Teddy for Senator

Congressman Teddy Casiño is a genuine social reformist and one of the most dynamic young leaders in the country today. He was first swept into the politics of change when, as a high school student in La Salle Green Hills, he volunteered for the National Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) and took part in the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution. The experience changed him so that since then, his life has been characterized by a conscious choice for the road less traveled.

The EDSA experience moved Teddy to become an activist in his freshman year at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños (UPLB). He became editor in chief of the student paper, The UPLB Perspective, from 1989-1991 even as he consistently made it to the honor roll. In 1991, Teddy was elected national president of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP), an alliance of over 700 student publications nationwide. He graduated from UPLB with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology in 1993.



After his stint in the student movement, Teddy joined the labor movement as part of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), where he deepened his commitment to serve the people, especially the working class. Teddy later joined the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN), the largest alliance of progressive people’s organizations in the country. He was elected secretary general in 1999 and was catapulted to national prominence in 2001 as one of the youngest leaders of EDSA 2. He was appointed commissioner of the EDSA People Power Commission from 2001-2002. In 2002, he was accorded the UPLB Distinguished Alumnus Award for Extension.

Teddy is also an accomplished writer and journalist. After being a regular contributor to the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Youngblood column, he became a regular columnist for BusinessWorld, from 1995-2004. He also wrote columns for the tabloids People’s Bagong Taliba and Frontpage, the OFW weekly Pinoy Gazette and the online magazine Bulatlat.com. In 2002, he had a short stint in ABS-CBN’s Hoy Gising and The Correspondents.

As a Bayan Muna congressman since 2004, Teddy is proof that integrity, honor, competence, patriotism and compassion for the poor and oppressed still has a place in the political mainstream. He has proven his mettle as a progressive legislator, spearheading the fight against corruption and government abuse and pushing for fundamental reforms in the areas of good governance and justice, educational reform, the protection of the national patrimony and the environment, and the appropriate use of information and communications technology.

In his six years in Congress, Teddy has never figured in any scandal or anomaly. He has maintained his simple lifestyle and is, in fact, on record as being the second poorest member of the House. For him, public service is a public trust that should not be used to enrich oneself, one’s relatives or friends.

Teddy is married to Ruth Garcia Cervantes, herself a former CEGP president and a human rights advocate now taking up law at the San Beda College with whom he has two sons, Elian (6) and Emilio (1). They are his main source of strength and inspiration in striving for a better kind of politics that gives rise to a better government and society.

Given the chance, Teddy vows to continue bringing the issues of the common tao – youth and students, workers and employees, professionals, small and medium-scale entrepreneurs, and environment advocates – into the halls of the Senate.

reposted from http://teddyforsenator.blogspot.com

To the Bar, to the Bar

Twelve more days, and we are off to Taft Avenue once again, to De La Salle University to be exact. It is for the first of the four Sundays of the Bar examinations beginning on the 6th of September. Thousands of students, lawyers, supporters and kibitzers will troop to the site to boost thousands of law graduates as they hurdle the most difficult examination there is in this part of the earth. Banners of hundreds of law schools in the Philippines will fly along the avenue, of UP, Ateneo, San Beda, UST, lined up along with the most unknown. The atmosphere will be a mix of enthusiasm, goodwill, hope, anxiety…. It will just be the start of the six ordealsome months of waiting for the examinees. Four years (in my case, eight, altered) of studies in the law school (in my case, six law schools) – make that 1,460 days of literally burning the midnight oil - were not enough proof of fitness to enter the legal profession. The Bar Examinations is the final test to prove that one possesses all the qualifications to assist in the administration justice in the Philippines. Of course, there are continuing protests among discontented persons, usually flunkers, questioning the Supreme Court’s prerogative to shut permanently those who failed the Bar five times from taking it further. Most of these dissenters insist their “right” to be a lawyer despite the failing the exams several times. They insist on the wrong premise. That the legal profession is a matter of privilege and not a right is the basic reason for the regulation of entry into the profession through competitive examinations. Some can only question the validity and integrity of the examiners’ grading system, but what better way to gauge a graduate’s general grasp of laws and competency? Until better alternatives are set, the Bar is indispensable.

So you really want to study law and be a lawyer?

