Page 39 - Hello Philippines December 2015 'B' ISSUE

December 2015 / Fortnightly – No. 24 • UK & Europe Edition
MEL STA. MARIA
Dangerously tinkering with the Constitution on election issues
ATTY. Mel Sta. Maria is the resident
legal analyst of TV5. He is also Dean of possibility – an example is Dictator
the Far Eastern University Institute of
Law.
Two important cases will be decided
by the Supreme Court: the “NO BIO,
NO BOTO” case and the “Senator
Grace Poe Natural-Citizenship” case.
At the center is the Constitution – the
fundamental law of the land. The
Supreme Court has the heavy burden
of correctly interpreting it when
conflicts arise.
“Correctly” – that is the operative
word. The Supreme Court is made up
of fallible human beings, like all of
us, who can be influenced by politics,
convenience, alliances and, yes, wrong
logic and faulty research. It can be
terribly wrong. And if this happens, it
can usher in the most unconstitutional
period in our nation’s history, which,
in turn, can be politically disastrous
affecting our own lives. We need
Quiapo fire scene along Recto Avenue. Photographed by Angel Santos.
Cops find shabu, grenade in teacher’s house
LEGAZPI CITY – Members
of the Sipocot Municipal Police
Station (SMPS) arrested a public
school teacher who they caught in
possession of illegal drug and a hand
grenade at about 6:15 a.m. Friday
at Zone 2, Barangay Tara, Sipocot,
Camarines Sur.
Apprehended was Gil Antonio S.
Camu, 39, married and a resident
of Zone 2, Barangay Tara, Sipocot,
Camarines Sur.
The SMPS operatives, led by
Chief Insp. Jerome L. Regachuelo,
SMPS assistant chief of police,
implemented Search Warrant No.
2015-33 for violation of Republic Act
9165 and RA 10591 issued by Judge
Irma Isidora M. Boncodin-Zamudio,
executive/presiding judge of Regioal
Trial Court Branch 57 in Libamanan,
Camarines Sur dated Dec. 7, 2015 at
the premises/house of suspect.
During the search, they found
from Camu’s bedroom nine pieces
of heat-sealed and unsealed
transparent plastic sachets
containing undetermined amount
of white crystalline substance
suspected as shabu and shabu
not go far in our history to prove this
Ferdinand Marcos’ repressive regime
which was legitimized by the Supreme
Court in 1973. The country dearly paid
for it.
The first case involves the “NO
BIO, NO BOTO” issue. At stake is our
right to vote – our most powerful tool
as a citizen to create a government.
Under Section 7 of Republic Act
10367, registered voters who do not
have themselves validated through
biometrics - meaning, a process where
their digital signature, fingerprint and
photograph are obtained for purposes
of identification - will be “deactivated” an instrinsically void ab inito
as a voter.
This is a horrible law which,
undemocratically enough, is designed
to prevent a citizen, not from doing
something wrong, but from exercising
a good and necessary right – the right
to vote. And we are not even talking
residues, two rolled aluminum
foils containing suspected shabu
residues, and one hand grenade.
Inside a black Toyota Corolla
car, the SMPS officers recovered
12 pieces of unsealed and heat-
sealed transparent plastic sachets
containing undetermined amount of
suspected shabu and shabu residues,
three improvised tooters (glass
pipe tubes), five rolled aluminum
foils containing suspected shabu
NEWS
of merely hundreds of qualified and
registered voters to be disenfranchised,
but millions of them.
Arguments will be raised justifying
the law. For example, more than
enough time was given to registered
voters to validate themselves through
biometrics, but they did not do so.
Hence it is right to “deactivate” them as that “suffrage may be exercised by
a penalty for their laziness, negligence, all citizens.” Reference-point is on the
and apathy. Also , the law is designed to citizen - meaning that the option to vote , one’s father or mother must be a
ferret out unscrupulous flying or ghost
voters. Likewise , it is time to make the citizenry and is not a privilege granted
list of voters up-to-date.
All these reasons cannot validate
unconstitutional law. Negligence,
laziness, apathy and omission of the
citizenry cannot cure the defect of a
fundamentally flawed policy. Also,
curving the attempt of hundreds of
illegitimate flying voters is good, but
how about the millions of legitimate
registered voters who will be turned-
away from the polling places? I
do believe that, of the millions of
registered voters to be deprived of
their right to vote for failure to be
validated by biometrics, there will be
more good men and women than the
evil ones. Their freedom to choose will
be illegitimately sacrificed for the sake our liberty to make a choice. Allow
of government-convenience and, in a
democracy where the majority rules,
that can spell the winning-difference.
