Alan LM Purisima's Play on Words Revisited

It's possible that the mind of Alan LM Purisima would replay events that led to the SAF-44 hearing that followed. It's January 25, 2025, meaning that would be 10 years since the Mamasapano Massacre happened. It was during that time when Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan was eventually killed. However, serious disarray and a lack of coordination led to the deaths of 44 people. Watching those videos reminded me of my feisty high school economics teacher. I've been scolded by her many times but I don't hold a grudge. Honestly, I still have a debt of gratitude to my teacher who I always called "Madame Miriam". Yes, she was like the late Miriam Defensor-Santiago in some way! I had grown to respect my MDS style teacher even more after seeing the SAF-44 trial.

Can you give advice when you're preventively suspended?

Should I be laughing or cringing at Purisima's words? I may be no lawyer, but I don't need a legal law dictionary to understand that Purisima was trying to escape responsibility, ahem, accountability. Either way, it was a circus of words between MDS and Purisima.

"During my preventive suspension, I did not give any order. I just [gave] advice, not as a directive or order," Purisima told the Senate committee on public order, which was investigating the incident. "I have no role in that operation."
However, former PNP-SAF head Director Getulio Napeñas Jr. said that he received from Purisima a text message on Jan. 19 on whether the operation to arrest Marwan should proceed.

Facts need to be considered, such as Purisima being on preventive suspension. In school, a suspended student is temporarily out of school. A suspended teacher is temporarily not teaching. Neither the student nor the teacher is expelled from the school. Suspended students couldn't take exams or participate in classes. Suspended teachers couldn't teach and get a salary. In the workplace, suspension means that a person is unauthorized for their duties.

In short, Purisima was unauthorized to do anything, whether to give advice or an order. In MDS' famous words, it goes like:

"Don't quibble with me... 'I only advised, I did not order.' Really? Buti sana kung wala akong doctorate o hindi ako nag-graduate sa UP. Malas natin I did both," Santiago said.

For non-Tagalog speakers, MDS said, "It would be good if I didn't have a doctorate or graduated from the University of the Philippines. In bad luck, I did both." It may be partly an appeal to authority fallacy. However, it can be much worse when the person giving a stinging rebuke has more credentials than the one who caught his fallacy.

Purisima giving advice during his preventive suspension was a clear violation. He should've just stayed put because, as MDS states, he was under preventive suspension. To get things clear, the Merriam Webster Dictionary states advice as:

1
: recommendation regarding a decision or course of conduct : counsel
… shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties …
—U.S. Constitution
offering medical advice
a word of advice
2
: information or notice given —usually used in plural
… the latest advices from Mexico …
—Henry David Thoreau
3
: an official notice concerning a business transaction
payment advices

Purisima giving advice (well not an order, according to him) during his preventive suspension is still an act of usurpation. He should not recommend or counsel, as he was preventively suspended. A teacher who's preventively suspended couldn't advice anyone. How much more a police chief who was preventively suspended? I cringed listening to his logic that he "merely gave advice" all before he finally resigned from his post.

Can you truly delegate responsibility without delegating accountability

Even more cringy was when Purisima said, "When I delegated the responsibility, I did not delegate the accountability." There are differences which are:

Responsibility is task-focused. It relates to a person's role in completing a certain task. Accountability is results-focused. It relates to how a person reacts or owns the results of their task.

Purisima claims that he simply delegated the task at hand, but not the results. However. MDS wasn't impressed and said, "You should really hear yourself talk!" However, the legal law dictionary gives this term, which further hits on Purisima's logic:

When one party must report its activities and take responsibility for them. It is done to keep them honest and responsible.

In short, what Purisima said doesn't work well with a seasoned lawyer, like MDS. True, responsibility is focused on the task at hand. It's my responsibility to do the laundry. However, I must also be accountable for the laundry's results. He delegated the tasks and the results were disastrous. In short, the outcome comes with the task.

Either way, when the task is given, the outcome must also come. Every responsibility means accountability follows. When one fails to do their responsibility, one must take accountability for failing to do it. In short, Purisima's logic truly deserved a beating!

