Unleashing catastrophe

Let me share with you the editorial of the Philippine Daily Inquirer last January 17, 2010.

THE decision of the Supreme Court to reverse itself on the League of Cities case last December, after its original ruling had become final and executory last May, is a ticking time bomb placed directly under the rule of law. When it explodes, the first casualty will be the Court itself.

In the constitutional crisis that shook the country after more than a third of the members of the House of Representatives voted to impeach Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. in 2003, the role of the Court as final arbiter of legal controversies was vigorously affirmed.

At that time, we wrote in this space: “The mere fact that some of the country’s best legal minds ... could not agree on a single position on the issue at hand is not a sign of confusion. It is a sign that the law may be a demanding mistress, but it is not an exact science. It is also proof that, if the Supreme Court did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it. Top lawyers may argue about the constitutionality of an issue, but at a certain point somebody must step in and decide. According to the Constitution, that somebody is not the Senate or the House; it is the Supreme Court.”

But last Dec. 19, a slender majority of six justices voted against this very principle. The Court’s reversal of the original League of Cities decision violated the governing idea that “at a certain point somebody must step in and decide.” The Court had in fact already stepped in and decided on the fate of the 16 cityhood laws that were the subject of the case; they were deemed unconstitutional by majority vote on Nov. 18, 2008; a motion for reconsideration was rejected by majority vote; a second motion for reconsideration was denied by a tie vote. On May 21, 2009, the ruling became final and executory.

And yet the Court decided to open the case again. Justice Antonio Carpio’s withering dissent in the League of Cities case quoted the petitioners’ view that “[n]otably, respondents craftily phrased and titled their motions based on the Court’s last denial order or resolution, and deliberately avoided reference to the previous repeated denials by the Court.” It is a shame that enough members of the Court agreed to reopen the case despite such duplicitous conduct.

It is a bigger shame, indeed it is a cause for apprehension about the future of the high court itself, that enough justices voted to overturn the ruling.

The argument against revisiting decisions already deemed final and executory is settled consensus; it is a by-now-unremarkable part of the law of the land. Carpio’s dissent offers a vigorous restating of the Court’s previous rulings. “Well-entrenched is the rule that a decision that has acquired finality becomes immutable and unalterable, no longer subject to attack and cannot be modified directly or indirectly, and the court which rendered it, including this Court, had lost jurisdiction to modify it. The Court laid down this rule precisely ‘(1) to avoid delay in the administration of justice and thus procedurally, to make orderly the discharge of judicial business, and; (2) to put an end to judicial controversies, at the risk of occasional errors, which is why courts exist.’”

And yet the Supreme Court not only revisited the case; it reversed itself. This unfortunate series of events can only erode the people’s confidence in the rule of law, and undermine the credibility of the Court. We can, legitimately, ask: If there is no such thing as a final and executory ruling, can there be an end to legal and judicial controversies? If the Supreme Court declines to respect its own jurisprudence, can anyone expect the ordinary citizen to respect the Court’s rulings? If sheer majority rule, not the hallowed principle of facts and the law, determines the decisions of the Supreme Court, can the public stop itself from treating the justices as the politicians they have become?

Carpio’s dissent defined the stakes. “Such an unprecedented ruling would resurrect contentious political issues long ago settled ... Countless other decisions of this Court would come back to haunt it ... Such a ruling would destabilize not only this Court, but also the Executive and Legislative Branches ... Business transactions made pursuant to final decisions of this Court would also unravel for another round of litigation ... This Court cannot afford to unleash such a catastrophe on the nation.”

The bomb is ticking.

Delayed Flights

(Mr. Eli Cinco wrote about Calbayog in his column for yesterday's edition of the Manila Bulletin. Please Chech this link. I have also featured the whole article in today's blog update)

CALBAYOG CITY – This metropolis of almost 200,000 inhabitants is sort of a blessed place. It faces the calm Samar Sea to the west which is abundant in marine life, and to the east are low-lying hills and fruitful fields fertile to every variety of rice, coconut, and vegetables.

(I’m here on my semi-annual visit to the place of my birth.)

"Who cares about shortage of NFA rice, we don’t eat it anyway," says Ricardo Sagrado, gentle and healthy-looking peddler of variety of plastic toys, hawking his wares round the periphery of tree-adorned Nijaga Park. Popular Manila fast-food chain outlets are just across the park.

Calbayog is the birth place of many exceptionally talented people who have achieved national prominence in virtually all fields of professions and vocations, earning it a catchphrase, the Talent Bank City. I will mention some of them in subsequent columns. The late playwright Wilfredo Ma. Guerrero who taught English and drama during summer classes at the revered Colegio de San Vicente de Paul in the mid-1950s, complimented: "Calbayognons are such gifted people. They are so talented."

Back to present-day realities: The most persistent complaints are those coming from traders, employees, and visitors who take round-trip flights on board the recently opened PAL Express and the mainstay Asian Spirit. Passengers are aghast over the airlines’ abrupt cancellation of flights, as well as delayed flights.

"We’ve lost business opportunities, mainly because of those irritants which the airline companies seem to take lightly," says Gertie Capistrano who owns a manning firm in Manila.

I sympathize with those businessmen. I myself was a victim of those erratic scheduling of PAL Express. My flight coming here last September 4 was supposed to take off from the new NAIA Terminal-3 at 5:50 a.m.

Following their expressed instructions where domestic passengers are to check-in 2 ½ hours before scheduled departure, I did so even earlier – at 3:15 a.m. But the problem was there was nobody from PAL Express to appreciate my punctuality. All counters were devoid of personnel, compared to those of Cebu Pacific across which were a beehive of activities.

