Name: WDC
City/State/Country: California
IP Address: 75.38.73.14

Comments

Now we see that money can't buy anything, only talents and love are the keys to survival for a nation. It is a shame for Filipinos as a whole that an individual like Efren who grew-up in a squatter area show us these qualities. Filipinos are busy doing the “pataasan ng ihi” and government officials are busy stealing money. If we have hundreds more like him, maybe Philippines won't have this dilemma that she is having right now.

Name: GFJBHEDF
City/State/Country: Hercules
IP Address: 76.103.7.246

Comments

The oodles of accolades bestowed on Efren, by PNL forum contributors, would surely overwhelm Club 8586 Center, as it does me. Xmas is almost here. From US or Canada, please text or call Efren at 011 6346 431 8586 or email him at LINK and send this simple message. "Hi Efren, I want to help. I would like to send a one time gift of $100 dollars thru Western union, direct deposit to your club's Acct. Pls instruct."

Name: ONE UP
City/State/Country: JACKSON
IP Address: 74.66.132.163

Comments

[JRH] What do you hope to achieve by emailing Bill Gates? Microsoft is a software maker and technology provider (including Internet, computing and other services) Bill Gates' company provides the software component, like the operating system (Windows 7 or Vista) while the others (DELL, HP, Sony, Toshiba, etc) make the hardware so that consumers could own a "computer." If you are so concerned about about cost, haven't you noticed that computer prices have gone down tremendously over the years? You could even buy a Netbook (solely for Internet use) for $299.

Name: ONE UP
City/State/Country: JACKSON
IP Address: 74.66.132.163

Comments

[MOCKINGMAYA] This is where we differ in opinion when you wrote "before legal proceedings are taken, or during their pendency, or after conviction & judgment and that it makes the offender retroactively innocent in the eyes of law." The convicted man is still a FELON, but through the act of a presidential pardon it restores to that man his lost freedom. The stigma of having sinned against society is still embedded in that man. This is not the same as the ORIGINAL SIN that is washed away by the Catholic ritual of baptism. There is no such thing as "retroactively innocent." in legal parlance. Contrast this to WRONGFULLY CONVICTED"

Name: ONE UP
City/State/Country: JACKSON
IP Address: 74.66.132.163

Comments

Someone commented "Senator Escudero has a chance to prove that there's no danger in being an idealist or a progressive leader, but there's a greater danger in blind conservatism. Corrupt politicians should remember that power is always in the hands of the voters. I think Senator Escudero is the man to beat." I don't follow the logic. If Escudero is neither a progressive or a conservative candidate, he must be a moderate? I don't know how this writer tags Escudero as a candidate to beat!

Name: ONE UP
City/State/Country: JACKSON
IP Address: 74.66.132.163

Comments

[SAM] The distinction of being labeled as a peasant is quite obvious in the context of the Philippine society. Those who attend private schools (mostly Catholic colleges and universities) are the ELITES; those who can't afford to pay the tuition on those schools go elsewhere to get their academic diplomas. They are the PEASANTS. In short it is an economic class argument. Mockingman hates the élites. His disdain for them reverberates in this website. This is so because Mockingman considers himself as the aggrieved peasant. I stand squarely on that opinion!

Name: 7gtg
City/State/Country: regnsk
IP Address: 24.72.90.88

Comments

Re: Presidentiables.. Typical of Filipino culture is this prejudice against the rich and or successful. It is pathetic that a Presidentiable has to do some acting to be 'with the poor'.. hoping to get the votes. Erap is not poor. But his movies showed him as amongst the poor. So he got the votes. So the logic implied amongst many PNL posters is 'rich = bad' poor = good. The funny thing is most of the posters are in the USofA where individual financial success is everybody's dream. Land of opportunity ika nga. I think evil does not differentiate between the poor or the rich. You can have a poor candidate with the devil hiding inside waiting to be unleashed when the time comes. We had a poor and ambitious first lady remember?

