“Everything happens under the will of heaven. We are only instruments here. We are instruments of God. We are instruments of higher forces. You or I do not decide who lives or dies.”
by Ducky Paredes
According to Fr. Joaquin Bernas, S.J., a lawyer and a constitutionalist: “Whoever accepts an appointment that is unconstitutional becomes an accomplice in the unconstitutional act. That becomes a culpable violation of the Constitution which can be a subject of an impeachment.”
Since, under Article 7 Section 15 of the Charter, an incumbent president is barred from making so-called midnight appointments “two months immediately before the next presidential elections,” an Associate Justice who accepts the CJ appointment from Gloria Arroyo within the prohibited period is impeachable!
Thus, as it turns out, Noynoy Aquino was right all along to say that the prospective Gloria CJ is unacceptable.
The next CJ will come from the top five senior associate justices in the Supreme Court, two of whom have already backed out.
Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr. wrote a letter to the JBC: “I would like to inform the Council that if ever I will be considered for the position of Chief Justice, I will formally decline the nomination because I believe that the nomination should be limited to the top three senior associate justices.”
In her letter to the JBC, Associate Justice Carpio-Morales wrote: “Upon the understanding that the nomination is to be submitted to the next President of the Philippines in light of the constitutional ban on the incumbent President to appoint a chief justice after [Chief Justice Reynato] Puno retires on May 17, 2010, (Article VII, Section 15, 1987 Constitution), I hereby manifest my interest to be considered for nomination to the position.”
* * *
Marlene Aguilar, despondent mother of road rage suspect Jason Aguilar Ivler, US Army Infantryman (11 series) with rank of Specialist (E-4) says of her son’s victim, Jason Ebarle, Jr.: “Everything happens under the will of heaven.”
“We are only instruments here. We are instruments of God. We are instruments of higher forces. You or I do not decide who lives or dies.”
She explains how God works in mysterious ways:
“I have traveled to 36 countries, I’ve seen so much of the world and I’ve never seen anyone as beautiful as Jason.” Apparently, the mother says, her beautiful son, felt “so much pain and anger” when “his father was killed by a professional killer in Thailand,” when Jason was only two and a half years old.
Is she nuts? Of course not! “I have published 11 titles defending Philippine art and culture, because I believe that is the soul of our nation. I received awards and citations both local and international. Ang tumatawag sa akin na baliw what have they done for their country?”
I guess that fully explains Jason Ivler’s road rage and his absurd claim to being part of the US Army Special Forces. Considered a Spec Four, the equivalent of what we know as a Corporal, he may actually be on AWOL at the moment and the US military is not at all expected to ask for any special privileges for the suspect.
* * *
Finally, we have someone who can look at the situation in Davao, who can say with some authority whether the aerial spraying of fungicides on our thriving banana export industry should be banned outright.
Dr. Andrew J. Hewitt will be visiting the banana plantations next week. Dr. Hewitt graduated in England with B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in aerial and ground pesticide application technology/spray droplet size research.
His spray research employment has been equally divided between industry and academia in the U.S., Europe, Central America and Africa. He has been working for the Spray Drift Task Force (SDTF) for the past four years, at Stewart Agricultural Research Services, Missouri, where his major responsibilities include atomization studies, data analysis, report preparation and co-ordination/facilitation of SDTF Technical Committee activities.
Dr. Hewitt is Chairman of the Institute for Liquid Atomization and Spray Systems (LASS) Agricultural Sprays Committee and serves on the Board of Directors of ILASS-Americas. Dr. Hewitt is on the editorial board of the journal, Atomization and Sprays. He also leads the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) sub-group on laser diffraction techniques.
Hopefully, we will finally rid ourselves of all the pseudo-scientific witch doctors who have been campaigning that we stop planting bananas which will be the result of banning aerial spraying, the only economical way to rid our bananas of black sigatoma, which, once it infects our bananas, will cause all our bananas to be rejected by the importers.
* * *
Most do not expect Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to be as eloquent, quick-witted, smart and competent as he is; thus, as when he spoke at the Makati Business Club, many become instant converts.
In his speech, Aquino said there is a widespread perception that success in business depends a lot on one’s connections to the powers-that-be. Because of this, he said, some companies are forced to focus their activities on maintaining relationships to retain state favors.
“While it may work locally for now, it has not enabled these players to become competitive in the world market, where the rules of the game do not take special relationships into consideration.”
He promised to encourage “free and fair competition” and streamline the approval process not only for new enterprises but also in day-to-day transactions with the government.
“My vision is to transform our country into one where we have lower tax rates enjoyed by all, rather than have some enjoy absolute tax exemptions while we burden the rest of the economy with very high tax rates,” Aquino said.
He also noted that with universally low tax rates, the government will encourage enterprises to invest and create jobs. “We will, therefore, pursue the rationalization of fiscal incentives early in my administration.”
Noynoy observed: “We are a nation of sacrifice, of diligence, dedication and idealism, because we are a people imbued with compassion even when we have officials who lie, cheat, and steal.”
Asked about price controls, Noynoy rejected these: “More importantly, the government will not compete with business. Nor will government use its regulatory powers to extort, intimidate and harass.”
He admitted that government did not have what it takes to succeed in business.
Aquino also promised not to impose new taxes and increase tax rates. How can he do this? We are presently collecting taxes at the rate of 15% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) where we used to collect 17% during the Ramos administration. If we could raise our rate of collection just to what it used to be, there would be no need for new taxes.
MBC Executive Director Albert Lim says: “If there’s anybody who we can believe, I think he has the track record. The lack of evidence or even hint of corruption makes him a good candidate… If it’s a question of character, that’s his strong suit.”
# # # #
hvp 01.25.10
Post a Comment