actually a deadly cancer resulting in metastasis and multiple organ failure, brought on by the previous surgeries! In which case the therapy could be longer, more involved and require patience and dedication most hard to come by in this moralistic but unprincipled society. . .

FERDINAND MARCOS had become just such an intolerable toothache by 1986 that the Filipinos were glad to have Ronald Reagan pull him out with helicopters, rotten root and all, like some abscessed molar stinking to the core, with Imelda and some of the loot in tow! "Cut and cut cleanly" said the Doc. Luckily for the Filipinos he was deposited in Hawaii and not Paoay, thus sparing them from a bloody civil war.

Whatever Cardinal Sin did in 1986 he certainly could've done it much earlier, but was just too busy with what he called "constructive engagement"--later called waltzing with the Dictator. The inconvenient truth is that 99.9% of the duration of Marcos, the Catholic Church was the Palace's favorite lap poodle. The Men in Skirts cut a lot of Blue Ribbon's to satiate Imelda's Edifice Complex. By the time Ronald Reagan became President, even the Americans, whose sonofabitch Marcos was, were ready for him to cut and cut cleanly because he was doing a better job recruiting for the NPA than Joma or Satur!

But the Filipinos took a long enough time getting rid of Marcos. Some even say, he would have died soon enough from lupus and passed from history's stage without them doing anything at all, and the post-Marcos result would've been the same: a restoration of the pre-Marcos dispensation, which wasn't really much better!

The fall of Marcos also saw the rise of the very concept of Edsa People Power as a "bloodless revolution" and a "peaceful solution" to such painful conditions as fascist dictators and corrupt leaders. The claim to a people power revolution in 1986 is valid given that in 1987 a new Constitution was promulgated and ratified with all sorts of people power concepts in it meant to prevent another Marcos.

People Power was a like a hammer just waiting for a nail...

JOSEPH ESTRADA was overthrown in 2001 during the inevitable "Edsa II People Power Revolution" -- which Filipinos have only slowly learned had very little to do with the People, and was no revolution at all, but a military backed coup d'etat. Paralyzed by three straight days of round-the-clock demonstrations at the Edsa Shrine starting on 16 January 2001, he was indeed extracted by Doctors Hilario G. Davide Jr. and Doctor Angelo T. Reyes, Chiefs of the Justice and AFP Departments respectively, in a brilliant operation that is still hailed today as the Edsa II People Power Revolution. Never mind that both were derelict of specific Constitutional duties. Reyes declared and committed mutiny against his Commander in Chief and defected to the demonstrators on 19 January 2001. Davide abandoned his clear duty to finish Erap's Impeachment Trial, and uphold the Rule of Law. Instead he appeared at the Edsa Shrine in the costume of the Chief Justice and swore in the Vice President upon the strange idea that Joseph Estrada was permanently incapacitated on Saturday, 20 January 2001. Unbeknownst to Davide and the Supreme Court, and even to Erap [sic!], Erap had already resigned though the construing of that would not occur until March, 2001 after the Court had a chance to wrestle with the daemons of absurd inconsistencies involving their own actions at Edsa Dos!

Of course, a revolutionary situation could easily have been declared at Edsa Dos, and a new Constitution promulgated just like after the fall of Marcos. But why did the Supreme Court have to insist that the process of overthrowing Erap was "Constitutional throughout" even though there is neither hide nor hair of that process in the Constitution? Why was Revolution not declared and a new Constitution adopted given that the 1987 provisions were so wantonly dispensed with by no less than the Chief Justice Hilario Davide?

Haha. I just realized why recently: BECAUSE IT COULD NEVER HAVE BEEN RATIFIED!
The People would've decisively and derisively REJECTED such a Davide Constitution at any plebiscite involving the overthrow of Erap. Even today!

Popular enthusiasm has noticeably waned for the sudden, radical surgeries of Edsa People Power because the last organ transplant has only produced a Mutant Republic in which the balance of power in a tripartite government has been wrecked along with the institution of Congress and cannot be restored without foregoing the addictive allure of People Power shortcuts.

While some people don't care much for the alternatives to Gloria, people's disenchantment with People Power putsches goes beyond this consideration.

The People, who have been accused of fatigue, or apathy, or indifference, to explain the failure to foment another Edsa People Power, may be far wiser than they are given credit for by their betters in Civil Society. The People seem to have a far better appreciation of the Diagnosis.

For the Filipinos first received the bad news of a Social Cancer a very long time ago. Ironically even the Catholic Bishops are sounding the clarion call for the Truth:

We face today a crisis of truth and the pervading cancer of corruption. We must seek the truth and we must restore integrity. These are moral values needing spiritual and moral insights.

Like a person with a massively throbbing toothache, a person who has Cancer likewise can think of nothing else but how to gain freedom from it. Yet, why should we label as "fatigue" or "apathy" his utter lack of enthusiasm for the psychic surgery of people power?

The man who diagnosed the Social Cancer of Filipino society even before it became Filipino society, also taught them that they ought not engage in revolutions they cannot possibly win.

Thus, I think the Filipino People know they have Cancer, not just a Toothache. It is going to take more than FAITH HEALING and PSYCHIC DENTISTRY to deal with this disease. We must expect the continuing emergence of evil cancers in our government in the foreseeable future and prepare for it by strengthening our institutions and restoring the system of checks and balance that was destroyed at Edsa DOS!