Then at exctly 4:15 a.m., three still-sleepy check-in counter clerks, one was a cashier, took their places. They were 55 minutes late.

My boarding pass said my departure gate was No. 131, another foul-up. Calbayog- bound passengers, said a voice from the PA system, were to wait at Gate No. 132. Okay at this point. Then a girl at a movable counter who also came in late said our plane would be delayed for 30 minutes because "they are still servicing the plane." Servicing? Not a few yawning passengers asked.

Finally, we were bussed to a nearby apron where other PAL Express planes were parked awaiting irrate passengers. Our flight No. PR 91 took off at 7:08 a.m., a delay of one hour and 18 minutes.

Arriving in Calbayog Sabang Airport at 8:20 a.m., I missed a jeepney to the town of Gandara which I would have taken, but it left earlier, to visit an aging maternal uncle.

The irony of it all was, that delayed flight on September 4 to Calbayog had PAL VIPs on board.
Plane Always Late? Back to the old sarcastic derision of the PAL acronym? There’s a newer interpretation – "Pirme Atrasado an Lupad." One does not have to be a Waray to understand what this means.

re-post: Manila Bulletin's Eli Cinco on Calbayog City

(Last Wednesday, I featured in this blog Mr. Eli Cinco's column in the August 20, 2008 issue of the Manila Bulletin. I received a good number of emails and a phone call. It turned out that a good number of blog viewers were not able to access the links I have provided. I am posting the whole column, or the part about Calbayog. Try checking this link, in case does not work, do read what I have posted)


Calbayog gets PCCRP ‘Top Performing City’ Award
By Elinando B. Cinco

NOW Calbayog City has all the reasons to attract investors and draw visitors after it has been awarded last July 4, the much-coveted Top Performing Metropolis Award – Small-sized Category – by the Asian Institute of Management Policy Center, in conjunction with its biennial Philippine Cities Competitive Ranking Project.

Only 12 cities, out of 45 covered by that category, made it to the ranking, Calbayog among them.
Launched in 1999, the PCCRP is a two-year independent study conducted throughout the archipelago "to rank cities on the basis of economic performance and responsiveness to business enterprise."

There are two other categories – Metro Cities and Medium-sized Cities – involving the Philippines’ 90 cities surveyed nationwide.

Rating of the contending cities was based on such factors as (1) dynamism of the local economy, (2) cost of doing business, (3) infrastructure, (4) human resources and training, (5) responsiveness of local government units to business needs, and (6) quality of life.

In a front-page news story in the Manila Bulletin last July 5, to project the importance of the biennial awards, Dr. Federico Macaranas said city competitiveness is vital in national development.

The AIM Policy Center has this study and its goals "to promote national competitiveness by encouraging healthy competition among highly urbanized and emerging cities."

"By gathering and compiling strategic data and providing focused analyses of the results, the PCCRP also seeks to cultivate competitive industries, promote healthy communities and maximize the economic performance and responsiveness to business enterprise,"Macaranas emphasized.

Since the first city awardees were bestowed almost 10 years ago, results of the PCCRP research and evaluation have benefited those local government units. They came in the form of accurate and workable city planning, realistic and, therefore, attainable development objectives, all combining to make intelligent implementation effortless.

Now, what does this ‘Top Performing City’ Award mean to Calbayog? A bagful, if you ask me. One is that the place is now in a position to engage in many revenue-generating projects, independent of the national government. Revenues make a city in-step with progress, and the multi-faceted effects redound to the development of private enterprises, and improved income of the city residents.

The award will also be seal of quality for Calbayog to become a top priority in foreign-assisted projects. Just as it is an attestation of its viability when securing financing for its people-centered ventures and tourism-attraction undertakings.

Furthermore, to my reading, the recognition means Calbayog itself and the inhabitants are a fertile market even for non-traditional goods and services. An asset of a small metropolis that trumpets to the outside world that it is now in business!

I take my hat off to City Mayor Mel Senen Sarmiento who personifies a dynamic local government executive, always on his toes looking for avenues and opportunities to position his city in vying for 21st century enterprise and technology.

Similarly, kudos to the city council and its presiding officer, Vice Mayor Onald Aquino, the heads of different departments of the city administration who must also share the credit in attaining the enviable recognition.

Manila Bulletin's Eli Cinco on Calbayog

Mr. Eli Cinco, one of Calbayog's sucessful journalists featured Cabayog in his column for today's edition of the Manila Bulletin.

With the author's permission, I am featuring a link to that column in my blog.

"NOW Calbayog City has all the reasons to attract investors and draw visitors after it has been awarded last July 4, the much-coveted Top Performing Metropolis Award – Small-sized Category – by the Asian Institute of Management Policy Center, in conjunction with its biennial Philippine Cities Competitive Ranking Project.

Only 12 cities, out of 45 covered by that category, made it to the ranking, Calbayog among them."

(to read the rest of the article, please check this link)

still with the SK

Do you still remember my comments about some SK officials? I posted it in my blog about two weeks (just in case you want to check, here's the link).

I think I mentioned that aside from the usual pa-liga, some SK officials are also into the installation of welcome signs in their barangays. Just wondering what has that to do with youth development? (guidance I guess?). Proof to tell, here's a pix (two actually) of a welcome sign in a certain barangay (don't look for the name I made sure I erased it before uploading it here). Need I say more? And note that there 156 more barangays wherein their SKs could possibly have the same project.

But to be fair, there are other SK officials who are doing a nice job and I intend to post their work here. It's just that I can't find the connection between youth development and welcome signs.

To be fair (again), it's not only in Calbayog. It also happens in other parts of the country where the SK has not been a good performer.