….suffer fools gladly
Now into its second week, the impeachment trial unravels. One side tries to sneak in proofs while the other filibusters to block them. It is the cat-and-mouse that amuses the gallery. The judges try mightily to look competent to handling the trial of the decade. There is the presiding officer who brushes up on his...
“Party, Karamu, Fiesta, Forever”
part 1… overheard from the Defense Table…“You can educate a fool, but you cannot make him think”….The Talmud overheard from the Prosecutors’ Table….“Doubt cannot override a certainty”….The Talmud overheard from the Judges’ Gallery….“If silence be good for the wise, how much better for fools”…. The Talmud overheard from the Audience’s Gallery….”anong 45 titles ang...
STOOGE
Before he plunged into politics, Edcel Lagman was an excellent litigator. His old law firm was the Romero Lagman Chato Torres and Pasamba which held fort at the old Rada Building in Legaspi Village. Mike Romero of Lakas ng Demokratikong Pilipino and former representative of Negros was a partner. Willy Chato, the better half of...
A Writ of Amparo
"To date or seven (7) months thereafter notwithstanding various efforts on the part of the herein petitioner and relatives, even Melissa Balaston Prudencio and his mother Felisa Perpeñian Balaston the whereabouts of Felix Balaston is uncertain on account of enforced disappearance caused by respondents and therefore by the privilege of Writ of Amparo , the...
WHY RUBY TALAGA IS DQd
"Under legal principles, by the contract of marriage, a man and a woman enter a joint life, acting, living and working as one. Whether under the common law or under the civil law, upon marriage the husband and the wife become one single moral, spiritual and social being, not only for purposes of procreation but...
SLEEPLESS IN NORTH FORBES
The worst nightmare the old man doesn’t want to be visited by has finally caught him up and is finally coming true. It all happened at the Makati New World Hotel on the first week of August right on the heels of a surprise repeal of a local legislation granting both the governor and his...
BREAKING UP?, part two
A SUAREZ CONVERT With Danny Suarez as Assistant Minority Floor Leader, he has no choice but to go along with the unpleasant sniping of his partner, Edcel Lagman. Deep in his guts, he wants to fly inside the cocoon of President Aquino. That is what he is good at: a political survivor. But the President’s...
BREAKING UP?, part one
THE BIG BOSS DOES IT AGAIN Danny Suarez has made it known to all his friends that his long stint in Congress should never be ignored any longer. Of course, his main agenda in running for the vacated district of his patron Benny Marquez was to enhance his business interests. He was committed at that...
stories in my head, part five
It was twenty years ago to the day when I met a petite kayumangging kaligatan skinny lady no more than twenty years old. Her voice was raspy and sounded inconsequential. She was in the company of the formidable Jun Mendeja of 999 am radio. While I was in a huddle with the sideburned Mendeja, the...
“DEATH, BE NOT PROUD”
Death be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so, For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow, Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me. From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee, Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow, And soonest...
stories in my head, part four
The first time I saw him was when he dislodged himself from his red 1996 Pajero with the imposing façade of the Manila Hotel as backdrop. It was a chance encounter as I was in the company of the gubernatorial hopeful Robert Racelis whom I was supposed to meet at the Manila City hall. We...
HOW TO AVERT ANOTHER PRESIDENTIAL EMBARASSMENT
On February 8, 2011, the Province of Quezon is poised in auctioning off the entire Pagbilao power plant currently owned by TeamEnergy for failure to pay an accumulated Real Property Taxes in the amount of Php 6B since its commissioning in 1995. National Power Corporation’s task in selling the power produced, however, is assumed...