ZTE may be just the tip of the iceberg as Senate investigators open up a can of Chinese worms, causing President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to suspend $4 billion worth of deals with China. On top of that, fresh accusations have arisen that the President has compromised Philippine and Asean interests in the Spratleys by jumping into bed with China, which claims ancient dominion on "the islands in the South China Sea" (like Luzon Island?)

Yet these weighty issues can hardly be settled by the much vaunted Parliament of the Streets.

If people are tired of anything, they are tired of being told a Truth they discovered long ago and then are constantly urged to take to the streets and rush into the arms of our would-be Dentists. Long ago they discovered the truth about these self-administered heart-and-brain transplants masquerading as moral revolutions of the heart and mind. All they got was Gloria.

People power is DEAD not from fatigue, but from the People having a better appreciation of the diagnosis than the pundits and their betters! We need to re-establish the immune system of our institutions, not resort to pulling teeth willy nilly, or even the psychic dentistry of the Catholic Bishops, because the underlying condition is far more serious than we think.

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UPDATES and CAVEATS:
The Leftists are in denial that people would be fatigued over something they've been doing for half a century as a matter of professional occupation. But even Joma has scaled back his grandiose fantasies by 90%, to hundred thousand man marches.

Here is Amando Doronila on the democratic legacies of Edsa People Power. What a yawn!

The BBC had a big retrospective on People Power fatigue in the Philippines. Lotsa pix.

Institutions or Insurgencies: Choose!

RONALD REAGAN's Secretary of State, George Schultz reportedly said in 1982,
"The Philippines is a country of forty million cowards and one Sonofabitch."

Ninoy Aquino found out a year later when he came home in 1983 just how big of an SOB Marcos really was, but Filipinos seem to have proven in 1986 that the above was only half true, although it took them long enough to prove Schultz wrong. I think many people were prepared to die when they answered the call of Jaime Cardinal Sin on Radyo Veritas. To protect the military rebels of RAM's Juan Ponce Enrile and Fidel Valdez Ramos holed up at Camp Aguinaldo in those momentous days of February, 1986, many people were prepared to use their bodies to block the tanks and troops of the Marcos regime, already then more 20 years long in tooth and claw.

Now because Marcos was indeed America's sonofabitch in the Philippines those long years, it has been comforting legend that he is all their fault. But he did it almost all on his own with help from Imelda. And what was it exactly that the Filipinos did in 1986 that they could not possibly have done in 1983, or 1973. Was George Schultz right? Why don't revolutions seem to do Filipinos much good and on the contrary, seem to lead inexorably to more revolutions?

TIME MAGAZINE tells the story of Ferdinand Marcos' last day in power on February 25, 1986 and the historic conversation with Republican US Senator Paul Laxalt, unmistakeably conveying Reagan's message to Marcos:

"At 4:15 p.m. Laxalt called Marcos, who immediately asked whether Reagan wanted him to step down. Laxalt said the President was not in a position to make that kind of demand. Then Marcos put the question directly to Laxalt: What should he do? Replied the Senator: "Mr. President, I'm not bound by diplomatic restraint. I'm talking only for myself. I think you should cut and cut cleanly. The time has come." There was a long pause that to Laxalt seemed interminable. Finally he asked, "Mr. President, are you still there?" Marcos replied, in a subdued voice, "Yes, I'm still here. I am so very, very disappointed."

In Manila it was after 5 o'clock in the morning of the longest day of Ferdinand Marcos' life. Before it was over, he would attend his final inauguration ceremony, a foolish charade carried out in the sanctuary of his Malacanang Palace. That evening, a ruler no more, he would flee with his family and retainers aboard four American helicopters to Clark Air Base on the first leg of a flight that would take him to Guam, Hawaii and exile."

It is very little appreciated what a decisive and pivotal role President Ronald Reagan played at a crucial moment of the Edsa People Power Revolution of 1986. Suppose for example that the message from Reagan to Marcos was not cut and cut cleanly but something like: "Do whatever yo have to do, we'll back you up!" ?

We might not be celebrating any such a thing as the peaceful Edsa People Power Revolution. If Ronald Reagan had not "withdrawn support" for Marcos and told him to hang tough, there might have been a bloody massacre and carnage on Edsa. Moreover, it is also under-appreciated that despite Marcos' raving insistence that he be flown to Paoay, (whereupon he could begin a bloody civil war or establish the Ilocano Republic), he nonetheless awakened the next morning in Hawaii. Aloha!

Like certain index species of frogs sensitive to environmental changes, Marcos' fall is seen by some as heralding the beginning of the end of the Cold War, being the first of many client states ("puppet regimes") of both superpowers to collapse in the years to come, though more noticeably for the Eastern bloc that came with the implosion of the Soviet Union's "Evil Empire".

But the idea that Filipinos taught the world "peaceful people power" -- or even caused the collapse of worldwide communism -- is simply too much. Mabuhay Radio of Los Angeles reveals how Bill Clinton started that idea with a magnificent piece of flattery during State visit to Manila in 1994. It has morphed into amazing claims that we are currently exporting democracy on a global scale!

CALOY CONDE of the NY Times/International Herald Tribune emails:

There's so much hand-wringing since Jun Lozada came out about People Power. Many were wondering at the seeming apathy of the public. Some even went to the extent of asking whether people power remains relevant. At least one bishop went on record saying that, in the case of People Power 2, they made a mistake in installing Arroyo. What do you make of this?

