Pacquiao rebuffs Trillanes

Batas Mauricio

IT is indeed true that there is nothing in this world where we live in that happens by chance. Everything happens according to the will of He who created us all, our God and Savior whose Name is Jesus. There is no accident in anything in our lives. There is a reason for everything.

And the same thing is true, even in the case of the election of a world class boxer like Manny Pacquiao as a senator of the Republic. We do not wish to sound like we are denigrating anyone, but who would have ever thought that even if Pacquiao failed to finish any formal education, he has become very capable of contributing important points in the deliberations at the Senate?

This was what he showed on Thursday during the continuation of the Senate hearing on the P6.4 billion shabu smuggling at the Bureau of Customs, where a fellow senator of his, Mr. Antonio Trillanes IV, tried to connect Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte with the Chinese Triad, the dreaded syndicate dealing on drugs and crime from Hong Kong and China.

How did Trillanes try to connect Paolo (or Pulong) to the Chinese Triad? He asked Paolo if he, Paolo, has a tattoo on his back. When the vice mayor answered, yes, he has a tattoo in his back, the senator urged him to show the tattoo, so a picture could be taken of it and then forwarded to the US for examination.

According to Trillanes, the tattoo in Paolo’s back is the kind of tattoo that members of the Chinese Triad adorn themselves with. Fortunately, Paolo did not agree to show his tattoo. The fact is that, it is clear there is no evidence from the lawmaker that could truly connect the vice mayor with the Chinese Triad, and that the fuzz he raised over the tattoo was just some sort of a fishing expedition.

Then, it is also clear that there is nothing under the 1987 Constitution and other existing laws in the country that could compel anyone, especially the likes of Paolo, to produce from his own person or body any evidence that may incriminate him in any way. This is called the right against self-incrimination, or the right not to be compelled to testify or produce evidence against one’s self.

After that, Trillanes brought out pictures of Paolo showing him posing with some Chinese businessmen. Trillanes was saying these businessmen are linked with the trading of illegal drugs in the country, and because Paolo was pictured with those Chinese businessmen, Paolo should necessarily be involved in drugs, too.

To anyone who has a clear mind (even if he or she is not a lawyer), pictures cannot be used as an evidence to prove that those who are reflected therein actually are aware of (or have consented to) the activities of the persons who are with them in the pictures, especially if these activities violate the law, as pointed out by Pacquiao.

In the Philippines, there is no such thing as “guilt by association,” using pictures alone, as what Trillanes attempted to do on Thursday. It was a good thing Pacquiao had the sense to point out this obvious truth by his own questioning of the persons who appeared with Paolo in the pictures. Indeed, one cannot conclude that persons posing together in one picture know or are aware what the others are engaged in.

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If a survey is to be made among Filipinos today whether they believe the accusations that Caloocan City policemen killed 17 year-old Kian Loyd Delos Santos, the sure answer would be that, yes, a great number of our countrymen believe the police murdered Kian.

This belief would not only be because of the witnesses who have come out and have implicated the policemen in Kian’s killing, but more because members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) nowadays are widely perceived to be rouges and criminals masquerading as law enforcement officers.

Indeed, in many of the gruesome crimes that have taken place in the midst of Filipinos lately, policemen were either involved as direct participants who committed the crimes themselves, or were behind the crimes either as masterminds or instigators of the assassins and the thieves. O my dear God, what is happening to our policemen now?

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There is a new study in the United States today regarding a type of drug that is said to delay the onset of aging or old age of man. Doctors from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, USA, are calling this drug the “senolytic drug”.

The initial results of this study was published by them in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society on Monday, and was led by Dr. James Kirkland, the director of the Kogod Aging Center in Mayo Clinic. According to Kirkland, his team is now testing the “senolytic drug” among mice.

Because of the evident good effects of the “senolytic drug” on mice, Dr. Kirkland and his group are now preparing to test the drug on humans. According to their initial findings, the “senolytic drug” in effect revitalizes or revives and strenghtens aging or damaged cells in the body of a person. As a consequence, illnesses usually associated with old age, such as diabetes, carviovascular disease, cancer, dementia, arthritis, osteoporosis and blindness, are avoided or cured.

I hope that this “senolytic drug” will have beneficial effects on humans, so that all of us can enjoy longer and more beneficial and enjoyable lives. However, is it not a fact that the life of a human being is measured only until the age of 70 and that any additional years would simply be a gift from God? Would not God get angry if life is extended because of artificial means?

Anyway, there have been pieces of sound advice long given to us to lengthen our lives, even if we do not use drugs like the “senolytic drug”. One of these advices tells us that man will renew his strength, if he trusts in, and obeys, God–they will soar like eagles, and they would walk and run and not be weary.

Too, if everytime we eat and drink we will remember that what we eat and drink would be the body and blood of Jesus–which He gave to us to pay for our sinfulness–ailments and diseases will avoid us so that we will have more days in our lives. Let’s do all of these and good health and long life will surely surround us.

E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo.com