Let's twist again

Speaker Jose de Venecia sounds very sure when he declares that the shift of our governmental system from presidential to parliamentarian will take place in three months. Even if there is a Supreme Court ruling that the method called People's Initiative is not acceptable because there is no existing law that supports it, those in the highest offices of the administration are not worrying.

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Yesterday, it was reported that the new Solicitor General, the one who took over from the much-admired Alfredo Benipayo, is preparing to ask the Supreme Court to reverse its 1997 decision on the initiative thing. This means they want the present members of the High Court, some of whom were already there in 1997, to twist around their ruling on the matter. Well, nobody is listening to those who want the more credible Constitutional Convention, some people just want a shortcut, even if we have to twist the law to have it. Maybe Congress could pass a law on it, but also, maybe, the Supreme Court can do it faster.

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This will be interesting. Let's watch if the High Court will decide on the People's Initiative case before the pending petitions against: one, the unpopular Calibrated Preemptive Response; two, the muffler that is the Executive Order No. 464; or, three, the most ominous of them all, the "lifted" but still effective Proclamation No. 1017. Let's look out for these and then we can say, "By their acts we shall know them…"

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I hope it is not true, but the revelation made by former Ambassador and Senator Ernesto Maceda in his column yesterday is very alarming. Maceda wrote about the case of a nine-year-old girl in Cavite who disappeared. When her body was found later, it was discovered that half of her internal organs were missing. It is suspected that the organs were taken to be sold to those needing transplants, like kidney or heart patients. He said kidneys are now selling for as much as P500,000.

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It was also noted that the organs of children are very much in demand because they are younger and healthier and will probably last longer in the recipients. That is why a warning is being issued to parents, especially in distant barangays, to watch over their children carefully. Who knows if the traffickers in human parts may be scouting around there because they are far from the authorities. Also, the disappearance of children, and of their organs, may be attributed by unlearned parents to superstitious causes, such as the work of witches and other evil spirits.

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More and more parents and pupils are coming out with complaints against the methods by which some teachers are disciplining their students. In the Lukban Elementary School in Paco, Manila, the parents of an 11-year-old Grade VI pupil complained that their son suffered back pains and had to sleep face down. They found out later that the boy had been punished for throwing stones at another pupil who had also thrown some at him. He was made to squat and the teacher allegedly rode on his shoulders. Doctors found a deformity in his spinal cord.

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In Great Britain, their school problem is different. Officials are the ones complaining about the rampant cheating in examinations by students using their cellular (mobile to them) phone in doing so. Shhh… don't let our local students hear that. But, for all you know, they are experts at that already. It's not like the Pinoy to be "behind" in any trickery, you know. The solution adopted by the British schools is to ban the bringing of such phones inside the classroom. Those found having them during examinations will be marked down or failed in the subject, whether or not they are using them. That should give our schools a tip.

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Meanwhile, congratulations to Norman Saril and family and to William and Chit Mirano whose children hurdled the bar examinations as shown in the results released yesterday. I'm sure Norman is on Cloud Nine with his namesake, Andrei Norman, one of the passers. As for William and Chit, Pinky will be another Mirano to add to their expanding law office. Of course I congratulate the son and the daughter, too, but I feel the daddies and mommies deserve more of the credits!*

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