Cory Aquino, many of the CBCP's top leadership, and almost all the major politicians who helped to unseat Erap in 2001, have indeed, publicly or privately apologized to the only honestly elected Philippine leader in living memory, seriously flawed as he is. Unseating Erap may have been right, in the moral sense of what ought to be, but it was also illegal, unconstitutional and therefore unfair, because only the Senate had that power. It is metaphysically impossible to be unfair and expect to be JUST. In a way, Justice IS fairness.

The vote on the Second Envelop (16 Jan 2001) proved that Erap was sure to be acquitted at the the Senate Impeachment Trial. That was why Joker walked out and Davide soon aborted the trial instead of reconvening it. They did not abide by the Rule of Law and violated their oaths. Who, in History's vast audience will believe Erap validly and voluntarily resigned four short days later without duress and the threat of violence on his person? What first year law student can narrate what happened juridically with a straight face or without puzzlement? Even if he deserved to be removed and convicted, Under the rule of Law, we must often abide by the WRONG result if it is fair--else a greater injustice would result. Which of course it did in Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. The sins of the Father are visited upon the children!

They didn't make a mistake installing Arroyo, who was VP under Erap. The mistake was in aborting the Impeachment Trial and not allowing the Senate to decide Erap's fate. Instead Hilario Davide, Angelo Reyes, Cory Aquino, Cardinal Sin and GMA as the main beneficiary ditched the Constitution to get rid of Erap without bloodshed. (But, DID we get rid of him after all??)

History records that Erap Estrada was treated like a moral cancer on the body politic almost from Day One of his Presidency. (For good reason!) He became a deserving target of society's moral guardians with his drinking, gambling, womanizing and intentionally Bad English as President. But his popularity and trust ratings with the Public at large have only grown despite being convicted of plunder last year. So much so that when he was pardoned by PGMA two months later, there was no public outrage of any kind. One decisive factor was the fact that Erap NEVER ran away from the charges against him, despite well publicized offers from the Palace for him to leave, free and clear, with his money and his reputation. That means that Joseph Estrada not only took his medicine like a man, he bowed to the Rule of Law.

Verily, God works in mysterious ways!

That can't be said for former Chief Justice Hilario Davide, for example, or former AFP Chief of Staff Angelo Reyes, or the VP GMA herself. Together they conspired with Cardinal Sin and Cory Aquino (who later admitted it) , to overthrow Erap Estrada four days after the Second Envelope Vote because it proved that Erap was going to be acquitted in the Senate Impeachment Trial. The entirely illegal Edsa II People Power Regime Change was premised on Erap being "permanently incapacitated" when Gloria was sworn in at noon on Saturday, 20 January 2001, as she claimed in a fax to the Supreme Court that arrived at 11:26 AM of that same Saturday morning. Later the Supreme Court retroactively changed that reason to "constructive resignation"! It's architects forced Edsa Dos to its stupendous conclusion because they had to abort the impeachment trial at all costs. They achieved the removal of Erap, but little else. And it seems, not even that!

The very essence of People Power as a genre of revolution is its bloodless and nonviolent nature. But we must not forget that graft and corruption and many other high crimes and misdemeanors are also bloodless and nonviolent, yet despicable nonetheless.

There is no high order mystery in the people's disenchantment with people power. It has failed to live up to its promises despite the damage to institutions of the Law. We have not been freed of our metastatic social cancer despite the radical surgeries of People Power.

Seeing the hardcore Edsa Dos People Power Revolutionaries now turning on the Monster they created in GMA and urging another people power amputation as a cure for Brain Cancer, maybe the Public is not showing apathy but a disdainful schadenfreude.

It's slowly sinking in. The System of checks and balances is more important than any particular result or contingency. Democracy anticipates the emergence of EVIL at the highest levels of the government, not with the fallacies of direct democracy inherent in the People Power concept, but in the engineering design of a tripartite government and its mutually counter-vailing institutions.

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UPDATES ALL DAY...

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MLQ3 justifies the use of People Power as a last resort for "when our representatives fail." He describes a very politically correct People Power (peaceful, egalitarian, moral, gender-neutral, organized yet spontaneous!). People Power as an extra-Constitutional Skyhook in which "the People" are able to enforce the morally right result if the Justice System cannot. Pull the tooth instead of saving it if it hurts too much from inner rot since root canals take too long even if the tooth is saved thereby. Nota bene: My problem with MLQ3 here is that we are either a representative democracy or we are not. The ideals of a direct democracy, which are being offered as a last resort under the label, People Power, are essentially ultra vires under our Constitutional representative democracy, because they violate One Man One Vote and the Rule of Law!

So far, People Power has not resulted in any real bloodbath, and perhaps the enchantment with it among the very best of our thinkers will not pass until that happens.

Impeachment should be the final stage of Public Accountability, not some imaginary process in front of, or inside a religious shrine. What needs fixing is the imbalance in the tripartite system that was wrecked by People Power 2! The Congress of the People is the INSTITUTION that has the sole and exclusive power to bring Constitutional officers to account. Davide and the 2001 Supreme Court rearranged the Machine and gummed up the works with that silly impeachment rule. That's what needs fixin'.

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The Outrage of Conrado de Quiros (none better in this genre) is positively Biblical today as "Yahweh sends lightning in the direction of Baal!"

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But over at Ellen Tordesillas' blog, where the Military is usually pictured as the murderous Philistine minions of Baal, strange how today they are suddenly "protectors of the people" and "outrage" from the generals and the soldiers is being awaited with bated breath. Turns out even moral outrage grows out of the barrel of a gun too, and People Power needs their help to do another "peaceful" putsch.

