(Insert theme song from Rocky)
In the blue corner, standing barely five feet tall and weighing less than 100 pounds, let us give a round of applause for Arroyo! Gloria Arroyo!
In the red corner, standing X feet tall and weighing X pounds, let us give a round of applause for, wait a minute, another Arroyo! Joker Arroyo!
I’m sorry but I’m biased. I’ve always had a whole lot of love for Joker. Gloria? Don’t really have a whole lot of love for her.
Running Account on INQ7
Senator Arroyo defends media against Proclamation 1017
Veronica Uy INQ7.netSENATOR Joker Arroyo defended on Monday the people’s right to free speech, expression, and assembly, and insisted that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s declaration of a state of national emergency could not be used to curtail those rights.
“The President cannot, under the guise of national emergency or public interest, arbitrarily order the takeover or direct the news content of television or radio stations and thereby deprive the public of free and balanced information,” he said in a statement.
The statement of the human rights lawyer during the martial law years came after government forces raided the Daily Tribune on Saturday.
“Any provision in a statute or executive issuance, or governmental action that runs counter to that constitutionally protected right is unenforceable,” he said.
Arroyo said no government body, including the National Telecommunications Commission, was empowered “to draw up guidelines on what electronic media could or could not air because that would amount to prior restraint, which was constitutionally impermissible.”
Quoting Benjamin Franklin, a famous American statesman and inventor, Arroyo said the actions against media was only the beginning of the suppression of the people’s freedoms.
“’Whomsoever would like to destroy the liberties of the nation shall start by destroying the freedom of the press.’ The government would like to curtail our freedoms and it is now starting with media,” Arroyo said.
Without media reporting people’s exercise of freedom of speech, expression, or assembly, Arroyo said, “Nothing will come out of it.”
He said the government’s assertion that it could control media outfits “could not prevail over the superior right of freedom of the press, expression, and speech.”
Well said sir. But will she listen? And if she does decide not to push through with ML, how will she go about her daily business without losing face in the aftermath? Just food for thought.
2 Comments
March 1, 2006 at 4:02 pm
Arroyo vs. Arroyo? I think you are being charitable in describing the President as under 100 pounds. Did you see those pictures of her trying to surf in Surigao a month or so? She must be pushing 120 or more on her 4′11 frame. I think she is on the “Big Mike” Arroyo diet. Speaking of Joker Arroyo, you might find his take interesting as told by Ninez Cacho-Olivares, the publisher of the Tribune, currently under siege.
A Third Wave from Malacañang will soon descend upon the nation, which Joker Arroyo describes as “political terrorism.”
Since he now speaks of the Third Wave, as gleaned from his talk with Senate reporters, by First Wave, he was referring to Executive Order (EO) 464, or Gloria’s gag order on all officials and executives falling under the executive department, which includes the police and the military. This is directed to Congress, more specifically, the Senate, in a bid to castrate the body that has been probing allegations of presidential cheating, lying and stealing.
The Second Wave, so Joker says, is Proclamation 1017, or the declaration of a state of emergency, which has been directed at media, despite the arrests of several left-leaning congressmen.
But of the Third Wave, he says he knows it is coming, but who the target is, he does not as yet know. All he knows is that this will take the form of presidential terrorism.
If, as spelled out by the senator, the target of the First Wave is Congress, and the Second Wave’s target is the media, then the Third Wave’s target should logically be the Supreme Court (SC), especially where political terrorism is at the core.
Gloria, having vested herself the power to issue decrees through her 1017, has not only castrated Congress but has also, through her 1017, usurped the power of Congress in that she now decrees that a P1,000-increase will be given to all the government employees, not waiting for Congress to come up with that law or for the legislature to allocate this.
Having stripped Congress of its legislative powers and the power of the purse, as she does what she pleases anyway with the public funds, she then moves to blatantly curtail press freedom not only through unwarranted raids of newspaper offices but also with announcements of takeovers of the media, along with the issuance of guidelines for media to follow in news reporting.
As for the other fundamental freedoms, such as expression and peaceful assembly, along with the right to be secure from unwarranted searches and seizures, well these too have been cut off through 1017.
In the case of both EO 464 and Proclamation 1017, it is to from SC that the Senate and the media seek relief and resolution.
Given the fact that she has moved against the media and also Congress — or at least the Senate, since the House is her puppy dog — Gloria’s political terrorism must then target the very body that may destroy her plan for total control over Congress and the media.
It is fair to state that in virtually all the cases lodged before the high tribunal questioning the constitutionality of the acts of Gloria, her SC’s rulings have always favored her — no matter their blatant unconstitutionality.
But there has to come a time, and that time may be soon, when the high court justices — even those who owe her favors for their positions — will have to rule, and rule credibly on the basic freedoms as enshrined in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights, because the court too, will have to face the wrath of an angry people, who will have concluded justly that the court — or at least its justices — in rejecting to uphold the Charter and the rule of law and on very fundamental issues, cannot be depended upon to safeguard democracy and protect the people from the abuses of government. It will have become another abuser and oppressor.
Already, Malacañang has issued its message to the court, saying the high court cannot look into 1017, since this is a presidential prerogative.
At this point, Gloria cannot afford to have the high court slap her down by ruling on the constitutionality of 1017, or at least the unconstitutional acts stemming from that proclamation.
Two things are likely to happen. With Gloria having friendly justices tipping her off on how the justices will rule, she is likely to back off — if she is not yet prepared to have this issue met head-on by the SC, assuming of course that the SC has finally found its balls, if not its marbles — and likely to lift 1017, and with its lifting, the same SC will then deem this a “moot” and “academic” issue and therefore, will not rule on its constitutionality, thus giving her yet another crack at coming up with more and more decrees vesting her with more and more powers that would eventually anyway, strike down the high court, Congress and all.
Heil Hitler!
March 1, 2006 at 10:43 pm
Haha! That photo was one of my “favorites,” in terms of entertainment value. I don’t think Bush has a photo that will rival that. Only the pretzel incident is as hilarious and Dick Cheney shooting his friend instead of quails, but these did not have a visual to remind people of how they looked like at that particular time.
Yup. She is trying to get everyone in her control. Congress is a joke. Even the courts are a joke, most of the time. Judges who render sound judgements are rare and it is no secret that those with money pay their way to win. The Supreme Court is the last bastion of hope for court cases but it takes a lifetime for cases to get from the lower courts to the Supreme Court, and sometimes you still don’t get the verdict that is right.