Though the Supreme Court has ruled that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo can appoint the successor of the now retired Chief Justice Reynato Puno which eventually led to the appointment of Justice Renato Corona, I’m still among those who disagree with the ruling.

I disagree for the following reasons:

Technically, at the time the ruling was made, GMA has made no such appointment yet, the position of Chief Justice was not even vacant, so just like Justices Nachura and Brion, the Court should not have made a ruling for there was, at the time, no justiciable controversy.

Substantially, I disagree with the ruling, not simply because it’s the popular view, but a more cerebral reading of the Constitution says that among other things, the President’s appointing power is suspended during the two months preceding a Presidential election.

But all this is now moot for the Supreme Court has already decided and now, Justice Renato Corona is on his very first day of being the new Chief Justice. Much to his trouble and inconvenience because former CJ Puno was right, his birthday has indeed become troublesome for his successor.

The public sees him as GMA’s Chief Justice not solely because of his close ties with the outgoing occupant of Malacañan, but because he was appointed at a time when appointments are not supposed to be made. President-elect Noynoy Aquino’s refusal to recognize him as the new Chief Justice is just but a confirmation of his ill-timed appointment.

Timing is everything

And that is what I’m driving at. There’s no questioning the credentials of Justice Corona, his is one of the brilliant minds in the Court today. Being the most senior among the Associate Justices, tradition weighs heavily to favor his appointment as the next Chief Justice.

But since timing is everything, had he not been appointed during the period when the President is prohibited from doing so, and only because the outgoing President insisted in doing such, then Justice Corona’s appointment as the new Chief Justice would be accepted by both the public and the new in-coming President.

The Supremes could’ve saved themselves

All this could have been avoided if only the Supreme Court did not allow itself to be dragged along by GMA in going against tradition, jurisprudence, public opinion and the Constitution itself. And Justice Corona could have saved himself all this trouble by simply declining the appointment now and waited for the new President. For when I saw him being swarmed by reporters asking him what his comments were with regards to those who refuse to recognize his appointment as Chief Justice and simply smiling back while retreating to his office, I cannot help but feel sorry for him. He has not yet done anything as the new Chief Justice and yet he is already under so much flak.

Which makes me wonder, why has GMA insisted in appointing the next Chief Justice to begin with? Why did the Supreme Court chose to be dragged along? And what will happen now that the new Chief Justice, and to a certain extent, the Supreme Court and the new President is headed to a collision course? This is certainly far from over.

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When candidates resort to ‘appeal to emotion’ tactics like portraying themselves as once poor, oppressed or victims of election cheating during the last election, I cannot help but roll my eyes or face-palm my self with disgust and frustration.

Never mind the platform, never mind the issues, never mind if the candidate would tell you a straight lie just to get across your sensitive side and win over your sympathy vote, these kind of politicians simply make my stomach churn and wonder if God has really forsaken the Philippines.

During this campaign, especially in the local elections, I’ve heard more than just hilarious and even ridiculous campaign jingles, I’ve heard recorded speeches from candidates that goes something like this:

“Mga kababayan, ako po si _______________________, tumakbo sa pagka-Vice Mayor noong nakaraang halalan ngunit hindi pinalad na manalo. Kaya ngayong darating na eleksyon, ako naman ay tumatakbo sa mas mababang posisyon ng Konsehal. Kaya, umaasa po ako sa inyong suporta na mabigyang pagkakataon na makapaglingkod sa taumbayan.”

“My fellow townmates, I am _____________________, I once ran for Vice Mayor during the last elections but was unfortunate. That is why this time around, I am running for a lower position of Councilor. I hope that you will [finally] give me the opportunity to serve the public.”

After hearing that message while crossing a busy hi-way in Dasmariñas, Cavite, I cannot help but think that Manny Villar isn’t the only one who’s become desperate in convincing people to vote for him this coming May 10.