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TIMEOUT...Eye Candy (Hat Tip: The Ignatian Perspective).

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"Secret...!" Erap's response to a question about whether he is in touch with elements of the Philippine Military. He claims to be ready to take over again as President...Uggh! Then again Gloria asserts she is the president and the only president. Double Uggh!

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The Traveler on Foot presents a powerful retrospective on a friar-led revolt in 1717 that led to the assassination of Governor General Bustamante. Allegory? Worth a visit just to see Felix Resurrecion's masterpiece depicting the event.

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JOSEPH ESTRADA has just called upon President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to resign. This according to Pinky Webb, reading a statement of the former president made in an interview with Al Jazeera TV in Manila this morning.

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Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan brings up a good point: PGMA could be impeached immediately after the Supreme Court rules that a flawed impeachment complaint (Pulido) had been given due course by the House Majority last July just to innoculate Pres. Arroyo. He said if the Court rules tomorrow the House could impeach her on Wednesday! The other important point Kiko had on ANC's noon time news was on Executive Privilege. Since Romulo Neri's case is up for resolution at the High Court, the admission of the President that she signed the ZTE deal with China despite knowing it was accompanied by irregularities becomes important to the Court's eventual verdict in this case. Since they have not decided it, they cannot ignore the facts now being widely publicized because in Senate v. Ermita, the Court itself places strict limits on the exercise of Executive Privilege. It cannot for example be used to shield irregularities! PDI's headline has Senate President Manny Villar opining that the admission could impeach the President.

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The Catholic Umma On the Move...and the Cuckold Congress

We will probably hear from the head of the Catholic Bishops all day today, as he is besieged by the Mass Media for "urging people power".

Reading Archbishop Lagdameo's Post (MP3)

Here is the BLOG POST that has become the subject of a front page banner headline and will be in all the prime time news casts for a while, I would think. There is something exultant about the title of MLQ3's post on these developments: Once more unto the breach my friends, once more upon the belief that, as Caffeine Sparks put it parabolically yesterday, the Catholic Umma are indeed mixing it up again between religion and politics as much as the radical Christianists are doing in the Bible Belt.

But I think the view of these events by the blogger who writes Deep Caring: People Power Now or Never? (new in the Philippine Commentary blogroll) deserves an extended hearing ...

The Anti-Arroyo bishops, religious and mixed groups (with various agenda) are desperate in reviving symbols and themes of Edsa people power to unseat the present president for alleged grand corruption of her administration. But they found their call for people power unheard by the people. So, they rationalize that this inaction of the people is part of the growing process towards an inevitable people power and efforts to awaken the people must be sustained.

Because of their desperate desire to unseat a corrupt president through people power, they are even willing to crown Jose de Venecia as hero for the Filipino people and to accept all the confessions of Jun Lozada as gospel truths. They cannot even trust the legal system in facilitating the search for truth, because obviously it takes time and slow down the momentum of the inevitable people power. Extra-judicial forum, which is prone to trial by publicity, is more preferred venue, not only to search of truth, but to heighten the agitation of the people to act now. The forthcoming Edsa anniversary adds power to this call. Archbishop Lagdameo and other religious groups are using all their resources to agitate more the people in order to gather them back to Edsa, with or without the CBCP.

Time is essential in this call for people power. The call for people power is urgent; it's now or never. For the Anti-Arroyo forces, who failed to inspire people to launch another people power at the height of the Hello Garci scandal, the testimony of Jun Lozado and the break-away of Jose de Venecia, both articulating the long tradition and culture of corruption in Philippine politics, the momentum for people power is inevitable. If this momentum is lost, we need another spark plug to ignite the people's rage. D0 we really need this sense of urgency and momentum to achieve long and lasting change?

However, because of this urgency and momentum, the Anti-Arroyo forces may have sponsored many prayer rallies but failed to pause and reflect in prayer. They may have rightfully identified all the negativities of the present administration but failed to reflect and identify a leader who will lead us to a better future. Because we are in haste to dethrone a president at the height of people's rage that we simply install any leader for the vacancy, like what happened to both Edsa I and II. This is our collective ningas-cogon mentality.

Are the Anti-Arroyo groups reading the sign of the times?

First, the CBCP is divided. Not only divided but an overwhelming majority of the bishops are not in favor for the resignation of the president. Only 6 out of 125 are for the resignation of the president.

The term "communal action" needs to be explained to avoid its immediate implication as a call for people power to unseat another perceived corrupt president. Archbishop Lagdameo is obviously more comfortable to define this "communal action" as people power.

We have yet to listen from Archbishop Lagdameo to say mea culpa in behalf of his brother-bishops who are grateful for the financial gifts of gloria to their dioceses.

To put simply, the divided voice of CBCP has lost its prophetic voice to denounce the evils of the present administration.

Second, people power failed to empower the people. The first president we installed after Edsa people power, Cory Aquino, has failed to institutionalize people empowerment. She was, however, successful in installing back the economic and political elites to the power-base. She betrayed the Filipino people.

No wonder there is no single personality today who is calling the people back to Edsa has the moral integrity that inspires people to express their collective indignation against the amoral governance of gloria.

