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CIMG2738
Originally uploaded by roychoco.

This is a test if I configured flickr correctly.

Barangay Assembly

The first thing that entered my mind when I heard that the Arroyo administration was mobilizing barangays to jumpstart the constitutional amendment process was a story told, If I remember correctly, by my high school history teacher.

He was telling us how in the barangay assemblies to ratify the 1973 constitution, people will be asked "who wants rice?", and the number of people who raised their arms on this question constitutes the supposed number of people who agreed to ratify the constitution.

I don't know if this story is true, and I have not read any history books that confirm if this really happened. Fortunately, you don't have to rely on my memory. Manuel L. Quezon III, has given links here, here and here, so people does not have to rely on second hand information.

The Arroyo administration seems bent on inviting comparisons with the Marcos regime. First they had PP 1017 being a carbon copy of Proclamation 1081, and now this? GMA must really be a glutton for punishment.

Portable Protection

I returned from Tacurong City last saturday. Inserted my usb drive to transfer files when good old AVG anti-virus warned me that a file was infected with a worm. After healing all the viruses in the usb drive, (there were 24 manifestations of th same virus/worm) I contacted all the people who came in contact with the device, warning them and telling them that they should test their computers for infection.

I felt like a person who contracted venereal disease who had to contact his sex partners, it was embarassing.

Right then, I decided to not let it happen to me again, if I can help it. My first action was to search for a portable anti-virus scanner. The popularity of usb drives has led to the development or re-development of "portable" applications.

Portable applications are programs that one can run or use in a computer without needing to install it first. I say re-development because before the hegemony of windows, most dos applications need not be installed before it can be used.

I already use some of these applications, Foxit PDF reader is a favorite. But I have so far resisted using some portable apps that I regularly use in the office like Firefox because it shortens the life of the usb drive.

A portable anti-virus, will also likely shorten the life of my usb drive, but I feel that protecting my files from viruses is more important.

As it happens, the only virus scanner that can be run in a usb drive without installing is ClamWin Antivirus, Clamwin is an open source antivirus program for windows. Unfortunately, the default installation of Clamwin will not run in the usb drive without some tweaking. Instructions can be found here.

I tested it and it worked, the problem was that the Clamwin files had to be placed in the root drive, it cannot be placed in it's own folder, so it wrecked havoc in my file naming system. Fortunately, I found X-ClamWin via Wikipedia. X-Clamwin can be placed in its own folder and it still works. So this is what I am carrying now.

Portable protection for computer viruses, don't leave home without it.

Undeclared Martial Law

Just read the column of former Supreme Court Justice Isagani Cruz and it is his opinion that

"the most malignant problem of the country at present is the enforcement of martial law without the observance of the requirements of Art. VII, Sec. 18 of the Constitution. Among these are that it can be imposed only in case of rebellion or invasion, must be formally reported by the President to Congress within 48 hours and can last for only 60 days unless revoked or extended by it. The Constitution and the privilege of habeas corpus are not suspended, legislative assemblies cannot be abolished, functioning civil courts cannot be replaced by military tribunals, and persons arrested for rebellion or crimes connected with invasion must be released if not judicially charged within three days. And the Supreme Court cannot dismiss any challenge to martial law as a political question and must decide the case within 30 days."

Yet as befitting a former member of the Supreme Court, Justice Cruz still

"await the judgment of the Supreme Court on the challenged acts of Ms Arroyo as the officially proclaimed but statistically suspect President of the Philippines. Will she be upheld as a benevolent despot or denounced as a malevolent tyrant? Whatever be its verdict, let us hope it will be soon."

I also hope the Supreme Court decides soon, and I especially hope the Supreme Court will rule on the side of democracy.

Conspiracy

The Philippine Daily Inquirer reports that

"civil society and military groups involved in the planned breakaway on Feb. 24, confirmed that a "transition council" was to have assumed the functions of the "leadership" of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government immediately after President Macapagal-Arroyo and Vice President Noli de Castro were toppled."

