“The Rehearsal” by Edgar Degas 1879 from www.bc.edu
Stopping the senators from playing the tapes
Is like…
(wait, I haven’t thought of an alliteration yet)
The Senate by a majority vote, in order to understand the testimonies, will play the Hello Garci tapes or parts of it.
Admin senators who do not want them to play the tapes can go to the Supreme Court on a petition for certiorari and prohibition. In order to succeed in getting a TRO, petitioners will have to show that: 1)they will suffer an irreparable injury; or 2) they have a clear, legal right that’s being violated; or 3) something is unconstitutional (no law is being challenged so I’m using the word “something”).
What is the irreparable injury to the petitioners, or the clear legal right that’s being violated? They do not want the tapes played because it is a “violation of RA 4200”. What is the injury to the petitioners? They might be held “criminally liable”. Then, walk away. There’s a remedy. (an injunction on a petition for certiorari is an extraordinary remedy available only when there is no other recourse in the ordinary course of the law etc. ). Walk away from the scene. Put one foot in front of the other. It’s real easy. “Criminal liability”, if any, is personal.
But we don’t want the Senate to be “criminally liable”. Only living natural persons can be punished for crimes; the “criminal liability”, if any, cannot apply to a non-natural person.
Only those individuals who stand to suffer a grave and irreparable injury, can invoke the ground of grave and irreparable injury. And these are the individuals whose phones were tapped or whose conversations were recorded: the woman who sounded like Gloria; and Garci; and other public officials/ figures.
What about: the resolution is unconstitutional because it violates the right to privacy in the Bill of Rights? The Supreme Court has ruled in many cases that only the person whose right to privacy is being violated, can invoke it.
So, a TRO against the Senate to stop it from playing the tapes on a certiorari petition filed by admin senators, may be difficult to wangle. They can file criminal complaints later but criminal complaints do not work as an injunction. There will be a preliminary investigation, a resolution, then if there’s a prima facie case, an indictment.
I’ll tell you what…Maybe you can theorize… that while they’re playing the tapes… they are in the process of….committing a crime….(you said it was a violation of RA 4200)…and they can be warrantlessly arrested…on the spot…it’s in the Rules of Court…and you get to stop the tapes from being played…on the spot…the only person able to do so….Don’t tell anyone that came from me!
But can you imagine the spectacle of that? Senate President Manny Villar being hauled off by the police or NBI, and the senators each being handcuffed or taken away or Mirandized. Unthinkable. Not politically advisable.
I just like twirling the procedure, the Rules of Court, turning them on their head. That is the effect, this morning, we had our flowing yoga poses for one hour and I kept tipping. Tipping. Tipping. And it made me laugh. And I lost my concentration. I think I almost made my yoga teacher laugh.
I’m really glad we don’t have to do this on a cliff.
(stopping the senators
from playing the tapes
is like stopping my
li’l tree-pose from tipping.)
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I was riding a jeepney last Tuesday night, August 26, when the FM radio station 90.7 Love Radio aired a news flash with its disc jockey projecting a child-like voice while reporting. At first, I thought that Rica, the DJ for that hour, was merely cracking some jokes like what most of the FM radio stations usually do in between commercial breaks. However, it turned out that she was talking about real events. She reported the death of actor Ramon Zamora, which was followed by other news bites. It was really confusing and disturbing because she sounded like a child instead of reporting seriously, using the real tone of her voice. Personally, if I were a relative of Ramon Zamora, I would be greatly offended because the report about his death was treated with such impoliteness. Some of the other passengers had the same idea, too, and were also surprised that what we heard was a real news flash.
The KBP Code of Ethics for Radio says that “good taste should prevail in the selection and handling of news.” The radio station did not meet this ethical standard because it failed to report the news properly. The DJ should have recognized the difference between entertainment and public service, which is part of media responsibility. News carries important information that interests the public. Therefore, it should be distinguished from advertisements, jokes or any other kind of information.
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