Not that the people are not angry with gloria but they see no credible voice, even among their pastors, to paint a better future where people are truly empowered. What they rather see is another transfer of power from the hands of the elites as championed by Cory, their rallying symbol for change in Edsa people power.
I suggest that we simply allow the rule of law to facilitate our search for truth and be vigilant in the entire process. Let us see to it that the culprits are penalized and will not allow another mockery of presidential pardon for plunderers and corrupt government officials and their cronies. Let us use our time and resources in the formation of the political conscience of our people. This is where the civil society must focus its effort. Of course, while we still have no highly politicized people, we should be vigilant against the corruption of the government officials. But our program of communal action is geared towards a mature voters who will select leaders who are responsible and accountable to the people.

Read it all by clicking on the entire article link.

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Archbishop Lagdameo today describes the once glorious Edsa Dos People Power Revolution in this wise--

"Came People Power II in 2001: we thought that history would automatically repeat itself. It did not. With the disappointment and doubts surrounding Election 2004, we now look at People Power II with mixed emotions and interpretations. Sadly, People Power II installed a leader who lately only has been branded as the “most corrupt” and our government is rated “among the most corrupt governments.” Is this the reason why many in civil society regard another People Power with cynicism and indifference? They are afraid another People Power might only bring the country from one frying pan to a worse frying pan."

From the frying pan to the frying pan.

There is something painfully accurate about this adaptation of the more famous aphorism involving frying pans and fire. It also unintentionally reveals the belief that there can't possibly be any improvement forthcoming from another People Power regime change, but that any change, even to a different, if equivalent frying pan would be preferable to the present tirisible situation with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. By parity of reasoning, the good Archbishop is also claiming that it can't possibly be worse, either.

From the frying pan to the frying pan.

Now despite the headline making claims for the good Archbishop, there is actually a lot of wiggle room to what he said. Indeed, the title of his post was actually:

DISCOVERING A NEW BRAND OF PEOPLE POWER!

I think he means "looking for"--and welcoming that spirit of discovery, I would urge reflection upon what the Catholic Church did at Edsa Dos, and go from there. Because while the Edsa Dos Diehards, would locate the beginning of disenchantment with Pres. Arroyo in the 2004 Hello Garci scandal, it was at Edsa Dos when the fundamental destruction of the separation of powers, of checks and balances between and among the three branches of the government occurred. In particular, it was at Edsa Dos when the Supreme Court usurped the sole and exclusive powers of the Congress to enforce 1987 Article XI Accountability of Public Officers. Anyone who passed English in High School can read this article and realize that the Supreme Court ought to have nothing to do with its subject matter since in fact it has the largest number of IMPEACHABLE Constitutional officers!

There is absolutely no comparison between Edsa 1986 which produced the present Constitution and Edsa 2001, which produced Gloria Macapagal Arroyo by the illegal acts of its Chief Justice in conspiracy with the Chief of Staff of AFP and the very same Catholic Church, who together aborted the impeachment trial of Erap and nullified what was sure to be an acquittal. In itss decision, Estrada v. Arroyo, the Supreme Court then blessed that singularly destructive act of Hilario Davide. When the House then tried to impeach Davide for financial mismanagement of the Judiciary Development Fund they got shackled with that silly Impeachment Initiation Rule that makes a mockery of the House's EXCLUSIVE right under the Constitution to initiate all cases of impeachment. The most cuckolded institution however is the Philippine Senate. It was its SOLE right to decide all cases of impeachment that was usurped. In fine there has been an unwritten doctrine of JUDICIAL SUPREMACY in which the High Court insists that all major POLITICAL QUESTIONS must now come before its Majesty.

I wonder how it will rule for example on the EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE claimed by Neri for what he knows of Evil...

Edsa Dos WAS Mob Rule

EDSA DOS DIE HARDS are having a Healing Session for the hollowed out carcass of their cherished People Power ideology over at the Philippine Daily Innuendo, starting with an Editorial that announces the new politically correct incantation of what happened on 20 January 2001:

"PDI: "While the second epiphany of people power was not a revolution but a limited and direct democratic action, it is now understood by many to have been devoured at the table of history—that is to say, de-legitimated..."

But what exactly IS direct democracy if not a direct anti-thesis of representative democracy and deserving of delegitimation? I think TIME Magazine called it MOB RULE.

CONSPIRACY THEORY Veteran reporter Anthony Spaeth called it a conspiracy--

Anthony Spaeth (TIME Magazine, Jan. 29, 2001) : The more disturbing, albeit most plausible, theory of what transpired involves a conspiracy. As a macho former movie star, Estrada was held in contempt by Manila's business aristocracy. Mrs. Aquino is from landed gentry. Cardinal Sin has an understandable aversion to a President who boasts of mistresses and illegitimate offspring. In the mid-'80s, the Elite and the Church banded together to help organize Manila's masses against Marcos, a moment of triumph they have never forgotten. The fact that a high percentage of Filipinos loved Estrada was exasperating. Even more inconvenient was his grip on the Senate, which seemed to ensure that he would stay in power. The solution: to bring hundreds of thousands of Filipinos onto Manila's streets. But the Philippine polity is 77 million-strong. Was this a revolution of the Filipino people—or of a few hundred thousand Filipinos prompted by a few hundred powerful individuals?

DAVIDE'S DERELICTION OF DUTY On 20 January 2001, it all boiled down to less than half a dozen powerful individuals, most of whom are in this famous snapshot of the moment when Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide Jr. transformed the Social Contract called the Constitution into a jumble of Biblical fiddlesticks to be arranged and constructed at will "for the common good." Davide's ultimate treachery lies in his establishment of a Constitutional tradition that is rooted in the end justifying the means, a guarantee of results that Justice will always produce a good and moral outcome in every case, even if the justices have to resort to unfair and unjust process! Thus, Davide was willing to ignore the FACT that Joseph Estrada was on impeachment trial at the Senate, in which he was a non-voting Presiding Judge.

