This writer reads with much skepticism the headline-grabbing reports that President Arroyo’s congressional allies are split down the middle between pushing for a constituent assembly to alter the Constitution or bidding for an elected constitutional convention to propose amendments to the 1987 fundamental law.
There’s the ground-shifting angle now playing with ruling party chief Luis Villafuerte (KAMPI) plotting the ouster of recently installed House Speaker Prospero Nograles!
You think that will happen so soon after 183 solons sent the 4th impeachment case against GMA to the waste basket?
We are witnessing a classic smoke and mirrors show.
Wagging tongues in the Palace by the Pasig tell me the scenario has Villafuerte retreating in statesmanlike fashion to project that Malacanang hears the anti Con-Ass protests.
This Plan B of the Cha-Cha plot plays out with the ConCon delegates being elected on the basis of existing congressional districts.
So what will we have?
The wives, sons or cousins of sitting lawmakers will be vying for the ConCon seats allocated on the basis of congressional districts with access to the administration’s near-bottomless political war chest.
If that ConCon does not turn out to be pliant enough to Malacanang’s designs, there is the tested and proven ‘Bon-Bonus’ strategy not unlike the days of 1971 ConCon delegate Miguel Quintero.
Should that formula fail, Plan C will be put into motion where, under an emergency rule situation, the drafted charter can just be put to barangay assembly ‘viva voce’ ratification following the Marcosian blueprint that appears to be playing out.
If the suspicions of many Filipinos come true, you will have GMA holding the reins of power beyond 2010 with her term extended or as Primera Deputada and National Assembly Speaker, and Prime Minister.
Don’t forget there can also be the concoction called constitutional authoritarianism worked into a brand new fundamental law.
How about international recognition you ask?
No worry. Protectionist national patrimony provisions will have been subverted by them to allow China and other moneyed powers to drill and mine wherever they please and repatriate their earnings as well.
Nasaan na ang Lupang Hinirang?
Popularity: 2% [?]
It’s there, Ding, right under your nose.
You just have to look in the right direction
In your own words lie the answer…
… an answer that I deliver to you in the form of a question:
So why give that “show” the time of day then?
The Philippines is NOT Malacanang, nor is it Congress, folks. It is a society with cultural issues ingrained at its very fabric that will not be laundered out by simply kicking politicians’ arses.
later on we’ll see: magdidilang ——– kaya si dureza?
==========
Bless the President so we will have forbearance, good health, the tolerance to lead this nation up to 2010, and perhaps, who knows, even beyond ”
==========
sarzuela is effective only because give it an undivided attention and we become the unwitting audience.
i have noticed that FV is getting to be anti-GMA and is no different from the posturings of principal movants of the anti-impeachment group initiated by discredited politicans.
its anti-gma posture may not necessarily be pro-pinoys.
sabi nga ni juan_D, tama na ang dakdak, aksyon nanam. unfortunately i am guilty too of the same dakdak. :)
“But with the disappearance of that base, I now believe that the constitutional purpose has been served, and there is no longer a need for the process to be prolonged.I would have preferred to carry through to the finish whatever the personal agony it would have involved, and my family unanimously urged me to do so. But the interest of the Nation must always come before any personal considerations.”
jcc,
FV is becoming anti GMA because she is the source of all our problems. All we need to do is remove her and then a Philippine Renaissance will follow, a Pinoy GOLDEN AGE that allows us to catch up with South Korea or even Japan!
And don’t forget our second agenda: make FV Pro-Starbucks.
See you at Starbucks :)
conyo,
there is nothing wrong about dreaming for the good life. do we have the capacity/discipline of the japanese, south koreans or the more chinese of them, the singaporeans? :)
Yes–We have the capacity/discipline of the Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese BUT GMA took it away from us. That is why we need remove her. So we can get our “mojo” back :)
See you at Starbucks :)
who cares if GMA will stay for another 3 years after 2010? I don’t. She’s probably the most qualified among the goods and the corrupts. Who else could it be? we don’t have one out there.