Section 1 Article 5 of the 1987
Constitution provides that “suffrage
may be exercised by all citizens of the
Philippines, not otherwise disqualified
by law, who are at least eighteen years
of age, and who shall have resided
residues, one digital weighing scale,
five disposable sterile syringes, and
10 unsealed/empty plastic sachets
used in repacking shabu.
The law enforcers made the
search in the presence of barangay
kagawad Merla M. Flores of Barangay
Tara and media practitioner Sonny
G. Basa Jr. of RMN-dwNX Naga City.
Camu is now in police custody for
appropriate charges. n PNA / December 13, Spring Plaza Hotel where he had been
2015 / 7:00 am
in the Philippines for at least one
year and in the place wherein they
propose to vote, for at least six months
immediately preceding the election. No
literacy, property, or other substantive
requirement shall be imposed on the
exercise of suffrage.”
The Constitution is clear. It says
or not to vote belongs principally to the Filipino citizen. Considering that the
by the government. The citizen’s right
to vote cannot be negated by the failure
or omission by the citizens in complying
with an additional government-created
“substantive requirement” –validation
through biometrics. That is repulsive
to the Constitution. The obsession
at efficiency by government in the
election process must not sacrifice its
more overriding purpose – to know,
recognize and count the true will of
the majority.
“NO BIO NO BOTO” bankrupts our
electoral process. And if the Supreme
Court is truly the protector of our
constitutional rights, it must protect
us by stopping the government from
unduly intruding into and infringing
the registered voters, validated by
biometrics or not, to elect their leaders not susceptible of any extrapolation,
come May 2016. The COMELEC
must be restrained from enforcing
this disenfranchising law. As Patrick
Henry said: “The Constitution is not
an instrument for the government to
restrain the people, it is an instrument
for the people to restrain the
Primary suspect in Enzo
Pastor murder captured
AFTER more than a year running
from the law, one of the primary
suspects in the killing of race car
driver Enzo Pastor was finally
arrested late Thursday in a hotel in
Dasmarinas, Cavite by operatives of
the National Bureau of Investigation.
After months of surveillance, NBI
agents captured Domingo “Sandy”
de Guzman at around 7 p.m. at the
billeted since October 28.
According to the hotel’s records,
de Guzman had checked into the hotel
using two aliases -- Dennis Gregorio
and Marie Antonette Gregorio.
The NBI agents needed to ask for a
duplicate key from the hotel because
he refused to open his room’s door.
When the agents finally entered
the room, the suspect only stood at
the door and did not resist arrest,
voluntarily surrendering to the
operatives.
He was brought to the NBI
headquarters at about 9 p.m.
He declined to give any comment
about Dahlia Pastor, his girlfriend
and former wife of Enzo, saying that
www.hello-philippines.com 37
government – lest it come to dominate
our lives and interests.”
The next controversy that will
reach the Supreme Court is the Grace-
Poe-Natural-Citizen issue. Here, the
Supreme Court must truly speak
with the authority of the law. What is
that law? It is again the Constitution
unequivocally and narrowly providing
that, to be a natural born citizen
controversy involves Senator Grace Poe
who received the highest number of
senatorial votes in the 2013 elections,
there will be a great temptation of
politicizing the issue just like what
the Senator-judges in the Senator
Electoral Tribunal (SET) did. And that
is dangerous.
The case involves a purely legal
issue. It must be decided as such.
Whether or not it will be resolved in
favor of Senator Grace Poe, the spirit
and letter of the law must prevail.
There should be no other controlling
consideration other than the command
of the Constitution – no attempt at
adding anything to what the people
ratified as their fundamental law in
1987 – that, to be a natural born Filipino,
the father or the mother must be a
Filipino. That is a precise requirement
insertions or dilutions from any other
laws, domestic or international. As
Abraham Lincoln said : “Don’t interfere
with anything in the Constitution. That
must be maintained, for it is the only
safeguard of our liberties.” n Mel Sta.Maria /
December 12, 2015 / 3:11 pm
Domingo “Sandy” de Guzman, the primary
suspect in the killing of race car driver Enzo
Pastor, is seen at the NBI headquarters after his
capture Dec. 3, 2015. TV5 Screenshot
he had to wait for his lawyer before
answering everything.
Tom Pastor, Enzo’s father,
expressed relief that de Guzman
has been captured, adding that the
suspect can now be subjected to
inquest proceedings for the murder
of his son.
He appealed to Dahlia to return
to the country instead of being
extradited.
He vowed that he will not stop to
seek justice for his son’s death. n Kaye
Imson / News5 / December 3, 2015 / 11:34 pm