Congress is courting trouble with the people
ROME – Finally, we are in the Eternal City of Rome and this means the internet is plentiful. The first thing I checked is about the news back home and the 45th anniversary of Martial Law was once again high on the yellow agenda. But I realized that the Martial Law anniversary is nothing but a political statement by the people who are totally opposed to Pres. Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte. Clearly the opposition wants to use the Martial Law anniversary to rattle the Filipino people of the days our democratic processes were denied by the Marcos Dictatorship.
But comparing the Martial Law of the Marcos Dictatorship to the Martial Law of Pres. Duterte would never stick into the consciousness of the Filipino people simply because the four-month occupation of the Maute terror group is a reality that has happened in the City of Marawi, while Martial Law was declared 45 years ago purportedly to prevent the Philippines from becoming one of the dominos to fall into the hands of the Communists.
While the Philippines did not become a Communist State, however 45 years later, Communist Party of the Philippines leader Jose Maria “Joma” Sison still has not given up their struggle to remove our democratic processes and install communism in this country. This is why I voted for Pres. Duterte because I mistakenly believed the communists who are friendly to him would listen to him, lay down their arms and finally talk peace. Unfortunately Pres. Duterte failed in that.
So after the Maute terror group is neutralized, I exhort the Armed Forces of the Philippines to go into a “Shock and Awe” type of military campaign to pulverize the New People Army. This is the doctrine of the late president Ramon Magsaysay who declared in the fight against the Communists: “Find ‘em, fight ‘em, fool ‘em and finish ‘em, then offer them the hand of peace.”
If at all, the late president Corazon Aquino who was the principal beneficiary of the end of Martial Law (and later her son, Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino III) released the jailed Joma Sison without any conditions for peace. In my book, Joma’s release prolonged the struggle of the CPP.Yet 45 years later, the CPP still has only Joma Sison as their recognized leader, not much different from the leadership of the Kims of North Korea.
But with that aside, I say that the bigger news happening in our country is the totally unexpected dismissal of the impeachment complaint against Commission on Elections Chairman Andres Bautista purportedly for insufficiency in form. What the House Committee on Justice did is the greatest injustice that they slapped against the Filipino people when the members of the House Representatives voted 26 to 2. I’m sure many pundits out there believe that there was some kind of quid pro quo by these unscrupulous Congressmen.
Let me point out that the Filipino people had no inkling of the corruption of Bautista until his estranged wife Patricia literally spilled the beans against him. Frankly speaking, we didn’t even know that Bautista’s marriage was on the rocks, nor did we even know the name of his wife. Mind you, the House of Representatives under the direct control of President Aquino approved the impeachment complaint of sitting Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona for suspicion of corruption.
In my book the testimony of his estranged wife, complete with bank records, strengthens our suspicions the Comelec Chairman must have amassed a questionable fortune that needs to be thoroughly investigated. Only through an impeachment complaint in the House of Representatives can we find out whether these allegations against Bautista are fabricated or not.
We have always believed that with Smartmatic involved in our Automated Electronic Systems, there was massive electronic cheating since the 2010, 2013, and 2016 elections. That many opposition candidates against the Liberal Party candidates getting zero votes in precincts that they control is highly questionable and all these would have been spilled into the open during the impeachment complaint against Bautista. If the Plenary also throws out this impeachment complaint, then Congress is courting a real revolution by the Filipino people!
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For email responses to this article, write to vsbobita@ mozcom.com or vsbobita@gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.