The reality of majority needs employment in the next 6 months. More investment must be coming into our country. “Opening up” is one of Chacha’s strategy for reform. Some people are dragging the poor and the unemployed to the graves alive. People are not thinking of 6 months change or long term result. Time is very valuable for our country. Some people are wasting it for their own personal confusion, backwardness and ignorance.
Very few has a method of blogging according to trend, pattern and confirmation. Look folks, the local confirmation is done that impeachment is out of substance. Chacha is a step to manage an ongoing bearish economy not even locally but globally. Some people would rather wait wait after 2010, delay the employment badly needed for the poor in the next 6 months to 1 year.
Here’s what I can confirm to some of you, the new president in 2010 will need another 6 months to ocho ocho fiesta for his/her victory , 1-2 years of job orientation and to reward supporters. After that time frame, that’s when he will act with confusion when the country has gone worst. Very common in every presidency. This country has no method or system . It does not value TIME.
leytenian,
never for one moment i have doubted your wisdom. :)
but if we go along with GMA forever, you will be writing off good leaders that may come along. :)
leytenian,
but the cha-cha is not economic propelled, it is greed profelled. the warlords would want a grip of their constituency by requiring them to vote at the local level and for them to vote for the president/prime minister.
in effect chacha is removing from the people to elect their president/prime minister and senators. money will flow only to the warlords, instead of the money going to the people directly if politicians are required to campaign nationally.
let them work hard for the people’s mandate during election time rather than not working at all.
jcc
“but if we go along with GMA forever, you will be writing off good leaders that may come along”
parliamentary set up will not allow her to go LONG but SHORT.
“but the cha-cha is not economic propelled, it is greed profelled”
maybe not. look at who opposes Chacha. It’s the makati business club. I bet they are the businesses that is targetted with this link:
Business and Private Sector Greed and Corruption
“in effect chacha is removing from the people to elect their president/prime minister and senators. money will flow only to the warlords, instead of the money going to the people directly if politicians are required to campaign nationally.”
yes initially, Gloria will be extended but not as president. But who else are more qualified than her among the goods and the corrupts?
The check and balance congress must be decentralize. “Chacha’s proposals include: a shift to a unicameral parliamentary form of government; economic liberalization; further decentralization of national government and more empowerment of local governments via transition to a parliamentary-federal government system”
take note of decentralization of NATIONAL government/CENTRAL.
In addition: “While Charter change and “opening up” of the Philippine economy are generally supported by small to mid size businesses in the country (such as Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP)),it is opposed by the powerful Makati Business Club (MBC).”
Please read the link on business corruption. who among in our country’s business entities are strong enough to influence our policymaking and laws?
Congressmen and governor must be accountable. The only way we can impeach majority and to change their attitude of wrong loyalty to the most corrupt is to slowly remove any of them thru impeachment. This is then the power of provincial State with Federalism.
We have to have a Vision. And that is my Vision. what’s yours? We are losing the real Value of time but of course there are resistance. Resistance such as people’s power or rally are common in every country. In modern world, they are activist. And we need them for decision making.
In our country, this type of resistance as you said from previous post, may be dragging or may hurt our economy.
Employment , employment, employment. when people are busy working, they will not make babies. When women are working, they are too tired to “landi landi with horny husbands” …:)
in addition: supply and demand of corruption
“Corruption can be described in the framework of
supply and demand. Th e supply side of corruption is the private sector that provides bribes, gifts, and kickbacks to the government officials who, in turn, are the demand side of corruption. For decades, anti-corruption measures targeted
the demand-side of corruption by, for example, limiting the ability of government officials to accept bribes and gifts or award contracts and licenses to friends and family members. Although such measures are important in their own right, they often ignore the role of the private sector
in combating corruption.”
We need activist to fight for this. Let’s learn from Indonesia’s real Activist and Heroes. This is what we need. Wake up pigs and dogs :)
Indonesia’s anti-corruption heroes
ding g. really sounds totally demoralized. His writing does not contain words of an activist but of a beaten man ready to quit on Lupang Hinirang and poised to immigrate and join benign0 or Abe Margallo.
ding, huwag kang susuko. kaya natin patalsikin si GMA. kung nawawalan ka na ng gana, kailangan mo lang ng double-shot expresso sa Starbucks.
