Rowena Guanzon a liability in Robredo’s campaign

“For we must be one thing or the other, an asset or a liability, the sinew in your wing to help you soar, or the chain to bind you to earth.”

—Countee Cullen

By Alex P. Vidal

COMBATIVE Rowena Guanzon has become an eyesore in the presidential campaign of Vice President Leni Robredo, who is surrounded and endorsed by quality personalities from the academe, diplomatic circle, religious sector, lawyers’ groups, showbiz, music and entertainment, youth and civic organizations, overseas workers, and Filipino diasporas. 

Every time the former Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioner opened her mouth to unceremoniously lash at former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. in particular, Robredo lost some potential voters.

Her recurrent and incessant vitriol and admonishments of Marcos Jr. were already unnecessary and overkill.  

She already shamed Marcos Jr. in her hard-hitting but ill-fated “dissenting” opinion in the disqualification case filed against Marcos Jr. when she was Comelec commissioner. 

Outside Comelec—now as a retiree and a private person—Guanzon continued to lambast the leading presidential candidate like he is a descendant of Pol Pot, who orchestrated the Cambodian genocide.  

Instead of hating Marcos Jr. after listening to Guanzon, some potential Robredo voters were disappointed and pitied the only son of the late former President Ferdinand Sr.

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We have always made it clear that we are against any form of character assassination as a method of political campaign in any election.

We can always convince our family and friends to vote for certain candidates by promoting the candidates’ values and character; by echoing and propagating their “impressive” plans and programs for the country and their platform of government; and emphasizing their competence and leadership.

This is peaceful, ethical, moral, decent, dignified, healthy, fair, straightforward, educational, pro-active, and positive campaign. 

We encourage this method and we exhort all candidates to adopt it.

We don’t persuade others to support and vote for our candidates by fomenting hatred, spreading lies, belittling the capability and destroying the reputation of their rivals.

It is toxic, belligerent, unethical, immoral, indecent, indecorous, unfair, impolite, unhealthy, divisive, counterproductive, and hostile campaign. And we reject this style completely.

When negative or toxic campaigners call Vice President Leni Robredo “gaga” or “mango” (dumb) and former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. “magnanakaw” or “makawat” (thief), they don’t help prop up the image of their chosen candidates. 

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Let’s be careful with the words that come out of our mouths, especially when we put down or smear others in order to deodorize ourselves or collect pogi points for our candidates “Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor.”

The antagonistic behavior and hostile acts produce negative energy and the same energy will unceremoniously pull down the candidates.

Either the negative energy will backfire and damage the entire party, or it will generate multiplying bad lucks in the remaining days of the campaign period.

Both the camps of Marcos and Robredo carry these heavy baggages in their campaigns. 

When their respective endorsers invent false accusations and spit slurs and venomous tirades in TikTok, campaign rallies, media interviews and public fora, they turn off a lot of voters, especially the undecided. 

Tell me who your friends (campaigners) are and I will tell you who you are.

If the candidates want to attract positive energy and good vibration, they must stay away from hateful campaigners like Rowena Guanzon, Apollo Quiboloy, Larry Gadon, to name only some.

They are plain and simple political campaign liabilities. 

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OSCAR best actor Will Smith should go to jail for being a brute. 

It’s unbelievable that the police did not arrest him for smacking comedian host Chris Rock during the recent 2022 Oscar telecast.

Smith must be having a personal issue; he definitely needs a psychological evaluation and anger management.

We salute Rock, a really talented and professional entertainment personality who did not lose his composure during the very tense and unpredictable moment.

Rock did not react violently and was able to carry himself calmly and managed to go on with his hosting job like a true gentleman despite Smith’s brutish behavior. 

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

Right, we didn’t kill all lawyers

 “People are getting smarter nowadays; they are letting lawyers, instead of their conscience, be their guide.” 

—Will Rogers

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

IF we killed all the lawyers, as what William Shakespeare had “suggested” in Henry VI, Part 2, Act IV, Scene 2, no one would believe Rowena Guanzon, the fire-spewing outgoing Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioner, who helped enrich our knowledge about “moral turpitude”, now becoming the oft-repeated words in the furor involving the case for disqualification filed against presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.  

In voting to disqualify the 64-year-old son of the late strongman Marcos Sr. in the May 9, 2022 election, lawyer Guanzon emphasized repeatedly in various media interviews that Marcos Jr. “committed a moral turpitude” when he didn’t pay his taxes as Ilocos Norte governor from 1982 to 1985.

And because of this, he was convicted in the trial court and ordered by the Court of Appeals to pay a penalty which he didn’t do, according to the flamboyant lady poll commissioner.

The first two petitions filed in the Comelec first division where Guanzon is the presiding judge, alleged that Marcos is "perpetually ineligible" to run for public office as he was found guilty of failing to file income tax returns and pay his income taxes.

This was before the then First Family was ousted via “People Power” EDSA Revolution in 1986.

 

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Bongbong Marcos supposedly was guilty of moral turpitude for having been convicted of the tax offense.

The word turpitude can be defined as a shameful, vile, or corrupt character or acts.