But I hope it has become crystal clear that Davide at the Edsa Shrine on that fine Saturday morning seven years ago, had absolutely no legal, moral or juridical business being there whatsoever! In fact, since the massive demonstration ongoing at that location was clearly and indubitably a PARISAN POLITICAL ACTIVITY calling for the resignation and ouster of the incumbent and democratically elected President, Davide's mere presence could be construed as a culpabable violation of the Judicial Code of Conduct which explicitly prohibits such activity by cold, impartial and neutral judges. His clear duty was to reconvene proceed with the Senate Impeachment Trial of Joseph Estrada, starting from the Tuesday previous (January 16) when the Prosecutor Joker Arroyo abandoned his own oath to prosecute Joseph Estrada in the name of the People and their House of Representatives. But Davide did not do that. Instead he did indeed conspire with others to overthrow the President, frustrate and abort the Constitutional process of impeachment, declared Erap "permanently incapacitated just before noon", and against the remonstrations of Justice Cecilia Munoz Palma, proceeded to the Edsa Shrine to swear in Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

For years PDI described Edsa Dos as a "a military backed popular uprising that overthrew a corrupt President." But now that that "corrupt President" has regained not only his liberty but his civil and political rights, and indubitably enjoys the trust and confidence of the overwhelming majority of the masses, there is a touch of real modesty, if not complete candor in downgrading Edsa Dos from People Power Revolution to Military Backed Popular Uprising to Limited and Direct Democratic Action.

Maybe next year they will finally get it right: Edsa Dos was Davide's monumental dereliction of duty--his insane demolition of wall of separation between the Supreme Court and the Congress in the matter of Accountability of Public Officers (Article XI, 1987 Constitution).

The Regime Change that occurred at Edsa Dos was highly anomalous because it was brought about by the direct self-preventable actions of the Chief Justice and subsequent decisions of the Supreme in what was a clear CASE of IMPEACHMENT.


The inexplicable and sudden swearing in of the Vice President by Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide, Jr. came, as far we know, upon his own personal initiative and immoral dereliction of duty, in concert with its beneficiary, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo; with Jaime Cardinal Sin, and most with Pres. Cory Aquino who later confirmed these facts publicly. A later Chief Justice, Artemio V. Panganiban claimed in 2002, in a speech to seminarians, that the idea to swear in GMA in order to force Erap out of office, came from him.

THE SECOND ENVELOPE: The massive demonstrations at the Edsa Shrine which marked Edsa Dos were touched off on Tuesday night, 16 January 2001, after the Senate impeachment court voted 11 to 10 to exclude as evidence, something called the Second Envelope.

When pro-Estrada senators engineered to block the use of potentially incriminating evidence at the impeachment trial, public outrage exploded.

What was in the Second Envelope? The Senate later opened it to discover that it contained a letter from a Mr. Jaime Dichavez claiming ownership of the Jose Velarde accounts and an offer to prove the same. It was evidence, in other words, that was helpful to Erap's Defense.

Speaking of which, Edsa Dos Die Hards never tire of distorting this aspect of that historic trial, but they never make mention of the fact Joseph Estrada never got his day in impeachment court because the Prosecutor Joker Arroyo walked out and First Gent-to-be Mike Arroyo swung into action.

The trial was aborted by Davide before the Defense could begin. He made it moot and academic by swearing in the Vice President

Was that FAIR??

Manuel L. Quezon III, seems to think it might not have been fair but it was GOOD because it prevented violence from marring the hitherto perfect record of Edsa People Power as an ideology of revolution through peaceful if forceful means. But he makes the most curious equivalence between Marcos and Joseph Estrada (which I found unbelievable), perhaps to strengthen a Constitutionally weak argument:

No one has seriously tackled what condition Joseph Ejercito Estrada was in, during the crucial days and hours his government lost the momentum and crumbled. Looking back, it happened quickly. Prior to the point Angelo Reyes convinced the military’s top brass to, as he put it, engage in mutiny, the advantage, in terms of legitimacy and brute force, lay with Estrada. Even when the defections began to gather pace, he knew, somehow, that his greatest ally was time. Up to the morning of the day he fell from power, it seemed quite possible he could counter-attack by summoning reinforcements from the provinces.

Being the dipsomaniac that he was, there is no high level mystery as to the "condition of Joseph Estrada" in his last hours at the Palace, and the published diary of Ed Angara gives further hints. But I think MLQ3 misses the obvious point that Angara must have been assuring him that the Senate would restart the Impeachment Trial, proceed to a verdict of certain acquittal, and that would be the end of it after a few more days of noisy demonstrations at the Edsa Shrine. Trying to make Erap seem capable of "counter attack" with "reinforcements from the provinces" I find singularly unconvincing and a bit of a stretcher on MLQ's part. Erap was never a fascistic or authoritarian president.

What Erap did not count on was that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Hilario G. Davide would usurp the sole and exclusive powers of the Congress to initiate all cases of impeachment, and to fairly try and remove from office or acquit such high Constitutional officers as the president. It is a little known fact that the verdict in a Senate impeachment trial can NOT be appealed to the Supreme Court, which has zero jurisdiction in all cases of impeachment.

