The SC backs Fernando

Once more, with feeling: A very happy new year to all our readers and friends! May all your problems be left with the year just past, and may you have no new ones to leave next time.

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I would also like to say thank you to all those who texted me their greetings, even if some had me do a lot of guessing since they did not give their names, and I did not have their numbers in my directory. Of course I replied to all of them, but just mentioning this so they will identify themselves next time. Thanks for the nice thoughts, anyway. But the winner among my "greeters" is undoubtedly Edouard G who led them all for Christmas, and also for New Year with his Rizal Day message. Nobody does it like Sweet'n'Sour, I tell you.

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One thing that most people noted about the arrival of this new year is that celebrators were more prudent about their noisemaking. Unlike previous years when you could still hear the booming and cracking up to early morning, the sounds dwindled and finally ceased at about 2 a.m. Also, while there were more revelers reported injured, there were no really serious injuries in the city and province, and, so far, no deaths from pyrotechnics have been reported. That is something to be thankful for, as the year starts.

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What we have to deplore, however, are the crimes reported over the holidays, the worst of which was the gunning down of a Pasay City judge near his home. Regional Trial Court Judge Henrich Gingoyon had distinguished himself for his landmark decision on the very controversial airport case, involving the government and the Philippine International Airport Terminal Co, or PIATCO. Gingoyon was the one who ordered the government to pay PIATCO before it can use the airport, and he was sustained by the Supreme Court. Who could have ordered his liquidation?

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Another SC decision that is sure to raise the hackles of Metro Manila mayors is the latest one confirming the police powers of the Metro Manila Development Authority headed by the uncompromising Bayani Fernando. I'm sure this will mean a more improved traffic system for Metro Manila, but it will clip the wings of some overacting mayors who still want to make their constituents believe that they are the kingpins of their areas. Congratulations and more power to Chairman Fernando, with his pink toilets and all!

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She did not announce anything earthshaking in Baguio on Rizal Day as this column had warned. But several media people also remembered later that day three years ago when President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo solemnly announced there that she had decided not to run for reelection in 2004. In the past few days, therefore, some media entities had been digging up her own declaration and airing them all over again. Among them was the Inquirer who editorialized the matter, especially focusing on her statement that she was the one dividing the nation, and that "…my political efforts can only result in never-ending divisiveness." Perhaps she had her fingers crossed behind her back when she said that. But she surely proved herself, prophetic.

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While Finance officials are crowing about the strengthening of the peso against the U.S. dollar, which was recorded at P52.83 yesterday, not everybody is happy about it. A family man who relies on OFW money to augment his income, says this will mean less in pesos for him, while at the same time prices of commodities keep going on. Well, you can't please everybody, even if the President and her men are rejoicing over a glass that they say is half full, the common tao still sees it as half-empty.

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I was saddened to hear about the death of former Justice Celicia Muñoz Palma yesterday. She was already 92, but her mind was as sharp as ever, and her love for country as keen. A trailblazer among the women of the Philippines, she will be remembered in history for the various roles she had played in its development. As for me, I first met her when she was campaigning against the late President Marcos with Cory Aquino, at the house of Lydia and Baby Lizares. She immediately impressed me as a very practical person, with a brilliant, but at the same time commonsensical approach to problems. I don't think there will be another one like her in this generation.*

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