Another master move
-A A +ATuesday, January 22, 2013
EVENTS that took place Monday at the Senate showed how Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile is still a master strategist.
The man, who was part of the martial law implementation during the time of dictator Ferdinand Marcos and who played a crucial role in the ouster of that administration during Edsa 1, the people power revolt, had again survived an attack on him-–this time on moves to oust him from the Senate leadership. In all these, what seemed important was his survival and only his.
Instead of waiting for others to initiate his removal as Senate leader, Enrile surprised members Monday by giving a privilege speech declaring, “I therefore move that the position of Senate President be declared vacant.”
He added, “I ask that my motion be immediately put to a vote to pave the way for Madam Miriam Defensor Santiago, Sen. Antonio Trillanes, any of the Cayetano siblings, or anyone else here who may share the same sentiments against my leadership and who may be secretly interested in this job the chance to be nominated and to seek the majority’s support to be elected as the new leader of the Senate.”
Senate members quickly rejected his motion. Eleven senators voted against Enrile’s motion, three voted for it and two abstained.
Enrile, in justifying his move, said he could not allow the Senate as an institution to be destroyed by allegations hurled against him by the senators he mentioned. He said, “The Senate need not and should not suffer the venom which is aimed solely at me.”
Santiago, Trillanes and the Cayetanos earlier criticized Enrile on the distribution of additional funds to other senators before Christmas. The funds, representing Senate savings, were distributed at P250,000 each to the four and P1.6 million each to the rest of the Senate members.
The four got less for their being critical of Enrile. Trillanes also got into a disagreement with Enrile recently over the handling of negotiations with China on the disputed islands in the West Philippine Sea.
You have to note Enrile’s being a master strategist, but questions on his past roles and his debatable ways are separate matters that still need to be clarified and corrected.
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Another good year for the Sinulog. This was the banner of the Sun.Star website mid-day of Sunday, as Sinulog 2013 activities were in full swing. At that point, organizers, participants and revelers already knew it was a good celebration of the Sinulog grand parade, the culminating event.
No major disruption was reported, no peace and order violations, and no rain. What did not go too well, however, was on the aspect of crowd control and managing the movement of contingents from starting point to the street dancing to the main presentation at the Cebu City Sports Center. Crowd control problems forced the parade to go on overtime.
Sun.Star at www.sunstar.com.ph streamed live over the Internet several Sinulog activities starting with the nine-day novena masses and various dance presentations. Its coverage Monday was on the awarding of grand parade winners.
Replays of the videos may be accessed from the home page or at the Sinulog micro site at http://cebu.sunstar.com.ph/sinulog.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on January 22, 2013.
Opinion
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