THE ABSURDITY CONTINUES

As if the previous post was not enough, here is again a list of highly irregular and/or patently illegal actions the government has been perpetrating in recent weeks:

1. The arrest and botched transfer of Rep. Satur Ocampo to a detention facility in Leyte. What we have witnessed and will continue to witness in the coming days is not the prosecution of the beleaguered representative before the bar of justice but his persecution before a group of heartless, vindictive and arrogant men of power who think that by harrassing the Left, they can get away with their own crimes. I pity both the prosecutor who filed the case and the judge who issued the warrant. I’m pretty sure that the fear of reprisal was what pressured them into doing what they had to do under the circumstances. Just last year, a prosecutor friend confided to me that he was literally scolded by one of the higher-ups in the Department of Justice (you frequently see this guy on TV) for dismissing a complaint for rebellion filed by the military against an activist suspected of being a member of the New People’s Army. I bet the same thing could have happened had these people defied the caprice of the powers that be.

2. Joselito “Peter” Cayetano’s inclusion in the final list of senatoriables. The only reason given by the Comelec Law Department for including Joselito was because he was supposedly nominated by the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL), the political party founded by President Ferdinand Marcos who might resurrect anytime now if only to show his disgust for lawyer Oliver Lozano.

It appears that the once dominant KBL has become a repository of nuisance candidates. Even the late dictator’s son, Bongbong Marcos, has disowned the party’s senatorial line-up, practically calling it an embarrassment to the legacy of his father. How the Comelec arrived at this absurd and incredible conclusion is too obvious to even mention. If we go by their line of reasoning, all other nuisance candidates will not be declared as such so long as they are nominated by an accredited political party, in this case the KBL.

So what if a street vendor who goes by the name “Mike Defensor” is nominated by the Genuine Opposition, will the Comelec uphold the namesake’s candidacy? Nah, I don’t think so.

3. Ang Ladlad nalaglag! While the so-called government party-list “fronts” were given outright accreditation, Danton Remoto’s group was rejected in a rather unceremonious way by the macho men of the Comelec, who may have fears that their sons and grandsons might come out in the open and announce their intimate affiliation with the LGBT group. This is the only rationalization I could think of as to why hunk wannabee Benjamin Abalos, Sr. dismissed the group as not having met the qualifications required of a party-list group under Republic Act 7941. Section 2 of that law however belies this lame excuse offered by Abalos. It reads:

Sec. 2. Declaration of Policy. – The State shall promote proportional representation in the election of representatives to the House of Representatives through a party-list system of registered national, regional and sectoral parties or organizations or coalitions thereof, which will enable Filipino citizens belonging to the marginalized and underrepresented sectors, organizations and parties, and who lack well defined political constituencies but who could contribute to the formulation and enactment of appropriate legislation that will benefit the nation as a whole, to become members of the House of Representatives. Towards this end, the State shall develop and guarantee a full, free and open party system in order to attain the broadest possible representation of party, sectoral or group interests in the House of Representatives by enhancing their chances to compete for and win seats in the legislature, and shall provide the simplest scheme possible.

Is the LGBT community underrepresented? Yes. Not only that, they are likewise being subjected to ridicule by a discriminating society.

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Does the LGBT community lack well-defined political constituencies? Yes, because of the absence of a “traditionally identifiable electoral group, like voters of a congressional district or territorial unit of government”.

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Can the LGBT community contribute to the formulation and enactment of appropriate legislation that will benefit the nation as a whole? But of course! Especially anti-discrimination laws designed to provide equal opportunities for all regardless of sexual preference.

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For a better understanding of what the party-list system is all about, click here.

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4. What? Jovito Palparan cleared of human rights violations in Central Luzon? This is probably the ultimate absurdity of all. No less than the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) fact-finding team has exonerated the retired general of possible criminal culpability to the spate of extrajudicial killings in all his areas of assignment, as it found no concrete evidence linking him to the crimes. Since the said findings will still have to be reviewed by the Commission en banc, we could only hope they live up to the mandate expected of them.

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The butcher must be in high spirits these days ready to take on his role as possible party-list representative of ANAD, the anti-communist “front” organization of the AFP.