Legacy of Salvador H. Laurel

Events have a way of being foreshadowed even if the prediction and the actual happening are miles apart. My husband and I met Ambassador Macario Laurel and his lovely wife, the former Letty Reyes, at a party given by George Ty some days before the former vice president died. When I asked the ambassador how his uncle was, he said "Better. The first thing Doy asked after months in coma was whether he could come home to run for the constitutional convention." The late vice president was for a parliamentary federal government. His nephew said it was remarkable how he recovered from the long coma – something they had not expected. But there you are he did awake and was able to spend some happy times with his family before finally succumbing to the cancer that had ravaged his health. Doy had many achievements that those who knew him better wrote about. It is my opinion that his most important contribution to his country was how he gave up his own ambition to be president after working so hard for it. He was a pillar of the opposiiton against Marcos at a time when it was foolhardy to do so. But just as his goal was within reach, he was asked to give way to the widow of Ninoy Aquino, his childhood friend and he did. That is a high sense of patriotism a timely lesson in humility he can teach a lesson to presidential candidate Raul Roco. He is in a similar position as Laurel had. That must be the reason why Laurel had to die at this time so that his magnanimous act of giving up his own ambition for the sake of the country may be recalled.

Budget fracas and gridlock. Senate Chief Franklin Drilon still does not get it. I wish he’d stop belly-aching about the reenactment of the 2003 budget and blaming the House. The savings, whether the House approved the 2004 budget earlier or that the senators may have difficulties with their pork barrel are details that make up a bigger problem. The fracas on the budget is better explained by hostility between the two houses because of clashing interests. Differences on the budget are just some of many issues on which the Senate and the House failed to agree. More sensitive leadership in both Houses might have been able to overcome differences but that requires great patience and an understanding of compromise, both necessary in a democratic environment.

It requires exceptional leadership and humility to overcome gridlock of bicameral legislature. If the public interest is to be well served, the challenge is to accept the flaw in the present structure and then find an alternative that can work even without exceptional leadership. It is time to admit that the present bicameral structure does not work. The budget fracas has demonstrated yet again the harm of gridlock. The continuing hostility between the two Houses delayed legislation that has stunted the country’s growth. This can only be solved by constitutional reform which the Senate refuses to acknowlege or debate on for more than a year.

If you think the situation is hopeless in the Philippines, be consoled. Here is what Michael Moore said about America in his book Stupid White Men which topped the New York Times bestseller list: "Pardon me if I was dreaming, but weren’t things looking up just a year or so ago? Weren’t we supposed to be living through the largest economic expansion in history? Hadn’t the government ended fifty-five years of operating in the red and finally boasted a ‘cash surplus; large enough to fix every road, bridge and tooth in America? Air and water pollution were at their lowest levels in decades, crime was at a record low, teen pregnancies had dropped out of sight and more kids were graduating from high school and college than ever before. Old people lived longer, you could call Katmandu for 12 cents a minute, and the Internet was bringing all the world (save the two billion or so who live without electricity) closer together…then something happened. Investors lost millions in the stock market, crime went up for the first time in a decade, job losses skyrocketed. American icons like Montgomery Ward and TWA vanished. Suddenly we were 2.5 million barrels short of oil – every day? …By mid-2001, thirty seven countries were at war around the world China became our new enemy – again. The United Nations kicked us off their Human Rights Commission and the European Union attacked us for unilaterally violating the ABM treaty by reintroducing ‘Star Wars’. It was hard, damn hard, to find a good movie; millions stopped watching network television; and every radio station you tuned in sounded the same – like crap. In short, all of a sudden everything sucked. Whether it’s the shaky economy, depleted energy supplies, elusive world peace, no job security, no health care or the simple unusable ballot were given to pick a President, it has become maddeningly clear to most Americans that nothing seems to work. Firestone tires don’t work, and the Ford Explorers that ride atop them don’t work…Freedom of choice is a thing of the past…You can choose between two political parties that sound alike, vote alike and are funded alike by the same exact wealthy donors…"

Letter on FPJ’s citizenship from Ross Tipon: Maternal parentage is self-evident while paternal lineage is implied. That is how I would put it succinctly were I a jurist. Sounds magisterial, mon confreres, like Oliver Wendell Holmes, not an obscure monk that Bernas is apt to quote. Jarius Bondoc quoted Serra vs. Republic a child born out of wedlock "acquires the citizenship of the only legally-known parent, i.e. the mother". This is very logical. This doctrine was cemented in Paa vs. Chan . . . The 1987 Constitution doth read that they are citizens "whose fathers and mothers are citizens of the Philippines." But the term "father" here must be qualified by legal determinacy, that is, legally acceptable reckoning. In the meanwhile that such a question is unsettled the child must, according to our laws, follow the nationality of his mother. Rewriting for Pilar and Jose, Grade Six both of Mabini Elementary School, Baguio City, I would say to them: "Thou art a Filipino if thy parents were married according to our Laws and one of them wast a Filipino. If they were not thus married thou art a citizen of thy Mother’s Lande. But thou knowest not thy Father until proven by the Book that he was thine."Those who cry "unfair" that those children born out of wedlock should be discriminated against are uninformed or fanatics. This is not a case of discrimination.There are laws that confer rights of property succession on children born out of wedlock. Partners who legally marry confer property succession rights on their own offsprings they parented who were born out of wedlock."Fairness" is neither a legal issue nor even a moral one. It is born out of ignorance and inability to grasp the above arguments, which are fair, clear and unmuddled."

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