Who is this?

Are we looking at the face of a president after June 30?
"God forbid," said one friend.
Is this who Mar Roxas described as "Villarroyo"?

Meaning of M.U.

I just learned the meaning of M.U.
I attended an action group session with brothers and sisters of the BCBP last night.
I am not actually in the same age bracket with my brods and sis.
I was amused at how my brods and sis, couples, shared their anxities as they deal with raising their teen-age children.
Their young children come home so early already---early in the morning.
Chlidren don;t respond to their text messages.
It keeps them (parents) awake all night, waiting for son or daughter to come home.
Sometimes, they just fall asleep while waiting for eternity.
In the morning, their favorite question would be "What time did Mike come home last night?"
Another teen age child of another couple is known to have a girlfried.
But in an elevator, a sis saw the teen age son having a lips-to-lips session with another girl in the elevator.
Then for the first time I learned the meaning of M.U.
Another teen age child was teased about having a relationship.
The teen ager said she is not in a relationship.
They are just "M.U."
What is M.U.?
"Mag-Un".

Hiatus in presiential succession?

The Constitutions provides a temporary succession to the Presidency in the event that no president-elect and vice-president elect shall have been chosen and qualified.
From my vantage point, no hold-over President is allowed after noon of June 30.
But, judging the kind of decisions coming from the Supreme Court these days, you’ll never know.
There are loose talks from several quarters of a “failure of elections.”
The Commission on Elections has debunked such failed election scenarios.
But the Constitution is clear that when no President and vice president shall have been chosen or shall have qualified, or where both shall have died or become permanently disabled, the president of the Senate is next in line as acting president.
In case of the senate president’s inability, the house speaker acts as president.
In case of the inability of the senate president and the house speaker to act as president, the congress shall enact a law providing the manner which one is to act as president.
The problem is that the current senate president, Juan Ponce Enrile, is one whose term will expire also on June 30.
Enrile is running for re-election.
Nonetheless, by noon of June 30, Enrile will no longer be Senate President.
Enrile’s current term of office ends at noon on June 30.
With it ends his being Senate president.
There are suggestions that the Senate should already replace senator Enrile with a senate president whose term won’t end on June 30, but in 2013.
Unfortunately, the senate cannot just meet by itself, because it needs the lower house to convene also.
The constitution established a congress that is bicameral.
These days however, the house cannot muster a quorum because congressmen are busy for the elections.
There is one time where the constitution requires the congress to convene after the May elections.
The constitution requires congress to convene not later than thirty day after the May 10 elections to canvass the votes for president and vice president.
I see this as an opportunity for the senate to place in its agenda, the election of a new senate president whose term will not end on June 30.
If this will not happen, there can be a potential problem on temporary succession in case no president and vice president shall have been chosen and qualified, by June 30.
Let us assume there is no senate president because Enrile’s term also ends on June 30, and the senate hasn’t elected a new senate president.
The house also cannot elect a new speaker by July 1 because under the constitution, congress convenes only on the fourth Monday of July for its regular session.
Since congress convenes only on the fourth Monday of July (July 26), it cannot set up a manner of choosing an acting president.
Under such a scenario, who will be acting president from noon of June 30 to July 25?

Training for effective law enforcement

To intensify the investigation of cases in the City, the Dr. Jovito Salonga Center for Law and Development conducted a training for members of the Philippine National Police-Dumaguete City (PNP-Dgte).
The one-day training-seminar held at the Moot Court of the Silliman University (SU) College of Law last February 26, 2010 provided the participants with new insights on case investigation following recent jurisprudence, legislative enactments, and legal issuances.
Assistant City Prosecutor Angela Charina M. Cortes lectured on the New Rules of Inquest Proceedings and Article 125 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC). Atty. Ramon Nakao, a faculty member of the SU Law and a known lawyer in criminal law, handled the session on the Preparation of Affidavits of Complaint. On the other hand, City Prosecutor Eliezer P. Escorial talked about the Handling and Processing of Evidence.
At the end of the training, student volunteers of the Salonga Center facilitated the Role Playing wherein the participants were confronted with cases on buy-bust operation, kilum-kilum, and children in conflict with the law and were given the chance to apply their newly-acquired knowledge. City Prosecutor Escorial gave his comments and insights based on the law and jurisprudence.
Salonga Center Director, Atty. Mikhail Lee L. Maxino expressed his sincerest thanks to the participants and guest speakers for being part of a necessary step in ensuring crime prevention and proper prosecution in the city. He also lauded the PNP-Dgte and the Dumaguete City Peace and Order Council, co-sponsors of the event, and the organizers for the ideas and flow of the program.

Another wrong decision

The Supreme court keeps on making wrong decisions.
I am not sure if again, the Supreme Court will back track and take an about face on their latest ruling.
I am already noticing that in our day and age, the present Supreme Court keeps on reversing its own decisions.
An example is that decision on cityhood.
Another is the decision considering as resigned appointed government officials who run for public office.
Recently the Supreme has ruled that President Arroyo can appoint a new chief justice once the current chief justice retires on his birthday on May 17, even with the constitutional ban on midnight appointments..
According to the Supreme Court the constitutional ban against midnight appointments only applies to the executive appointments and not to members of the Supreme Court.
The court reason is placements.
According to the court , since the ban against midnight appointments is found in the chapter on the executive department, then the ban must only cover executive appointments.
I could not control but laugh and shake my head when I read this portion of the decision.
I can have an analogy on the court’s weird argument.
If a newspaper editor places an ad about a missing person in the obituary section of the paper, then the interpretation must be that the missing person must already be dead.
For what reason could there be for the editor to consciously place the missing-person ad in the obituary section, other than the suggestion that such missing person has died?
Funny argument isn’t it?
I don’t know how the Supreme Court came up with such ruling, when there is nothing in the constitutional ban that exempts the Supreme Court from being covered by the ban on midnight appointments.
The Supreme Court made additions to the wordings of the constitution.
The Supreme court resorted to interpretation on the pretext of a conflict, or ambiguity.
There is no ambiguity.
And when there is no ambiguity, you are not supposed to create confusion.
The appointment of the next chief justice should be properly left to the incoming president, not to an outgoing president who will become merely a virtual caretaker, in transition to the incoming administration.
Not a few law students are now scratching their heads.
I say to our law students: Don’t despair.
To paraphrase a Chinese saying: We are living in interesting times.