Tag Archives: Philippines

Bending the Law: The Legacy of Estelito Mendoza

Opinion, , , , , , ,

At the age of 95, the so-called “Lawyer of last resort”, Estelito Mendoza, passed away today, March 26, 2025. While many will herald him as one of the titans of the Philippine legal landscape, we must not forget the roles he played during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

As Minister of Justice and Solicitor General during the period of Martial Law, Mendoza was key to giving legal clothing to the Marcos dictatorship – using the law to silence dissent, sweep away democratic institutions, and kept political prisoners deprived of liberty.

The infamous case of Javellana v. Executive Secretary, Mendoza justified the legality of Martial Law and the indefinite suspension of civil liberties.

Even after the fall of the Marcos dictatorship, Mendoza continued providing legal services to the many cronies who enabled and benefitted from ill-gotten wealth: Imelda Marcos, Lucio Tan, Roberto Ongpin, and Danding Cojuangco.

Mendoza served as chief counsel for Joseph Estrada during his impeachment trial.

He went to score legal victories for accused plunderers:

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was acquitted of plunder in the PCSO fund scam

Jaime Dichaves, the self-confessed owner of the Jose Velarde accounts, was acquitted of plunder charges.

Bong Revilla who was implicated in the pork barrel scam of Janet Lim-Napoles, also got acquitted.

Juan Ponce-Enrile, former Defense chief and one of the architects of Martial Law, was granted bail thanks to Mendoza.

When the Supreme Court decided in favor of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s appointment of Renato Corona as Chief Justice, ruling that the ban on midnight appointments did not cover it, it was Mendoza’s arguments that formed the basis for that decision.

This is Estelito Mendoza’s legacy: bending the law to benefit his clients, regardless of precedents or its spirit.

Duterte Impeachment – Timing is Everything

Opinion, , , , , ,

Nothing happens in the House of Representatives without the approval or support of the President. So when 215 of its members endorsed the 4th and last impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte – the largest ever number of endorsements for impeachment in the history of the House, you’d know that the Marcos administration has done its homework, chosen a plan and finally set the ball rolling.

The INC rally was supposed to be a show of force to persuade the Marcos-Romualdez bloc to maintain the status quo, but the recent SWS survey showing 41% of the public supporting the VP’s impeachment and the VP herself suffering a continuing decline to 52% trust rating was enough to convince the administration that it’s time to get it done and over with.

As it has always been in politics, timing is everything. Sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate days before Congress adjourns on Feb 8 puts pressure on Senators who are running for re-election. These Senators are not only up for re-election, but they are also perceived to be friendly to the Dutertes thus making them vulnerable: with considerable public support for the VP’s impeachment, it will be difficult to go on the campaign trail if they would be seen to be defending and voting against Sara Duterte’s removal from office. Also, the impeachment trial would take away their time from campaigning.

Additional pressure comes from the daunting prospects of going against a well-funded administration whose prospects of securing a continuation of the Marcos restoration depend on the results of the 2025 elections.

If all goes well, the Marcos-Romualdez bloc would see more compliant Senators coming in to conduct Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial and give a satisfactory verdict.

This would then give Marcos a chance to nominate his preferred VP – a tantalizing prize for those with ambitions come 2028 – Romualdez, Escudero, Poe.

Ultimately, the Dutertes once more are in the fight for their political survival.

Presidential insensitivity

Opinion, , ,

According to the Social Weather Stations’ recent survey, the nationwide involuntary incidence stood at 14.2% for Q1 of 2024. This is higher than the previous 12.6 hunger rate seen in December 2023. That’s 3.95 million Filipino families that are “being hungry and not having anything to eat.”

True to his “Imeldific” upbringing, President Marcos, Jr’s apparent response is to release a vlog doing his own informal survey, asking whether viewers prefer adobo or sinigang?

Marcos Jr vlogs about Filipino dishes as the more Filipinos experience involuntary hunger

Go figure…

Sarah Fergusson interviews BBM – a masterclass in journalism

Sarah Fergusson of ABC News, Australia interviewed Ferdinand Marcos Jr. It was a masterclass on how to interview a politician – asking the hard questions that, unfortunately, most journalists in the Philippines seem to have forgotten or have chosen to forget

Here’s a portion of the interview:

SARAH FERGUSON: There is one series of questions that comes up in relation to your father’s time which is, which is, of course, the question of corruption which became wholly associated with the Philippines for a long period of time. I think contemporary court judgements acknowledge the atrocities that were committed but also the plunder of the country’s resources.

Why wouldn’t you want all of that money back in the hands of the Filipino people?

FERDINAND MARCOS JR: Well, with the narrative…[laughs dismissively]

SARAH FERGUSON: May I just ask you why that is funny?

FERDINAND MARCOS JR: Why that?

SARAH FERGUSON: Why that is funny. I’m asking you a question about the plundering of large sums of money from the Filipino people…

FERDINAND MARCOS JR: No. I’m thinking that that maintains, that idea maintains because I take exception to many many of the assertions that have been made.

And I think we have been, we have since the cases were filed, the government fell. Cases were filed against me, my family, the estate etc and up to now we have, the assertions that were made, we have been shown to be untrue.

SARAH FERGUSON: Quite a lot of money, I think $5 billion was already recovered. I guess the quetion is …

FERDINAND MARCOS JR: Again, again, again…

SARAH FERGUSON: Do you not want to see all the money that was taken returned to the people?

FERDINAND MARCOS JR: Again, we have signed, this family has signed a quitclaims, we have signed many quitclaims. Any money that you find is yours and finished and everything was taken from us.

We went, we were taken to Hawaii. Everything. Everything was taken from us with nothing, we have nothing left.

SARAH FERGUSON: Not the view of the presidential commission.

FERDINAND MARCOS JR: I’m sorry?

SARAH FERGUSON: Not the view of the presidential commission. This is my final question on this topic.

FERDINAND MARCOS JR: Which presidential commission?

SARAH FERGUSON: In the Philippines? Their view is there is a large amount of money outstanding.

FERDINAND MARCOS JR: I think that having seen the facts, as they have been slowly revealed, further true investigation, not propaganda, but actual true investigation, the court cases and investigations by all kinds of NGOs, different agencies, that has changed and people can see that it was propaganda.

Juan Ponce-Enrile celebrated his 100th birthday today and it has prompted a lot of content about timelines and relevant dates to show or mock how he seems to be immortal. Speaking of dates with real relevance here are some: having been born in 1924, Enrile was 48 years old when he faked an ambush against himself which became the excuse for the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Sr to declare Martial law in 1972. Enrile was 53 years old when Filipino student activist Archimedes Trajano was murdered by state security forces in 1977.