GMA and the violation of her human rights

Our fellow STAR columnist Chit Pedrosa’s Facebook page and her article on Hollywood heartthrob George Clooney’s fiancée Ms. Amal Alamuddin last Sunday has turned viral in the Social Networking sites. Call it her luck that Ms. Amal is the daughter of Ma’am Chit’s long time friend, Baria Alamuddin who was the Foreign Editor of Al-Hayat. They have been close friends since she and her family left the Philippines for their exile in London.

Of course the Entertainment News is agog that finally the world’s most eligible bachelor is getting married not to another person from the entertainment industry, but one who is an accomplished academic and a practicing lawyer who graduated from Oxford and whose lifelong advocacy is serving justice and fighting for human rights. Ma’am Chit gave an impressive and quite an interesting list of high-profile clients of Amal, which gives the reader an idea of her advocacies in the international scene. 

Now Amal Alamuddin, through the instance of Chit Pedrosa, has agreed to advise former Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) about her human rights, which Amal strongly believes every individual is entitled to. As of this writing, we learned that the former President has been moved to St. Luke’s Medical Center due to deteriorating health.

What is very disturbing in GMA’s case is that whatever case has been filed against her has proven to be very weak. But then, those so-called “constitutionally independent” bodies like the Office of the Ombudsman has only showed their undying fealty to Pres. Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III, which is why they dare not displease their appointing authority.

These people especially in the legal profession ought to be ashamed of themselves because Justice demands that they shouldn’t take sides against anyone. This is why Lady Justice is depicted with a blindfold and a scale. Alas, in the Philippines, more often than not, the scale is tip to the favor of the powers-that-be! This is why we are batting for a system change… because the nation cannot continue on having the same attitude by our people.

Meanwhile we wait with bated breath what advise that Amal Alamuddin can do for the former President, although we don’t expect things to happen instantly as she has her up and coming wedding to George Clooney. With Amal taking notice of the case of GMA, she brings hope that this could trigger P-Noy to soften his stand against his predecessor, who after all hasn’t yet been convicted of any crime.

Even Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos at the height of his power showed his soft heart and allowed Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. to get out of his hospital jail (despite his conviction) at the Heart Center and leave for the US for medical treatment. But then I could be wrong… just like the intransigent Pharaoh, P-Noy’s heart could harden and never allow GMA her freedom. Abangan!

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Rick Ramos is a faithful reader and also my Facebook friend, and like our fellow STAR columnist Boo Chanco, we have been hitting on the grave mismanagement of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) under Al Vitangol. Call it coincidence that I was with a former director of the MRT last Sunday for coffee in the North Wing of SM, and he gave me why things are going awry in the MRT. Most notable is that a Japanese company built the MRT, while the new rail cars come from Europe where their systems are totally incompatible.

Anyway I got this Facebook comment from Rick Ramos on MRT 3. But since it is quite lengthy, I will only print the gist of his letter. Rick says, “There will be a fire that will soon happen due to problems with the electrical system. It has something to do with the overuse or overload of the air-conditioning system that has not been adequately maintained in the last two years. Not many people know that there are already cracks on the railroad tracks due to the overloading of passengers. Remember the MRT 3 was designed for only 350,000 passengers when it was planned and designed almost 20 years ago. Today there are more than 600,000 people to ride the MRT 3.

The concerns from the cracks including the overloading in the electrical system was formalized and already given to the DOTC officials in a meeting. But apparently the DOTC officials only showed that they were unconcerned.” This statement gives me the creeps when our public servants in the DOTC doesn’t appear to be concerned for the safety of the MRT 3 passengers.

Rick added, “In engineering, there is a course called “Strength of Materials” (StreMat). There is a time when materials have a breaking point. Just like in the movies, the material will just give way. Thanks for the shout Rick. You are correct, concrete structures no matter how strong can give way when it is subject to overloading. So please, don’t say that we didn’t warn you. 

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