All lands should be owned by the State ( Part I )

posted December 26, 2015 at 12:01 am by  Rod Kapunan

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Maybe we can re-examine the economic doctrine which states that all lands belong to the state.  After all, we have been partially adopting the Regalian Doctrine, and they are provided in Section 1, Article XIII of the 1935 Constitution, in Section 8, Article XIV of the 1973 Constitution and Section 2, Article XII of the 1987 Constitution.   Our adherence to that Doctrine means that all lands shall from thereon belong to the state, except those lands that have been classified as disposable lands of the public domain.  By that, lands of the public domain are owned by the state and are considered inalienable or cannot be disposed by sale or exchange.

Freedom of the press and mass media PART ONE

Freedom of the press and mass media

posted July 04, 2015 at 12:01 am by  Rod Kapunan

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Part 1
Many of our people believe that freedom of the press is the most important mechanism that gives life to our democracy.  It is through that freedom that we come to know about the venalities being committed by our government officials; that without it, our institution would die. Nonetheless, behind the facade of what we consider our sanctified freedom, seldom do we know that there is a wide difference between the press as we understand of it, from the media, although both assume to possess the privilege of freedom to carry out their undertakings.

Boycotting China

posted June 27, 2015 at 12:01 am by  Rod Kapunan

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Our pro-Japanese President should stop taunting China just to reassure us that we are making headway in our dispute with China.  Rather, as we persist in bringing our cause to the international forum, we are only adding humiliation to ourselves, not from the standpoint that we have no right whatsoever to our claim, but in our approach in bringing our cause to the international arena.   

Suspicion of blackmail

posted June 20, 2015 at 12:01 am by  Rod Kapunan

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There must be something that is pestering President Aquino in wanting the Senate to approve the sellout agreement called the Bangsamoro Basic Law.  The public is equally getting curious, for maybe there is in that agreement something we do not know which reason why his appointed panel virtually collaborated with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to come out with a shoddy agreement. Looking at his conduct, one could draw an inference that the President appears to have been blackmailed either by the MILF or by its principal sponsor to accept the BBL in its original form.    

The Liberal Party

posted June 13, 2015 at 12:01 am by  Rod Kapunan

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When President Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino sounded out the possibility he might run again, as running mate of Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas, he spelled  out the truth that the ruling Liberal Party is running out of credible presidentiables.  Maybe the naïve idea is not motivated to keep himself in power but to save the party from an unexpected demise.  Maybe PNoy is still hallucinating that he and he alone could save the party that earned the bad connotations about the real nature of politics in this country.

Profit, not ownership

posted June 06, 2015 at 12:01 am by  Rod Kapunan

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Some members of the Senate are again toying with the idea of amending the Constitution, particularly Article XII, Section 2, paragraph 1, on national economy and patrimony. Apart from Senate President Franklin Drilon and Speaker Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte, lackeys of the administration have expressed their endorsement.   However, those who oppose say there is no such thing as self-limitation to the power of Congress to amend the charter that was ratified in 1987 with much fanfare and delusion.

PNoy’s zero-sum game strategy

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Where is the Liberal Party headed?

posted May 23, 2015 at 12:01 am by  Rod Kapunan

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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 self-created crisis with China

posted May 16, 2015 at 12:01 am by  Rod Kapunan

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We are the only country that has loudly been expressing our apprehension that China would one day eject us from the Spratly islands.   We have been most vociferous in accusing China of expansionism while the rest of our Asean neighbors are having a hard time trying to decipher what we want to get in our antagonism of our giant neighbor.  The latest of our verbal tussle with China pertains to its reclamation in the Subi (Zamora) reef.  We reacted sharply by accusing China of “aggression.”  It was followed by the visit of AFP chief of staff, Gen. Gregorio Catapang, to show that we are deeply entrenched in the area, and are not alone.

Odd role played by PNoy

posted May 09, 2015 at 12:01 am by  Rod Kapunan

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There were three things that transpired this week, perhaps by coincidence but definitely intended to convince the people to accept the shameful Bangsamoro Basic Law.
First was the killing of terrorist Abdul Basit Usman allegedly by members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.  Second, the result of an alleged survey conducted by the Social Weather Station from March 20 to 23 claiming that 45 percent or that the majority still favors peaceful negotiations with the MILF.  And third, the statement made by President Aquino that he wants the BBL approved by Congress without any amendment.   It seems all are meant to condition the people that they will have to live with the possibility that this country will finally be partitioned not at the behest of our enemy, but by the very people who made their political orgy at Edsa claiming it was they who restored democracy and freedom to the land of the heathens.

Our crusade to isolate China has backfired

posted May 02, 2015 at 12:01 am by  Rod Kapunan

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The Philippines has lately been noisy about China’s reclamation of one of the islands in the Spratlys.  In fact, we went as far as accusing China of aggression.  It was a high-profile propaganda blitz to get the world’s public opinion in what Secretary of Foreign Affairs Albert del Rosario dubbed as China’s “bullying.”