And if that wasn’t low enough, involving one’s family members in the act of appealing to the electorate’s emotions is simply hitting rock bottom. Perhaps this is the reason why so many showbiz personalities have some edge over their ‘trapo’ counterparts during elections.

If Philippine elections will go on like this, perhaps it would save the nation a whole lot of trouble and expenses if we just select our new leaders via talent contest shows on television that are so popular these days.

I’d like to hear what Vice Ganda, Tuesday Vargas or Direk Jose Javier Reyes would have to say about Manny Villar, Noynoy Aquino, Jojo Binay, Erap Estrada and the rest of the clowns, I mean candidates this coming elections.

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In light of the recent student protests in PUP against the 2000% increase in tuition fees as a result of the government’s policy of abandoning state universities and colleges, the need for Presidential candidates to take a categorical stand on the issue has become more crucial as it is a test of their commitment to truly bringing about change and serving the Filipino people, especially the youth.

The 1987 Constitution mandates in Article XIV Sec. 5 (5) that the “State shall assign the highest budgetary priority to education.” So it is a solemn duty of the next Chief Executive to carry out this mandate and it would be interesting as to how the current Presidential candidates plan on doing this.

However, as of this writing, none of the Presidential candidates has taken a stand on this issue, which leaves us to consult their platforms, in whatever form it may be, and try to elucidate their stand on the matter.

A quick website hopping and a little browsing in their respective websites have turned out the following:

Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino of the Liberal Party

Assistance To Private Schools As Essential Partners In Basic Education
 
Private education must be a partner in producing quality education in the country. I intend to expand GASTPE (Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education) to a target of 1 million private HS students every year through education service contracting (ESC) while doing away with the wasteful education voucher system (EVS) of this administration.
 
I will expand government assistance to private education. A strong private school system will strengthen our public schools by providing parents an alternative and not adding to the overcrowding.

The subheading says it all. True to his Liberal ideology of lesser state control in social services, at present it seems, that the policy of leaving the state universities and colleges to fend off for themselves would be continued.

Manuel “Manny” Villar of the Nacionalista Party

None. Since I cannot find Manny Villar’s invisible platform.

Dick Gordon

Fifth, that we must prioritize EDUCATION as the key to national development to compete and lead in the new global economy

Gordon’s take on the matter is better than Manny Villar, though falls short of any specific plans because as of now it’s just a prime-grade example of a motherhood statement.

Nick Perlas

• Identify the top 100 secondary educational institutions of the country, provide support for their innovative practices, document and disseminate their creative educational practices, and enter into partnerships with them as hubs of educational excellence.
• Do an in-depth study, involving all stakeholders, as basis for the gradual transfer educational services to the cultural non-profit sector of society especially in partnership with the community.
• Create the policy environment for strengthening the role of private education in all levels of the school system.
• Increase the usage of educational vouchers to widen the choices of parents. Increase focus beyond just quantity of education services to quality of education services including more holistic educational approaches that develop multi-talented, creative, critical-thinking, socially-oriented students and citizens. (For other educational initiatives, see section below on Holistic Education and Inner Change.)

Though Nick Perlas wants to overhaul the education system itself, it is still in line with policy of giving a bigger attention to the private education sector.

Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro

Government should do its utmost to pro-actively provide for quality universal primary and secondary education that is accessible to all. Tertiary education must also be supported by way of providing for a massive student loan program to enable all qualified students to fulfill their dreams of gaining more knowledge to improve their life-chances.

From the above-quoted portion of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD platform, it’s more of the same banana: prioritize public elementary and secondary education while leaving tertiary education on its own, mitigating student problems with student loans.

Joseph “Erap” Estrada

His platform focuses more on Universal access to primary education while targets to increase more government scholars in Tertiary education instead of student loans.

Eddie Villanueva

His plan is to have more college scholars via:

By working towards free college or tertiary-level education of poor but determined and industrious students nationwide.

