Where is the Liberal Party headed?
Charlatanism
is practically in the soul of the members of the Liberal Party, for it
seems this is the only party that would not think twice on whom to draft
as its standard bearer for President just to retain their political
power. Maybe it is Machiavellian, for after all, politics is power. But
human civilization has brought with it nuances that power is bestowed,
and they expect the one vested with power to make their aspirations
tangible by concrete accomplishments.Our concern is not about the party that has been trumpeting its achievements in having most of its candidate elected president or in highlighting that it accomplished least to our people, but in telling the truth that it is heading towards the ravine. Rumors are rife that the LP would eventually split, and most political analysts see it as the prize for having grown too big and loaded with political jackals. The frantic efforts of President Aquino to ordain his would-be successor spells a bad omen, for unlike in the old tradition where the standard bearer is chosen by nomination in a convention, now the “Boss” is in a dilemma of personally choosing who between Department of Interior Local Government Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas and Senator Grace Poe would be the “one”.
So, the administration that was once touted as the most popular political party has lost much of its energy. It was a lackluster gamble made by our people into tagging corruption as the root cause of poverty. Many continue to say that he was truly elected by the people, and not by the electronic magic of “hocus-PCOS.” It was a costly venture, because the administration now stands as the most expensive government, for we have appropriated an amount that has now exceeded the budget of all the administrations, and have gotten nothing in return, except to hoot that the rich are getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
Mar Roxas would have been the best man PNoy could anoint as successor. He has worked hard for it, and expects to be rewarded in exchange for his faithful subservience. Of course, he was rightly rewarded by giving him the most powerful position in the Cabinet. But of the many opportunities that could have boosted his political ambition, it was his acerbic character that eroded his chances. He was overwhelmed by his temper that instead of sympathizing with the mayor of Tacloban, Alfred Romualdez, and his constituents after the unprecedented devastation, he antagonized them. He gave the impression that the PNoy’s administration was so insensitive.
His announcer-wife Korina Sanchez also antagonized CNN anchorman, Anderson Cooper, for which many of the rabidly pro-American intelligentsia middle class in the country were turned off. Many suspect, and rightly so, that Secretary Roxas was intentionally excluded in the plan to get Malaysian terrorist Marwan and Basit Usman for fear he would bungle the operation without the administration acknowledging that the more serious problem is with PNoy. His exclusion, however, did not help lift his sagging image.
Because PNoy could see now the precarious dipping of the LP, he is now in a quandary on whom to anoint just to save the party form total collapse. In this country where people can be fooled by images and pretensions, the mainstream media are playing up the role of Senator Poe in the Senate Committee investigating the SAF massacre. Now that it has become an open secret that PNoy met with Senator Poe to talk about the future of the LP, with the possibility that she might just be endorsed, a split now looms because Mar and his followers would claim they worked hard for the endorsement, and would not take being abruptly abandoned by Pnoy sitting down.
According to the poll surveys, which is part of the elaborate syndicate to prop up the candidates eyed by the US, the oligarchy and by the clerics, Poe, it seems, is making a good score. It is a kind of mental conditioning that she is likely to win in the 2016 election, such that people are urged not to waste their votes. People are made to believe that Poe is an achiever despite her being a neophyte senator, and has not accomplished anything to steer a clamor for her to run for President. In fact, she is perceived as more of a stooge out to pursue the traitorous line of her would-be predecessor.
This explains why political opportunists like Congressman Ben Evardone of Eastern Samar and Neptali Gonzales of Mandaluyong are again croaking like bloated toads about PNoy nominating Poe. In fact, not a whimper was heard to question her US citizenship when she ran for the Senate in 2014. As said, bootlicking politicians like Evardone branded the accusation against Poe as a “demolition job.” But one need not be a lawyer to know who is qualified and not qualified for the office. That she admitted that she had applied for US citizenship to secure employment is beside the point. What is important is that she was granted US citizenship, and the implication is that she renounced her Filipino citizenship.
Thus, when she reapplied for Filipino citizenship to qualify for the position as head of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) after her appointment by President Aquino, her act of re-applying for Filipino citizenship to qualify for the job is an admission she was no longer a Filipino citizen. That means she is no longer a natural-born Filipino citizen. As the Supreme Court has consistently defined, a natural born citizen is a “citizen of the Philippines from birth without having to perform any act to acquire or perfect his Philippine citizenship.”
One must bear in mind that it is not her intention that counts but the act because that interrupted her status of as a natural-born citizen. Her reacquisition of Filipino citizenship only made her a naturalized Filipino citizen. In other words, she cannot have the best of both worlds as what author Senator Angara envisioned in his dual citizenship novel. No respectable state will subscribe to the idea of allowing its citizens to have dual citizenship and reap the benefits and protection of the two countries. Maybe Filipinos as allowed by the Angara law could do that, but as far as the other party is concerned, they only recognize one citizenship especially on matters of taxation, property disposition, estates and inheritance.
The opinion made by Senate President Franklin Drilon is self-serving much that he gave his legal advice as a politician which by necessity is expected to favor a fellow Liberal Party member. It was a dishonest opinion because the senator maliciously and purposely assured Senator Poe that she was qualified for the office which if done by an ordinary lawyer would have caused him his license or possible disbarment because he urged one not to just violate an ordinary law, but the Constitution. If the justices of the Supreme Court would agree with that crooked advice of Senate President, then we say they have no business staying there even for a minute. That would be tantamount to challenging the people’s notion of who really are the citizens of this country.
rpkapunan@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment