Archive - Commentary

No I am not referring to the 8-6 vote in the Supreme Court last Friday on a matter that it should have from the beginning (“ab initio “ in lawyerspeak) dismissed outright.

Democracy in the Philippines did not die last Friday.

China builds a monument on Kagitingan Reef that the Philippines claims as part of its territory in South China Sea and President Duterte announces he will sail to Benham Rise, an underwater plateau east of Luzon that has been declared part of the country’s extended continental shelf, to show the world that he is willing to die for a land mass that is not even part of Philippine territory.

A lawyer-friend who goes by the name of “saxnviolins” in my blog sent me a helpful brief on the petition for quo warranto filed before the Supreme Court by Solicitor General Jose Calida to oust Chief Justice Maria Lourdes A. Sereno.

President Duterte’s incessant rants against Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda of the International Criminal Court betray how deeply the communication submitted by lawyer Jude Sabio, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Rep. Gary Alejano (Magdalo Partylist) has stung him.

There’s a petition going around online addressed to Netflix to stop the April 9 showing of the TV series “Amo” about the brutal war against illegal drugs being waged by President Rodrigo Duterte.

I watched again the speech of Emma Gonzalez and my mind is filled with scenes close to home. I think of the survivors of President Duterte’s brutal anti-drug war.

The priest cites the Alitaptap incident to underscore how God works in mysterious and heart-warming ways. That even in the darkest situation, light will find its way in.

The statements of Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque and the tweets of Philippine ambassador to the United Nations Teodoro Locsin, Jr related to President Duterte’s decision to withdraw Philippine membership in the International Criminal Court gave the public insights about the disarray in the Malacañang team.

Two weeks ago we were at the University of Antique in the town of Sibalom with 300 education students. Since the participants were future teachers we tweaked our training from “How to fact-check” to “How to teach fact-checking.”

If Pres. Duterte thinks he is now out of the reach of the International Criminal Court because he directed the Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea to withdraw the ratification of the Philippines of the Rome Statute which established the ICC, he is mistaken.

The Department of Justice panel has junked drug trafficking charges against suspected drug lords Peter Lim, Kerwin Espinosa and several others. I’m dumbfounded.