Euston, we have a problem.

I first came across Ninoy as a young boy. Mom had somehow come across a bootleg tape of a speech Ninoy gave in Los Angeles in 1983, just before he came home to his destiny. I hear snippets of the same speech on television from time to time. It is, I think, his most remembered and most quoted speech. Ninoy’s tongue was on fire.

Today, as someone much older, I know that his eloquence came from the discipline of free thought made valuable by its prohibition. If anything, Ninoy, even if he was the golden boy of the landed oligarchy, only became the Ninoy of legend after his prison catharsis.

In transcending himself to become legend, Benigno S. Aquino Jr. – not the Senator from the Province of Tarlac – was my first idol. It is because of him that I believe in the potential of the Filipino.

On March 5, the people held criminally responsible for his death were given executive clemency. I surmise that among the reasons for the pardon is the opinion of forensic anthropologist Jerome Bailen that these servicemen who escorted the late Senator could not have pulled the trigger. From what I know of Bailen’s opinion, he thinks that the more plausible theory is that Galman, rogue assassin, pulled the trigger on the gun that killed Ninoy. Unfortunately for these convicts, Bailen’s opinion was excluded from evidence on a technicality. Although I think the exclusion of Bailen’s testimony is sad because it ends in a triumph of legalism over proven science, I have no doubt on the guilt of Ninoy’s guards. They deserve every punishment they’ve received and then some.

Because the power to pardon is a choice entirely personal to the President, it is moot to inquire into the reasons why Ninoy’s killers have been freed. The heirs of the late Senator may shout and claim that the decision is political, but such exercises almost always are. This isn’t to say that the pardon is correct, but it is definitely not right.

Let’s not forget that what keeps the assassination shrouded in mystery is the blatant manner airport security blocked the cameras of the assembled world press, only to relent after the fatal moment passed. To make matters worse, they made sure that Galman, even if he really did kill Ninoy, can never say who gave him the order to kill the Senator. If today we they cannot show someone else pulled the trigger, Ninoy’s killers have nowhere else to look and no one else to blame. By willfully participating in the sham trials and in the grand conspiracy to hide the real mastermind, it was as if they themselves pulled the trigger. Even if they change minds and disclose the true author of this tragedy, they failed to do the right thing when it mattered, and that’s what counts.

Military loyalty ends when loyalty to your country begins. I have no place or stomach for those who confuse the two.

The other day, I received an interesting e-mail from a dear friend and fellow lawyer, Doranne, who raised the alarm bells over Senate Bill 2464 of the 14th Congress, the proposed Anti-Obscenity and Pornography Act.

According to the Senate website, the Bill has been referred to the appropriate Committee, and has been there since 6 August 2008.

Doranne’s e-mail foretold of gloom and doom:

Patay tayo, Kiko.

Have you heard of Senate Bill No. 2464, the ANTI-OBSCENITY AND PORNOGRAPHY ACT OF 2008? It’s now quietly pending in the Senate. Meaning, this absurd, outrageous, oppressive bill has been passed in Congress without causing any stir. Read the rest of this entry »

Finally, I have some time to update my blog. The good news is that since I’ve passed the bar, I’ve gotten a ton of work. The bad news is that work as a legal professional tends to stay on the heavy side. As in one must finish work as soon as one gets work because work has this tendency to pile up.

No one likes the lawyer who sleeps on the job.

So, what’s up with me? I’m plurking a lot now, mostly because plurking is relatively brainless compared to blogging. Blogging means several minutes dedicated to the commitment of thought to virtual paper. Since in my profession, the translation of thought into speech closely resembles actual work, I’ve been trying to avoid anything remotely related to structured thought. Well, trying to anyway.

More later, when my daughter isn’t bugging me to watch Spongebob on Youtube.

This morning, I got a message from my dear friend Ina, who asks why I haven’t written about the lovable Gucci Gang and their mindless minions.

Who am I to refuse if she asks so nicely? Read the rest of this entry »

The wife and I have been trying to get the little one to sleep at 10 for the past two weeks.

The problem is that we don’t always get home by then. If it’s not me needing to finish my writing before the day ends, it’s the wife. At first we tried to take some work home for the night, but we quickly figured out that taking work home should be reserved for special occasions.

Special occasions like Holy Week, for instance. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been working for almost a month now and I miss being a bum with a ferocity I’ve never felt before. Part of it is because I work with some of the most mercurial personalities in the business – even when they taught me in law school they weren’t the friendliest people to begin with. It’s like sitting on a powder keg every single day.

Well, not really – but you do get the picture. Read the rest of this entry »

I guess I’ve put off writing for a long time. It’s easy when you have excuses:

• I didn’t have a broadband connection.
• The broadband networks don’t install new lines in my building.
• The exchange boxes in my building are all rusted up.
• Globelines hates me.

Ad nauseam.

Actually, the first three statements are true. I swear to fuckin God. Read the rest of this entry »

When the President pardoned the ex-convict Joseph Estrada, what stands for the center-left in this country raised its arms in furor. Within minutes, some went online and created websites dedicated to demanding the resignation of the President. To them, the moral recovery of the nation demands nothing less than the cathartic sight of a former President brought to prison cuffed and in prison garb. To do otherwise would reinforce in law the double standard in society for the high and mighty. Read the rest of this entry »

To break from the monotony of chores in which my batchmates and I have found ourselves stuck after some four-odd months of bar review, we found ourselves floating down the Pasig River on the new Pasig River ferry looking at Manila the way our ancestors probably did two centuries prior.

After all, the Filibuster does open on a barge on the Pasig River. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s nothing quite like a major news incident that involves a major loss of life to take the wind off your sails. I was going to write about my trip to Thailand and all the little gripes that go with being tourists on the cheap.

All that is out the window, now.

As I write this, around eight people are dead and more than ten times that are believed to be wounded. All I can do is hope that none of my immediate friends were hurt in the incident.

If you lost someone in today’s tragedy, the thoughts and prayers of myself and my family are with you.