Name: MARNY VILLANUEVA
City/State/Country: Jersey City, NJ
IP Address: 24.0.96.118

Comments

Ultimately, El Vibora writes "Who did you help(ed) lately? If you haven't helped anybody SHUT THE HELL UP". I don't want to promote myself and I feel very uncomfortable talking about the people I've been helping, but he gave me no choice. There's a charitable inst.(CFCA) for children & seniors in Kansas, USA, that my family has supported by sponsoring 4 people: Roselyn (Albay), Tito (Africa), Arnold (Antipolo) & Pinky (Tondo) beginning in the early 90's up to the present; not to mention helping relatives & friends too. EFREN opened people's minds to the unlimited possibilities in extending our hands to those in need. Now is the time to be recognized & be heard as well. It's a great challenge but it can be done. Mas liligaya ang PASKO para sa lahat! POSTERS, HAVE A NICE LIFE.

Name: mockingmaya
City/State/Country: taft avenue, manila
IP Address: 98.248.158.31

Comments

Sam: I think it's a common knowledge that "pardon power" is vested in the President by Article II, section 2, which extends to offenses against the U.S., except in cases of impeachment. In a Republic, crimes are offenses against the people (not against President's prerogative power, constitutional power, inherent power, etc.)). In a Monarchial form of government, "pardon power" was vested in the Crown. Moreover, Hamilton, in Federalist #74 rejected the criticism that the pardoning power should not extend to cases of treason. I think the Republic of Philippines is a Constitutional or Representative Democracy, and not ruled by a Queen or a King.

Name: mockingmaya
City/State/Country: taft avenue, manila
IP Address: 98.248.158.31

Comments

ONE UP: Mrs Arroyo is not a Monarch, and all her power "is a trust,...she's accountable for its exercise (that---"from the people, and for the people all springs, and must exist." Therefore, her "pardon power" is a trust". And what are the instruments of trust? I thought you've taken an academic course at your Alma Mater ("The Constitution & The Supreme Court or "Capitalism & The Supreme Court). A scholar once observed that there's hardly a political question which does not sooner or later turn into judicial one. I do understand that your literal or narrow notion of "Separation of Powers" . Furthermore, according to legal scholars, whether a controversy is political, economic, and social eventually the battle will be taken to the SC.

Name: mockingmaya
City/State/Country: taft avenue, manila
IP Address: 98.248.158.31

Comments

ONE UP: According to legal scholars, Constitutional interpretation (or the socio-political entities that Aristotle called "Constitutions") remain problematic. The answers to What, Who, and How of constitutional interpretations are controversial & difficult. There are many approaches or theories to Constitutional interpretation such as structuralism, textualism & reinforcing representative democracy. There's also what they call "doctrinal approach" that judges often adhere to. How can you rectify or cure the imperfections of the Constitution & the principle of "Separation of Powers?"

Name: mockingmaya
City/State/Country: taft avenue, manila
IP Address: 98.248.158.31

Comments

ONE UP: I've never claimed & attempted to know all the answers to your questions. I do believe that you don't need to be a lawyer to acquaint yourself with the history & development of the Constitution, & the historical role of the Supreme Court. As an ordinary critic, I do believe that administrative & executive actions, legislations, and even Political Theory are also the stuff of Constitutional history.

Name: mockingmaya
City/State/Country: taft avenue, manila
IP Address: 98.248.158.31

Comments

Gintong Lahi: I do apologize for being presumptuous. I do believe that the force of ideas & even the power of the ballot box are not enough to save the poor or the less-fortunate from ignorance, hunger, disease, malnutrition, toxic environment, slaughter on the streets and so on. I do hope that those children in the slum areas will not turn to "City Of Men" (movie), where violence is the norm. I think Mr. Penaflorida is just trying to tell us to elect good men or trustees whom we can trust. Sorry.

Name: mockingmaya
City/State/Country: taft avenue, manila
IP Address: 98.248.158.31

Comments

I think Philippine Congress was created to liberate the poor & less-fortunate children from the House (Senate & House of Representatives) of bondage, injustice, & misery. As Moses did when he liberated the children of Israel from the Court of Pharaoh. I think some farmers are struggling to death against the land-grabbing systems of the previous & present regimes. History will educate the Filipinos that Rome was destroyed by this system. If it would take a young & progressive leader like Senator Escudero to free his countrymen from any forms of corruption. So be it.