Tara, libre kita.
See you at Starbucks :)
ding, what, may i ask, is your problem with “constitutional authoritarianism”. while marcos may have been credited with coining the phrase, it is nothing more than an acknowledgment of the primacy of the constitution in a democratic society. this is why marcos had to cause the reformulation of the 1935 constitution, through a legally-constituted constitutional convention, to suit his purposes. i don’t think he violated the constitution in establishing a dictatorship.
conyo, it looks like you are imbibing too much starbuck coffee that makes you a little too nervous or highstrung (lol). btw, i like your obviously tongue-in-cheek “incitement” to “people power” action.
Manoy B, in a democracy, it is the people that has primacy. Kaya nga demo e. That’s why the people can change the constitution when it no longer serves their needs.
But having read your comments for so long, I know where you are coming from. You are a Statist through and through (as in ‘sovereignty resides in the State; the State is above the people’). The Philippines then is your ideal country. You should retire here.
jeg, the constitution is the embodiment of the people’s will, expressed through their chosen representatives who, in turn, are elected according to a preordained process. the people themselves – all 90 million of them – cannot directly formulate, “ordain and promulgate” the constitution.
you are WRONG. i believe in the sovereignty of the people under whose authority a constitution is established. the state is a creature of the constitution which, in turn, represents the will of the people.
side-topic: Arabic-speaking Filipino-Muslims who were once doctors and are now nurses can forget anti-GMA surge-the-gates since they are in HIGH DEMAND and can be put on fast-track to obtain US citizenship. Contact US department of defense secretary to obtain the application forms.
the people themselves – all 90 million of them – cannot directly formulate, “ordain and promulgate” the constitution.
Ah, so the referendum is just a formality?
But dont worry, I do get your point, and your absolute adherence to the letter of the law which undergirds most of your posts here. I agree with the above quoted statement up to a certain point. I disagree that it is a good thing. The People’s Intitiative provision of the constitution for charter change should include major revisions of the constitution, and not be limited to mere amendments. The people should directly have the power to propose changes to the constitution.
You see, manoy, our difference is that I believe that the law was made for man and not man for the law.
again, jeg, you have to define the term “people” in the sense that you are using it above. what portion of the population do you mean? less than 50%? 50% plus 1, or 100%?
btw, the law is made by man, of man, and for man. law cannot make the man.
But manoy, if you remember your Aquinas (and others), natural law is what Im talking about. What youre talking about it positive law. Natural law is the basis of positive law, and indeed is the basis by which we criticize positive law. Im sure your law school covered that.
And ‘people’ in the sense Im using it above cannot be reduced to a percentage. We only do that out of convenience with the tacit agreement that the majority opinion holds. As you know, that is not true. The majority is merely more numerous.
WE always speak of ideals instead of what is real. Our constitution ideally, is the expression of the will of the people, having ordained and promulgated it themselves, but Jeg suggests it was rammed through the throat of the people in a referendum which is a mere formality. And if you consider that that the “will of the people” cornerstones “awareness” and result is taken from a flawed process (election or referendum cheating, remember the “viva voce” in the 1973 Marcos constitutional referendum) then the Constitution spoken of by BenCard as the expression of the people fall flat on its face.
There is some highlight in Jeg’s legal argument that the constitution which is a positive law must conform to the natural law.
Any constitution you read undergirds, to use Jeg’s language, natural law. Even the constitution of the communist countries have their own version of bill of rights which speak of equality among people and justice for everyone.
Natural law is the basis of positive law. Without positive law, people would have no idea at all of what is just and what is unjust. Early people have existed somewhat morally upright guided only by the innate goodness of their souls. Common laws were examples of the absence of positive laws. Early people consider killing another person wrong because they were guided by that positive code innate in their person not because there was a codified criminal law that considers the act wrong.
