Tag Archives: Government

We need a new and better Senate

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The May 9 elections are clearly the most important election in a generation or even perhaps my lifetime. Next to the choice for President, my line up for the Senate is a big and strong rejection of traditional politicians and celebrities that have dominated the chamber for so long.

It is a call for new perspectives, ideas, and brands of public service that we desperately need.

These men and women of diverse backgrounds, experience, expertise, and advocacies will breathe new life into an institution that plays a vital role in our democracy.

Netizens reject Harry Roque’s nomination to ILC

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Together with other bloggers and social media influencers – Concerned Online Citizens collectively, we sent a letter to the members of the UN General Assembly urging them to reject the nomination of Harry Roque to the International Law Commission.

Below is the full text of the letter:

We’ve also put up an online petition so that other concerned citizens can join and express their opposition to this mockery of international law, human rights and an embarrassment to the Philippines.

We hope that you will join and sign up as well. It may be a simple gesture but it sends a powerful message across, that we Filipinos will stand not stand for this abhorrent idea of having a disgraced lawyer and enabler of Duterte.

Instead of being elevated to such an honorable position, Roque and Duterte should be made accountable.

When the spare tire is better

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In the aftermath of typhoon Ulysses that caused massive flooding in many parts of Luzon, the stellar efforts of Vice President Leni Robredo to help out calamity victims have been the talk of the town, so much so that the President dedicated a portion of his most recent TV appearance disparaging her for making it appear that she was in charge, not him.

Presidential mouthpiece Harry Roque even alluded to the term ‘spare tire’ in describing the Vice-President in a follow-up attack.

The actual term is ‘Presidential spare tire’ – a rarely used term and more commonly used by political commentators, lawyers, political scientists, and teachers of the subject Philippine Constitution in college.

It comes from the following provision of the 1987 Constitution:

SECTION 3. There shall be a Vice-President who shall have the same qualifications and term of office and be elected with and in the same manner as the President. He may be removed from office in the same manner as the President.

The Vice-President may be appointed as a Member of the Cabinet. Such appointment requires no confirmation.

Nowhere else in the Constitution can one find a more clear or distinct job description for the Vice-President. If he/she is not appointed to a Cabinet position, the Vice-President has literally nothing else to do except to wait to assume the presidency in case of the death, disability, or resignation of the incumbent President.

An excellent briefer on the Office of the Vice-President by Manuel Quezon III, tell of its colorful history, noteworthy is that the first Vice-President not appointed to any cabinet position was Diosdado Macapagal as he was from party different from the President’s.

Coming back to Vice-President Leni Robredo, she was once appointed to Cabinet as head of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council back in July 2016. On December 4, 2016 she was informed not to attend all Cabinet meetings anymore which led to her resignation from the Cabinet the day after.

Since then, the Vice-President has been doing what she can with what little her office has from helping healthcare workers to get much-needed PPEs and transportation when the COVID-19 pandemic caused a severe lockdown in Luzon to the more recent rescue and relief efforts in the aftermath of typhoon Ulysses.

As I have said before:

Naturally and thankfully, the Vice-President has stepped up and shown what real leadership is.

From Russia with vaccine

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The image above sums up the process of how a vaccine is developed. Now that we’re living in a global pandemic, a vaccine is seen as something that will bring an end to lockdowns, economic downturns, and a return to normalcy. Hence the next image:

Scientists and vaccine makers around the world are racing to make one that is safe and effective against SARS-CoV-2 with the World Health Organization leading the global effort at an unprecedented pace. At the moment, there are more than 165 vaccines being developed of which 31 are in various stages of human trials.

The latest to grab international headlines is dubbed Sputnik-V which was announced by no less than Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 11 as ‘ready for public use.’ Much like how the first Sputnik satellite drew global attention back in 1957, Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine brought much shock and awe the world over.

The shock as scientists and medical experts has condemned Russia’s approval of a COVID-19 vaccine that has skipped Stage 3 phase of clinical trials. Apart from the risks of side effects that could be harmful, a vaccine that turns out to be ineffective could undermine immunization efforts the world over and not just against the coronavirus. This would even play into the hands of anti-vaxxers to further their agenda. Overall, it threatens global health atop of the natural threat that is COVID-19 which has already killed millions, destroyed livelihoods, and caused worldwide suffering.

It didn’t help that President Durterte was quick to announce that Russia would be supplying the vaccine to the Philippines, something that he has been desperately clinging on to as his administration has struggled and miserably failed to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the country. Never mind that even Russian health experts have voiced their opposition to fast-tracking Sputnik-V, Duterte even volunteered to be the first Filipino to get injected.

Days after his late-night address, his spokesperson confirmed that indeed the Philippines would be participating in the Phase III trials for the Russian vaccine. Ironic since the administration has used another controversial vaccine – Dengvaxia, to score political points against the opposition.

If this is not madness, I don’t know what else is.

LIFE Hacks with Atty Chel Diokno

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It’s been a tiring, busy yet very fulfilling week as together with good friends and colleagues, we’ve launched the first installment of our ‘LIFE Hacks‘ series of webinars last June 27, 2020.

Our keynote speaker is none other than the venerable human rights defender, nationalist and founding Dean of De La Salle University’s College of Law, Atty Chel Dionko in which he talked about the Anti-Terrorism Bill and the recent cyber-libel conviction against veteran journalist Maria Ressa.

The webinar series is the inaugural project for our little volunteer group Lasallian Initiative for Empowerment or LIFE. Our mission is to help our fellow Filipinos, especially the youth, to better understand current issues and take part in the national conversation.

Despite the speed bumps and misses, we were surprised that the event exceeded most of our expectations given that we only had almost a week to put it all together. It was also my first foray into moderating or hosting a webinar and the experience has been a humbling and inspiring learning experience for me.

Apart from managing the logistics of the webinar and hosting it, I also handled the technical production – learning how to use and setup OBS Studio to jazz up our zoom webinar the night before and live streaming the event on our Facebook page. All those years of tinkering with computers, sound mixers and DIY-community theater really helped a lot.

We’re now working on our next event which would be a lot smoother and better thanks to all the valuable lessons we learned from the pilot episode. I’ll be talking more about this soon in the coming days.

If you’re one of those who joined our first ‘LIFE Hacks’ thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We look forward to seeing you in the next installment soon!