Tag: Law

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The constitutional basis of the hashtag #NasaanAngPangulo

#atthemoment photo: View outside the southwest window at 7:24pm, now

 

The Constitutional Basis of the hashtag #NasaanAngPangulo

     Last night, lawyer Mara, worried about how our countrymen would cope with the expected supertyphoon, said: “The President is missing…!”

      Me ( aspiring fashion designer) replied: “He’s not missing – he’s just sleeping.”

       This morning, the hashtag #NasaanAngPangulo  trended . The English translation of the words in the hashtag (for the worldwide audience) is:

   #WhereisthePresident

or

      #MrPresidentWRU?

or 

       #MrPresidentIfYouThereShowusaSign 

 or

       #PlanetEarthtoPresidentover?”

      If you can put together a mathematician and a doctor, we would be able to analyze data on the pattern of the appearances and long periods of non-appearances to be able to map out the presidential circadian rhythm. For example, PDu30 Chart:

Sleeps for _ days,

Wakes up once 12 midnight to appear in press briefing,

Sleeps for ___ days,

appears for 30 minutes, etc.

      To be fair, it is true that the President does not need to literally show his face everytime there is an emergency, where lives are at stake. Perhaps the secret of his steady ratings is in not making us see his face, mostly.

      And to be fair, the only time he needs to be awake is as Commander-in-Chief, when military forces have to be deployed out-of-barracks, or out-of-district, or out-of-province, for rescue missions and other emergency operations.

      Or when, before the supertyphoon makes landfall, he reviews the data and based on this, prepositions reserved forces and deploys them in areas that would require rescue and relief. Executive Secretary Medialdea, who runs the Palace day-to-day, is not in the chain of command. The local government officials are not in the chain of command. The Speaker of the House is not in the chain of command. The Senate President is not in the chain of command. Not even the Vice President is in the chain of command. Only the President can deploy them out-of-district or out-of-barracks – these forces will not take deployment orders from any civilian, except the Commander-in-Chief.

      So, in an expected emergency like a supertyphoon, when resources and assets have to be prepositioned, and when the proper and sudden deployment of forces are required for rescue missions to mitigate casualties, when does the President need to be awake?

        In an emergency: Always.
constitutional law, media law, News

any Tuesday now

tap the ⇒ play arrow (if on mobile phone, click “Listen in browser”) on the soundcloud pod below to play         

            “back   

      when  i  was  living  for

        the   hope   of   it   all…”

     CODE

 

     (music credits: as stated in the embedded pod and vid)

      It seems three months late though, still, the Supreme Court is expected any Tuesday now of this month to issue a ruling on the issue of whether or not the NTC can summarily shut down without any hearing, and without the minimum requirements of due process, a news media organization that is the ABS-CBN network, during the pendency of its franchise application in Congress (on a petition for certiorari and prohibition filed by ABS-CBN a week after it was summarily shut down on May 5, 2020).

         The inaction of the Supreme Court until it was too late can be seen by some as perhaps a testament to its seeming indifference, at best: an inaction that allowed events to overtake the legal issues presented before it — because now the franchise had been denied by 70 committee members of Congress without any substantial showing (substantial evidence) of violations of laws as basis for “killing” the franchise (the phrase “kill the franchise” being a quote from one of the committee leaders).

      In other words, the issue presented before it (the grave abuse of authority of the NTC in shutting down a news organization without due process while the franchise application is pending) had become moot and academic because the franchise had been “killed” by 70 committee members …
… unless the Supreme Court seriously takes up its judicial function and takes judicial notice of the televised public congressional hearings, and traverse the legal issues presented by the “killing” of the franchise being based not on substantial evidence of violation of laws but on the way that the news network had in the past exercised its editorial judgment — perceived by some congressmen as “biased”.

      Based on its inaction for months that show its indifference, it may continue taking this road of indifference to the violation of the fundamental rights of the people, and dismiss the case for mootness without a substantive discussion of the issues raised, even for academic purposes.

     Or the members of the Supreme Court can wake up one sunny Tuesday morning and decide: “Why don’t we traverse the constitutional issues once and for all and discuss whether or not Congress can deny a franchise based on no standard of evidence at all?”

    Would that they could care for the time given to them when they could still make a difference.

constitutional law, Film paintings photos, media law, News

ABS-CBN Teleradyo Kabayan tweet-embed Video Aug.11 on SWS Survey: Majority said it was dangerous to publish/broadcast anything critical of govt even if it was the truth

ABS-CBN Teleradyo Kabayan tweet-embed Aug.11 on SWS Survey: Majority said it was dangerous to publish/broadcast anything critical of govt even if it was the truth (tweet-video embedded below )

 

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