This report vindicates the governments assertion that there was a conspiracy against it .

Now we can argue whether the government's reaction was excessive, but we cannot argue anymore whether they had a reason to.

My only qualm is that the PDI still insists in quoting unnamed sources., but they supposedly got the story from both the civil society adnd military sources, so I am assuming that those sources confirmed each others stories.

Primary Sources

I am morphing this page to link to primary materials relevant to current Philippine issues.

Update March 9, 2011 to insert full text of House Bill 4244 or the RH Bill

Updated September 12, 2007 to include a link to the Sandiganbayan decision on the plunder charge against former President Joseph Estrada and the full text of the plunder law from the Philippine e-Legal Forum

• Full text PP1017 (Declaring a State of national emergency) - from the PCIJ blog
• General Order No. 5 - from the PCIJ blog
• Proclamation 1081 (Declaration of Martial Law) - from lawphil.net
• Philippine Constitution - from chanrobles.com
• RA 8049 Anti-Hazing Law - from the Philippine e-Legal Forum
• People Asia Magazine article by Ms. Malu Fernandez - page 30 and page 31
• RA 7080 - Plunder Law - from the Philippine e-Legal Forum
  
• Decision of the Sandiganbayan declaring former President Estrada Guilty of plunder - pdf copy, html copy, lit copy
  
• Decision of the Sandiganbayan dismissing the charge of perjury - pdf copy, html copy

Some other links you may find will help you in understanding PP 1017 better.

Ruling on Sanlakas v Reyes - this is the ruling where the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of GMA's declaration of a State of Rebellion because of the Oakwood munity.
Separate opinion of Justice Panganiban
Separate opinion of Justice Ynares
Dissenting opinion of Justice Sandoval

For some legal opinions

From Congressman Edcel Lagman - here and here
From the blog of Atty. Teddy Te

Supreme Court Decisions

PP 1017
Calibrated Preemptive Response
E.O. 464


And you can find up to date commmentary on the current political situation with the blogs under pinoy issues.

p.s.

I think the Supreme Court has a great site, except there's no search button. You have to know the exact case you are looking for, which may be ok for lawyers but is not as good for laymen who grew up using google.

Of course, one can always use google's site search function, but not everybody knows how to use it.

Update: The Supreme Court has revamped its website and it is now much easier to use.

Blasphemy

And Muslims were burning embassies because of this

They should see this or this to understand real blasphemy (Christians beware)

Or this (Pastafarians beware)

added July 9, 2006

Papal lizard

Logical Fallacy

Dean Jorge Bocobo criticized the argument, made by Secretary Rick Saludo,

"that the (present) situation is nothing like 1972 martial law, pointing out the continued operation of media and the availability of the courts."

Mr. Bocobo argues that Secretary Saludo's argument falls because of the fallacy of false analogy. He says that

"Proclamation 1017 State of National Emergency is closer in its preparatory role to the 1971 lifting of the writ of habeas corpus, which also allowed the warrantless arrests"

As I have argued similarly as Secretary Saludo, I take exception to Mr. Bocobo's argument. In this case, I cannot see how Secretary Saludo can be guilty of the false analogy fallacy. People were saying that President Arroyo's declaration of Proclamation 1017 is like President Marcos' declaration of Proclamation 1081. So Secretary Saludo correctly compared the situation after the declaration of PP 1017 where media continued to operate and where courts continue to function with the situation after President Marcos declared proclamation 1081 where all media and the courts were closed.

In fact it was Mr. Bocobo that changed the parameters of the argument. He did not compare PP 1017 with Proclamation 1081, he compared PP 1017 with the 1971 lifting of the writ of habeas corpus. But this was not what Secretary Saludo was responding to, he was responding to the critics that were comparing PP 1017 with Proclamation 1081. They were not comparing PP 1017 with the lifting of the writ of habeas corpus. They were shouting at the top of their lungs Martial Law! Martial Law!