St. Thomas Aquinas highlights this natural law innate in a person this way:
“This participation in the Eternal Law by rational creatures is called the Natural Law.” Its dictates correspond to the basic inclinations of human nature. According to Aquinas, it is possible to distinguish good from evil by the natural light of reason.
First-century BC ROMAN orator Cicero, gave a famous definition of natural law in his De
Republica:
”True law is right reason in agreement with Nature; it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting; it summons to duty by its commands, and averts from wrongdoing by its prohibitions. . . . There will not be different laws at Rome and at Athens, or different laws now and in the future, but one eternal and unchangeable law will be valid for all nations and for all times.”
Somewhere in the dark part of our history, Positive law abhors Natural law:
In the Corpus Iuris Civilis a compilation and codification of Roman legal material prepared (534 AD) under Emperor Justinian, a ius naturale is acknowledged, but there is no assertion that natural law is superior to positive law and no vindication of human rights (slavery, for example, was legal).
JCC,
I much prefer Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Aquinas, as the latter was mediocre philosopher by our modern standards, while the former has his memes at the heart of our Constitutions, (though not our Catechisms.)
But you deliver an excellent meditation on the relation of natural law to human laws, against both of which no honest and sufficiently observant Filipino could fail to notice the transgressions of GMA.
If there has been a more spectacular failure than the bid to impeach her, it would have to be her own efforts to perpetuate her addiction to power through chacha. The People simply don’t want to change the rules in the middle of the game. It is the beginning of conservatism I warmly welcome.
Chacha is on its last legs. So is GMA. It’s gonna be an ugly sight…but she has brought it upon herself.
Let me recall a favorite definition of tragedy, not as sadness, but of irony and catharsis at the inexorable working of things.
What awaits her is poetic justice…the best kind of justice!
jcc, it’s not like you to make a strawman argument like that to contest my view. i think i know enough of positive law (had it for dinner every week at UST in Elements of Law and Natural Law) and i’m aware of it’s divine origin as ultimate basis of human law, aka, positive law. but before jeg brought it up, i thought we were discussing human law vis a vis “constitutional authoritarianism” of which ding gagelonia seems to be having problems with. positive law, by its very nature, was designed to be perfect. man is an imperfect being, so a man-made law can never be perfect. through the use of right reason, man can try to make his law as perfect as he can using positive law as gauge to measure it. but who will be the judge? it is the authority duly designated by positive law, isn’t it? the decision of this authority, having followed the due process, prevails and he who defies this decision does it at his peril.
djb, to say that st. thomas aquinas is a mediocre philosopher is like saying djb is a great scientist. both propositions, i think, are hollow-brained for i have seen and read about st. thomas’ greatness, never of your’s. but hey, maybe you are really great, not just in your own mind. i don’t believe you have read any of st. thomas’ works beyond what is mentioned in wikipedia.
fyi, st. thomas predates jefferson by a number of centuries. so, if the latter, in his writings, echoed st. thomas’ philosophies (which i’m sure, jefferson had read about in his time), who then is the greater one?
the trouble with you, djb, is that your otherwise sound intellect is always clouded by bitter partisanship and hatred for gma. it’s enough to make one look and sound like a fool.
edit: 2d line should read – “i think i know enough of NATURAL law …”.
line 7: “NATURAL law, by its very nature…”.
lines 9 -10: “using NATURAL law as gauge…”.
bencard,
Far from imputing your lack of knowledge of natural law on positive law, my comment is my own five cent’s worth over the issue of what is a reality and what is a myth.
The constitution is ideally a reflection of the people’s will as they ordained and promulgated it, but it is a myth if ratification through a flawed referendum (basis: 1973 viva voce ratification where it is required that the people must use ballots in ratifying the constitution), or any flaw in like manner will make ratification a myth.
DBJ is comparing apples and oranges.
Thomas Aquinas is a theologian-philospher and was canonized as a saint. He made a major contribution to philosophy through his interpretation of the relationship between the natural world and the divine. In this key passage from one of his most important works, Summa Theologica, he presents his views on the power—and limits—of human reason. His ideas reflect the optimism and cultural achievements of the High Middle Ages.
