THIS IS GETTING to be quite boring; democracy died again last week and resurrected a few hours. Really a miracle. Jesus Christ himself resurrected three days after he died while in the Philippines resurrection takes place in just a few hours.
And how did this modern day “miracle” happen?
Excerpts from the March 30, 2019 issue of Panay News:
Rappler’s Ressa posts bail after being arrested anew
Rappler chief executive officer Maria Ressa was arrested upon her arrival in the country from San Francisco City on early Friday in connection to her alleged violation of the Anti-Dummy Law.
Ressa was served with an arrest warrant by two policewomen at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport at around 7 a.m. yesterday. She posted a P90,000 bail before Pasig City Regional Trial Court Branch 265 later in the day.
The case against Ressa stemmed from a National Bureau of Investigation complaint related to the issuance of Philippine Depositary Receipts to Omidyar Network, an Indonesian company that invested in the online news website.
The Pasig Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 265 issued the arrest warrant against Ressa, Rappler managing editor Glenda Gloria and 2016 board members Manuel Ayala, Nico Nolledo, James Bitanga, Felicia Atienza, and James Velasquez on Thursday.
Ressa was the only one arrested as she was out of the country while her co-defendants have already posted their P90,000 bail each days ahead of the arrest warrant release on Thursday.
Rappler repeatedly denied the allegations that it was being controlled by a foreign entity, but the Court of Appeals ruled earlier this month that the news website was not fully-owned by Filipinos.
Aside from the anti-dummy case, Ressa is facing at least nine other cases including libel, multiple counts of tax evasion and cyber libel, where she was arrested and bailed out earlier this year.
Of course, the battle cry of the Rappletes and the rest of the “devotees to the cult of the yellow ribbon” as soon as Maria Ressa was arrested was – and you guessed it right – “democracy is dead” and “assault on press freedom”. But after she posted bail and was released they were all quiet as a graveyard.
In these islands democracy has died frequently that I already lost track on exactly how many times we see democracy in its death bed only to rise again and die again. In fact, considering the number of times democracy has been pronounced dead it would be not be farfetched to say that in the Philippines democracy dies and lives depending on one’s political affiliation.
The number of times that democracy has been pronounced dead has developed a pattern that points out to the usual suspects with a penchant for shouting that democracy is dead.
Generally, the people with a fixation on the death of democracy are almost always “devotees to the cult of the yellow ribbon.”
And these are the usual suspects that have pronounced the death of democracy including the event why they killed democracy:
* Maria Ressa and her Rappletes: when the Securities and Exchange Commission or SEC found her organization Rappler violating the Constitution (yes, the one Hilario Davide is willing to die for) with regards to foreign ownership in media
* when the Bureau of Internal Revenue or BIR charged Maria Ressa and Rappler with tax evasion
* when she was arrested for the case of libel filed by an ordinary citizen
* her recent arrest for violation of the Anti-Dummy Law
* Maria Ressa et al. cried that democracy is dead in a press conference and in a public rally. Considering that she declared democracy dead I was expecting that she would be arrested for doing so. But nothing happened much to my disappointment.
I guess this means that democracy is not dead; flawed but alive and kicking, if you can shout to the high heavens that democracy is dead in a press conference and rally and not be arrested then go to Starbucks later for your cappuccino fix.
* Maria Lourdes Sereno went the rounds of all forums available from media outlets to school activities declaring that democracy is dead when she was booted out as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court via a Quo Warranto proceeding which of course is embedded in the current Constitution (the 1987 Constitution or the Cory constitution).
Meilou, as she prefers to be called, even went as far as to proclaim that the justice system will collapse with her being booted out of the Supreme Court. It’s been a year after she was unceremoniously booted out and the courts seem to be working just fine and she’s still going around badmouthing President Rodrigo Duterte. So far she has not been arrested.
* When the courts found Imelda Marcos guilty for graft and sentenced her and had a warrant for her arrest, suddenly democracy was alive. But when the same courts allowed her to post bail to avoid being incarcerated, democracy died as quickly as it was alive.
* When the Supreme Court allowed the burial of the late President Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, democracy died again.
* Likewise when the courts ordered the arrest of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV for rebellion, democracy died a sudden death and when the same courts allowed him to post bail, democracy is alive once more.
You know, for all the shrill screams that “democracy is dead” and “assault on press freedom” I have yet to see a newspaper, radio/television station closed or journalist arrested for being critical of the so-called dictator President Rodrigo Duterte. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)