In the internet, there is such a thing as Godwins Law which states

"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1"

Hitler is used here because online discussion usually gets very heated and in the heat of the moment somebody will usually compare their opponent or their opponents position with Hitler or the Nazis. In online discussion groups, the person who raises the Hitler card is usually considered the loser.

Raising Godwins law is apt in this instance and I quote from Wikipedia

"Godwin has argued, that hyperbolic overuse of the Hitler/Nazi comparison should be avoided. Avoiding such hyperbole, he argues, is a way of ensuring that when valid comparisons to Hitler or Nazis are made, such comparisons have the appropriate impact."

My point here is that we should not overuse the Martial Law comparison because as stated above, it belittles the Filipinos Martial Law experience. The same can be said of EDSA or People Power, every rally or mobilization is billed as People Power that the term is losing its meaning.

I propose that when columnists, pundits, bloggers, etc. find themselves invoking the Martial Law comparison, they should immediately delete and re-write the sentence using a different more descriptive term or phrase. Only if the term Martial Law can describe the phenomena should we use it.

Definition of Terms

Martial Law

The term martial law has been equated with PP 1017 since the beginning. In a previous post, I argued that PP 1017 cannot be equated with martial law because that belittles the horrors Filipinos experienced because of Proclamation 1081 in. But in today's paper, a new meaning of Martial Law emerged, in their oral argument in front of the Supreme Court,

"Lawyers for seven petitioners said that PP 1017 was actually a declaration of martial law in the guise of a proclamation of a national state of emergency to go around a constitutional mandate that Ms Arroyo must report to Congress within 48 hours of its issuance."

In this instance, they are not equating PP 1017 with the Martial law of Marcos under the 1935 Constitution but with the Martial Law of the 1987 Constitution. And this to my mind is reasonable.

People might say this is semantic quibbling. I beg to differ, the Martial Law of the 1935 constitution, as demonstrated by Marcos is sweeping. It gives the President almost unlimited control of the country while the Martial Law of the 1987 constitution enacted limits and roadblocks to that kind of power. The 1987 constitution embodies the Filipinos learning from the 1972 declaration.

Blaming the Victim

Mr. Ike Eslao of Santa Rosa , Laguna wrote to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. He was giving his opinion on why our society

"drifts from one tyranny to another."

His answer is because

"Our society with its system of patronage and mendicancy is the generator of a steady supply of tyrants. We fail to look inside out and see that these leaders are a mere reflection of our own incompetence in self-management and our low self-esteem as a people with pre-set ideas on how power should be dispensed. For as long as the gene pool is that of jackasses, one cannot expect to breed winning racehorses."

Inother words, he is saying that we deserve the leaders that we get. And this is just blaming the victim.

No Filipino I know has ever gone to the polls thinking, I would like to vote for somebody who will violate my rights and oppress me. If you think about it, except for the present administration, Filipinos have invariably gone to the polls and voted for change. Cory Aquino won against Marcos, Fidel Ramos won because he projected a non-trapo image, Erap Estrada won because he was the opposite of the establishment. If we believe the opposition, Filipinos voted against the continuation of the present administration*.

To say that our society is to blame for producing tyrannical leaders leads to the conclusion that there is no hope for the country. If our society only produces tyrannical leaders, how can we now produce good leaders? Mr. Eslao's answer will be for our country to produce active, independent, critical thinking society. But how do you produce these people? Will these people spontaneously appear to save our society from mendicancy? But how can they if our society only produces tyrannical leaders? And so on.

We cannot lay the responsibility for our present situation on our society, the blame should be placed squarely on the people who promised leadership and delivered nothing. Placing the blame on society only gives this people an excuse.

__________________
*The opposite conclusion can also be drawn, that Arroyo won as a reaction to the return of an Estrada or Estrada influenced government.