You should be very – and that’s very – serious. And your decision must not be a latent one. The idea must have been conceived years before you’d even been aware of it. The truth is, you should have prepared enough for it, from day one – that is, from the first day you stepped in college, or better yet, in high school, or better yet…. What they say is true about the troubling difficulty and even futility of plunging yourself into the ocean and learning to swim just then.

Alright, am not an expert nor an exemplary law student, but to provide some “advice” to those who opt to take up law, here’s my brief checklist of what I call the Law School Kit.

1. English grammar and communications skills. The language of the law, whether you’re patriotic or not, is English. That is because Philippine laws are written in English. Ergo, your first best weapon is your firm grasp of Standard English. A precaution: you should have at least eighteen (18) units of English in your pre-law curriculum; otherwise, most law schools require students to add English to their law subjects. Does that sound odd? Ridiculous at most. Pardon my impertinence, but should law schools be really filling this big, crucial gap? According to Bar examiners and law professors, most candidates did fail the Bar because of faulty English grammar, sentence construction, reading comprehension. You could just drop your jaw to hear students having difficulty in expressing themselves in English. If there is difficulty in the basic communication skills, could they excel in higher skills of creative and critical reasoning? Thus, the first book to grab is not any law book; rather, try to get a hold of an English Workbook. Hurdle the English communication skills tests – of active reading, writing, speaking, listening.

2. Logic and reasoning abilities. Laws are not constructed the way other disciplines are normally constructed. The meaning of words between legal provisions is not exactly the same as we ordinarily understand them to be. Study of law demands correct reasoning ability. No, it doesn’t mean we should learn how to debate or argue; it means finding the right reason for the answer to some questions however erronous the answer might be. Question, answer, but justify the answer. It must be a sound answer, based on some principles or established rulings (call that precedents), or some accepted custom. We train how to think properly in the same way that we must also train our brains to remember, and remember important provisions. In the past, and as correctly provided in the Rules, the pre-law courses had been and should be Bachelor of Arts (AB) studies, since AB is designed to train the students to think and reason out properly. Now, for as long as he/she has completed four years of college, anyone can be admitted to the LlB program. [This challenges me to make a comparative study on the Law graduates' performance in the Bar vis a vis their pre-law course; there must be an underlying connection somewhere].

3. Good health and strict discipline. If you see that there are incoherence in this piece, the writer must be suffering from mental or physical fatigue due to myriad of factors. But there are just no excuses once the recitations begin (which is the fixed call of each day). When your name is called, don’t aim to touch nor glance at your book/notes - go to the classroom aisle with only the kilometric provisions, doctrines and principles and case laws stored in your brain as your ammunition. Do not fidget nor be “onion-skinned” even if the “terror” professor hurls invectives for unsatisfactory answers, as being soaked to humiliations forms part of the training or admonitions for not doing what is expected. Cadets and seminarians hurdle similar degrees of discipline-harnessing trainings and tests. So must law students. To succeed in the jungles of legal studies, the keys are always the basics: good health and strict discipline. One is not exaggerating when you hear him say he lives a regimented lifestyle. That is, he divides 24 hours of his day into meaningful, productive endeavors and strictly following each task to the letter. No cigarettes, no alcohol, no movies, no loud music, no gossips, even no relationships. Say no to everything that will divide your attention. Remember: Lady Justice is a jealous mistress, and you should devote your commitment to her alone from the very moment you stepped into the study of law. Also, make sure that you get eight hours of sleep each day – if this sounds impossible, then find ways to catch up on it. Now that you get 8, devote at least six hours to reading each day. For us working students, this is a tall order – of getting “enough” of quality reading hours each day. What I do, I try to devote at least double the hours of the number of units in any subject. For example, give a minimum of eight hours per week of active reading for a 4-unit subject. Couple this with at least 30-minute of proper exercise each day, and a bunch of healthy food. Don’t forget to attend to daily devotions – at least it relieves your soul, which in effect calms down tired muscles and weary nerves.

