By Ade S. Fajardo On Valentine’s Day, lawyer Catalino Gerenillo, Jr. filed a petition for mandamus with the Supreme Court seeking a writ to compel the Senate to proceed “forthwith” with the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte. The petitioner cites Article 11, Section 3.1 of the Constitution which states that “in case the …
Come To Think Of It
Should Sara resign?
By Ade S. Fajardo The Senate has given Vice President Sara Duterte some sort of a breather by not immediately convening as a trial court to hear the articles of impeachment leveled against her by the House of Representatives. This affords substantial time to prepare her answer, much more than the limited period stipulated in …
Executive time for a junket operator
By Ade S. Fajardo Senators are very busy people. Their hands are full complying with the constitutional mandate to legislate. They are also politicians who hobnob with people day in and day out. Time is easily lost to meetings and public functions, oftentimes at the expense of family and friends. One may say a senator’s …
Will mining benefit Antique?
By Ade S. Fajardo What will it mean for the people of Antique when 7,000 hectares of contiguous mountains in southern Antique are declared a mineral reservation area? The Philippine Mining Act allows the director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau to recommend to the President the establishment of mineral reservations “when the national interest …
Hypocrisy in drug war
By Ade S. Fajardo The House of Representatives quadruple committees investigating the Duterte war on drugs will reportedly reconvene today. Congress will probe further into the drug smuggling activities that were allowed during the previous administration, and hopefully uncover the sheer hypocrisy beneath its law-and-order platform that resulted in tens of thousands of mindless …
Politicians warned against illegal use of jingle melodies
By Ade S. Fajardo Politicians have started airing campaign jingles whose melodies are familiar and easy to follow. The familiar tunes are copied from the popular work of artists who worked on them using their intellect and emotions, and obviously without politicians in mind. There would be no problem if the campaign jingle is composed …
Identity theft?
By Ade S. Fajardo Documents seen online seem to indicate that current Senate frontrunner Erwin Tulfo may have falsely represented himself as an American citizen after assuming the identity of one Erich Sylvester Tulfo. A letter purportedly emanating from the US embassy concluded that Tulfo obtained a US birth certificate by “fraudulent means” because it …
Lessons learned from Marikina disqualification case?
By Ade S. Fajardo The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has canceled the certificate of candidacy filed by Marikina City Mayor Marcelino Teodoro who now aspires to be congressman representing the city’s first district. The poll body ruled that Teodoro misrepresented his place of residence when he said he has transferred his residence back to a …
What Digong forgot
By Ade S. Fajardo Several columns ago, we mentioned that there exists a law that mirrors the provisions of the Rome Statute. In December 2009, the Philippines enacted Republic Act 9851, otherwise known as “the Philippine act on crimes against international humanitarian law, genocide and other crimes against humanity.” It anticipated the possibility that the …
Enough time for Senate to render judgment?
By Ade S. Fajardo As this is being written, the Makabayan bloc at the House of Representatives is said to be in a race to convince at least 106 signatories to the impeachment complaint it submitted to the secretary general last week to unseat Vice President Sara Duterte. The target date to complete the signatures …