Only the Supreme Court can resolve the issue of whether Congress should meet jointly and vote separately in the current contentious effort to amend the Constitution, legal luminaries said at a forum held at the University of the Philippines on March 14. “We can save much time and effort if this is resolved once and...
Author: TJ Burgonio (TJ Burgonio)
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Project Gunita et al.: ‘The truth will outshine the lies’
The academic organization Project Gunita and dozens of groups and individuals, including victims of rights violations during martial law, are taking President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to task for distorting facts about the dictatorial rule of his father and namesake in a March 4 interview with ABC News Australia. “President Marcos has yet again tried to...
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1987 Charter ‘imperfect’ but carries safeguards vs instability, framer says
When politicians tried to have their way in the crafting of the 1973 Constitution, they were met with street protests in the tumultuous early years of Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s regime. The writing on the wall was very clear. Filipinos “didn’t want politicians to be involved in the drafting of the Constitution,” human rights activist Edmundo...
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Cooky Chua and Joaquin Ignacio on making music and the changing times
For some time it was a familiar scene: Wherever the singer Cooky Chua and Color It Red performed, her young son Joaquin Ignacio would be doodling backstage. At one point, during a break, he strode onto the stage, strumming his small guitar. Not surprisingly, Joaquin would heed the same calling years later: He picked up...
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‘Relive Edsa, Junk Cha-cha’ is the rallying cry
Delisting the February 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution as a national holiday is bad enough; attempting to tinker yet again with its “legacy,” the 1987 Constitution, to push the interests of politicians is even worse. Moved by that common stand, dozens of civil society groups have banded together to resist any mode of Charter change...
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Marcos-Duterte bickering is ‘all politics’ from which nothing can be gained, says Drilon
First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos’ snub of Vice President Sara Duterte minutes before she and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. boarded the plane for Vietnam on Monday was very telling, and former senator Franklin Drilon sees tough days lying ahead of her in the Cabinet. According to Drilon, Sara Duterte’s position in the Cabinet became “more...
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High court’s rules do not cure ‘horribly repressive’ antiterror law, says lawyer
The rules set by the Supreme Court on the Anti-Terror Act of 2020 cannot cure the “horribly repressive” law that will be enforced by a “horribly repressive’’ council, lawyer Neri Colmenares said on Wednesday. Colmenares, who presented oral arguments against the law at the high court as counsel for the militant group Bayan Muna, said...
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Momentous Christmas mission stirs Filipinos’ outrage over Chinese aggression
Everyone on board the MV Kapitan Felix Oca—including youth and student leaders, fishers, indigenous peoples, activists, members of civil organizations—knew that the three-day mission to Lawak Island in the Spratlys was fraught with danger. But they signed up, anyway. So that when the first civilian-led mission aimed at bringing Christmas cheer to Filipino troops and...
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Why not electric jeepneys to modernize the ‘kings of the road’?
When eFrancisco Motor Corp. chair Elmer Francisco rattled off their ejeep’s accessories during a virtual launch on the night of Nov. 30, Bonifacio Day, some viewers gasped in awe. There’s nothing like it yet on the market. It’s got Wi-Fi, GPS system, CCTV, video and audio system, dashcam, AC. But that’s just the bling. The...
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‘What could have been, what can be done’
If given a three-minute audience with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., said former health secretary Jaime Galvez Tan, he will make a strong case for the development of the young population to make the Philippines at par with the fast-growing economies in Southeast Asia. This will be his recommendation to the President: Synergize education, health, agriculture,...