They are not exactly Batman and Robin out to take down Catwoman.
But with former Speaker Joe De Venicia suddenly having a political epiphany and announcing that he will belatedly endorse the new impeachment case versus GMA (even declaring readiness to testify), I cannot resist asking what the two JDVs are up to.
Even if I want to be charitable to the two gentlemen, do they possess the credibility to be pictured as the white knights?
Or aren’t father and son simply aiming to extract enough mileage for their own 2010 agenda?
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N.B.
The text is late as our serverc was on a BLINK, IT SEEMS.
WILL JDV DO A CHAVIT?
Hope springs eternal in a old adage: There is no honor among thieves. You will recall that the most effective and devastating witness against President Joseph Estrada was his partner in crime, Luis “Chavit” Singson. Who can ever forget that sterling promise of his to go to jail with his fellow scumbag if Erap were impeached and convicted. I remember appearing once with Amando Doronila who offered the most interesting explanation for why Chavit turned on Erap. He said it was because no other President before Erap had bothered with dipping his fingers into jueteng, since that honeypot was strictly reserved for provincial governors and below. Given his subsequent closeness with Gloria as a juridical untouchable, and his current reign as jueteng-smuggling-drug king of Ilocoslovakia, it was his most phenomenally successful gamble of all, one that has paid off big time for him. He is even the Deputy National Security Adviser.
Jose de Venecia has many possible motives for now doing a Chavit himself. Possibly a political has-been, he nonetheless has a Darwinian interest in propagating his genetic line via his son, Joey de Venecia III, who probably has a political future that could get a strong boost from a fourth but successful impeachment attempt on Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Now if anyone has the goods on the President, it has to be the former Speaker of the House. Not only on the ZTE-NBN deal but on numerous other foul deeds, from the before, during and after the Garci tapes scandal.
But JDV has to do a Chavit, and risk everything by divulging what he knows, what he was witness too, and what he participated in. He must deliver testimony that is credible because it is against self-interest and self-incriminating.
There is however, an important point of democratic principle that lies at the heart our dysfunctional impeachment process and badly needs restoration from Hilario Davide’s scorched earth policy and practice on the Philippine Constitution. It is the principle of the Separation of Powers which, beginning with Edsa Dos has not suffered such utter devastation since the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos and Javellana vs. Executive Secretary.
The principle must be re-established. This is more important than the fate of any one man or one woman, if we do indeed believe in a government of laws and not of fascists.
And that’s the reason why whistleblowers don’t prosper here in the Philippines and consequently, why the problem of predatory corruption persists. You are, in effect, laying the predicate for the Administration’s defense.
hahaha. that’s really twisted CVJ! Of course you are right, but in this absurd country, it takes only one unexpected move by someone like JDV for everything to change. We must remember that it was the unexpected nature of Davide’s act at Edsa Dos which made it indeed possible for Chavit and GMA to rule as they have.
What I am referring to really is the restoration of the Congress’ sole and exclusive jurisdiction over the impeachment process and the ejection of the Supreme Court’s big fat nose from out of it. The Supreme Court has ZERO jurisdiction over all cases of impeachment. It never had a right to dictate to the Congress about its Rules just to save Davide from impeachment, never had the right to usurp the Senate trial’s verdict, which is not appealable to the Court.
Here is the Separation of Principles between Judiciary and Legislative Departments as clear as a geological formation. Even freshmen law student know this. What an atrocity the end of Erap has become for democracy. At the moment that that Hoodlum in Robes, Hilario Davide swore GMA in, Erap was supposed to be “permanently disabled”. Two months later (after the US State Dept issued a recognition of GMA’s govt “assuming that President Joseph Estrada has validly resigned”) then the Supreme Court invented “constructive resignation”.
What a laugh. A painful laugh!
I do hope you’re right on the outcome DJB, but JDV and JDV3′s actions are not exactly unexpected. (I’ve speculated on JDV’s possible role in GMA’s impeachment in exchange for Cha-cha back in May 2007.)
Ding
“What Are JDV And Joey Up To?”
Is that as important restoring decency and credibility among the political class in this country ?
If every action of a potential whistkeblower is put into suspect, then there is no point in striving to have a governbment of laws and not of men as DJB put it.
Or are other bloggers just laying the predicate for defesnse of little glu.
How should our Yoda be redeemed? This Yoda when he goes won’t just disappear into thin air and leave his blankie around!
glu gun,
No “predicate for defense” is being laid,least of all by me. I simply want to keep our feet on the ground as ‘Yoda1 and ‘little Yoda’. rather as JDV and JDV2 are concerned. I maintain they are not motivated by simply the conviction to ferret out the truth.
Joey was involved in his own wheeling and dealing in the ZTE-NBN fiasco and was cut out by Abalos so he blew the whistle but had he gotten his way the unmoderated greed quotient would have also been immoderate. JLo had to dig deep into his conscience along with a healthy dose of fear-for-one’s-life to fish out the whistle. So will Tenga serve out crispy morsels of the truth and regain public trust? As he cliche goes, the proof of the pudding…
cvj.
My apologies, was addressing my reply to you, as well as glu gun.