the title of this post is a quote from solicitor-general nachura. i went to the Supreme Court yesterday to watch the oral arguments of Sigaw ng Bayan on, what else, people's initiative. i was surprised to find the solicitor-general on the side of petitioners lambino et al. given that the COMELEC is the respondent. in fairness, he's pretty good in terms of speaking and argumentation. what i noticed, though, is that while the main issue they were supposed to thresh out was on whether or not the court should reverse Santiago v. COMELEC, they seemed to be focusing on the merits of the parliamentary vis-a-vis the presidential form of government as well as unicameral vis-a-vis bicameral. though i heard a lot of interesting (and sometimes even amusing) sound bytes, i felt they weren't tackling the issues head on.

my "favorite" part of the question and answer part of the petitioners was when a certain associate justice asked the solicitor-general if he knew the 6.3M citizens who had signed the people's initiative when he replied in the negative, this justice proceeded to ask him something along the lines of, "so you mean to say you're willing to put the fate of the country in the hands of those whom you don't know?" to which the solicitor-general replied what i placed in the title of my post. Then the session had to be temporarily suspended because of a black-out. hehe. i was (albeit internally) laughing my head off. though come to think of it, yes, we do place our trust on people we don't know many times, especially during election time when literally millions whom we do not know vote for our next leaders. i just wondered how that was germane to the issue at hand. and for that matter, i really could not understand why the line of questioning AND argumentation was along that of the merits of changing the form of government. i personally feel that it is a political question, i.e., let the people decide (indirectly through their respective representatives, of course, given the insufficiency and incompleteness of RA 6735, the so-called enabling law as per Santiago). also, it seemed to me (at least) that the court was not unpartial and unbiased.

maybe i shouldn't be complaining because i really do not want the sigaw petition to prosper nor do i think it has sound legal bases nor do i think a parliamentary system of government would be effective and feasible for the philippines NOW. but i just couldn't help but wonder at the quality of yesterday's oral arguments.

oh well. i think i can predict what the Court's decision will be. i'll just wait and see if my hunch is correct.

nevertheless, i had an enjoyable "fieldtrip" to the Supreme Court. Met up with a really good friend whom i haven't seen in the longest time as well as with a friend who works there who was able to get me tickets to the oral arguments. twas pretty cool actually since we were able to enter ahead of everyone else and have a pick of the seats (it got really crowded later on). also got to catch up with them. in fairness, when my friend found out who the current object of my kaaliwan is, the response i elicited was, "kamahal-mahal naman talaga siya eh." awwww. hehe. not that it means anything, of course.

in any case, it's been a happy last few days. :)

first year law student.kid at heart.idealist.optimist (except about myself).hopeless romantic.daydream believer.dreamer.klutz(hehe).


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