Double dealing

Batas Mauricio

THE truth must be told about the ouster of Liberal Party senators from their chairmanship of various committees in the Senate. That was a collective decision of their colleagues, and not just of Sen. Manny Pacquiao. The majority senators who decided to kick out the LP senators from their privileged posts decided it was time to draw the line.

After all, the senators allied with President Duterte have been accurate in their perception that the legislative agenda of the first Philippine president from Mindanao is being stymied by the dilly-dallying, if not outright obstructionist moves, of senators who have been pretending to be pro-Duterte too but who, in reality, wanted Duterte to fail, at the very least.

And no, it was not just because of their presence at the 31st Edsa power grab commemoration on Feb. 25, 2017 that triggered their ouster, as LP Sen. Bam Aquino tried to project irresponsibly. It was because of their double-dealing–of pretending to be supporters of the Duterte government while they have been actively plotting its ignominious downfall all along–that did them in.

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The 31st commemoration of the first Edsa power grab Saturday will forever haunt the Filipino nation. The activities that marked that 1986 event 31 years after it happened clearly showed that those who supported–and who continue to support–the forces that toppled President Marcos from power truly constituted only a minority of Filipinos, or are continuing to dwindle in numbers.

Too, the 31st year commemoration of Edsa 1 marked the first year that Filipinos dared to come out and collectively express their rejection of the people and the machinations behind the so-called Edsa “people power revolution”, and to demonstrate instead their unwavering support for a leader–President Duterte–who has nothing but contempt for Edsa.

Consider this: media reports say that early in the afternoon of Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017, while there were already around 15,000 people massing up at the pro-Duterte rally at the Luneta Park in Manila, there were just around 2,000 or so people that had gathered at the EDSA People Power monument in Quezon City.

And while around a million pro-Duterte supporters were recorded as having gathered in Manila as night descended over Manila Bay, the pro-Edsa rallyists managed to muster only about 5,000 (or even lesser) attendees in Quezon City.

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I am sharing here some parts of an Internet post over the public statements of Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III barring policemen or any other law enforcement authorities from entering the Senate halls to effect the arrest of Sen. Leila de Lima, citing an “unwritten rule” that senators must not be arrested while they are inside the Senate building.

The post, appearing to have been written by one Mark Lopez, was entitled “Enemy of the State.” Its full version can be accessed at (http://www.filipinewsph.com/2017/02/ust-alumnus-to-koko-you-are-enemy-of-state.html#) at it says in part: “There is collective outrage, and it is seething to the core, when we are directly and blatantly assaulted by the arrogance, conceit, self importance and egotism of legislators.

“Yes Mr Pimentel, we are indignant, we are appalled, and we are repulsed when you recklessly and wantonly invoke your non existent privilege. We are sickened by your waving of your institution’s false sense of power, and we are dismayed that you think that it is a birth right or the advantage that goes with the office.

“Your disabused notion of your standing in the hierarchy of society is what makes this country terribly sick. Your contrived images of `honorable’ and `distinguished’ have long been diminished by the shameful and most often, criminal acts and machinations of your cohorts.

“Ever since your institution was revived 30 years ago, we can proverbially count with our fingers its significant contribution to nation building. In fact, if we look at how messed up our country is right now, how damaged, how fractured, how inequitable and how unfair the common citizen has been governed, the Senate has a large imprint on this wreck…” ‘

I hope Koko responds to this!

E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo.com