It is characteristic of good myth that one “sees” connections where there shouldn’t be. Dune won a Hugo Award in 1966 yet we can draw parallels to it. How the Filipino, in many ways is like that Fremen in the desert with their religious fatalism and fragmented society. How the Fremen of the deep desert distrust their City-based brothers and sisters. Can’t we draw parallels too between House Corrino and the Arroyos and the Landstrad and our Congress? How we cry out “Mahadi! Lisan al-Gaib” How often do Noynoy’s supporters think he is that voice from the outer world that would save them from the Harkonnens? How running for higher office is a trap for an Aquino? For better or worse, how often have their family been drafted for a cause?

The themes are familiar, don’t you think?

If you’ve read Dune, you would know this. Leto Atreides looked out a window into the desert with his son, Paul by his side. Tired and exhausted, the Atreides Red Duke felt like an animal trapped. And he pointed to a Green and Black flag and spoke these words:

“To hold Arrakis,” the Duke said, “one is faced with decisions that may cost one his self-respect.” He pointed out the window to the Atreides green and black banner hanging limply from a staff at the edge of the landing field. “That honorable banner could come to mean many evil things.”

Would an Aquino be faced with a similar choice? That to achieve all that which this country needs— to wage a battle to wipeout corruption, must he do evil things to achieve it?

So something was troubling me. Why are people up in arms against Recto joining the Liberal Party? Yeah, there is something “morally wrong” with it.

But I have to ask you these questions:

1) Would you choose to cut off your arm, just because you hit your brother with it?

“Do you think you could lift your hand against me?” Paul asked. Stilgar began to tremble. “It’s the way,” he muttered.

“It’s the way to kill offworld strangers found in the desert and take their water as a gift from Shai-hulud,” Paul said. “Yet you permitted two such to live one night, my mother and myself.”

As Stilgar remained silent, trembling, staring at him, Paul said: “Ways change, Stil. You have changed them yourself.”

Stilgar looked down at the yellow emblem on the knife he held.

“When I am Duke in Arrakeen with Chani by my side, do you think I’ll have time to concern myself with every detail of governing Tabr sietch?” Paul asked. “Do you concern yourself with the internal problems of every family?”

Stilgar continued staring at the knife.

“Do you think I wish to cut off my right arm?” Paul demanded.

Slowly, Stilgar looked up at him.

“You!” Paul said. “Do you think I wish to deprive myself or the tribe of your wisdom and strength?”

In a low voice, Stilgar said: “The young man of my tribe whose name is known to me, this young man I could kill on the challenge floor, Shai-hulud willing. The Lisan al-Gaib, him I could not harm. You knew this when you handed me this knife.”

“I knew it,” Paul agreed.

Stilgar opened his hand. The knife clattered against the stone of the floor. “Ways change,” he said.

2) On the question of morality, people want to refuse to wall ourselves up from outside forces because the latter worked for GMA. Isn’t it better to turn that weapon against others? isn’t it better to take that weapon before someone else does?

In the eternal words of Sun Tzu: “Thus one who excels at employing the military subjugates other people’s armies without engaging in battle, captures other people’s fortified cities without attacking them, and destroys other people’s states without prolonged fighting. He must fight under Heaven with the paramount aim of preservation. Thus his weapons will not become dull and the gains can be preserved. ”

If one considers Recto and Santos-Recto as captured force that is now for the Liberal Party, would that make you more comfortable?

As I’ve mentioned in previous entries, the battle for 2010 is much larger than simply winning the election. Anyone alienated is one more person who could be an enemy. Recto and people like him— are mistrusted by a lot of people. We think he and his kind are like Yueh (and like Judas), forever disgraced because he betrayed the Atreides. In our case, because he betrayed Filipinos by siding with GMA.

It is either take that small victory or risk letting Recto and Santos-Recto’s influence to go to someone else, not just for May but post election day. It would be foolish to turn away people who want to join the campaign. With all the small victories the Liberal Party is making, it is fast becoming the next Lakas. Is it better to absorb them and preserve the party’s strength than to chop it off and let others have those spoils? If Recto and Santos-Recto had gone to Villar, do you think it would have made winning 2010 that much easier for Noynoy? Who else can help him carry vote rich Batangas?

