Ex-SC Justice warns about Constitutional crisis re CJ row

KRIS AQUINO-MAYEN AUSTRIA BROUHAHA: POLITICIANS AND KIN MUST BE CAREFUL: The Kris Aquino-Mayen Austria “confrontation” is one good proof that politicians and their close relatives will have to be very careful about their conduct and behaviour especially during the campaign period, simply because whatever they say and do could boomerang and become a negative issue.

I am sure Kris meant well when she tried to talk to Mayen Austria about Mayen’s having confided with James Yap, Kris’ husband, that Mayen already broke-off with her own boyfriend, but creative and imaginative Filipinos will always see the event as “katarayan” or, loosely, a nasty show of superiority which could rub off negatively against Liberal Party standard bearer Sen. Benigno Aquino III.

Of course, Kris had every reason to be nasty and “mataray” to preserve her family and her relationship with James (her having confronted Mayen showed that Kris was afraid that there is “something” between James and Mayen), but then people will always think that this will be the kind of conduct she will display if and when Noynoy becomes president, and this will only drive people away to other presidentiables.

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CAMPAIGNING ON ISSUES AND PLATFORMS OF GOVERNANCE IS BETTER: Really now, I do like what I have been hearing from Sen. Manny Villar of the Nacionalista Party and former defense secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr. of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD everytime they speak before presidential fora seeking their views on what they will do when they become president.

They have been very eloquent about their plans and programs of action to improve the lives of Filipinos, giving us a sample of the kind of presidency they will uphold, and this is as it should be because it is time our leaders, particularly those aspiring to occupy Malacanang, must have a clear blue print of where they will want to lead us and what they will do to achieve this.

I hope the other presidentiables, who are still mired in the old-style of campaigning (which is principally waging a smear campaign against their opponents), will realize that Filipinos are now starting to be aware that only the candidates who have a vision of what they can do really merit their votes.

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CLAMOR TO APPOINT A CJ BY PGMA CAN RESULT IN A CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS: Former Supreme Court Justice Leonardo Quisumbing is saying Quezon City Rep. Mat Defensor’s latest clamor for the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) to already submit a list of nominees for the next chief justice so President Arroyo can appoint the replacement of the retiring Reynato Puno may result in a Constitutional crisis.

Speaking informally but clearly “on the record” (for I asked him whether what he had to say on the matter was “on the record” or “off the record”) to members of the Rotary Club of Intramuros who met at the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board office of Chairman Bert Suansing, Quisumbing said Defensor’s clamor may prompt someone to question whether he had the right to even speak on the issue.

The reason, according to Quisumbing (a president-nominee of RC Intramuros who will serve for Rotary Year 2011-2012), was that Defensor could not legally make any clamor on his own since his membership in the JBC is merely as a representative of the Congress of the Philippines, which is composed of two houses---the House of Representatives and the Senate.

For any clamor, therefore, to be validly made by Defensor, it has to be concurred in by his counterpart from the Senate, which, Quisumbing said, has not happened yet, so that such clamor is “legally inexistent”!

Quisumbing has other points on this looming Constitutional crisis, but I will write about them next time, so keep reading this column everyday.

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PROCLAMATION OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD: “Proclamation of the Kingdom of God” is the third mystery in the Mysteries of Light, or Luminous Mysteries, of the Holy Rosary of the Roman Catholic Christians, and an account of it is found in Matthew 4:17, Mark 1:14 and Luke 4:15 of the Bible.

In Matthew 4:17, the story is told that when Jesus heard that John the Baptist had been put in prison, He returned to Galilee, and then lived in Capernaum, by the lake in Zebulun and Naphtali, to fulfill what the prophet Isaiah said.

“From that on, Jesus began to preach,” the same Biblical verse says, and what Jesus started to preach was this: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

In Mark 1:14, an almost identical account is found, thus: “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. `The time has come’, he said. `The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.’”

In Luke 4:15, on the other hand, this is what is written: “He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.” Luke however says that Jesus began to preach after he was tempted for forty days in the desert.

What is the lesson that we can derive from the third mystery of the Mysteries of Light?

It is that, there is a need for man, who has become wicked and mired in sin, to repent, stop sinning, and make the good news of God---the Bible nowadays---a necessary part of his life.

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