RUMORS swirling some years ago that justices of the Court of Appeals were accepting bribes had somehow vanished. But talks resurfaced when the Supreme Court disbarred a lawyer who claimed he could bribe the justices to overturn decisions of lower courts.
A complaint was filed against William delos Santos before the High Court by his client for failing to return P160,000 after the CA affirmed her son’s conviction for selling and possession of illegal drugs. Assuming the claim of Delos Santos was true, it was possible the amount that supposedly found its way to the justices in the case and the facilitator in the CA had been insufficient.
‘The President just missed a genuine opportunity in his bid to bring about a sense of unity by not permitting the celebration to fall on the actual date of EDSA, February 25.’
It must be stressed here, however, that Delos Santos had been suspended before by the SC for serious misconduct. His credibility now is shot. But if he was really dealing with corrupt justices at the CA, no one would ever know.
Former President Erap Estrada once alluded to corrupt justices at the CA and at the High Court as “rogues in robes” until he was overthrown by EDSA II.
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This is the first time since the People Power revolt in 1986 that Malacanang had ignored any official commemoration of the EDSA uprising. President Bongbong Marcos deliberately downplayed it by rescheduling its celebration on February 24, referring to holiday economics as justification.
Consigning a significant part of our modern political history that restored our stolen democracy to just a regular working day does not bring any social or political benefit to the President and his administration. Surely, it would have been quite a challenge for him and his family to freely allow the nation to remember EDSA and how the people threw his father and their family out of power.
He regards the EDSA People Power revolt as “days of tribulation that divided the nation.”
The President just missed a genuine opportunity in his bid to bring about a sense of unity by not permitting the celebration to fall on the actual date of EDSA, February 25.
Leftist groups were quick to junk his call for reconciliation which indeed could only be possible when “justice and meaningful recognition of the abuses of the past” are honestly upheld.
If the President really aspires to be a cut above the rest, he should take the cue from the late South African President Nelson Mandela who selflessly and vigorously organized and implemented the historical Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
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A Christian now active in conducting Biblical devotionals claims that he suffered a stroke that left one side of his body paralyzed as a consequence of his marital infidelity. He had carried on an affair with a former girlfriend who was also married.
He eventually opened up to his wife and asked for forgiveness. Their marriage is now stronger than before and he has accepted his ailment as one good reason.
The Bible teaches that sickness and suffering do not come from God, and yet He allows them to happen. Head Pastor Manny Manansala of the Live in Victory Church (LIV) at Ortigas center explains, “Man has free will, of course. God allows man to sin, He allows us to resist sin. God allows man not to repent, God allows man to repent. God allows sickness, He allows us to resist sickness. In Jesus’ Name.”
And the love and mercies of God are incomprehensible as evidenced by innumerable great men of God in history and as the following passage tells us. Ephesians 3: 17-18 “May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge;’ that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
