Our heartfelt congratulations to our dear friend, Mr. Erramon “Montxu” Aboitiz, Aboitiz Equities Ventures and AboitizPower President and CEO for bagging the most prestigious Management Man of the Year award for 2011 given by the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP). It is not everyday that one gets this award on top of the Entrepreneur of the Year 2011 Award given by Ernst and Young for his vision, leadership and financial expertise.
While Montxu credits his forebears for giving their generation a firm and solid foundation, he also credits the 30,000 men and women achievers of the Aboitiz group of companies. Perhaps the only negative news we got for this year is the reality that the Aboitiz headquarters would have to be relocated to Manila in the very near future. But wherever they would be, for us, they would always be proudly a Cebuano company. Congrats Montx!
***
There are two groups of people who are asking Supreme Court Justice Renato Corona to quit - the ignorant followers of Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino, III who rallied behind him when he insulted the Chief Justice on his face, and those who have a hidden agenda, who wants to destroy one of the pillars of our democracy, the Judiciary. Either way, if they succeed in destroying the Supreme Court, it is democracy that would be destroyed with it.
This is why I was glad that SC spokesman Midas Marquez and court administrator clearly indicated that SC Chief Corona is not resigning. If Chief Justice Corona resigned, there would be no stopping those blind followers of Pres. PNoy from demanding the rest of the Arroyo appointed Justices of the Supreme Court to also tender their respective resignations. Here in Cebu, Consumer Rights Economic Welfare began a signature campaign to impeach SC Corona and guess who signed it, Arman Perez of Bayan Muna, an allied organization of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
You have to be completely blind not to see where all of this is headed. Like what we said, if the Chief Justice resigns or quits, then there’s no stopping the dominoes from falling and soon, all the Arroyo appointed Justices would also quit … and they will be replaced by … hellooow Aquino appointed Justices! This scenario would unfold if the Supreme Court succumbed to public pressure and give in to their demands.
It’s all elementary to me … that the Executive Branch in this democracy of ours would now reign as the top banana of the government where the other supposedly co-equal branches of the government like the Legislative and Judiciary would now be on the beck and call of Pres. PNoy. This situation is worse than Martial Law because it puts one man in complete control of the Philippine government without being under Martial Law!
If and when this happens, I’m willing to bet that the Cojuangco-Aquino family would ask their lawyers for a motion for recon on the ruling of the Hacienda Luisita and you already know how the Aquino appointed Justices would react to that request by giving in to the powers that be, and once more the Hacienda Luisita would be returned to the Cojuangco family. When this happens, it would lead to a peasant revolt as the farmers would not stand still and accept this deal.
When there is trouble in the streets, you can guess who is the biggest beneficiary of all this … the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) as this is the exact scenario that they want to see happen in this country. So if you folks want to preserve our democracy you better wake up to the current reality that our democracy is in peril.
As my good friend, ANAD Partylist Congressman Pastor Alcover questions the President, “Why is President Aquino III so robustly hitting at his co-equal branch but damningly silent when more than 40 military soldiers were treacherously killed in Al Barka, Basilan and in Zamboanga Sibugay; and in giving grants of P 5 million to the MILF and P31 million to the Alex Boncayao Brigade (ABB)?” I also asked this question in many columns past, but we only got an eerie silence from the Palace Rasputins of Pres. PNoy.
Pres. PNoy lambasts the SC for blocking his reforms, like the Truth Commission, but in the end what we would like to hear is what reforms is he talking about? A Truth Commission is not a reform at all; rather it is akin to a Kangaroo court under the Office of the President.
Just imagine people are already saying that Pres. Aquino’s pursuit against former President and now Congresswoman Arroyo is nothing but vengeance. How much more if he had the Truth Commission under his total control? Today we are still looking for the reforms that Pres. Aquino has promised, but he is falling short on these promises and he can only blame himself for not allowing reforms through charter changes to proceed.
***
Email: vsbobita@mozcom.com