The Grandstanding of Senate...

[baron]

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In the past few days, news hound on the detention of PCGG Chairman Sabio at the Senate building. Until now, PCGG Chairman Sabio is still at the GSIS building being detained by Senate authorities. Today, the Supreme Court issued a writ of habeas corpus to Senate for them to bring PCGG Chairman Sabio on the hearing on Sept. 21 and explain why they have to detain the good chairman.

Sometimes, the judiciary has to intervene with the obvious abuse of authority by the Senators who are merely playing up to the cameras. Senators should practice respect and high regard to law, instead of their usual grandstanding just to show that they are powerful enough to detain a person.

[iloveyou4ever]

I think it's about time for the SENATE to get lost. E abolish na ni nga senate NOW before its too late.

In the past few days, news hound on the detention of PCGG Chairman Sabio at the Senate building. Until now, PCGG Chairman Sabio is still at the GSIS building being detained by Senate authorities. Today, the Supreme Court issued a writ of habeas corpus to Senate for them to bring PCGG Chairman Sabio on the hearing on Sept. 21 and explain why they have to detain the good chairman.

Sometimes, the judiciary has to intervene with the obvious abuse of authority by the Senators who are merely playing up to the cameras. Senators should practice respect and high regard to law, instead of their usual grandstanding just to show that they are powerful enough to detain a person.

[budmendz]

Maru kaayo ang mga senatongs kay karon nga baho kaayo sila sa mga tawo because of their own doing kay instead of legislation ilang trabahoon, imbestigasyon naman nuon pirme and the people are getting feed up with them. Karon imong obserbahan morag kada semana duna nay bag-ong bill nga ga pusot pusot ug approbar ang senado. Hapit naman gud election. Mga maru dyud. Pero mas maru ko kay nakamalay ko nila sa ilang mani-obra and that makes me a smart voter. Imbis kaniadto bugo kaayo ko sa pagbotar karon na maru sad nuon ko pareho nila.

[wanderlust]

The Senate should have heeded the demand of the PCGG officials that Sen. Enrile inhibit himself from the proceedings since he was a pioneer incorporator of Philcomsat, and his continued participation in the hearings could prejudice the government's case against former Marcos cronies.

[talsik]

election is getting near, the politicos will find a way to groom themselves in public

[edgeknife]

dili lang mga senate ang mag grand stand, hasta mga congressmen kusog kaayu mag grandstanding.

[angelicax]

kanang Congress inquiry ug grandstanding nila WALA man unta na ba kulang pay "CAMERA" sa hearing mao manang mo gara sila for pogi/pagwuapa points raman na... hehehehe score kaayo c MR GORDON oi....

[baron]

Media exposure indeed.

Sadly, we have to admit that this is one of the reasons why the Senate should be abolished. Instead of doing their legislative work, they are just using their positions to grandstand themselves as senators.

[FK]

In the past few days, news hound on the detention of PCGG Chairman Sabio at the Senate building. Until now, PCGG Chairman Sabio is still at the GSIS building being detained by Senate authorities. Today, the Supreme Court issued a writ of habeas corpus to Senate for them to bring PCGG Chairman Sabio on the hearing on Sept. 21 and explain why they have to detain the good chairman.

good chairman? are we all sure that he is an honest individual? abuse of authority? weren't the good (according to you) chairman been summoned for a number of times, how can it be an abuse of authority when it was well written in our laws that Senate can contempt a person?

PCGG is supposed to be for "GOOD GOVERNANCE" and when you have reports like this...
According to the Ledonios, the Pajero is on top of Christmas and Easter holidays in a luxury Manila hotel, provided by the same sequestered company to the Sabios. should we not be alarmed by this?

good chairman? try to read on this...
http://business.inq7.net/money/colum...ticle_id=21489
by the way... there has been a case against Sabio, and the complainants won initial victory in RTC and Court of Appeals.

[istoryador]

After trip, Arroyo legitimacy sinks in quicksand


By Amando Doronila
Inquirer
Last updated 06:21am (Mla time) 09/18/2006

Published on page A1 of the September 18, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

WHEN President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo arrives today from her mainly European tour, she would have little to report on accomplishments. Domestically, she faces a country in worse turmoil than when she left it 10 days ago.

She will encounter confrontation with the Senate which has detained Camilo Sabio, chair of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCCG), for his arrogant non-cooperation with the chamber in its inquiry into the alleged dissipation of the assets of government-sequestered corporations.

Unfortunately for Sabio, he found to his grief he could not fight the Senate’s arrogance with his. Few public institutions in this so-called democratic society can match the arbitrariness and arrogance of the senators in being abusive on their hapless victims who have been summoned to give evidence, while acting on behalf of the “right of the public to know.”

Senate hearings, to which executive department officials have been summoned, have tended to be a test of strength, although they have been cloaked with the constitutional principle of “separation of powers” within the system of check and balance of co-equal departments. They have their own version of martial law and their ability, as a gang, to bully witnesses is fearsome.

But this confrontation in the Senate is a sideshow to the more critical issues facing the President on her arrival.

Specter of killings

Of all the foreign trips in her presidency so far, nothing is more bereft of concrete benefits, especially economic windfalls, than the one just concluded.

This trip was hounded from the beginning to the end by the specter of human rights violations arising from the extrajudicial execution of between 250 (according to an Inquirer count) and 319 (according to a human rights group’s tally) political activists linked to the legal left since 2001. The figure does not include the 47 journalists killed during the period.

Foreign policy, including presidential state visits, has been a useful function to relieve domestic political pressure and enhance the legitimacy of a government under siege. International goodwill is a critical underpinning for the legitimacy of a regime and helps reinforce it.

No glow from Europe

Thus, when the President left Europe, she was not basking in the glow of international goodwill, especially from the European Union.

The European Union has rather demanding standards on respect for human rights as a cornerstone of democratic polity -- as important as a relatively honest governance and a market-driven and stable economy.

By all standards, Ms Arroyo was found wanting by the Europeans. They were, most of all, concerned about the killings in the Philippines.

Recurring theme

European leaders lost no time in calling the attention of Ms Arroyo to the appalling human rights record of the government. They didn’t ease pressure on her from the time she arrived in Helsinki, where she attended the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).

The Finnish foreign minister, Erikki Toumoija, sounded the keynote of the EU message to her. Speaking at a conference of European NGOs, the minister said the European Union wanted “to see an end to the political killings which still form a harsh reality of that country.”

This theme recurred with increased emphasis as Ms Arroyo attended the ASEM summit and during a round of talks with EU leaders up to the level of the European Commission, the European Union’s highest executive body.

Presidential nightmare

This theme became Ms Arroyo’s nightmare.

The Europeans took her government to task for its accountability, exerting pressure it did not feel in the homeland. They insisted that she stop the killings and use all her executive powers to stop the executions. They were not asking for excuses. They wanted results.

The President was disarmed and shocked by the Europeans’ reaction. She did not expect it and was unprepared for the shock, as indicated by her feeble response -- inviting the European Union to send representatives to Manila to look into the situation and observe the inquiry of the Melo Commission into the killings.

Gilding the lily

The response suggests that Ms Arroyo has underestimated the strength of the Europeans’ concerns. It also suggests that the Philippine diplomatic missions in Europe had not sufficiently impressed on her the seriousness of the issue with the Europeans.

Maybe they did not want to tell Ms Arroyo what she did not like to hear, so they gilded the lily in their dispatches to the home office.

The result was a diplomatic fiasco.

When she flew to Cuba, Ms Arroyo left behind in Europe the shambles of a diplomatic initiative that ended with her international legitimacy impaired among the Philippines’ most important friends among the democracies.