Do not forget we are at War. We might find that yellow banner, like that green and black rag to be bloodied and dirty before the six years of an Aquino presidency is over. So what, I ask, if the conditions for victory are achieved? Recto is not Yueh, and we have bigger battles to fight before the war is over.

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Mike Gonzalez (TheCoffee) published the image of Ralph Recto under Creative Commons and used here based on that.

Will the Litl be the next Apple Computer?

It was January 24, 1984 when the first Macintosh said, “hello”. It was the first successful personal computer that used images, rather than text to interact with the user. It wasn’t by far the first computer to have a graphical user interface and a mouse. A decade later, PCs would standardize on the concept through Windows and the rest as people say, has been history. Twenty five years later, the world as we know it is little changed from that first Macintosh design. Much of our computing relies on point and click. And much of our computing hardware follows the same pattern as that first PC that came out in 1981.

The past decade has been an experiment in different user interfaces. More and more the trend has been to make the machine humanized. From gestures to different user interfaces for our devices. iPhone OS was the commercialization of it.  The commercial success of iPhone OS is spectacular. Say what you will about the borked AppStore process but the device and OS itself is revolutionary. iPhone OS is years ahead of what companies like Google and Palm are coming out with. Don’t even get started with the whole Microsoft genre, which seem tired and uninteresting.

As these experiments on software evolve, computer hardware design itself is also changing.  The Litl is a small computer company with big ideas is one such experiment. Will the Litl be the next Apple?  The look is a lot better than most netbooks in the market.  The interface focuses on people’s digital lifestyle.  Yet, it seems archaic now to have a new computer that didn’t sport a touch interface. The easy of use that they are attempting is what computers should be: they work for you, not you working for the machine.

And today, Google introduces Chrome OS. It is Google’s Chrome browser that runs on top of a Linux kernel and it is built for Netbooks.

With Chrome OS making the Web its central focus, are we finally seeing the first glimpse of a universe of cloud?

In five years, it becomes riveting what companies like Dell and Sony can do with this, what they can innovate from the loosening of the OS grip. It would be highly interesting what Mac OS X will look like in five years. So what of the desktop? Oh, yeah, we’ll still use those. Doctors, Designers, Engineers, Scientists need machines to build, study, develop things and in time, those too will change as new user interfaces work for us. It would be wonderful to see how this field changes the way people use computers. Computing becomes exciting and fun again. Computers work for us and are extensions of our will.

From October 2007 until as recent as June 2009 amid continuing crises of confidence in government fueled by its historic lack of credibility, when we need most to believe in democracy, two constantly provide with leadership we can trust.

Last Tuesday, when Senator Loren Legarda answered not simply political wooing but a timely appeal to serve a higher calling, the equations defining 2010’s tandems of convenience based on “winability” changed. Suddenly there was substance. Senator and Business Mirror columnist Manuel Villar chose his running mate correctly. For all the mud thrown his way, in recent history Villar is still credited for heroically rising against presidential corruption. We know that he can be relied upon to do the right thing at the right time.

The convergence of objectives at the Laurel House is not simply a matter of commonalities. Measured by third-party pollsters, the former Senate President and Legarda share, not just numerical superiority in garnering the highest mandates for the Senate, but more importantly, poll numbers show they epitomize the most trustworthy.

There is an essential distinction among those who simply provide alternatives to failed governance and those who represent underlying desires and have consistently actualized promises through advocacies, platforms and proven programs. Among the few credible before us, most fall under the first. Only Villar and Legarda are under the latter.

There is an underlying desire that pervades among the despairing, rarely felt as we view without moral imperatives either graphic images of poverty outside, or, on laptops, historic records of involuntary hunger. Distrust is something the happiest people on the planet hide well.

In any electoral derby, trustworthiness is often undeclared, not less important than competence, experience and intelligence. And not a bit less than honesty and heart. As we measure, indulge our digression from the cliché qualifications. While some might argue the atypical, to do so would be to place Arroyo on a pedestal antithetical to the 2010 exercise.

