THERE are some events in the country, and elsewhere, that are simply amusing.
In the Philippines, candidates who filed their certificates of candidacy are not yet candidates, they will only become candidates at the start of the campaign period.
That is the reason they are free to post tarpaulins, socmed ads and all propa materials, as they see fit, depending on their budget, asking all the viewers/readers to remember them, and the position they are aiming at, even after they have filed their COCs.
In the eyes of the law, they are not yet campaigning. Or even if they are, they are not yet barred because they are not yet considered as candidates.
Laina noh?
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Then there is the folly of declaring somebody in the community as persona non grata.
Some sanggunians go through the process of holding countless meetings, pre-sessions and sessions just to tackle on the issue of declaring someone as persona non grata. This means countless man-hours spent for these meetings, untold number of work ignored or unattended, all because somebody in the capitol or in the sanggunian has an ego trip and wants to go after the enemy through the fiction called persona non grata.
So when the final verdict comes, and there is majority vote garnered, and later signed by the presiding officer, the pronouncement is issued – somebody is declared persona non grata.
But it is not enforceable, it is not implementable, it is nothing but just a simple record of an event.
It does not speak of prison terms, no fines, no reprimand, nothing.
It’s just a total waste of government funds, time and resources.
And yet, some sanggunians feel that they can weaponize this persona non grata thing.
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Then there is this amusing thing called “in aid of legislation.”
Congress-mean go through the process of holding sessions, force the attendance of witnesses or resource persons, cite them in contempt if they don’t like the answer and put them in prison until they agree to answer the way the congress-mean like it.
And they later use the records of the session against the enemies, recommending the filing of cases and all the while, forget the most important thing – the proposed legislation after the session called “in aid of legislation.”
For instance, what legislation was proposed after the quadcomm meetings that tackled principally the budget of the office of the vice president?
Naa ba?
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Of course, these anomalies are not the exclusive monopoly of the Pinoys.
They also have this in the US of A.
For instance, incoming President Donald Trump was convicted in the hush-money case and was sentenced to an unconditional discharge. What this means is that Trump was convicted of the crime charged but was sentenced without any punishment because of the iron-clad protection afforded to the office of the president, not the occupant of such office.
Indeed it is unprecedented.
Asa ka makadungog og namatud-an nga sad-an, gi-sentensiyahan tuod pero kanang sentensiya nga wala ra, way preso, way bayad, yes, wala ra god?
Karon pa, og sa US pa gyod.
