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Showing posts from February, 2025

[OPINION] Why Do Some Filipino Boomers (Some Are EVEN Fact-Checkers) Insist that the Marcos Years Were Under a "Parliamentary System"

  This is a screenshot I got on Facebook. The Tweet is courtesy of Raissa Espinosa-Robles, who I hear is a marites or a gossiper. I'm not denying that there are some truths in what she said. It's true that the Marcos Years have their well-documented human rights abuses. However, Mrs. Robles still continues to insist in the myth of a parliamentary system under Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr.'s regime. It's not just Mrs. Robles but also some Filipino boomers who keep saying, "Are you crazy? We had a parliamentary system under Marcos."  I could show them some evidence like Marcos' severe lack of legitimacy to disprove the parliamentary systme. I even wrote about the snap elections because Marcos was a president with powers (read here ). Under a parliamentary system, the president is purely ceremonial. The president is just a door opener and credentials receiver! Benigno Simeon A. Aquino Jr. and Salvador "Doy" Laurel both challenged the legitimacy of Marcos...

The 1986 Snap Elections Would Also Disprove the Myth of the "Marcos Parliament"

Anti-charter change proponents love to use Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. among their reasons, to defend their stand. The argument is that "charter change must be evil" because Marcos used it--a fallacy of Guilt by Association . Please, even Atty. Maria Leonor Gerona-Robredo's supporter  Andrew James Masigan  supports charter change! Now, we must look at Marcos and remember another significant event. It's the 1986 snap elections and why it's also proof that we never had a parliamentary form of government. February 7, 1986, was when Marcos declared snap elections. Two years before the snap election, Marcos even declared that the Philippines was never a parliamentary government under him : The adoption of certain aspects of a parliamentary system in the amended Constitution does not alter its essentially presidential character . Article VII on the Presidency starts with this provision:  ‘the President shall be the Head of State and Chief Executive of the Republic of the Ph...

Degrees of Jimenea and the Supreme Court of the Philippines' Decision on the Chiong Case

It's easy to say that the film Give Up Tomorrow is biased, because the producer, Marty Syjuco, is a brother of Mimi LarraƱaga-Syjuco's husband, Miguel Syjuco (read here ).  A statement from Marty himself  would actually confess to it: I first met Paco at my brother's wedding to Mimi, Paco's older sister. Eight years younger than I, he was just a big, overweight kid, and I didn't pay him much attention. Later, when I heard about his arrest and trial, I went on with my life. Part of me figured the courts would sort it out.  Another part was so inured to the injustice and corruption that form the background noise of the Philippines, that I, like most Filipinos, was hobbled by fatalism . After moving to New York and working in film distribution, I began to crave something more meaningful and creative.  When Paco's sentence was elevated to death, and I saw the letter from the 35 "unheard witnesses," I knew I was at a crossroads. My own mother had seen Paco ...