4. Personal library. Never rely on books from the school library alone. What’s ideal is to stack a copy of each author for a given subject. Call this a valued investment which will not depreciate even until you have become a lawyer. While it’s good to have a laptop to store your database of laws and cases, it is still best to have hard copies of the basic documents. Books are indispensable, so invest on them. First list would be:

Legal Profession and Introduction to Law
Philippine Constitution Annotated
Revised Penal Code Annotated
Family Code of the Philippines Annotated
Civil Code of the Philippines, Book One Annotated
Statutory Construction
Legal Writing
Legal Research
Codal Provisions of Revised Penal Code, Philippine Constitution, Civil Code of the Philippines

5. (I reserve this for later discussions. Better yet, let me hear from you

Lesson on Arrogance

Arrogance may be defined as the lack of diligence in one’s speech and actions. It manifests in over-focus on the self without regard to the feelings and opinions of others. The overarching importance is placed on popularity, at whatever cost. Thesaurus provides the following synonyms for arrogance: conceit, haughtiness, egotism, superiority, pride, overconfidence, self-importance. Its opposite is humility. Integrity, on the other hand, is that moral virtue which puts premium on the speaker’s or actor’s reputation above popularity, fairness, truth and honor above fame. Its opposite is dishonesty. A gargantuan roadblock to integrity is arrogance.

Arrogance can well be given flesh by a lunchtime television variety show host who complains about presenting a video update on the ongoing funeral for a revered national icon, for the Woman of Great Integrity. To Wowowee host Willie Revillame, the funeral footage ran unparallel to the jubilant mood which the show was catering. He was aware of the implication of his statements as he said he was unperturbed of possible sanction by his network bosses or by the MTRCB. He defended his tantrum of disallowing the videos, saying his concern was to prevent presenting Wowowee as insensitive to the bereavement of the Aquino family and the nation. His end though does not justify the means. He could have been cautious, reminding himself of the pervasive impact his statement might have on the sensitive viewer. Sympathy takes many forms, but not how he said what he had said. Better yet, he could rather not have said anything at all. To say that one has no regard about other people’s reactions to his statement is to display utter arrogance. He should not have thought about its (the arrogant statement) effect to his popularity alone but on its impact on the network’s credibility and integrity. It is not an easy road to be in the defensive for dismissing an offensive, arrogant remark.

The Willie case is just one tidbit example of arrogance. What could be more glaring examples of arrogance than the selection of this year’s National Artists, the return to the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) of the list of nominees for the next Supreme Court Justices, and the defense for an imeldific dinner in New York, all by Her Excellency?

The conferment of the National Artist title is a presidential prerogative. It is protected by a decree precisely so as to prevent the abuse of that presidential prerogative. As such, the process is that the President selects the conferee from a list of nominees forwarded to Malacañang by peer institutions, such as the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) and the National Center for Culture and the Arts (NCCA)—two institutions which are supposedly built by prestige and credibility. If Malacañang would insist on the President’s personal choices, the selection process would rather be abolished once and for all. Add presidential prerogative to the list of synonyms of arrogance.

Malacañang named Cecile Guidote-Alvarez (for theater) and Carlo J. Caparas (for film/visual arts) as two of this year’s National Artists (NA). Alvarez’s arrogance may not be evident as yet in defending that her title is backed by years of unprecedented commitment to the establishment of a national theater movement since the 60s. But if you look at where she sits when she says this defense, then that is where the arrogant slip shows. As the head of NCCA, she could have at least begged off the title or, if she’s keen on the “award”, leave NCCA. The issue is not Ms. Alvarez’s qualifications to the title; rather, the issue is her moral integrity, her delicadeza. Alvarez’s case is the irony of decades of committed service now betrayed by a moment of lust for recognition. Add to the list of synonyms for arrogance: lust for recognition; absence of delicadeza.

I would not have bothered to discuss Carlo J. Caparas, as to indulge in the discussion of his works would be an exercise in futility. As he says, let his massacre movies speak for themselves; let Panday and Totoy Bato save his whatever needs saving. What irks me is his remark, undermining the value of my most revered nationalist writer, F. Sionil Jose—a most deserving National Artist. The nerve of Caparas to diminish Jose’s national and international worth. The arrogance of this accidental, commercial filmmaker cum visual artist only manifests in his inadequate reading of socially and culturally enshrining works, and in his condescending regard for the academic community who, to Caparas, are the only patrons of Jose’s works. I do not wonder the condescending attitude toward the academe, to the value of education. How many of his works have made it to the Top Ten, Top Fifty, or Top 100 Filipino Films by the most respected scholarly film institutes? Not a single?

