Squatter colony in UP: who benefits?

LIFE’S INSPIRATIONS: “… For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures…” (1 Corinthians 15:3, the Holy Bible).

-ooo-

COURTS VESTED WITH POWER OF JUDICIAL REVIEW: The greatest argument against the Ombudsman petition with the Supreme Court about the Court of Appeals’ order stopping the suspension of Makati City Mayor Jejomar Erwin Junjun Binay is this: the Court of Appeals, just like the Supreme Court, has been vested with the power of judicial review by the Cory Aquino 1987 Constitution.

Because the Court of Appeals has this power of judicial review, it has the power to determine whether the Ombudsman acted appropriately in imposing preventive suspension against Junjun.

-ooo-

OMBUDSMAN IS ALSO SUBJECT TO JUDICIAL REVIEW: True that the Ombudsman is an independent Constitutional body, but it is nevertheless subject to the judicial power of the courts, just like the other Constitutional bodies like the Commission on Audit and the Civil Service Commission.

Here is what the Cory 1987 Constitution says about this, in its Section 1, Art. 8: “The judicial power shall be vested in one Supreme Court and in such lower courts as may be established by law. Judicial power includes the duty of the courts of justice… to determine whether or not there has been a grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of any branch or instrumentality of the Government…”

-ooo-

SQUATTER COLONY IN UP: WHO IS BENEFITTING? Will someone from the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City please enlighten us: why are there so many shanties inside the campus as of now? Who allowed them to be built? And who allowed the residents of those shanties to stay in the campus? Are these people paying rents? To whom, and how much?

I was constrained to ask these questions the other day after seeing a group of children, obviously the offspring of the shanties’ occupants, playing with fire, literally, by burning a heap of dried grass near the College of Fine Arts and the former UP Stud Farm (see my Facebook account, Melanio Lazo Mauricio Jr. or www.facebook.com/attybatas, for the pictures of these children).

At a time when bush fires are very common because of the very hot and dry weather, the fire kindled by the playful children may yet constitute a spark that could torch the College of Fine Arts and nearby buildings owned by UP. It may even kill people, especially the residents in the area who now look like they are occupying a squatter colony inside UP.

-ooo-

BRINGING BACK LOST GLORY OF NPC: The temporary leave by Joel Sy Egco as president of the National Press Club (NPC) of the Philippines, reported by his colleagues in the press and in media, is sad, especially because it indicates the rift and the division that Filipino mediamen, whether in print, radio or TV, have found themselves in.

At a time when unity among reporters and journalists is sorely needed in view of real threats not only to their freedoms of expression and of the press but against their very lives as well, as shown by the murders of many of their fellow media personalities, they are instead quarreling. Maybe, there is a need for more senior mediamen to intervene and bring back the lost glory of the NPC?

-ooo-

PLEASE LISTEN: DZEC1062 kHz Manila, 1080 kHz Dagupan City, 711 kHz Naga City, 1260 kHz Lucena City, 1224 kHz Davao City, and www.eaglenews.ph Mondays to Fridays, 6 a.m.; DYKA 801 kHz Panay Island, Yes Radio 88.3 FM, Barobo City, Surigao del Sur, Yes Radio 93.9 FM, Cagwait, Surigao del Sur, Mondays to Fridays, 10 a.m.; 92.7 Smile FM, San Francisco, Agusan Del Sur, Kiss 101.1 FM, Cabadbaran City, Agusan del Norte, Mondays to Fridays, 12 noon; 107.5 Win 107.5 FM, Roxas, Isabela, Saturday, 5:30 a.m., Sunday, 7 a.m.

-30-