For the nth time: We need Cha-cha!

I fully concur with the editorial of The Philippine STAR last Thursday entitled “Bulwark” that said, “The Supreme Court is seen as the last bulwark of democracy. Filipinos may distrust their President and lawmakers, but public trust in the court of last resort must not be eroded.” In the debate on whether the President can appoint a new Chief Justice despite the constitutional ban on midnight appointments, I have taken the stand that the spirit of prohibition was to stop the Executive Branch from appointing new officials under it. However, this doesn’t affect the appointment of members of the judiciary, which is a co-equal branch of the government.

Unfortunately we’re in the midst of presidential elections and this issue no doubt has become political fodder for print and broadcast pundits who say what they want and insist on what they believe in. The concern of the opposition is that, most of the SC justices are appointees of the President and they believe or insist that all of them are beholden to the appointing power. I submit that this is the reality today, but unfortunately all this stems from errors of the 1987 Constitution which time and time again, we’ve always said needs to be amended or changed because there’s just too many things wrong with this Constitution.

Last Thursday noon, vice presidential bet Sen. Loren Legarda held a presscon at the Waterfront Hotel and one of the questions I asked her was, “How can she implement her call for the return to a two-party system?” Sen. Loren said, “The only way we can do that is through amendments to the Constitution.” But unfortunately, her presidential candidate, Sen. Manny Villar, doesn’t believe in Charter changes… so too with Sen. Noynoy Aquino?

So if you don’t want the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to be appointed by the President, then so be it… let’s push for Charter changes. Otherwise, you have no right to demand these changes if you are not willing to go the extra mile of calling for a constitutional convention. So like it or not, the Supreme Court has already decided on this issue and we must respect its decision, regardless of what evil lurks inside your suspicious head!

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Tomorrow is the 112th birth anniversary of Rep. Benito T. Soliven, a legislator, lawyer, orator, soldier and statesman and father to my mentor Manong Max V. Soliven, founding publisher of The Philippine Daily Inquirer and The Philippine STAR. Don Benito Soliven’s claim to fame was that he had an overwhelming victory for a congressional seat against Senator Elpidio Quirino in the 1938 elections. Sen. Quirino was a famous senator and secretary of the interior, a political giant against the obscure Soliven.

Rep. Benito Soliven made this famous statement: “A public man should remember that he belongs first to the people before he belongs to his party.” Those were the days when we had a two-party system. In today’s multi-party system his words no longer mean anything, which is why our political system is so messed up! We should go back to the tried-and-tested two-party system, but this can only happen through Charter changes.

At the outbreak of World War II, Benito Soliven volunteered as captain in the reserves and fought in Bataan and was promoted to major in the battlefield. He was among the thousands of soldiers in the Death March and imprisoned at Camp O’Donnell in Capas, Tarlac. He was released to his family, but he was already stricken of malaria and died on Jan. 10, 1942 at the young age of 44, leaving a widow and 10 children. One of his last words was, “There is so much to do – so much yet to be done.”

Sixty-eight years after his death, his words still ring in my ears… that there’s so much to do and so much to be done for our country… yet we waste our time choosing the wrong leaders who unfortunately lead us away from the economic prosperity or stability that our leaders ought to do for this nation. This is why the call of the youth today is to choose wise and intelligent leaders for our country so they can at least have a chance to see a bright future ahead!

At the height of this election campaign, I have gotten so many e-mails in response to the articles that we’ve written and many do say that they miss the columns of Sir Max Soliven who would have written a lot about the current political race. I, too, miss Sir Max just as much as our readers do. Hence I’m writing about his father because Sir Max never missed mentioning his father on his death and birth anniversary.

On Sept. 19, 2004, I interviewed Sir Max Soliven on my TV show Straight from the Sky and when he talked about his father, he literally had tears in his eyes. After the taping was done, he told me that my question made him emotional… that I made him shed a tear on TV. That’s how he loved and missed his father and that’s why I also honor Don Benito Soliven.

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