Isa Munang Palatastas (break from the commercial)

Dear Mouse, Let me take a break from my journey blog. While other bloggers took a break from their political commentary due to health reasons, (some took a reading of exceptionally high blood pressure) let me take this break to take up politics calmly.... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH There I feel better. I feel better. One more time AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I feel better. But I think, I am not. I am going nuts. Who do they think they are? I am referring to the congressmen who initiated the impeachment of Chief Justice Davide. I hate the dirty game of politics. It is like a slimy, sticky material that clings to one's skin that no amount of bath or cleansing will rub off the grime and the bad odor.I must admit however that I have a masochist tendency. I like reading the columnists even their writings cause my blood to bubble in rage....My anger is not directed to them but to the subject and object of their writings. Their thinking is straight as against my circuitous thoughts that I will make use of their articles to discuss about this obviously a vendetta-motivated impeachment move. Quiroscalled these congressmen, hoodloom in barong tagalog. But I felt that way when a bunch of hoodlums in barong tagalog in a den of thieves called the House of Representatives impeached Hilario Davide last week. Most of our crippling ills have so far dealt only with the body, this one deals with the soul. This one deals a mortal blow to everything we hold sacred. The day a Danding Cojuangco and a Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo are able to bring down a Hilario Davide for corruption is the day we lose all our moral moorings. It is the day we pass through the gate that says, "Abandon all hope, all ye who enter here." Welcome to hell. There and then, you see the irrefutable refutation of the wisdom of the parliamentary system, which Jose de Venecia has been trying to push for his own ends. A parliamentary system will repose all power in the bunch of hoodlums in barong tagalog in a den of thieves called the House of Representatives. Look at the way those creatures acted when Mark Jimenez was deemed extraditable by the courts. They formed a ring around him and said the only way the marshals would get him was over their dead bodies. That was their first instinct, to protect a fellow hoodlum and protect him at all costs. It is our monumental misfortune we did not take them at their word, and got Jimenez over their dead bodies. There was a preponderance of evidence in Jimenez's case, there is little in Davide's case. To call what the congressmen under Cojuangco's thumb did a rush to judgment is to call what Cojuangco did to the coconut farmers pulling a fast one. It obliterates the unmitigated viciousness of it -- yes, viciousness -- with the burning acid of false benignity. Yet the NPC congressmen talk of law and principle and justice! They would not recognize those concepts if they rushed at them like an oncoming train. Thank God, Joker Arroyo has recovered his senses amid this mugging of moral scruples in broad daylight and stopped being the joker he has become over the last couple of years. About time! My God, man, you fought Marcos, you fought Joseph Estrada, only to grovel at the feet of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo? You fought tyranny, you fought injustice, only to slobber over pettiness? Atty. Jose Sison, a columnist of Philippine Star called them inexperienced..ill informed... According to Atty. Sison, The Congressmen who signed that second impeachment complaint against Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr. have just demostrated to us in the most shocking manner how the arrogance of power works to the detriment of our Republican Institutions; how dangerous it is for power to be entrusted in the hands of inexperienced, ill-informed or politically motivated officials. Ordinary men on the streets readily sense that this action of our Congressmen is nothing but an encroachment into the affairs of a co-equal branch of the government.Using the exclusive power of the House of Representatives to initiate all cases of impeachment,these haughty Congressmen now ask the Senate to try the Chief Justice and inquire into his management of people and resources in the Judiciary, a separate and independent branch of government he heads. Our overbearing Congressmen would like to inquire on the use and disposition of the Judiciary Development Fund (JDF) which strictlly speaking already pertains to the Judiciary by virtue of PD 1949. These are funds generated from the numerous suits filed in Court and directly earned by the Courts themselves as docket and other legal fees to give some fiscal autonomy to our Judiciary. Rina David was so desperate that if the Philippines was just a business, she could have asked for its shut down and liquidation. From her article, one can easily discern her disgust... With the House of Representatives impeaching Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide, we now see the last remaining credible and respected institution in this country damaged and smarting from a malicious and patently political attack. Were our congresspersons so envious of the high repute that the Supreme Court enjoys that they determined to tear it down to their tawdry level? An economist, Monsod, discussed the cause of the impeachment to be just a fault finding on the part of the nephew of Cojuangco, Determined to pursue their fault-finding, Teodoro et al. also take exception to the fact that the Supreme Court used JDF funds to refurbish the Supreme Court, to build two cottages and refurbish the other cottages in Baguio for the justices, buy motor vehicles, a printing press, etc. Because, they argue, these either cannot be categorized as office equipment and facilities, or even if they are, they exceed the collections of the courts that have used them. Davide's letter to De Venecia (why the latter did not put a stop to the shenanigans of Teodoro et al. is beyond me) demolishes these arguments on the (very proper) definitions of terms in the Administrative Code, the national scope of the Supreme Court, the fiscal autonomy given to the Supreme Court, and the authority of the Chief Justice to "augment" items in its budget (similar to the authority of the President, Senate President, Speaker and heads of constitutional commissions). Where is the graft and corruption? Where is the unlawful act? Where is the improper behavior? It certainly does not appear to be in the Chief Justice. And if Teodoro et al. think they can get away with it, they have another think coming. What has CAT to say about the impeachment. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH What has CAT to say about the candidacy of Fernando Poe ? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (sound of the falling body) The CAT got its tongue. The CAT