Hilario Davide Jr.'s Still Quoted by Anti-Constitutional Reform Fools on Social Media

People can falsely accuse me of colonial mentality because I've been quoting Kishore Mahbuban over Hilario G. Davide. I'm really sorry to say but I'm seeing various Facebook posts like La Verite (and the Pinocchio really fits it ), the Rule of Law Sentinel, Silent No More PH, and many more anti-reform Facebook pages (and very ironic too) quote Davide Jr. a lot. It's straightforward to say that Davide Jr. has been the favorite source of such people. An old man with a toga (who blocked me) also often quoted Davide Jr. Also, Davide Jr. turned 88 years old last December 20. I wish I had written this earlier but sometimes it's better late than never. In my case, it's better never late. Davide Jr. also mentioned that the 1987 Constitution is "the best in the world". It's easy to spew out words but can he defend his claims? One of his old statements went like this: It’s not change of structures, [whether] it would be federalism or parliamentary. It is...

Mahatma Gandhi's Use of Tax Evasion, as a Form of Protest?

The 40th anniversary of the 1986 EDSA Revolution came last month. Benigno Simeon "Ninoy" A. Aquino Jr. said these words: "According to Gandhi, the willing sacrifice of the innocent is the most powerful answer to insolent tyranny that has yet been conceived by God and man." Basically, EDSA 1986 can't claim to be all too unique. Ninoy had made Gandhi an inspiration. The dictatorship of the First Marcos Administration may be over . However, the Philippines is still stuck in another dictatorship called the dictatorship of the Filipino First Policy . It does sound stupid, but even without Marcos or foreign colonization (please stop mistaking foreign investment with foreign invasion ), there's still some oppression to fight. You can think about decades of overly high taxes and restrictions on foreign investments. Now, we need to look at the historical context in which Gandhi's "tax evasion" occurred. According to a Jagran Josh article written by ...

Facts vs. Gossip: The "Chona Mae" Incident is Proof You NEED to Verify What You Hear

It was in 2012 when the Chona Mae incident happened. I remember the panic when people were running the opposite direction while I was working at Downtown, Cebu. The traffic was bad. People were panikcing. But the real twist? It was actually a father looking for his daughter, whose identity we may never know. The Cebu Daily News said this last 2022, which was before entering the post-COVID world: CEBU CITY, Philippines — It has been a decade since the famous “Chona Mae” line was uttered by a father looking for her daughter after a 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck the island of Cebu, February 6, 2012 . From what was a simple call of a father to his daughter turned out to be the biggest tsunami scare in Cebu City. “Ang tubig naa na sa Colon!” ("The Water is already in Colon!") was the line that has gotten everyone running on the street of Cebu looking for shelters up in the mountain parts of Cebu. Today, we remember that frightful yet somehow funny day that w...

The EDSA Revolution of 1986 Would've Never Happened if People were Stuck in Nostalgia

It's something that I read crybaby comments online where people are saying, "Making EDSA a special working day is making us forget the glory of EDSA." Please, let me remind people that even 10 years later , neither the late Lee Kuan Yew's birthday nor his death anniversary has become a national holiday in Singapore! Singapore simply honored LKY's birthday by working on that day. I was laughing at the toxic Facebook page called We Are Millennials. What truly made me think that these people are stuck in nostalgia is that EDSA 1986 would never have been possible if the Filipinos were stuck in nostalgia . I remember talks about how the first Marcos administration was built on these two pillars. The first pillar was information control . The other pillar was toxic positivity. I remember back in 1995 when the social studies teacher talked about how he thought that Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. was a "good president" due to the long holidays. However, the holidays ...

BRUTAL Truth: Stop HOPING for Another "PNoy-Like President" Because the Parliamentary System will Produce MUCH BETTER Leaders

Let me get this straight, I'm not here to totally dismiss the good that the late Benigno Simeon "Ninoy" C. Aquino III did. I'll try to be least biased when I'm writing this to "give a shock" to those who tend to treat his term as a "magical time". However, I'm going to have to warn people about the problem of looking for "another Messiah leader". Yesterday was the would've been 66th birthday of Noynoy if he were alive. One can talk good about Noynoy's legacy. However, we need to realize that relying on Noynoy's term is a violation of the Mahathir Mohamad principle of "Never stop learning." We need to think that there's only one Noynoy and when he died, he died . TV-5 reveals that Rep. Edgar Erice, a long-time friend of the late leader, also said the following: Caloocan City 2nd District Rep. Edgar Erice made the remark in a social media post marking Aquino’s 66th birth anniversary. In the post, he co...

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