
A colossal calamity
The government’s announced plan to oust itself through a revolutionary government will presumably use a new set of laws against the law as we know it in order to assume powers beyond the limits defined by the Constitution.
The government’s announced plan to oust itself through a revolutionary government will presumably use a new set of laws against the law as we know it in order to assume powers beyond the limits defined by the Constitution.
In 1972, when Marcos proclaimed martial law in order to combat the raging communist insurgency, the government closed down ABS-CBN and the rest of the media. At the time I was the minister of information and had to defend the action of the State as a necessary component of martial law, and by assuring the affected parties it was a temporary emergency measure. Indeed, it was, and eventually the media were allowed to resume operations. But did that interregnum benefit the State more than it cost us our democratic equilibrium? That was the ultimate question we had to answer to this very day.
Kit Tatad: “I could not agree that the runaway traffic of Chinese arrivals from mainland China, now said to number 3.8 million, portended a future invasion; I was inclined to consider it already as the invasion.”
Senate concurrence is needed when the President ratifies a treaty, but the Senate need not be consulted if and when the President terminates it.
The stability of our security ties with the world’s lone superpower will now depend on whether there is a US visa on Senator Bato’s passport. Our highest national security interests would have become hostage to Bato’s ability to travel to the US. I cannot imagine a worse trivialization of government.