Less than four days after it had become crystal clear that Joseph Estrada had eleven Senators ready to acquit him at the Senate Impeachment Trial, the Supreme Court wants History to believe that he validly RESIGNED the presidency, without anyone actually knowing about it for two months, not even Erap!

I believe the vast audience of History won't be fooled. Joseph Estrada was illegally removed from Office by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in the most stunning malfeasance of Constitutionalism imaginable.

Davide nullified the Senator Judges verdict even before they could render it, even before Erap could mount his defense in Court.

In retrospect, perhaps Rene Saguisag made a mistake in suing Gloria Macapagal Arroyo after Edsa Dos, since she was just the recipient of Stolen Goods. The true thief of constitutionalism and electoral democracy at Edsa Dos was Hilario G. Davide. Jr., the Chief Injustice of that entire sorry episode.

On a lighter heavy note, columnist Randy David gets days and dates wrong in Forgetting Edsa II

Ms Arroyo has shown us the limits of people power. We now know that as a moral force, people power will not succeed in shaming an amoral president out of office. We also now know that as a political force, people power cannot topple down a president without the consent or collaboration of the military. This realization, more than anything else, has diminished our people’s enthusiasm for mass protests. I think that what we should realize is not the futility of people power, but rather its eventual impotence if it remains unorganized and naively dependent on spontaneous sparks of moral outrage.

But Eggie Apostol has done a marvelous job of organizing People Power having converted it to the boosting of the educational system. I'm sure Randy gets invited to all the soirees and tea parties.

Give It Up, Edsa Dos Diehards

RENE SAGUISAG on ABSCBN News The Big Picture, expresses my own sentiments quite precisely on the Erap Pardon, especially when it comes to the long-running argument about the true nature of Edsa Dos, getting even Ricky Carandang to say, with no bones about it, that it was a coup d'etat. Diehards like Enteng Romano and the entire cast of Edsa Dos elitists and anti-constitutionalists are really abashed and out of arguments. Enteng tries very hard but miserably fails to make an equivalence between Edsa One, which resulted in a revolutionary constitution, and Edsa Two, which was a conspiracy between the Military, the Supreme Court, the Catholic Church hierarchy, and the Mr. and Mrs. Arroyo who now still hold the illegitimate power they seized on 20 January 2001. Until Enteng and the rest of the Edsa Dos diehards learn to uphold constitutional democracy as a social contract and not a Bible or Boy Scout Handbook, they cannot expect to lead or sway the people again.

I think Rene Saguisag would have preferred an appeal to the Supreme Court and a proper acquittal, considering that Erap was illegally and unconstitutionally removed in 2001 when his impeachment trial was aborted by Davide, instead of proceeding to acquittal as the Craven Eleven proved on 16 January 2001. Moreover, the two crimes for which he was convicted of plunder did not add up to plunder but mere illegal gambling and simple graft and corruption. That no appeal was mounted and a pardon was applied for and accepted, was the "client's call" in Rene Saguisag's phrase. I agree with that too, and this from Rene: "The pardon is a tyrant's way of correcting an injustice she herself had done."

There is only one point upon which I do disagree with Rene Saguisag. The biggest criminals and most dangerous ones from Edsa Dos are not the Arroyos, nor even the Military that colluded with them, but the Supreme Court, which stands up there, heads unbowed and leering down on us, ready to do more damage to the Constitution they swore to uphold but have done nothing but violate. They usurped the Congress' powers in 2001, now they are moving in on the Executive, and later this year, they will start giving away territory to terrorists.

If there is any lesson to be gained from Edsa Dos that is yet unlearnt it is this: the Weakest Branch of the Government, just ain't. It is the most dangerous. Mark them!

Either we learn that lesson or learn to bear the chains they are fashioning for us in abashed silence. Their barrio-style constitutional carpentry is turning nuts into bolts, north into south, upending checks and balances, making a mockery of the separation of powers, and leading the Ship of State off the edge of sanity and reason.

What Is Fair Has Just Priority Over What Is Good
Our Bantay Salakay Supreme Court and the Separation of Powers
Ancestral Domain or Bangsamorostan?
Creation Myth of Indigenous Peoples of the Philippines
Laughable Textbook Errors In Crucial Supreme Court Decisions

The son of a Lanao Judge newly-appointed Comelec Commissioner by President Gloria Arroyo describes Moslemen Macarambon on his personal blog (a pseudo struggle of a Moro youth to self-determination thru blogging)--

"My dad - Comelec Commissioner Moslemen T. Macarambon Sr. a former RTC Judge in Iligan City who is been serving the Judiciary for over 30years. He is just appointed to one of the two vacancies at the Commission on Elections (Comelec)."

"Jun" Macarambon uses the blogger handle, "Wyzemoro," and identifies himself further: "I'm the webmaster of Bangsamoro.com - a flagship website of Young Moro Professionals Network, Inc. (YMPN) and also webmaster/maintainer of Morofocus.com - The Bangsamoro Documentation Project." but the intriguing links lead to under-construction sites.

ABSCBN News is reporting immediate angry reaction to the appointment of Judge Macarambon including a vow by Senator Panfilo Lacson to block the move in the Commission on Appointments, saying Macarambon is a protege of the notorious Virgilio Garcillano. The latter accusation has been denied by the commissioner-designate, who crows that he has the recommendation of Hilario G. Davide, Jr. Hmmm, the other vacancy, the very chairmanship of Comelec vacated by resigning Ben Abalos, is not expected to be filled until next February, since a replacement now would only serve till then.