Jamby Madrigal

To promtoe educational democracy and end the school profit-orientation dictated by the IMF and WB by doubling the public education budget, removing the rationale for tuition fees in state colleges and universities and enabling the poor to enroll..

Hers is quite interesting for she is the only candidate that tows the national-democratic, anti-imperialist line of resisting privatization of the tertiary education and gives more budgetary allocation instead. Something what the “Iskolars ng Bayan” and the Makabayan Coalition are calling for. Now why haven’t Jamby Madrigal grouped with Makabayan instead since, based on their platforms, they have many shared principles and programs?

At present, based on the candidates’s platforms, it seems that the call for greater state support for tertiary education would fall on deaf ears. Or would they turn against their platforms as a genuine and sincere gesture of serving the youth or simply for scoring brownie points among the young voters?

We are still waiting and watching.

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Through the initiative of the NSTP-CWTS, particularly their Voter’s Education classes, in cooperation with the University Student Council and the DLSU-D Pre-Law Society, a month long activity about educating voters for the automated national elections this coming May 2010 was held in De La Salle University – Dasmariñas.

It culminated in a mock elections for all the registered voter-members of the DLSU-D community; student, faculty and staff.

The results are quite interesting, though not conclusive because out of the 12,000 students, faculty and staff in DLSU-D, voter turn out for the mock elections was just 1,728 which is broken down into the following: 1,373 students, 232 faculty, and 123 staff.

As from the graph below, Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, III won with 44.39% while his Vice-President Mar Roxas obtaining 50.98% of the votes respectively. The final list is as follows:

President

1. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, III – 767 votes
2. Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro – 320
3. Richard “Dick” Gordon – 233
4. Manuel “Manny” Villar – 207
5. Eddie “Bro Eddie” Villanueva – 75
6. Joseph “Erap” Estrada – 65
7. Nicanor “Nick” Perlas – 51
8. Jamby Madrigal – 14
9. John Carlos “JC” de los Reyes – 14

This is something that has been taken for granted, but in the Lasallian community, Gibo Teodoro has a solid following, especially among the younger students freshmen and sophomore. Unfortunately for Gibo, most of them are not yet registered voters.

The Vice Presidential race ended up in the following order:

Vice President

1. Manuel “Mar” Roxas, II – 881
2. Jejomar “Jojo” Binay – 401
3. Bayani Fernando – 192
4. Loren Legarda – 152
5. Eduardo “Edu” Manzano – 43
6. Perfecto Yasay – 34
7. Jose “Jay” Sonza – 20
8. Dominador Chipeco, Jr – 19

I find the results very interesting, surprising even, because Jejomar Binay placed second besting Bayani Fernando. What I did not find surprising was the low support for Loren Legarda, it just goes to show that Lasallians are discerning voters.

Now for an important, yet seldom talked about segment of the 2010 national elections, the race for the 12 seats in the Philippine Senate. The top 12 candidates voted by the Lasallians from DLSU-D are the following:

Top 12 Senatorial Candidates

1. Pia Cayetano (NP) – 1249
2. Miriam Defensor-Santiago (PRP) – 1226
3. Franklin Drilon (LP) – 1217
4. Ralph Recto (LP) – 1036
5. Gilbert Remulla (NP) – 988
6. Ramon Revilla (Lakas-Kampi-CMD) – 960
7. Juan Ponce Enrile (PMP) – 935
8. Sergio Osmena, III (Ind) – 866
9. Ferdinand Marcos, Jr (NP) – 843
10. Vicente Sotto, III (NPC) – 729
11. Jinggoy Estrada (PMP) – 596
12. Sonia Roco (LP) – 464

As what Manolo Quezon points out, the electorate likes to cherry-pick its choice for the Senate, and this is reflected by the DLSU-D vote, with Liberals and Nacionalistas tied with three of its Senatorial candidates being voted into the top 12. The rest of the slots won by opposition parties while the administration having only one of its official candidate taking a seat. Though you could say it got two, as Santiago has always been with the administration by default.

