Category Archives: Columns

THE LEGAL curriculum is determined in large measure by the requirements of the workplace. Most law schools train students to be technicians adept at applying statutes to known facts to arrive at tenable courses of action for specific clients. Only a few schools take the extra effort to go beyond this vocational orientation and to zero in on human rights and the attainment of justice for justice’s sake. Continue reading →

MSGR. Gerardo O. Santos, the new president of the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) visited me days ago and asked, “I thought that time was running out. Why are members of Congress still scrambling for Charter change (Cha-cha)? Is it still possible for President Macapagal-Arroyo to extend her reign?” Continue reading →

THE rather sudden leadership change in the Senate, described as a “coup” by the Inquirer, gives President Macapagal-Arroyo a firmer hold on the political processes of the country. Now, administration allies lead both houses of Congress. Continue reading →

PRESIDENT Macapagal-Arroyo is not famous for her sensitivity to public opinion. Rather, she is known to lose her mercurial temper (“mataray,” the Tagalogs say) when confronted with media attacks and with low marks in public opinion polls, especially those relating to corruption perceptions and transparency issues. Her critics accuse her of being impervious to suggestions; worse, of being vindictive and unforgiving. Let me however say that my experience with her has been quite different. Continue reading →

THE business and legal communities were dismayed by an order from the Bureau of Internal Revenue imposing a value added tax (VAT) of 12 percent on the gross receipts (like “per diems, allowances or any other income payment”) of directors of corporation, who are not at the same time officers thereof. If the gross receipts do not exceed P1.5 million a year, the 3-percent percentage tax is charged. This VAT is imposed on top of the usual income taxes. Continue reading →

LET us say that an Australian businessman brutally kills his Filipina wife in a hotel room while the couple, who are residents of Singapore, are visiting Bangkok. Undoubtedly, this crime is punishable by the laws of Australia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. However, the killer can be criminally investigated, prosecuted and sentenced only in Thailand. Should Thai authorities refuse or fail for any reason to prosecute the killer, may he be indicted here? No, because the crime happened beyond our borders. Continue reading →

LAST Sunday’s column on the Supreme Court’s MOA-AD decision drew piercing questions, many of them from diplomats like my friend Ambassador Herbert Jager, a noted lawyer in his native Austria. Today, I will answer three. Essentially, the Court held that negotiators should strictly follow their mandates and that peace agreements should conform to our Constitution and laws. Continue reading →

TO delineate “the extent of the powers of the President in pursuing the peace process” (bold types in the original) sums up the raison d’etre of the Supreme Court in “North Cotabato vs Government” (Oct. 14, 2008) declaring unconstitutional the scuttled Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Continue reading →

I AM glad that the members of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) are preparing to face the challenge of nominating only the best and the brightest to the seven Supreme Court vacancies to be created by the retirement of an equal number of justices in 2009. Never in the normal history of the Court has almost one-half of its membership changed within just one year. (I say “normal” to exclude extraordinary events like the judicial cleansing undertaken by the Aquino revolutionary government in 1986.) Continue reading →

Mabuhay to the Court of Appeals for its speedy decision in “Guerrero vs Garcia” (Sept. 23, 2008) liberating Rev. Berlin V. Guerrero, a pastor of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, from illegal incarceration. Continue reading →