Tag Archives: House of Representatives

komentaryo

Duterte chooses charter change #CongressPH #NoToChaCha

Duterte, his men, and his children have circled the wagons, and we should all know better than just to watch it happen. At the very least, we learn from it. Because this is the first time that the process is on the surface — we are being shown the action, and we are allowed to infer the unfolding, and we have seen how the crisis was resolved, so they can all move towards the conclusion — that of Charter Change, which is at the heart of this (now resolved) fight for the House Speakership.

The show was interesting enough of course, even as it was a dead-end for nation. The battle was always only among Duterte’s men, with all three, Alan Peter Cayetano, Lord Allan Velasco, and Martin Romualdez pledging loyalty to the President. Of course Romualdez is more of a Gloria Arroyo (and Marcos) ally; Velasco seems to have come out of nowhere but is supported by Duterte propagandists; and Cayetano, well, is only loyal to himself — but all of that doesn’t matter when they’re united for the common Duterte cause.

Unity has been such a part of the plot that Duterte and his men put together, and the audience almost doesn’t matter: we aren’t supposed to care. After all, we all know that Duterte controls Congress, and will give him everything on a silver platter. But this battle for the house speakership was taking too long to get resolved, and in the meantime, we were being given too much information about how corrupt, how greedy, how power-hungry the men who surround Duterte are — his children included.

So what did this battle for House Speakership reveal?

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komentaryo

Duterte’s children, lust for power, and a discredited Congress

I don’t know what it is we still expect from a House of Representatives ruled by Duterte’s people — men and women who have clearly made the decision to follow this President’s every whim, who have sold their souls to this devil of a government that engages in state violence, impunity, and the murder of democracy.

But then again, we should’ve known this was going to happen. After all, we watched Congress Reps up in arms versus the better Duterte appointees, when he still had his head on straight, but had absolutely no control over even his own party-mates — oligarchs, businessmen, miners, landlords — who were threatened by the likes of Gina Lopez, Judy Taguiwalo, and Paeng Mariano in the Cabinet. Even then, for all his tapang Duterte was revealed to be nothing more but a coward: there is no one he can control other than those people he can fire or kill — and Congress Reps aren’t that.

And then there are his children — more people he cannot even control, a son and daughter who do not listen to their father, and who have their own agendas. If there’s anyone putting Duterte to shame (more than his big mouth), it is his own children.  (more…)

komentaryo

Doing CJSereno In: Her SALN VS Duterte’s Men

As expected, Duterte’s men in the House of Representatives who live to serve their king, today delivered the Chief Justice’s head on a silver platter, deciding that there is probable cause to impeach Maria Lourdes Sereno.

Now that it is going to happen, it seems important to start looking at what exactly they’ve been wasting public funds on since July of last year, starting with of course the fact of Larry Gadon’s 60+ pages of an impeachment complaint, probably one of the most terribly written, hilarious documents you will find. See, this won’t even pass as a college argumentative research paper, as all its sources are ahem … newspaper clippings.

And then there is its premise: that Sereno is mentally ill, which is why she has committed all the crimes detailed by Gadon. But in the Committee on Justice hearings, that part about mental illness is only “discussed” at the tail-end of the proceedings, excluding of course SoH Alvarez already calling Sereno “baliw” as early as Nov 2017 for refusing to appear in the House to cross-examine the witnesses herself. Never mind that Sereno has a right to have counsel question those witnesses — a right denied her by Alvarez’s Congress.

And really, if anything, Sereno’s refusal to appear in the House, to defend herself in front of Congress Reps who have pre-judged her and are out to get her — that’s proof that she got her head screwed on straight. Only the delusional would think any Duterte critic will get justice and fairness at the HoR. (more…)

komentaryo

A Battle Against Exhaustion

In the 16 months that we’ve had Rodrigo Duterte as President, what has become apparent is not only that he is ill-equipped for the position, but that we, the people, are unprepared for the kind of resistance and protest that a President like this one requires.

It’s not just the war on drugs that has claimed thousands of lives, whether in official or unofficial numbers – the world knows enough about that. What might be missed by many is what it’s been like living in this country with a President who spews violent rhetoric on a regular basis and shows a blatant disregard for basic rights. Yes, it’s about his slew of speeches centered on the word “kill,” there’s the cursing (in jest, frustration, anger), and the normalization of misogyny. But it is also the daily experience of a government in chaos and disorder, one that cares little for the people as it indulges no one but Duterte. (more…)

komentaryo

How we lost our rights in 15 months #Duterte

I am one of many who gave the Duterte administration a chance. Despite not voting for him, and despite having been very critical of the killings attributed to him in Davao, I thought he deserved about the amount of time I gave PNoy to get used to the position. A year, maybe?

But six months into his term, there were already 6,000 killings attributed to Duterte’s war on drugs, and instead of stopping, he was on a roll, consistently egging the police on, pushing them to kill suspects, and promising them pardon if they kill innocents (or rape women as he promised the military). Instead of backing down and reconfiguring the drug war given the growing body count and contingent outrage, Duterte instead kept saying he will not stop the war on drugs, these people all deserved to die.

Fast forward to the present and there is no other word to describe Duterte by but tyrant. The stage was set for this point where his House of Representatives is giving him absolute power on a silver platter, delivering all that he asks for to ensure that he will not be held liable for any of the violence on our streets and the abuse of our rights.

Things are coming to a head, and it seems it’s important to take stock by reminding ourselves why it has come to this, towards hopefully understanding better where we go from here.

How did we lose our rights in 10 months?  (more…)