Collateral but illegal
Part IWhen Executive Order No. 1 was issued by President Aquino, with the help of former Senator Jovito Salonga, they forgot that the 1973 Constitution was still in operation. To be precise, Executive Order No. 1 creating the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) was promulgated on February 28, 1986 when the 1973 Constitution was still in force and effect. Realizing his stupidity, Salonga then urged Mrs. Aquino to proclaim a revolutionary government, and pursuant to that issued Proclamation No. 3 deceptively calling it the “Freedom Constitution” by giving herself the dictatorial powers to allow her to exact every pound of flesh from the former President and his family.
What was rather absurd about Proclamation No. 1 is it accorded the PCGG the license to confiscate left and right properties on the slightest suspicion they were owned by the Marcoses, their family and alleged cronies applying the wartime method called sequestration, and all that was needed to validate their Gestapo-like method was to brand them as “ill-gotten wealth”, and for the accused-owners to prove it otherwise.
The creation of the PCGG debased the government of its real nature. Their lies about the restoration of freedom and democracy turned out to be a devilish collaboration of the oligarchy, the clerico-fascists, the US imperialist, with their misguided Maoist mascot styling themselves as liberators of the people. The first order of the new overlords was to consolidate the power and wealth to the ruling class. The so-called “freedom” and “democracy” then became a continuing nightmare with the people blindly endorsing the ruling class that promised them of their salvation in “heaven.”
To make sure the vindictive and bigoted regime would be immune from suit for completely making a rug of the constitutional rights of the accused, they sought to incorporate the powers of the PCGG in the constitution drafted by Mrs. Aquino’s handpicked constitutional commissioners. It became their safety valve to make sure those people they hounded and deprived of their properties would not be able to get back at them before any civilized court of law. Section 26, Article XVIII was itself an implied admission about the illegal existence of the PCGG. To quote the opening sentence of that opprobrious constitution: “The authority to issue sequestration or freeze order under proclamation No. 3 dated March 25, 1986 in relation to the recovery of ill-gotten wealth shall remain operative for not more than eighteen months after the ratification of this Constitution.x x x ”
Any lawyer who knows his marble could readily detect that the first sentence was a clever ploy to pre-empt those whose properties were sequestered from seeking redress and protection because the phrase it “shall remain operative” is equivalent to putting words into the mouth of the Constitution; that their barbaric looting of the properties of their vanquished enemies was perfectly constitutional and legal. It was tantamount to saying that robbery is all right provided it is committed against their political enemies. To make matter worse, they cemented their lie in the Constitution because prior to the issuance of Proclamation No. 3 on March 25, 1986, Mrs. Aquino already issued Proclamation No. 1 which means that even before they officially took over, they were already violating the 1973 Constitution. But as barbarians, they merely treated the 1973 Constitution as a scrap of paper for the fact that it was drafted by their political enemies.
The second sentence of that idiotically phrased Constitution states, to quote: “However, in the national interest, as certified by the President the Congress may extend said period.” Again, where on hell could one find a constitutional process where its basic law could be amended by mere legislation? In fact, the word, “as certified by the President” would not avail because her certification is not a license to automatically give authority to the members of Congress to amend the Constitution by legislation. Besides, by what power does she have to equate her certification as a power to give license to Congress to amend the constitution?
Hypocrites as they are, instead of using the word “presidential decrees” they used the term “presidential proclamations” to avoid being branded a dictator, because they projected Mrs. Aquino as saintly-honest. It was for that why Aquino-tailored 1987 Constitution became an infamous landmark not so much that it projected a bogus freedom to our people, but of the fact that it is the only constitution to incorporate a provision intended to single out the family of a particular person for alleged ill-gotten wealth. In fact, even if one has to take it that its subsequent incorporation in the 1987 Constitution was legal, they cannot deny that it remains an anachronistic provision abhorred by civilized government.
In fact, the 1973 Constitution was only officially abolished on March 25, 1986 after Mrs. Aquino issued Proclamation No. 3 declaring her so-called “Freedom Constitution.” Even if one would take it that the 1987 Constitution has been ratified by the people, and that all questions about the constitutionality of the PCGG has become moot and academic, that would not suffice to detract from the truth that Section 26, Article XVIII is an idiotically crafted provision masterminded by a preacher wrapped with much hatred for denying him the golden opportunity to become President of this country.
Notably, the 1987 Constitution gave the presidential-good-for-nothing commission only up to eighteen (18) months to wind up its operations after the Constitution takes effect. Beyond that, the PCGG would become functus oficio; that both its powers and authority would cease, or would have to turn over those properties, papers, and documents to the proper judicial agencies like the Department of Justice and the Office of the Solicitor General. Alas, that would be the last thing Salonga would do because he feared the possibility of being sued and exposed as a consummate demagogue.
In fact, even non-lawyers know that only dangerous and prohibited items like illegal drugs, weapons and explosives can be outrightly confiscated. Likewise, even if we take it that all questions about its legality and constitutionality have become moot, that presumption is only good for eighteen months, and the PCGG would have to comply with the conditions set in the third sentence of 2nd paragraph of Section 26, to quote: “For orders issued before the ratification of this Constitution, the corresponding judicial action or proceeding shall be filed within six months from its ratification. For those issued after such ratification, the judicial action or proceeding shall be commenced within six months from the issuance thereof.”
rpkapunan@gmail.com
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