The pendulum swings in the other direction

Tonight’s presentation on Straight from the Sky is extra special in the sense that it is our 610th show, which is quite a feat. So tonight, celebrate the coming of the Mövenpick Hotels to Asia, where Cebu is the first amongst the many hotels in the Mövenpick chain of Hotels in Europe and the Middle East. Yes, last April, the Mövenpick Hotel took over what used to be the Hilton Hotel in Cebu and since this US hotel brand has a different standard from the European Hotel chain, you can expect a multitude of changes that would be introduced by Mövenpick.

 To explain to us the philosophy behind Mövenpick, we have Mr. Helmut Gaisberger, Director for Asia of Mövenpick Hotel and its concurrent General Manger. I met Mr. Gaisberger 15 years ago when he was the General Manager of the Mandarin Oriental where my mentor, the late Max Soliven, literally held court at the Captain’s Bar. Mr. Gaisberger will explain to you his plans to make the Mövenpick Hotel a must visit destination.

 With Mr. Gaisberger is Executive Chef Terry Styles who already hosted a sumptuous and delightful dinner for me and my wife. To add spice to this TV interview, Chef Styles prepared for me my first taste of the famous Mövenpick Ice Cream that is so popular in Europe. Now it is available in Mövenpick Hotel. So please watch this very interesting show about Mövenpick Hotel on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00pm

* * *

 Finally after that very interesting Senate investigation on the alleged “used” helicopters that were sold as brand new, in a very unprecedented move, Senators, Teofisto Guingona III, Panfilo “Ping” Lacson and Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III signed the petition to file charges against First Gentleman Mike Arroyo for his involvement of this illicit sale. I don’t have to discuss the details of this highly-controversial deal, after all this was splashed in newspaper reports and live on ABS-CBN television.

 What is remarkable is that it is the first time that Senators from the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee personally put their names as the accuser in the Office of the Ombudsman. Of course, the First Gentleman is always accorded his constitutional right of innocence until his guilt is proven. But then, all that is needed here are the evidences to link the former FG to this deal.

 I gathered that no less than Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, III himself ordered this charge to be filed against former Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her husband, which is why the Arroyos are crying foul. Well if you recall, Sen. Ping Lacson himself disappeared for a few years because he did not believe that he could be given justice during the time of GMA. Now the pendulum has swung to the other direction. Let’s see how far this case would go. With our present snail-paced justice system, we will consider ourselves lucky if this case would be over and done with while Pres. PNoy is still the President of this country.

* * *

 Talking about the judiciary, finally, Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona fired a salvo at his detractors when he spoke before the National Convention of the Philippine Judges Association (PJA) last Thursday when he said, “Never before has the entire Judiciary, not even during Martial Law, been subjected to lack of respect. I say to them here and now: enough is enough! I mince no words and I speak of nothing else but insidious attempts to undermine, destroying even the independence of the judiciary, for us to beg for funds guaranteed by the Constitution.”

 I have always believed that this so-called independence amongst the three branches of the Philippine government, namely, the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary is really nothing but a myth. A case in point is when Budget Secretary Florencio Abad wanted to slash the P20 billion budget of the judiciary down to P15 billion? That’s a huge slash of P5 billion. Now if you ask me, this smacks at meddling in the affairs of another independent branch of the government? What if the Supreme Court ruled that the budget of the executive branch was illegal? This would cause total chaos in our nation.

 All this started when Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino, III refused to be sworn into office by Chief Justice Corona when tradition dictates that it is the Chief Justice that always administers the oath of office for the Office of the President. Hence under the Aquino administration, there has been a strong hostility between the two independent branches of the government, the Executive and the Judiciary. When we can no longer respect our judicial system, then chaos will reign and people will take the law into their own hands. This is already happening in many areas in Muslim Mindanao.

* * *

Email: [email protected]