Name: mockingmaya
City/State/Country: taft avenue, manila
IP Address: 98.248.158.31

Comments

ONE UP: Why did you cite Justice Holmes phrase "reflective equilibrium or "coherency" without giving him a credit. You didn't even explain the significance of such phrase. I think Justice Holmes phrase ("reflective equilibrium) was a reaction to twentieth-century legal pragmatism and so on. According to him, epistemology should focus, not on the utility of beliefs in shaping future action, but on "reflective equilibrium," & the discovery of patterns in present & past experience.

Name: GFJBHEDF
City/State/Country: Hercules
IP Address: 76.103.7.246

Comments

I think it's obvious who Sen Loren Legarda's presidentiable is going to be. He on the other hand is mum, and looks like he will let her have the honor of naming her lead tandem. It is noble and gentlemanly, and he will oblige her. How efficiently apt. The age of chivalry is nostalgic. Bravo senior!

Name: mockingmaya
City/State/Country: taft avenue, manila
IP Address: 98.248.158.31

Comments

Sam: I am not a legal scholar. I think Rawls, J. will best explain or answer your question. According to him the law of people has different features from those of states or nation-states, since the idea of states was traditionally understood with sovereign powers. I think every critic has a right to question the wishful thinking of politicians, judges, & intellectuals.

Name: mockingmaya
City/State/Country: taft avenue, manila
IP Address: 98.248.158.31

Comments

I think Mr. Penaflorida don't consider the less-fortunate children in slum areas as garbage & surplus (for example, according to scholar, "the garbage & surplus Irish men, women, & children were shoveled out their country because the landlords of Ireland have no use for them") to be ignored by Mrs. Arroyo's corrupt administration. It's a fact that Mrs. Arroyo's administration will continue to send educated & skilled Filipinos, not the uneducated, unskilled, & less-fortunate people, to perform menial tasks around the world. What a paradox. This may be considered as a modern slavery in action.

Name: mockingmaya
City/State/Country: taft avenue, manila
IP Address: 98.248.158.31

Comments

ONE UP: I think your 1.0 GPA (Ateneo University) is not a guarantee that your follies will make me laugh. You keep on bragging about your 1.0 GPA (equivalent to 5.0 GPA Western standard) just to feel smart. Some scholars argue that the conferring of university degrees onto upper-class or filthy-rich people isn't only about GPAs, courses passed, and so on. It's also about symbols. It's like a marker announcing that stupid children of the rich are smart.

Name: R I P
City/State/Country: Mississauga
IP Address: 122.148.34.58

Comments

Why not just vote for Efren, instead of like copycat posting sa topic na ito, parang agos ng tubig, iisa ang ibig sabihin.Someone who became a hero,he/she did'nt plan for that, it just happened, it is just a quick decision, Efren didn't intend to be like that, from the start, marahil it's just for fun, hanggang maramdaman nyang ang simpling gawaing yon at sa papuri, lalong umusbong sa puso ni Efren,na ipagpatuloy ang nasimulang katuwaan.

Name: mockingmaya
City/State/Country: taft avenue, manila
IP Address: 98.248.158.31

Comments

ONE UP: I think Edward Said is a Palestinian brilliant thinker who has written influential & powerful texts, including Orientalism, Culture & Imperialism. I am sure your priests & mentors at your Alma Mater will not let you read his books to conceal the injustices, lies, & deception committed by the missionaries & colonizers. You don't need to brag about your 1.0 GPA & the marker (badge of honor) of your Alma Mater if you can't even engage in self-exploration & doubt.