Thomas Jefferson was a political giant who drafted the declaration of US Independence from Bitain in 1776. He has his flaws as most mortals do. He preaches equality of men, but he himself owns a slave, and had fathered a slave child.
He invokes divine guidance and the inalieanable rights of people as God’s gift because it was opportune at that time to invoke God.
DJB’s choice of T. Jefferson over T. Aquinas underscores one’s own set of values and bias.
It is amazing how theoretical debate on issues most especially on so called choices over Jefferson and Aquinas neglect to mention the effects on present day.
Jefferson’s genius transcends philosophy as his works and acts have made a continuing impact on modern societies.
He was a very practical man. His foresight in laying down even the workings of representative government where the Southern colonies fought for the inclusion of slaves as citizens to be counted as part of the term people (3/5ths) in deciding the degree of representation and taxation in Congress. The North did not want slaves to be considered a persons or humans. So in the U.S. Constitution they were considered 3/5ths human for the purpose of the census count for representation. Immigration and the industrializing North changed that equation during the later years.
I must say that DJB is one sharp guy compared to the very amoebic thinking of a lot of comments contained in this blog.
“The Philippines is NOT Malacanang, nor is it Congress, folks. It is a society with cultural issues ingrained at its very fabric that will not be laundered out by simply kicking politicians’ arses.” benignO
How would one describe and name this societal based cultural issues that are so ingrained in the Filipino fabric?
If this cultural issues notwithstanding this society actually acts collectively to kick their politicians arses what then?
There seems to be a cultural war in American society? Is that seeming contradiction intractable and deeply ingrained?
Is it similar to the Taliban type of society whose cultural issues are still mired in some past forgotten time? Tribesmen still give up their daughters to their creditors to pay debts in that society?
“He was a very practical man. His foresight in laying down even the workings of representative government where the Southern colonies fought for the inclusion of slaves as citizens to be counted as part of the term people (3/5ths) in deciding the degree of representation and taxation in Congress. The North did not want slaves to be considered a persons or humans. So in the U.S. Constitution they were considered 3/5ths human for the purpose of the census count for representation. Immigration and the industrializing North changed that equation during the later years.” J_AG.
I have no problem if you are enamored with Jefferson. I am too, but to choose him over T. Aquinas underscores one’s sets of values. I don’t disparage your values and claim that mine is superior than yours. It is that we look things differently.
But Jefferson, like ordinary mortals has his flaws. And he is for equality of men, but would not consider the slaves equal of white men. He is a slave owner and have one of them as his concubine.
“When Jefferson went overseas in 1787 to serve as ambassador to France, he was joined by his daughter Maria and her attendant, Sally, who was then about 13 years old. In 1789 Hemings returned to the United States with Jefferson, giving birth to Thomas shortly after her arrival. One of Hemings’s sons, Madison, later said that his mother had become Jefferson’s “concubine” in Paris.
In 1802, one year after Jefferson was elected president, a newspaper reported that Jefferson was involved in an intimate relationship with Hemings. Although Jefferson’s supporters dismissed the report as politically motivated, the rumor persisted. Eston was born in 1808, six years after the relationship was first publicized.
For generations, most mainstream American historians rejected the claim that Jefferson was intimately involved with Hemings. The controversy was reignited in 1974 with the publication of historian Fawn M. Brodie’s book Jefferson: An Intimate History, which details evidence of the affair. Since that time, other scholars, including Annette Gordon-Reed of New York Law School, have written historical accounts of Jefferson’s relationship with Hemings. “The image constructed by traditional historians was of a cold, cerebral Jefferson, an intellectual uninterested in sex,” Gordon-Reed told Encarta. “We now know that he was much more human than that.”
