Defensor, et al should stay away from speakership row

“When actors are vying for the same kinds of roles, there's bound to be a little rivalry. Deep friendships cannot be forged when you are competing with each other.”

—Juhi Chawla

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

IF asked to take sides, Ilonggo congresswomen and congressmen should shun partisanship in the House of Representatives and reject both the feuding Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Jay Velasco, whose bickering in the last three weeks now has delayed the passage of the 2021 national budget and sullied the reputation of the Philippine legislature.  

While people around the world battle the COVID-19 pandemic, a bizarre news from the Philippines wormed its way into major news websites in the United States and other parts of the globe about two good-looking kids fighting over a piece of biscuit while an exasperated dad couldn’t decide between the spoiled brats. 

As of the moment, only AAMBIS-OWA Partylist Rep. Sharon Garin of Guimbal, Iloilo has been sideswiped in the Cayetano-Velasco tiff, losing her chairmanship in the committee on economic affairs for hugging the youthful would-be speaker, the hottest political heartthrob to emerge from the Southwestern Tagalog Region.

Because he is desperate to cling to power in whatever means and no matter who gets bamboozled, Cayetano, abetted by his “weather friends” in congress, will not hesitate to apply a Machiavellian “disciplinary action” to chop off the heads of disloyal sycophants and those who will stand his way to keep the speakership. 

 

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No one in congress should fear eccentric Cayetano or whoever political demigods and kingmakers that will tolerate his “reign of terror.”

No one should bow before Louis XIV-in-the-making Velasco.

Most of the solons from Western Visayas are in the age bracket of both Cayetano and Velasco; and they, too, can be in the best position to become speaker in the future, especially the brilliant Iloilo third district Rep. Lorenz R. Defensor (PDP-Laban), Antique Rep. Loren Legarda (PDP-Laban), and Negros Occidental third district Rep. Jose Francisco Benitez.

If they get their hands off the current speakership rumble, they will not end up beholden to whoever will emerge as winner in the game of musical chairs on October 14; they are also free to form their own silent coalition sans the influence and intervention of any political godfather.

If Velasco will be crowned as the next speaker (which he will most likely get based on the recent body language of Malacanang), erstwhile independent solons identified with either Cayetano and Velasco will be in the beck and call of the new speaker when the new emperor divides the spoils of war.

In every battle when the smoke is cleared, there’s always a retribution and “loyalty rewards”.  

“Veni, vidi, vici.” (I came, I saw, I conquered.)  

If they remain independent and show displeasure to the fact that the speakership was being disputed in a repugnant manner (term-sharing was basically a “Solomonic decision” made in the presence of President Duterte before Cayetano clinched the speakership), they will earn the respect of the contending parties and the admiration of their constituents. 

 

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I AM saddened that one of my three most favorite hotels in New York City has succumbed to the struggling economy.

I’m referring to the fantabulous Roosevelt Hotel at 45 East 45th Street which is reportedly shuttering after nearly a century in operation.

Owned by Pakistan International Airlines and managed by United Hotels Company, the 1,015-key hotel is located near the heart of the midtown Manhattan, a walking distance from the Philippine Consulate on Fifth Avenue. 

My other favorite hotels (which are not closing) are Renaissance New York Times Square Hotel in times Square and Hotel Pennsylvania in front of the Madison Square Garden also in the midtown. 

I always recommended these hotels to visiting friends from other states.

“Due to the current economic impacts, after almost 100 years of welcoming guests to The Grand Dame of New York, The Roosevelt Hotel, is regretfully closing its doors permanently,” the hotel said in a statement on its website, according to the report. Its final day of operation will be Oct. 31.

The 18-story building, which was constructed in 1924, also has 22,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, according to a loan prospectus from 2014. 

It most recently underwent an $8.2 million renovation in 2011.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)

 

 

 

 

What is so special with those arrested lawyers?

“Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment.”
--Lao Tzu

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- From the Iloilo Provincial Capitol where the trial courts were located before the construction of the Iloilo Hall of Justice on Bonifacio Drive, City Proper sometime in August 1990, a human rights lawyer from San Joaquin, Iloilo requested me to escort him to his office located in the YMCA building on Iznart St. which is five minutes away by walk.
The human rights lawyer, tagged as a sympathizer of the New People’s Army (NPA), was aware they were being targeted for kidnapping and summary execution during the Aquino administration or several months after the the late dictator Marcos was deposed in a bloodless EDSA People Power revolution.
Some of his colleagues have been kidnapped and murdered even after democracy was installed in the Philippines following Marcos’ ouster.
The Ilonggo human rights lawyer held my hand tightly as we crossed the street.
His eyes were alert as night owls.
I did not leave him until we reached the YMCA.
God bless the soul of that human rights lawyer who once surprised his colleagues in the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP)-Iloilo Chapter when he delivered a prayer in their oath-taking ceremony at Hotel Del Rio despite being tagged by the military as “communist”.