Name: mockingmaya
City/State/Country: taft avenue, manila
IP Address: 98.248.158.31

Comments

ONE UP: I do prefer my fellow critics to disagree with me. I don't consider myself as a pathfinder in social, political, & economic criticism. PNL forum is like sharing the individuality of others. I think comments are like "a loose sally of the mind," or not a regular & orderly composition. The phrase that you pirated from great American Jurist is a violation of your self-imposed standard on other critics. Moreover, I find it interesting to fish in a murky waters or what you call "dangerous legal minefields." It shows my ignorance. And I've to go on searching.

Name: WDC
City/State/Country: California
IP Address: 75.38.78.173

Comments

I have an excellent request to Efren Penaflorida. He needs to go to the Philippine Congress and educated those movie stars like Estrada, Lapid, and other brainless lawmakers. These elected officials are clueless of their jobs as lawmakers. I noticed some of these WALANG UTAK na senadors their responses during the debates in Congress are either OO or Hindi.

Name: mockingmaya
City/State/Country: taft avenue, manila
IP Address: 98.248.158.31

Comments

Sam: It's true that "the Filipino people empowered Mrs. Arroyo to do things by electing her." But the president is bound, without distinction, to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Moreover, the government & all its officers derive their authority from the Constitution, whose term contains all the powers that the people intended to grant. "The president's power, if any,...must stem from an act of Congress of from the Constitution itself." History will educate you that "pardon power" of the president can be challenged by the Supreme Court (for example, one of Pres. Johnson's pardon or Act of 1865). Please see "The President's Power to Pardon: A Constitutional History."

Name: ONE UP
City/State/Country: JACKSON
IP Address: 74.66.132.163

Comments

I guess many are making a BIG DEAL about the nomination of Efren praising him to high heavens as if his nomination with CNN heroes in 2009 is the penultimate measure of success that dwarfs other individual and unheralded achievements. One blogger even wanted to see Efren become the promised "messiah" in Philippine politics. This nomination of Efren will probably get much attention until PNL editorial comes to an end; then like anything thing else, public attention fades away. Overtime some may remember his name; many other have no more recollection of either Efren or Penaflorida - the pushcart teacher nominee!

Name: mockingmaya
City/State/Country: taft avenue, manila
IP Address: 98.248.158.31

Comments

ONE UP: It's a common knowledge that a bad law can be repealed. But I didn't use the words literally to show the abyss of your 1.0 GPA. As I've underscored terms have ins & outs. Other critics have a tendency to view interpretation in terms of urgencies, historical desires, struggling oppositions, deviations, and so on. Reaction from other critics is inevitable. What is the use of argument that leaves other critics unmoved?

Name: mockingmaya
City/State/Country: taft avenue, manila
IP Address: 98.248.158.31

Comments

7GTG: The concept of "peasant" was coined by Alexis de Toqueville (Democracy In America, 1835). He's one of the great intellectuals who believed that public education or "common schooling" is important in advancing the "common good." According to him, the individual child would gain skills leading to economic opportunity & acquire the collective responsibility of citizenship. You've every right to construe it literally & struggle with de Toqueville's paradox.

Name: ONE UP
City/State/Country: JACKSON
IP Address: 74.66.132.163

Comments

From an objective perspective, it would be very hard to really measure the impact of Efren's work in the community. Was Efren able to really break the chain of gang influence among the youth? How much education did Efren and his volunteers give to children? Education and learning as we all know, is essentially a block building effort. If Efren met the youth in a community just twice or thrice, there is not much impact. He has to stay there for months and months or virtually "live" with them..

Name: ONE UP
City/State/Country: JACKSON
IP Address: 74.66.132.163

Comments

MOCKINGMAYA: This is where we differ in opinion when you wrote "before legal proceedings are taken, or during their pendency, or after conviction & judgment and that it makes the offender retroactively innocent in the eyes of law." The convicted man is still a FELON, but through the act of a presidential pardon it restores to that man his lost freedom. The stigma of having sinned against society is still embedded in that man. This is not the same as the ORIGINAL SIN that is washed away by the Catholic ritual of baptism. There is no such thing as "retroactively innocent." in legal parlance. Contrast this to WRONGFULLY CONVICTED"

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