Sunday, June 10, 2012

Bottled Brains For Sale


If bottled brains would be available in the near future, I would be buying these three immediately just to learn what makes them tick. Well, so far they are my favorites - when they showed the country how exquisite and eccentric their minds work during the Chief Justice Renato Corona Impeachment Trial.

Bottled brains anyone? How much are you going to pay to get your hands on them?
We saw in the televised Impeachment Trial proceedings how adeptly lawyers go into semantic contortions, how they buttress their arguments with the finest frills of the law, interpreting these laws in so many obtuse ways that befuddle those of us untrained in legalese!

They seem to forget that the foundation of the law, and law making is ethics. It can be as clear as sunrise but can easily be clouded and shrouded by legalese.

Here is that hoary question: it may be legal, but is it moral? Our lawyers and judges should always be guided by this primal question.

And that would change the Philippines, get all the dirty so called evidence for morality. While wasting the money of the taxpayers with the Corona fiasco, in the first day to the end, in their minds he was already guilty, took that long.

And maybe you can also add the double standard government to let the commander in chief sign the waiver to set a good example.

Nah, that ain't legal, but it would be moral, wouldn't it be? Call that an irony.

Miriam Defensor-Santiago. Whatever happened to her? To her sense of rectitude, her dedication to the public service?

In explaining her vote, she asked, “why then are we considered one of the most corrupt country in the world?”

Perhaps, without being quite conscious of it, by her acquittal of Corona, she answered her own question. We have reached this state of apparent moral metastasis because of leaders like her hobbled by their tremendous self esteem, their encyclopedic legal knowledge, they forget that the basis of law is moral. Were she cognizant of this, she would have joined the majority vote in the Senate.

Like so many power holders, she flaunted power. This is one major flaw of most of us. Even the common security guard who finally holds a gun often forgets the great responsibility that weapon has given him. Remember that Congressman who was incensed when requested to get a new subdivision sticker? He asked the security guard with bloated authority: Do you know who I am?

If there is any star at all in this lengthy political telenovela, it is the aging Juan Ponce Enrile calm and erudite in the arcane labyrinths of the law. In his liberal wisdom, he even let Miriam self-destruct in public to illustrate how unfit she is for that prestigious judgeship in Holland.

*credits to F Sionil Jose - PhilStar online article

"Some people have belligerent attitude towards life in general. They oppose any attempt to change their outlook for the better. Everyday is a learning experience for us. Even the lowliest, humblest folks have wisdom to offer. We don't have to accept or believe everything, we must still use our discretion and judgment. After all we were given brains, we might as well use it. Our head is not just for decoration you know!!!" - Mila Longman

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