According to Legal Dictionary, moral turpitude refers to conduct that shocks the public conscience, or which does not fall within the moral standards held by the community. 

The law concerning moral turpitude reportedly has been constantly changing and evolving, as the moral standards of society in general change.

If the world “listened” to William Shakespeare and “stopped producing” lawyers or legal luminaries starting some 400 years ago, no one would explain to ordinary laypersons what moral turpitude and the legalese as a whole are all about. 

Only the lawyers or those in the legal profession can enlighten and tell us that crimes involving moral turpitude are generally grouped into three distinct general categories.  

The general categories of crimes and moral turpitude, according to Legal Dictionary, include: (1) crimes against property, (2) crimes against the government, and (3) crimes against people. 

Each category reportedly consists of certain crimes involving moral turpitude, and crimes that are not considered to involve moral turpitude.

 

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For the second time in six years, I considered myself to be very lucky when powerful blizzards like the recent “Bomb Cyclone” battered the Northeast.

When the snow storm, categorized as hurricane, came January 28 evening until January 30, I was in my workplace and didn’t go out until after the weather monster has left. 

Thus, I was spared of the terrible inconvenience and possible harm experienced by motorists and those who traveled from workplace to home vice versa during those turbulent hours via subway and highways.

When the historic blizzard, with a force double than the “Bomb Cyclone”, lashed at East Coast in 2016, I was also lucky to be “stranded” for several days in my workplace in Manhattan, thus I was also safe and sound there.

When I reached my apartment after the super snow storm in 2016, most of my stuff had been gobbled up by thick snow that penetrated through my room’s sliding glass door facing the street (that’s how ferocious was that 2016 blizzard).

As of this writing, I don’t have any idea what happened to my stuff when I come home after the “Bomb Cyclone.” 

More than a foot of snow fell in coastal New Jersey, with 7.5 to 10 inches in the metro New York City area. Islip Airport on Long Island reported 22.4 inches.

As of Saturday evening, A foot-and-a-half to two feet had fallen in the Boston area from Plymouth to Essex counties, with the powdery snow blowing and drifting in the frigid winds. Final totals could reach 30 inches in some locations, as light snow was still falling.

Given the high winds, lack of visibility and phenomenal snowfall rates, airports were having a hard time staying open.

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

  

 

Vexation for Iloilo RTC judge applicants

“Anybody can become angry--that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way--that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.”
--ARISTOTLE

By Alex P. Vidal

ANY lawyer from Iloilo aspiring to become a regional trial court (RTC) judge today must have felt alluded to when disqualified Duterte Youth party-list nominee Ronaldo Cardema recently accused Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Rowena Guanzon of extortion and of demanding the appointment of a lawyer as RTC judge in Iloilo.
We know that desperate Cardema’s wild charges are nothing but a hogwash, but his allegations are unfair to all lawyers who happen to have pending applications for RTC judge in Iloilo.
Guanzon, 61, a former Cadiz City mayor, is from Negros Occidental, not Iloilo.
And granting, for the sake of argument, that Guanzon is really pushing for a certain lawyer to become RTC judge in Iloilo, why would she genuflect with a former National Youth Commission (NYC) chairman, who is only a Duterte fanatic and not even a lawyer or someone with connections with the Department of Justice or with the President?
Where is the common sense?
Guanzon might as well go directly to President Duterte.

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If a lawyer is appointed as RTC judge in Iloilo tomorrow or any day, which only coincides with Cardema’s ongoing revulsion toward Guanzon, some people will suspect that the new judge must have connections with the brave lady poll commissioner.
Even if Guanzon doesn’t know the newly appointed judge from Adam, for instance, she will still nevertheless get a credit for the appointment, in one way or the other.
Even if the appointment as RTC judge is valid and had undergone the normal process and has nothing to do whatsoever with the Cardema-Guanzon skirmish, some people will start to speculate maliciously once they remember Cardema’s allegations against Guanzon.
People, of course, aren’t stupid to believe that Cardema is responsible for the appointment since, in the first place, he has no power to facilitate or even recommend for higher positions in the judiciary unless he is the President.

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AS the legal battle between Panay Electric Company (PECO) and MORE Electric and Power Corp. prolongs, many Iloilo City consumers have become skeptical as to which firm will eventually remain and which will fold up.
The consumers don’t have the patience to follow the high-strung telenovela, much less take sides.
They listen to the news, but aren’t interested in the nitty-gritty of the legal dispute.
They are aware that what’s going on is a game of the generals and whoever will capitulate and victorious, is none of their business as tiny grasses.
As long as they are assured of a steady and sufficient power supply, the monthly bills aren’t astronomical, the services aren’t lousy, and they have the money to pay for the monthly bills, the consumers won’t give a hoot if the litigation between the two elephants will extend beyond the Age of Aquarius.

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THE Spaniards have colonized us and taught us how to become religious and hypocrites.
The Americans have colonized us, gave us education, and taught us to patronize Hollywood movies.
Will the Chinese colonize us next and teach us how to get rich through business and how to build more infrastructure and bridges from one island to another for future global trade route?
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)