The bottom line is, the administration’s Frankenstein coalition would have to do a lot of work if it wants to get a handsome share of the Lasallian vote in Cavite.

I don’t have the exact demographics, but the students of DLSU-D come mostly from the CALABARZON region, a vote-rich region in Luzon. Registered voter-students’ age range from 18 to 25, the affluent kind that has access to internet, SMS, blogs, Twitter and Facebook, so now that the Aquino-Roxas tandem has captured a fraction of DLSU-D’s support as shown by the mock elections, the Liberal party has every reason to capitalize and mobilize this segment and transform it into a core of support in assisting its campaign to do two things: secure and consolidate its support for Aquino and Roxas and second, to get more support for the rest of its Senate slate.

With the current administration, poised to take over the Lower House, with no less than GMA herself, leading the charge, the next President, if he is to govern properly, must have a solid majority in the Senate. So if I were Francis Pangilinan, I’d follow MLQ3′s advice and move heaven and earth to have more of LP Senatorial slate elected, and by the results of mock elections in DLSU-D, CALABARZON is a good place to start.

I congratulate the NSTP-CWTS students and faculty for a job well done and showing the country where, roughly as it may be, DLSU-D stands in the upcoming 2010 elections. Hopefully, this would make our fellow Lasallians become more discerning, and more vigilant voters come May 2010.

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Earlier this afternoon, in our mock Constitutional Convention, the assembly convened as a committee of the whole, took up tackled briefly the issue of whether or not the Philippine legislative department be switched from the present bicameral congress into a unicameral congress.

It was proposed to switch to a unicameral congress for the following reasons that I can best recall:

• Faster enactment of laws – since there would only be one single body to deliberate and pass legislation.
• A closer cooperation between the Executive and Legislative branches of the government.

While the above mentioned reasons are meritorious, I cannot help but beg to disagree because of the prevailing political landscape in the Philippines. With Congress and the government itself being a dominated by a ruling elite oligarchy, fusing congress into a unicameral body would only fuse and further concentrate political power into their hands. It will drown out and totally silence the voice of the poor Filipinos who make up more than 50% of the total population.

Against this back drop, the beauty of a bicameral congress comes into play. For a clear illustration, allow me to quote the reasons adopted by the 1986 Constitutional Commission which drafted the present 1987 Constitution as enumerated by one of its renowned members, Fr. Joaquin Bernas, SJ*:

1. an upper house is a body that looks at problems from the national perspective and thus serves as a check on the parochial tendency of a body elected by districts,
2. bicameralism allows for a more careful study of legislation, and
3. bicameralism is less vulnerable to attempts of the executive to control the legislature.

Looking back at how the combination of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo controlling of the Executive branch while her loyal cabal dominating the House of Representatives has plunged our country into deeper divisions, poverty, crises and basically screwed us all, the picture of a unicameral congress dominated by them would be a like jumping from the frying pan straight into hell.

This is the very reason why the people have resisted her machinations into amending the Constitution many times over during her term. And this is still the very same reason why the people have become weary of her becoming a member of the House of Representatives, along with her cabal of traditional politicians, which is another shot at pushing through with Charter change for their own selfish interests.

Sadly, this fact was forgotten by my classmates when they overwhelmingly voted for the proposal to switch from the present bicameral congress into a unicameral one.

Fortunately, the rules of Parliamentary procedure are in the minority’s side, those who oppose the proposal, because we can move for reconsideration of the adoption on the grounds that the issue was not thoroughly debated on due to time constraints. A maneuver I will attempt to accomplish come Thursday’s session.

If it was up to you, what would you prefer? A unicameral congress or the present system we have, a bicameral congress?

*Bernas, SJ, J. G. (2006, February 13). Jointly or separately. Philippine Daily Inquirer,

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