Mainly Mita

I was just watching the ongoing hearings at the Philippine Senate on the controversial, now-scrapped National Broadband Network (NBN) deal which has been going on since the start of the year.  Maybe I shouldn’t be watching it too often.  This whole mess is depressing enough but when you actually see the live circus as it happens…oh boy, give me more of those headache pills….or maybe a Vicodin.

The hearings are broadcast live by the ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) and in part by the competition,  QTV11.  I call QTV11 the competition because I was once worked for the ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. and somehow can’t get over that network war thing out of my system.

Anyway….there it was, the Senate hearing.  This time I didn’t watch it to the end.  There’s so much etcetera that goes into these hearings.  There are some senators who don’t seem to understand that their role here is investigative.  To get to the bottom of controversial issues of the day that affect the whole country, they have to ask the right questions, they have to ask the relevant questions.

If they don’t get the answers they want, they accuse the witness of being partial to certain senators.  DUH.  Ask the relevant questions or perhaps, don’t cut off the witness and pretend not to see his raised hand then maybe you’ll get the answer you want.

If you can’t tell by this time that all these senators are interested in is a good and entertaining performance, one aimed for maximum recall…you’re probably not watching the hearings.

Somehow, in the course of this questioning, there’s one or two or three senators passing judgment on a witness because they didn’t like his answer.  Then there are senators who will insert catch phrases of the day and make a disparaging comment, or two or three even,  about this or that government official.

Is anyone in the Senate staff doing the nitty-gritty, dirty work of sifting through documents, crunching the numbers or bringing in third party experts to give unbiased opinions, or following the money trail or checking phone records…or anything at all that could shed real light on the very serious allegations brought forth by the witnesses they summoned?   I mean…seriously!

To make things worse, during the course of  a 10-hour hearing, the cameras catch all the smirking, giggling and cellphone picture taking of the people in the gallery or the staff members behind the honorable senators and there’s all these  people passing right in front of the cameras.   Oh, and let’s not forget the waiters serving food while the grilling is going on!  Apparently, it’s not THAT kind of grilling….

Seriously, does the Senate expect us to take them and everything that comes from that “august” body seriously?

The other day,  my husband was writing a post on inheritance for his Philfaqs blog.  He turned to me and asked if I knew how crazy the law was. He explained and it gave me a headache. Read what he wrote and if it doesn’t make your head spin, let me know.

This is just one example of how protectionist Philippine laws are. When you enter into a marriage, I doubt majority of us ever think of these things. When I was married  in the US, I didn’t even think about these things.  In the Philippines, if you are an alien who has invested your life savings in Philippine property you can get very badly screwed if your Filipino spouse dies and your children are all non-Filipinos.  My poor husband will be left with hardly anything if I died before he did!

My little conversation with the Spouse made me remember something I wanted to write for this blog. I always wanted to look up the 1987 Constitution and see what needs changing. So I looked it up and looked at the Family and Revised Penal Codes too.  Gee, the laws for the family are so strong, but so anti-women! And our adultery law says that women who have carnal knowledge with men other than her husband is guilty of adultery, get this, even AFTER her marriage is declared void.  For men?  Oh, it doesn’t matter if he has all the carnal knowledge with any woman any day - so long as he doesn’t “cohabit” with the woman, he’s fine!

And what is the beef with illegitimate children? I’d feel so marginalized I’d start a party list group for illegitimate offspring so they would have representation in Congress!

I’ve made an initial list of amendments I personally feel the Constitution needs, including a complete shift since this form of government doesn’t work for us. Perhaps I’ll come up with more, but for now, this is the list:

A shift to a Federation of States with four states, namely: Luzon, Bicol, Visayas and Mindanao. Each state will have its own set of laws and local government headed by the governor, who are elected by the people.

Parliamentary form of government headed by a Prime Minister duly elected by the Upper and Lower House from within their ranks. The Head of State is the President. The Presidency will be occupied by each state in rotation every 10 years. States will elect their own candidate.