Whenever there is a vacancy in the Justices of the Supreme Court, the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) is tasked by the Constitution to recommend to Malacañang at least three (3) nominees for every vacancy. The JBC submitted to President Arroyo six (6) nominees from which two (2) shall be appointed to fill the two vacancies. Apparently, Malacañang’s protégées were not in the list that the list was returned to the JBC, days before the 90-day deadline. This arrogance by the President is backed by its disregard for the constitutional mandate to the JBC, the indifference to the 90-day deadline and the subsequent constitutional crisis, and the utter disdain for the competence, integrity and overall qualifications of the six nominees. She thinks of herself as the singular, most powerful constitutional figure in the government. What better term than arrogance do we have for a president who has no respect for the equal sharing of power of the three branches of government?

Just as when the entire world, and her third world country is in dire financial crisis and food insufficiency, the President and her minions had the temerity to dine in a Ritz New York restaurant, to the tune of a million pesos. That is arrogance, plain and simple. To her defenders, this dinner is just a token gesture to an invitation by a Congressman. Not a good defense, either. The issue is not the amount of the bill in proportion to the assets of the dinner host; rather, it is the moral integrity of the public officials accepting the invitation, if indeed it was a response to an invitation. This dinner is reminiscent of the grand life, of the delusion of grandeur, of the Marcoses while the rest of Filipinos wallow in abject poverty.

What moral authority does your leader have when she says she cares for your children when she has not enough budget for your children’s education, food and medicine—while she can have the gall to party on caviar and the most expensive wines. What moral integrity does your president have when she says she emulates the honesty, simplicity and integrity of Corazon C. Aquino, while displaying her wealth and power for all the world to see? That is arrogance, pure and simple.

Looking at these public figures, it is not difficult to identify who is arrogant and who has the integrity. Their speech must complement their actions, and their actions their speech. They can indulge in self-adulation sometimes, but they cannot deceive the careful eye of the public all the time.

Thank you, Madame Cory Aquino

The entire Filipino people and the rest of the freedom-loving community worldwide mourn the passing of our great leader, former President Corazon C. Aquino.

Her death is surely a painful loss for those who have lived in the dark days of tyranny and for us who continue to fight for truth, and struggle to pursue, achieve, restore and preserve genuine democracy.

Never had the Filipino people have a great leader than Cory, the true symbol of unity, democracy and humble rise to power.

Never in the history of the Philippines had we as a people been prouder to claim to be Filipinos than under the leadership of Cory.

Cory rose to power amidst the vestiges of violence and lies of the former dictatorship. Despite the opportunity of getting even to her husband Ninoy’s tormentors, Cory offered her presidency to ensure that the Filipino people would never again suffer under a repressive government. Hence, among the first things that the Aquino leadership did was to promulgate the Constitution, the basic document that ensures the reign of democracy and respects the civil and political rights of the people.

Even long after she stepped down from Malacañang, even as she silently suffered the pains of colon cancer, Cory continuously and selflessly offered her remaining days to rally the people against threats to democracy and tinker with the Constitution. For us, the Constitution is not just a collective expression of the Filipino people’s quest for a just and humane society; the Constitution is the symbol of Cory’s visionary leadership. We then as a people who fought great battles that cost the lives of thousands of Filipinos should not let any move to tinker with the Constitution. We should unite, under the spirit of People Power and by the inspiration of Cory, to quell any self-servient move to amend the Constitution – at least not in the proximate time.

Cory will be remembered for People Power. And as long as the flames that sparked People Power keep burning, the spirit of Cory will never die. As long as every individual clamors for truth, justice and peace, Cory Aquino will live as an inspiration for generations and generations.

We are grateful to Cory for all the fruits of liberty and democracy that we so enjoy now in our land. As Cory leaves this temporal world, we pray that God receives her in His kingdom. God is truly marvelous for giving us Cory as His instrument for restoring peace and faith in our land.

May you rest in the arms of our Lord, Madame President Cory C. Aquino. Thank you for sharing your life with us, for us. Thank you too, to your family for selflessly sharing you and Ninoy with us.