BBL needs to be ratified by our people

posted April 25, 2015 at 12:01 am by  Rod Kapunan

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This pretending-to-be-honest government has solicited the support of the self-righteous to set the moral tone for our people to accept the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL). 
Prominent leaders from the Church, business community and even those who drafted that shoddy Constitution were urged to lend a helping hand.  Among them were Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle;  Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala; retired Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Divide, Jr.; ambassador to the Vatican and Malta, Howard Dee; Felicitas Aquino-Arroyo; retired Supreme Court Justice Adolfo Azcuna; clerics who served as constitutional commissioners like Bishop Teodoro Bacani and Fr. Joaquin Bernas; socialite Flora del Rosario Braid; Edmund Garcia; Christian Monsod; Jose Luis Martin Gascon; former senator Ricardo Romulo; retired Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento;  Jaime Tadeo; Wilfredo Villacorta;  Bernardo Villegas and Bai Rohaniza Sumndad-Usman.

Binay’s sinking ambition PART ONE

Binay’s sinking ambition

posted April 18, 2015 at 12:01 am by  Rod Kapunan

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Part I
The political ambition of Vice President Jejomar Binay is fast sinking.  Like a boxer, Binay appears to duck at every shadow he believes would hurt his presidential ambition.  Binay has become vulnerable to his attackers; he has become too defensive to a point that even if some of the charges against him are baseless, people tend to believe them. It is his overreaction in suppressing them that  betrays him now.  

Shaming the republic PART TWO

Shaming the republic

posted April 11, 2015 at 12:01 am by  Rod Kapunan

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Part II

Shaming the republic PART ONE

Shaming the republic

posted March 28, 2015 at 12:01 am by  Rod Kapunan

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Part I

When Newsbreakcame out with an article dated March 18, 2013 to mark the 45th commemoration of the so–called “Jabida Massacre,” authors Marites Danguilan Vitug and Glenda M. Gloria claimed that at least 23 Muslim trainees were summarily gunned down.  Nobody asked where they got their story and what made them conclude that a massacre took place in Corregidor Island.  To them, destroying the image and memory of Marcos and the integrity of the Republic does not matter. All that is important is they succeed in ingratiating themselves to their foreign patrons.

Repudiate the BBL

posted March 21, 2015 at 12:01 am by  Rod Kapunan

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Knowing that we have been dealing with foreign nationals is more than enough for us to  repudiate the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law.  This we have to bear in mind for while the government is willing to negotiate peace with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, it cannot enter into an agreement with the parties who are citizens of other countries adversarial to our interest.  To accede to that proposition could change altogether the parameter of the negotiations.  It will no longer be one of how far the government is willing to grant autonomy to our Muslim brothers in Mindanao, but on the future status of the territory that will be demarcated as part of the Bangsamoro.

The Other purpose of the emergency power

posted March 14, 2015 at 12:01 am by  Rod Kapunan

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President Benigno Simeon Aquino is seeking an emergency power from Congress to cope up with the expected shortfall in the supply of electricity in the coming months, which will coincide with the onset of the El Niño phenomena.  It is forecast that between 400 to 1,000 megawatts additional electricity are needed, particularly in the Luzon grid, to avert a four- to seven-hour daily brownout.   PNoy attributes the shortage to boom in the economy triggering an increase in demand for more electricity and the scheduled maintenance work to be carried out at the Malampaya natural gas facilities that accordingly, supply us a total of 2,700 megawatts.

Treason?

posted March 07, 2015 at 12:01 am by  Rod Kapunan

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Most stereotype lawyers whose pedestrian view on what the Constitution and the law say could be laughing at my two patriotic friends, lawyer Homobono Adaza and columnist Herman Tui Laurel.  I state this because to file a case of treason against President Benigno Simeon “”Noynoy” Aquino III et al, is to act like that of the man from La Mancha.  And for them, it would be futile to defend the Filipino people from these morons who are dead set in betraying the country.

Filipinos and the BBL

posted February 28, 2015 at 12:01 am by  Rod Kapunan

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Despite the grisly carnage that saw 44 of our elite police force eviscerated, with the enemy grimly videoing how they finished off those still agonizing in pain by blasting off their brain point blank, desecrating by firing continuously at their lifeless body, and decapitating the head of some, the government inexplicably remains adamant in wanting Congress to pass the sellout Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).

Saving the skin of PNoy and Abad

posted February 21, 2015 at 12:01 am by  Rod Kapunan

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When the Supreme Court made a ridiculous  somersaulting in reversing its earlier decision, this time exculpating from possible criminal liability those responsible for treating public funds as though it was their own private money, the “de facto reversal,” as University of the Philippines  law professor Harry Roque, Jr. would put it, is a virtual writing on the wall that this pretending-to-be-honest government could be exonerated from any liability should the much-awaited case be filed against them once they step out of office.  This early, the mastermind who conceived of systematically siphoning public funds, Department of Budget and Management Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad, is already shouting to high heavens as the decision already guarantees his future exoneration.