Category Archives: Columns

THIS IS a continuation of last week’s primer on how the Supreme Court decides litigations.

Sessions and titles. During their internal sessions – those held among themselves only – the justices wear either business suits or barong Filipino. But they don their all-black working robes during oral arguments, whether en banc or in division, and their maroon-stripped ceremonial robes during official functions other than oral arguments. Continue reading →

WITHOUT asking for comment, the Supreme Court correctly threw out the petitions assailing the validity of House Resolution 1109. However, the Court still gave them special treatment by issuing a signed resolution extensively explaining its action. Normally, to show its disdain for utterly unmeritorious and “cerebrally deficient” petitions, it simply dismisses them via one-sentence resolutions. To explain, let me write a primer on how the Court decides cases in the normal course. Continue reading →

WHEN President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) chair Manuel V. Pangilinan recently unveiled the P38-billion MPTC road network project, they were celebrating not only Arroyo’s 62nd birthday but also the largest private toll road investment in the Philippines. Continue reading →

AN E-MAIL tsunami flooded last Sunday’s “No-proc nightmares.” One common concern is the intrinsic value and inherent danger of automating our 2010 election. In response, let me say that computerization hastens the counting and canvassing of the votes but it is not fraud-proof or error-free. Neither will it eliminate “guns, goons and gold.” Public vigilance, via the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) and other watchdogs, is still absolutely needed. Continue reading →

SOMETIME ago, Comelec chairman Jose A.R. Melo confessed his nightmare of a failure of elections due to possible automation glitches and “sabotage.” With the Lakas-Kampi now merged, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assures that elections in 2010 will take place. But Melo’s horror is not just “no-el.” It is also “no-proc,” that is, no one is proclaimed winner. Continue reading →

THE COMMISSION on Elections has been quite strict in procuring, via public bidding, the machines to computerize the elections. Given its unenviable automation track record, the present Comelec – led by its chair, Justice Jose A. R. Melo – has all the reasons to be extra careful and to “make haste slowly.” Continue reading →

IN A capitalist democracy such as the Philippines, private enterprise is both the engine of economic growth and the propellant of social responsibility. Hence, I measure the success of a business conglomerate not so much by the profits it rakes but by its ardor in caring for the less fortunate. Indeed, fabulous wealth can be justified only by the zeal to share it with the poor. Continue reading →

AT THE recommendation of Qatari Ambassador Abdulla Ahmed Yousif Al-Mutawaa and his deputy, Eihab Abdelwahab, the Emir of Qatar – Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani – invited me to attend the “Doha Forum on Democracy, Development and Free Trade” on May 3 to 5 in Doha, the capital of Qatar. The forum’s lively format is patterned after the “Doha Debates” hosted by Tim Sebastian and broadcast worldwide by BBC. Continue reading →

THE RECENT Supreme Court decision (Banat vs Comelec, April 21, 2009) increasing the number of partylist congressmen from the current 22 to 55 unleashed a Pandora’s box of new problems, contradictions and unconstitutionalities. Last Sunday, I lumped them up simply as imponderables. Here are some more. Continue reading →

MANILA, Philippines — Last April 21, the Supreme Court promulgated “Banat vs Comelec” increasing the seats for partylist representatives from 22 to 55, and inevitably, the total number of congressmen from the current 238 (composed of 216 districts and 22 party-list representatives) to 271. Continue reading →