THE subject of hair is up again. Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre’s hair. Sen. Leila de Lima asks how much government money President Rodrigo Duterte has spent to mount the charges filed against her.
Would you believe that by de Lima’s count, the complaints, including one for disbarment, already totaled 16? And she blames Duterte and his “minion” Aguirre for the flood of cases aimed to strip her of her title and put her in jail.
The hair is used as simile.
The charges against her are, de Lima says, as fake as his hair. Note that she doesn’t use “toupee” anymore. Some sectors, including Eddie Barrita’s “Small Bites” column, note that the toupee is genuine, it’s the hair that is not. (Real wig but not real hair? Genuinely fake hair?)
De Lima’s critics will say she’s diverting the issue from her alleged criminal acts to what sits on Aguirre’s head. Anyone in her place would use whatever she could to dodge the downpour of charges.
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Neoliberals shot down SSS pension increase?
There must be a reason President Duterte has not approved the P2,000 increase on SSS monthly pensions. Bayan’s secretary general, one Renato Reyes, says it’s the “neoliberal triumvirate” that manages the economy for Duterte.
The three -- Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, Finance Secretary Sonny Dominguez and Socio-economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia -- are, Reyes says, anti-poor. They hold on to macro-economic policies of then president Noynoy Aquino who also rejected the pension proposal.
The debate may be steered to the real core of the dispute, not the labeling of the economic managers. Is it true it will bankrupt the SSS if the pensions are increased by P2,000 (split into two payment dates)?
Noynoy’s people explained it more clearly and less in a wishy-washy way than it’s being argued now.
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LP a plotter in Bilibid crime?
Maybe they have evidence against Senators de Lima and Antonio Trillanes (if the word of a jail inmate is credible enough) but dragging the Liberal Party into the stabbing of Bilibid convict Jaybee Sebastian may be stretching it.
When asked for specifics on the participation of a murder attempt on the drug lord, Aguirre said Trillanes and de Lima are Liberals, the party must have a part in it. Would that link Vice President Leni Robredo to the plot?
That kind of thinking doesn’t even occur to a rookie lawyer. It does to a justice secretary.
[bzzzzz@sunstar.com.ph or paseares@gmail]