So who should we expect in February to head the Comelec? Garci or Davide? (Well, it's Halloween, ain't it?)

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Purgatory and the LSD in the Communion Wine The Holy Mass that preceeded the Press Conference of the Kilusang Makabansang Ekonomista (KME is said to be the official CPP NPA NDF affiliated mass organization doing "united front" work among the "national bourgeoisie") the other day must've had LSD in the Communion wine or something, judging by what has been proposed by the principal participants, Teofisto Guingona, Bishops Deogracias Iniguez, Antonio Tobias, Julio Labayen. First they want the President, the Vice President, the Senate President and the House Speaker all to resign. But instead of immediate snap elections as provided for by the Constitution even if their hallucination were to come true, they want the Comelec abolished along with the Value Added Tax, and the formation of a "transition junta" to be headed by no less than Chief Justice Reynato Puno. The latter has politely declined the offer to head the Bishop-led abolition of Constitutional democracy in the Philippines.

But I wonder what ever made them think he would consider the option, if not Puno's own intemperate and immoderate acts and statements of the last few months.

Cases of Impeachment and Executive Clemency

Today's topic is the phrase CASE of IMPEACHMENT which is only applicable to certain very important high officials of the Government. By my count, there are exactly 31 impeachable officers under the 1987 Constitution, which provides in Article XI on Public Accountability--

Section 2. The President[1], the Vice-President[1], the Members of the Supreme Court [15], the Members of the Constitutional Commissions, [Comelec=7, CSC=3,CoA=3] and the Ombudsman[1] may be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, culpable violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, graft and corruption, other high crimes, or betrayal of public trust. All other public officers and employees may be removed from office as provided by law, but not by impeachment.

What is noteworthy in the above list is that the Judiciary has the most number of impeachable officials. The Congress has NO impeachable officials at all but it therefore makes sense to find the phrase in two more sections of Article XI that--

Section 3. (1) The House of Representatives shall have the exclusive power to initiate all cases of impeachment.
. . .
(6) The Senate shall have the sole power to try and decide all cases of impeachment. When sitting for that purpose, the Senators shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the Philippines is on trial, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court shall preside, but shall not vote. No person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of all the Members of the Senate.

So a CASE OF IMPEACHMENT is therefore a formal Judicial proceeding conducted entirely by the Political Branch of the Government. All cases of impeachment start in the House of Representatives and the Senate Impeachment Court decides the case in a trial.

Thus a major chunk of the JUDICIAL POWER is apparently vested entirely in the House and Senate of the Congress. The Supreme Court has absolutely NO JURISDICTION over all cases of impeachment. The Senate's verdict is final and executory and cannot be appealed to the Supreme Court, in all cases of impeachment.

The other relevant occurrence of the phrase in the 1987 charter is in the provision on Executive Clemency:

Section 19. Except in cases of impeachment, or as otherwise provided in this Constitution, the President may grant reprieves, commutations, and pardons, and remit fines and forfeitures, after conviction by final judgment.

This provision reaffirms the statement that the Congress, having no impeachable officials itself, holds the sole judicial power to initiate, try and adjudicate all cases of impeachment, making even the penalty or punishment specified for all cases of impeachment is "impervious" to the power of executive clemency. We have Father Bernas to thank for the formulation in The Prosecutor's Lament

What is there in impeachment cases that is impervious to pardon? We have to go back first of all to the nature of a pardon. “A pardon is an act of grace, proceeding from the power entrusted with the execution of the laws, which exempts the individual, on whom it is bestowed, from the punishment the law inflicts for a crime he has committed.” From this it is clear that there can be no pardon if no punishment has been imposed. Thus the prohibition regarding cases of impeachment can have applicability only if the impeachment process had ended in the imposition of a punishment, which it did not.

Joseph Estrada received no punishment from the impeachment that was started against him. The impeachment process was never concluded. In fact, even if it had been concluded, the only punishment he could have received would have been removal from office and disqualification from holding office in the government.If the Senate impeachment court never levied any punishment on Joseph Estrada in his Case of Impeachment before them, then there is no "perpetual disqualification from public office" for any pardon to reverse or impose on him?

I find Fr. Bernas' explanation a little disconcerting, though I would not adjudge his conclusions to be wrong, ipso facto. He says the trial of Erap's Case of Impeachment before the Senate was "never concluded" but that is obviously not true and he also says so.

His main point however, is that the only punishment that the provision renders impervious even to the power of granting executive clemency in all cases of impeachment is that of removal from public office and perpetual disqualification from office. This makes some sense because we know that these are the only punishments possible in all cases of impeachment.

But it also means that Fr. Bernas is saying even if an impeachable official is tried and convicted in a case of impeachment, he can still be pardoned in any subsequent CRIMINAL prosecution and conviction that becomes possible after being validly removed through a case of impeachment.

Suppose for example that GMA is impeached, tried and convicted on a charge of BRIBERY, according to my interpretation of Fr. Bernas, it means she can still be pardoned by a future President after she is subsequently tried and convicted in a hypothetical criminal and civil prosecution for bribery that would follow removal from office and perpetual disqualification.

Do you agree that this is the correct interpretation of the Provision on Executive Clemency in cases of Impeachment?

Is the opening clause "Except in cases of impeachment..." merely intended to provide that the President cannot nullify the punishment imposed by the Senate upon final conviction of a high Constiutional officer in a case of impeachment, but can do so in any subsequent criminal case against the same official?