The publication of Brodie’s book corresponded with the emergence of a more critical historical interpretation of Jefferson’s character and beliefs. Central to this reevaluation was an exploration of the contradictions within Jefferson’s views on slavery. Jefferson, for example, believed that blacks were in many ways inferior to whites, and he owned slaves until his death. But Jefferson—who penned the famous words “all men are created equal” in the nation’s Declaration of Independence—also insisted that all blacks should be freed. Once freed, however, he believed that blacks should be returned to Africa and elsewhere. This was necessary, according to Jefferson, because blacks and whites could not live peacefully together, and because “race mixing” would lead to an “amalgamation of whites with blacks” that would degrade the white race. (See the Encarta Sidebar “Jefferson on Slavery” for some of Jefferson’s own words on these issues.)
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2008. © 1993-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Gents,
My most sincere apologies for not replying to the comments. No I am not despairing. I am trying to gauge how other Filipinos are feeling. And no, as I have shared in previous posts, those familiar with some of my writings know that I am most of all a firm believer in democratic processes and institutions. I do not consider myself, or FV for that matter, as necessarily anti-GMA as much as Filipinos are AGAINST CORRUPTION AND THE ABUSE OF POWER DELEGATED BY THE TRUE SOVEREIGNS, THE PEOPLE, TO STAY ENTRENCHED.
I am saddened that GMA has not risen to the great promise she held when she took power.
I also am angry at how the 2004 elections were subverted because the elite felt FPJ was “not worthy” in the same manner that history records how the great Claro M. Recto was the object of assassination attempts.
Marcos also held promise but was corrupted by absolute power.
‘Constitutitional authoritarianism’? Hey then turn the Philippines into a monarchy. Why use legal constructs that subvert democratic ideals?
BTW, if FPJ was allowed to win and then succumbed to illness who would have succeeded to the presidency and where would have that brought us?
We will never know, but those pooh-pooing VP De Castro are having a field day insulting his abilities.
Now he is a leading presidential wannabee. So the electoral brew remains a puzzlement.
ding,
During my early and adultlife I only found two political giants in our country. Marcos and Ninoy Aquino.
Some say that their talents could have benefitted the nation had they lived under a different timeline. They also said that their kinds come only once in a century.
Welcome to one hundred years of political mediocrity… Noli, Jinggoy, Villar, Mar, Escudero, Lacson, Nograles, Honasan, Trillanes, R. Recto, Gordon etc… etc.
“I have no problem if you are enamored with Jefferson. I am too, but to choose him over T. Aquinas underscores one’s sets of values. I don’t disparage your values and claim that mine is superior than yours. It is that we look things differently.” JCC
Aquinas is about theology and if you have a direct line to God and God speaks to you then one should keep it to oneself.
Jefferson is about practical political philosophy and the start of a broad definition and practice of participatory democracy. At first limited to white men who owned property.
The words he used in the Declaration of Independence was lifted directly from John Locke (“all men….”) It was almost a legal brief justifying their breaking of the bonds with the King of England, their sovereign. It was a political document.
It is not about his own morality during those times when one could own slaves.
It is a story about human struggle and the evolution of how humans came to organize themselves for their own protection.
It is not about good or evil.
Let us keep Theo out of this as men cannot legislate morality but he sure can try to regulate human behavior.
J_AG,
maybe that’s where we differ. i believe that society cannot exist outside the protection of the supernatural being, while you believe that men can totally discharge their own affairs.
btw, John Adams, the Second President of the US is a contemporary of Jefferson, does not own slaves and believes in the equality of men.
Bencard,
St. Thomas Aquinas was a great favorite of mine in high school, long before Wikipedia was launched. I got over him by graduation day. But I am puzzled you mention his mediocrity and my greatness in one sentence, as the benefit of the juxtaposition falls–undeservedly — on my side. The material comparison is with Jefferson, perhaps you ought to stick to that, to avoid the danger of an ad hominem attack, which Aquinas detested. But Aquinas’ Summa and Ignatius Spex were on Mussollini’s bedside table with Jefferson nowhere to be found, just before they hanged him upside down.
