No moral ascendancy

MANILA, Philippines – Former first lady and now Ilocos Norte Representative Imelda Marcos doesn’t have the moral ascendancy to criticize the detention of former President Gloria as “cruel” and “not human” because she and her husband were not magnanimous toward their own enemies.

“She (Gloria) is visited only by her husband (Mike Arroyo), her children, from the afternoon to 9 p.m. Then she has no one. So cruel. So unjust. Not human,” Mrs. Marcos had said.

Did she and her husband, Ferdinand Marcos, treat the late Senator Ninoy Aquino fairly while he was in detention?

Weren’t Ninoy’s visiting hours also restricted just like Gloria’s are now?

Ninoy’s family could only visit him at certain hours once a week after which he was all alone.

Wasn’t depriving Ninoy of his freedom also inhuman, unjust and cruel since all the charges against him were supposedly trumped up?

Yes, Senator  Aquino was allowed to travel abroad to seek medical treatment even after his conviction for trumped-up charges; but only because the Marcos dictatorship succumbed to world pressure, especially from the United States.

And wasn’t the assassination of Ninoy Aquino at the tarmac of the Manila International Airport unjust, cruel and inhuman?

Before the former first lady points an accusing finger at the Aquino administration for any wrongdoing in regard to Gloria’s incarceration, she should have thought that her three fingers would be pointing at her.

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It is not President Noy’s fault that his predecessor, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, is detained on plunder charges.

Unlike President Marcos, who ordered Senator Ninoy detained, P-Noy didn’t order Gloria detained. It was the Sandiganbayan that did.

Even if he wanted to, P-Noy can’t order Gloria’s release since he would be interfering in a judicial process if he did.

Anyway, what P-Noy can do is to make the detention of Gloria, in deference to her being a former president, as comfortable as possible.

After all, Gloria made the detention of her predecessor, former President Erap, comfortable in deference to his former position.

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A Makati court has ordered a real estate developer, Picar Development, to remove the buses it used to barricade a road near the city’s Kalayaan Avenue.

But since that court order was issued on January 16, Picar has continued to defy the order.

The court issued the order upon review of the petition of the Century City Development Corp., whose tenants in the Gramercy Condominium have been prevented from using the road that it shares with Picar Development.

The court might as well fold up if anybody can just defy its order.

Or is Picar a sacred cow? (As of yesterday the barricades were lifted.—RT)

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Local government units and congressmen are demanding a share in the earnings of the newly-launched Bingo Milyonaryo lottery game.

They are already enjoying a share in the Small Town Lottery or STL.

If the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) agrees, the share demands will diminish the charity funds for the agency’s poor beneficiaries.

Talk of leeches and vultures!