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The Ilonggo human rights lawyer, who died of natural death in the early 90s, would have been a great lawmaker had he won against Rep. Oscar “Oca” Garin Sr. in the congressional contest.
And if he were still alive today and became congressman, he would have opposed the House Resolution 2086 filed on August 23, 2018 by Assistant Majority Leader and 1-Ang Edukasyon Rep. Salvador Belaro, Jr. and Oriental Mindoro 1st District Rep. Doy Leachon directing the House committees on justice and good government and public accountability to probe the arrest of three lawyers amid an anti-drug operation at a bar in Makati City last week.
The Ilonggo human rights lawyer used to tell us lawyers like him “are not above the law.”
“If there are good lawyers, there are also bad lawyers,” the Ilonggo human rights lawyer intoned. “We are not above the law. If we violate the law we must also be punished like ordinary citizens.”
The Ilonggo human rights lawyer was against any special treatment to be accorded the officers of the court who commit a malfeasance or a crime punishable under the penal code.

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The House Resolution came in the heels of the detention of three lawyers on August 9, 2018 by the police for allegedly interfering in the implementation of a search warrant at the Time in Manila bar, where the police earlier reportedly found illegal drugs.
The lawyers, who were released after 24 hours, allegedly tried to interfere in the serving of a search warrant.
We are not saying that the lawyers have been treated as “sacred cows” by the the two lawmakers when they filed the House Resolution.
Police chief Director General Oscar Albayalde, meanwhile, defended the arrest, saying the police would not spare anyone who violates the law.
The lawmakers claimed the arrest was “highly irregular considering that the ones arrested are lawyers who are officers of the court and who are only at the scene of the raid to perform their duties as counsel of the said establishment.”
Belaro and Leachon also insisted there might be a need for a new legislation, or amend an existing legislation, or come up with new administrative rules to prevent the recurrence of the same.

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Belaro advised the three lawyers to file charges before the National Police Commission (Napolcom), the Makati Regional Trial Court and the Bar Confidant.
He said: “For administrative sanctions against those Makati City police officers, administrative cases can be filed before the National Police Commission or the People’s Law Enforcement Board. I believe the NAPOLCOM is the better option.”
The three lawyers must cite, among others, the violations of specific provisions of the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) own operations manual and standard operating procedures on crime scene investigations and criminal procedure, added the lawmaker.
Belaro further said: “Lawyers are also deemed as persons in authority and thus, the possibility of a criminal charge for direct assault and other applicable crimes may also be explored plus suits for damages against the Makati City police. The aggrieved lawyers can file counter-charges before the Makati City regional trial court.”
Belaro demanded a “suspension or disbarment cases could also be filed against them before the Office of the Bar Confidant” if any of the involved Makati City PNP personnel were lawyers.
If those arrested and detained by the cops weren’t their colleagues in the IBP, would Reps. Belaro and Leachon file those House Resolution?
What is so special with those three lawyers, by the way?

Quo vadis, Iloilo politicians?

“Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.”
--Will Rogers

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- If self-confessed womanizer Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez is ousted as House speaker before the 2019 congressional elections, many Ilonggo politicians who have entrusted to him their political future will be in real big trouble.
There are strong whispers spreading around that majority of the Philippine congressmen/women want either Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Jay Velasco, 40, or Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, 71, to replace the loud-mouthed Alvarez, one of the big bosses of the ruling PDP-Laban.
Things aren’t anymore normal in the House leadership ever since Alvarez engaged Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte in an ugly word war early this year, the grapevine says.
Many Ilonggo politicians who kowtow to Alvarez thought the 60-year-old Davao del Norte representative was untouchable and unshakable being one of the closest allies of President Rodrigo R. Duterte.
For some of them, Alvarez is the modern Marcus Aurelius, a stoic and leading icon of Pax Romana.

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Like vermin, some of these Ilonggo politicians turned their backs from their former benefactors and political parties and embraced Alvarez like a king of Persia.
They formed a beeline and praised Alvarez to high heavens, looked up to him like a demigod and sought his blessings for anointment of their local bets for the May 14, 2019 elections.
They had no idea that Alvarez was also facing a king-sized insurrection right in his own turf.
Unknown to most of them, the playboy House boss was already a ticking bomb and could explode anytime; his invincibility will soon come to a screeching halt if he can’t dodge the deadly wallops of the Cassiuses and Brutuses in the Philippine House of Representatives.
If Alvarez capitulates, quo vadis, Iloilo politicians?

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While having my usual mid-afternoon smoothie (a thick, cold beverage made from pureed raw fruit and sometimes vegetables blended with ice cream or frozen yogurt) session inside a Colombian resto on corner 82nd Street and Roosevelt Avenue in Queens Sunday, a group of revelers wearing yellow shirts and caps exploded in the intersection.
Suddenly flag-waving fans riding in cars honking loudly joined the festivity that started past three o’clock in the afternoon and ended at around past seven o’clock in the evening.
They were Colombians living in New York City celebrating Colombia’s triple hammer blow that dumped out Poland in the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia.
Colombia’s sensational win kept its hopes alive of barging in the Last 16.
Some of those in the crowd proudly chanting and cheering were a mixture of old, young, men and women soccer fans pouring out their joy and happiness like they won the Olympic Games.
Others brought along their dogs strapped with the Colombian national flag.
New York City cops passing the intersection just watched as they continued to patrol the predominantly Latino community.
I wished we Filipinos could also celebrate like them.