OFFBEAT MAIL

Why can't Congress, especially the Senate, get the respect it deserves from the Executive Branch of government? And it seemed the former is most often ignored, particularly when it comes to public hearings involving government officials. Despite everybody's knowledge that all three have branches of government, patterned that after the United States, have equal sharing of recognation and powers as mandated in the country's Constitution, this doesn't give much bearing except when it comes to exposes and revelations by those who were called to give their testimonies under oath. When it comes to the arresting power of Congress, nobody seems to be intiminated and this mandate is taken lightly even by those who are supposed to recognize it. Take, for example, the case of the failed attempt by members of the Senate arresting team sent to track down Jun Lozada as he landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay City, Philippines. If their presence had earned the re...

In my previous article, I mentioned the hassles that professional nurses have to experience if only to gain the required certifications necessary to get ahead with their future plans and ambitions in life. And their harrowing experiences do not end after graduation or passing the licensure examination in the Philippines, or the CGFNS or the NCLEX for those who wanted to practice their profession in America. From what I learned, some hospitals are making it doubly difficult for new nurses (those who already passed the PRC examination) to attend health-related seminars and workshops, especially for those who wanted to apply for jobs in the local hospitals in the country. Unless, one has a certification that shows he attended seminars like infection control, maternal and child health, and the most important, the seminar on how to administer injectable instruments to patients which they call I.V. seminar. The irony is that this IV certification is now required from all nurse applicant...

With President Arroyo's scrapping of Executive Order 464, public officials and employees have now the prerogative to expose the shenigans and other illegal transactions in government, if only to bare the truth. But there is one thing more that bothers many people these days, even if EO 464 is dead. This is Malacanang Memorandum Circular No. 108, whose content is almost similar to that of EO 464. Unless this circular is scrapped, the Palace can still hound government officials and employees who have knowledge of any wrong doings in government offices. It is hard to understand why the president has cancelled EO 464 only now. After series of rallies and protests from disgruntled civil society groups, she finally relented. But reports said she succumbed to the pressures of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), whose members recently met with the president and ranking cabinet officials in an exclusive place in an effort to iron out the kinks that surround the said o...

Millions of Filipinos are on the sideline, waiting for the outcome of the five demands that former senior government officials asked President Arroyo to do. And perhaps, this is a lithmus test that will, once and for all, show the present administration's sincerity in dealing with the present challenges that lurk behind her embattled leadership. Perhaps, what the president can do is just to make an announcement right now that she is willing to scrap Executive Order 464, which was misconstrued by the civil society groups as an armor to shield the government's image from being eroded further. With all these shanigans in government under close public scrutiny, there is no doubt that the people themselves will be fuming with anger in secrecy. This is dangerous in the sense that when the people's sentiments can no longer be contained, that's the end of it all. Well, the only thing that needs to be tested is the sincerity of the military and the police. For how long their pat...

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has strongly urged President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to scrap Executive Order 464, or else it will be forced to declare to the people that the present administration is tolerating the incidence of rampant graft and corruption in the government. In a statement issued by the CBCP, it insisted that the present administration's unclear stance on the issuance of Executive Order No. 464, which bars government officials, including military and police officers, from testifying before public hearings called by Congress, could be misconstrued by the people as another way of protecting rampant illegal transactions involving top government officials. The civil society groups have shared the view of the CBCP that the continuous reluctance of President Arroyo to cancel EO 464 is meant to mussle the mouths of public officials who may have been privy or knowledgeable to some of graft and corrupt practices under the present administration. T...

In trying to destroy his credibility, ZTE key witness Jun Lozada is now linked by media to a certain mistress by the name of Marissa, a former employee of Alcatel in the Philippines. At the height of his series of speaking sorties metro-wide, Lozada just shrugged off the controversy and instead insisted that these things are meant to discredit him. When asked in an ambush interview, Lozada admitted that he knew the woman being linked to him but he didn't elaborate further on the matter. However, he continued to parry questions that he believed would pin him down on the issue. He said that he still loved his family and that his attention now is focused behind the anomalous broadband deal entered by the Philippine government with China. Lozada paid a short visit inside the Polytechnic University of the Philippines in Sta. Mesa Thursday, where he was met by thousands of students who skipped their classes and threw confettis from atop the buildings around the PUP campus to grace his vi...

Local government officials and other politicians in the Philippines have fungus faces. Many of them have also sold their principles and dignity to the great Lucifer. I'm referring to those who were called lately to attend an emergency briefing in Malacanang, presided by no less than the embattled President Arroyo herself. Reports said one of the agenda was to review the development needs of the constituents in the countrysides, a move many analysts considered as a means to shore up the image of the administration in light of the anomalous NBN-ZTE scandal and the alleged kidnapping of the Rodolfo Lozada Jr., the key witness in the ZTE deal. From the way it looked, the efforts of the disheartened people whose eagerness to oust the president, like what they did in Pakistan, had been in vain. Let alone, the callousness of the Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) whose members were suspected of having feasted on the donations given by unscrupulous government officials ju...