Maybe he wasn’t only mediocre, maybe he was also medieval, which is to say, Bencardian.
djb, do you understand the word “irony”? i didn’t mean to feed your vainglory. please don’ twist the context of what i said to “benefit” you, even “undeservedly”.
for a high school student to read and understand, let alone remember, in his late adult years the philosophies of st. thomas, is truly, truly amazing. you must be a “prodigy”, or a “genius”. (note the quotations to indicate high improbability).
regarding hitler reading st. thomas, the devil reads the scrptures and quote them when they fit his purposes, right?
i should say “mussollini” (whom you referred to), not hitler.
Bencard,
Aw shucks. I guess you’re taking it all back, then?
Naah, you weren’t being “ironic”. You were being “sardonic” you old Teddy Bear, you.
all i can say is that T. Aquinas Aquinas was canonized by Pope John XXII in 1323 and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius V in 1567.
The man’s feat was extraordinary. T Jefferson certainly pales in comparison.
I agree with BenCard, unless DBJ, no offense meant, is a prodigy to have learned the philosophies of T. Aquinas at his high school.
I still find some learning deficit when I read the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, St. Agustin, T. Aquinas, and Voltaire, and I am past 50.
JCC,
You too? What’s with the prodigy stuff? All good Catholic school boys and girls got their dose of Aquinas not just me, as I am sure you and Bencard both did some time in your lives, but maybe you just forgot it. Five Proofs of the Existence of God (all of them fallacious circular reasoning), –remember now? But what would you say was Aquinas’ greatest feat?
djb, who’s taking back what? you see, truth is eternal. it has no shelf life. what was true in medieval times is as true today, no mas, no menos.
btw, st. thomas’ works, including summa theologica, runs the whole gamut of human existence and man’s relationship with his Creator, including, but not limited to, human government and affairs. i’m not surprise you call his articulation on the existence of God “fallacious circular reasoning”. most puny, shallow mind, which cannot comprehend st. thomas’ depth, or with actual familiarity with his works, usually reach that conclusion.
btw, catholic school boys’ and girls’ acquaintance with st. thomas is mostly in catechism. you have to be a serious student of philosophy (with open mind) – in college or beyond, but definitely not in high school – to even attempt to make a judgment on st. thomas’ work.
then again, it’s not forbidden to be an ignoramus.
Bencard,
When the student says things like you just did, with serious mien and a touch of outrage, the teacher knows he or she did not actually read the assignment or do the homework, and is in fact, BLUFFING.
My dear bencardian friend, no self-respecting Catholic boy or girl school would teach Aquinas in Catechism class, silly, for there the young minds are being inculcated with the absolute, eternal truths (that are evident in yours, still) by rote and dogma –as the reasoning and philosophy behind them might only confuse them. Aquinas, of sterner stuff, is usually trotted out just as the boys and girls are discovering their hormones (with which he had terrible troubles too) and each other. It’s only the serious whackos that go on to immerse themselves in his depth and perform idolatrous obeisances before him on blogging websites into old age and beyond…
OMG. is this really an Aquinas Vs Jefferson pissing contest? Amazing!
djb, obfuscating the issue through pompous verbosity is what you do best. when you find yourself on untenable environment, why don’t you just clam up for a change?
It is akin to a ‘Who’s cooler? Capt. Picard or Capt. Kirk?’ debate. :-D
DJB,
You seek evidentiary materials to prove the extraordinary exploit of T. Aquinas and it seems his being canonized as a saint is not good enough for you. Mother Theresa would receive the same derision of her beatification.
Incidentally, your claim that you have breezed through T. Aquinas’ philosophies and have savored in full galore the depth of his mind during your high school days while others were chasing hot girls is a feat extraordinare of prodigous level.
But quite frankly, today, I still get constipated reading T. Aquinas’s mind:
“Reconciling the Augustinian emphasis upon the human spiritual principle with the Averroist claim of autonomy for knowledge derived from the senses, Aquinas insisted that the truths of faith and those of sense experience, as presented by Aristotle,are fully compatible and complementary. Some truths, such as that of the mystery of the incarnation, can be known only through revelation, and others, such as that of the composition of material things, only through experience; still others, such as that of the existence of God, are known through both equally. All knowledge, Aquinas held, originates in sensation, but sense data can be made intelligible only by the action of the intellect, which elevates thought toward the apprehension of such immaterial realities as the human soul, the angels, and God. To reach understanding of the highest truths, those with which religion is concerned, the aid of revelation is needed. Aquinas’s moderate realism placed the universals firmly in the mind, in opposition to extreme realism, which posited their independence of human thought. He admitted a foundation for universals in existing things, however, in opposition to nominalism and conceptualism.”