Lower House representatives will number 250 and will come from the different provincial districts and party lists duly accredited by the federal election body. These representatives will carry 5- year terms, with no term limits. The Upper House will be composed of 25 members proportionately representing the 4 states.

Enactment of a Federal Election Law that will cover not only the conduct of federal elections but campaign funding provisions as well. There should be a provision for public funding of campaigns to limit patronage politics.

Abolition of the Commission on Election and replacing with a federal regulatory body that will oversee election and campaign laws. Adoption of an electoral college with electors coming from and appointed by the dominant, national parties. Electors cannot be in public office. The electoral college will strengthen the 2-party system and should be adopted until such time when the political party system has strengthened. The electoral college will also be tasked with affirming the qualification of candidates.

Separation of Church and State shall be inviolable. This text should be included: “There shall be no interference whatsoever of the sacred religious feelings in State affairs and policies.”

Reference to the spiritual development of the youth should be removed. This is not the duty of the state.

Dissolution and review of the current Civil, Family and Penal Codes. A new law should be drafted that will allow divorce, allow more equality for women, alien spouses and illegitimate children. Adultery and concubinage should be decriminalized or even scrapped altogether.  Sex between consenting adults, no matter the civil status of the adults,  is a personal matter and the state should not get involved in it.

The law on inheritance should be reviewed and made more equitable for illegitimate children and alien spouses.

Just another day in the Philippines last November 29…and another failed coup at another 5-star establishment….

We really have to change the title of this post to “A Failure of Imagination at the Pen” …don’t you think?

It was Mother’s Day in the Philippines yesterday.  My husband and I hosted lunch at our place for my mother and invited my 3 sisters and my one brother and their families.  I think my mom was happy.  She’s not all very well now that diabetes has weakened her.  Oh, she’s still feisty….but not as feisty as we always remembered her.

Yesterday, glimpses of her old self came back while she was talking religion with the Eldest Nephew.  She’s not very happy with all the new ideas people have about faith, especially not about discussing it in family gatherings.  But I also saw her smile a happy, contented smile a few times during the day and that made all the work worth it.

Speaking of the Eldest Nephew, he turned a whopping 25 earlier this year.  It’s been an eventful year so far for him.  He decided on a career change.  He made his first out of the country business trip.  Then he and his girl of a couple of years, his first serious relationship, decided to call it quits.   All these developments leave a lump in my throat because I will always see my nephews and nieces when they were little babies and kids.  Oh how our family enjoyed them during those early years!

Now that the older ones are adults, it also a pleasure watching them weave through the tangled web that life is.  It’s greater still to listen to them when they express their opinions about adult issues like religion and faith, politics, the economy, career choices, marriage and relationships.

Eldest Nephew was just telling us about his and his old childhood buddies’ recent get-togethers and all the things they discussed.  This group of some 10-12 single, 25-year old young professionals are now shifting their talks from basketball cards, girls and partying to politics, business and  “grown-up” issues.

As far as politics goes, they were not looking at politics with an eye on the personalities but on issues and voting with their conscience with a focus on the future.  Just one of them still had his eye on a personality and their discussion got long and winded because of this guy’s rabid sentiments.

The Philippines is having the 2007 mid-term elections today, you see.  There’s still a lot of election-related violence everywhere in the country.  The system of electing our officials is still antiquated and prone to all sorts of anomalies.  And the saddest part is, the majority of our people are still focused on personality-based politics and not the issues.
But in Eldest Nephew’s group, 1 out of 12 focusing on the wrong issue is not bad at all I have to say.  There’s a bright future for the country - still.

I’m voting in this mid-term election in November.  It will be my first time to cast a ballot in this country and I’m taking my vote seriously - just as I did in 1986 when I first voted back in the Philippines.

Those who have visited my blog in the past might recall my travails with the INS regarding my N400 application.  The day finally arrived when I did the citizenship interview.  I correctly answered all the 10 questions about US history and government the immigration officer asked, did the reading and writing exam and was congratulated for passing the rigorous process that guaranteed me the precious right to vote in my adoptive country. (more…)