Am putting together a full post. But perhaps it may help the discussion if we realize that what’s being targeted for overhaul are the Constitution’s sensitive transitory provisions and that protecting thew national patrimony. The form of government shift to federalism is being bandied around as a sweetener for those with really no chance in hell to be president
assussssssssss nagpapagalingan na naman sa debate ang mga matatalinong pilipino!!!!
ang lulupìt ng mga termino…di maintindihan ng mga regular na pinoy!!!
PERO ALAM NA ALAM NAMIN NA HANGANG DAKDAK NA LANG KAYO!!! HANGANG PATAASAN NG IHI!!!!
KUNG MAGSALITA ANG GALING GALING..ANG DAMING SINASABI TUNGKOL SA PAG-AYOS NG BULOK NA PAMOLITIKA!!!
pero yun nga lang..puro dakdak na lang kayo…walang aksyon!!!
HOY MGA UGOK NA MATATALINO…MAGKAISA KAYO!!!! AT LABANAN NINYO ANG KASALUKUYANGP PAMOLITIKA AT KURUPSYON!!!
WAG KAYO MAKIAPID SA KASALUKUYANG POLITIKO HA…TULAD NG GIANGAWA NI MLQ3
yoko sa starbucks…mahal dun bwihihihihi
Juwan, manong,
Can you share with us what you yourself are doing other than engaging in gutter heckling? Have a good day po.
Ding,
isa isahin ko man ang mga maliit na bagay na nagawa ko at ginagawa ko ay walang maidudulot na mabuti dito…lalo pa at mga katulad ninyo ang nagbabasa…dahil sa mga pagsusulat nyo lang dito ay hindi maipagkaila na ang pinaniniwalaan nyo lamang ay mga sarili ninyo!!!!!! ni hindi kayo nagkakaisa dito..puro kayo pagtatalo..puro kayo pagdedebate..puro pataasan ng ihi…gayong alam nyo naman kung ano ang problema ng bansa natin!!!!
kung totoong nagmamalasakit kayong mga matatalino kayo at gusto ninyong magkaroon ng katiwasayan sa pamumuhay nating mga pilipino…MAGKAISA KAYO!!!! isa-aksyon nyo yang mga pinagsasabi nyo…pangunahan ninyo kaming mga mamayang pilipino!!!! kung malinis ang hangarin ninyo..susuporta kami…HINDI YUNG PURO NA LANG DAKDAK!”!!!!!
SO ANO ANG SUSUNOD NA HAKBANG? DAKDAK PA DIN????
Tingnan ninyong mabuti ang mga nakapila na politiko sa bansa natin…PURO KURAKOT PA DIN…ibig sabihin nun, walang pagbabagong mangyayari sa pilipinas!!! KUNG GUSTO NYO NG PAGBABAGO…MAGSIKILOS KAYO!!! HINDI PURO KEYBOARD NA LANG PINIPINDOT NYO!!!!
AT SUSUPORTA KAMI SA INYO…wag lang kayong makibesobeso sa mga kasalukuyang politiko..tulad ng ginawa ni MLQ3.
“I still find some learning deficit when I read the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, St. Agustin, T. Aquinas, and Voltaire, and I am past 50.” – Atty Jose C. Camano
Dios mio. Kung extortion nga Jose Camano does not know the meaning how much more philosophy? So this is Jose Camano asserting that he is cerebral, kung ganun, he is not pala dumb and ignorant of the law when he was engaging in extortion. Ergo, Jose C. Camano is another corrupt lawyer…kaya ayan, he is the leave the lawyering to lawyers to the corrupt.