To appreciate the importance of trust, situate what Legarda and Villar represent against the status quo offered by administration candidates. Undeniably, Arroyo acts like a president. But it is likewise undeniable, she does not have the public’s trust.

Against that bleak backdrop, it helps to analyze the emergent chemistries of president-vice president tandems. Specifically analyze the Villar-Legarda option against current frontrunner’s and another that seeks a second chance for an abruptly abbreviated presidency. Ignore nuisance tandems. Ignore sideshows that waste government funds, languish in single-digit preferences; depend on an immature electorate and whose chances are backstopped by machinery or popularity.

What generates trustworthiness? To answer, look at what is said of Legarda.

Elected with votes surpassing that needed for the presidency she was quickly chosen to be the Senate’ Majority Floor Leader. Her record is substantive. She authored legislation benefiting women and children. Exceedingly competent, Legarda is likewise “naturally compassionate, (with a) deep concern to uplift the unfortunate, protect and care for the environment, improve agriculture and rural conditions, safeguard the OFWs (overseas Filipino workers), and their families and mind the weak and the sick.”

Array those against Villar’s campaign for the same constituencies, OFWs, and that from which he rose, “the poor, the weak and the sick” and one might see why the chemistry between the two is better suited than any quickly contrived for 2010.

Our best analysis comes from a particularly profound political analyst, Filipino Voices’s Patricio Mangubat, who opined that when Legarda had opened herself, it was at then that she gained our trust. According to Mangubat, when Legarda “provided us with a six-point “pro-Poor, pro-People, pro-God agenda, which was devoid of neither necropolitical imagery nor the self-serving halleluiahs of ass-lickers” here at last was a candidate with a platform.

He declares that we may not agree with her, but he “appreciate(s) that Loren took the time to analyze Filipino society and provide the direction for us to take in the next six years”.

“All these men who came before us did not even care to provide us with their visions. They only expressed their self-serving dreams, but nary anything about service or a road-map towards rehabilitating our damaged institutions. All these men who said they want the presidency for themselves, treated us shabbily, even with disdain, thinking that campaigns are showbiz affairs and the great masses are an un-thinking lot and just a waste of their precious time telling us what they intend to do.”

Res ipsa loquitur. It is likewise Villar’s circumstance. Offer genuine care and trust is returned a millionfold.

The Resolution, which was purportedly written and pushed by no less than Liberal Party member Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, expressed the “sense of the Senate” and bore the signatures of Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Alan Peter Cayetano, Pia Cayetano, Lito Lapid, Gregorio Honasan, Joker Arroyo, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Ramon Revilla, Jinggoy Estrada, Loren Legarda, Francis Pangilinan and Villar.

The “see-nay” tors who signed based their “sense” on oral testimony instead of overwhelming documentary evidence linking Villar to the mess which was presented before the Senate of the Whole.

 Net—the Resolution says all twelve signatories believed in oral testimonies of four witnesses, meaning, these “see-nay” tors chose to listen to “chismis” instead of reading the entire transcripts and voluminous pieces of evidence presented before the Senate Committee of the Whole.

Resolution 1472 was released to the media a few days before yesterday’s (November 17) announcement of the Villar-Legarda tandem. It had impeccable timing. Yet, like all dastardly deeds, it stinks to the highest heavens.

Shortly after it was released, Senate president Juan Ponce-Enrile was apprised of the sneeky reso and threatened to resign. His colleagues prevailed him.

Eventually, Enrile learned that there was an element of deception here. Most of those who signed the Reso, omitting of course the familiar names of Pimentel, the Cayetano siblings, Pangilinan, Joker and Jinggoy and of course, who else but Loren, are claiming that they signed the reso purportedly after being told that it has the expressed support of the Senate president.

Enrile denied supporting Resolution 1472 which he, in fact, viewed as a direct affront to his leadership. That Reso, says Enrile, violated Senate rules and smacks of fraud. And who else to defend it but the venerable See-nay-tor Francis Kiko Pangilinan, whom pundits say, was the one who lobbied the others to sign.

Strange that a non-Nacionalista party member would push for a Resolution exonerating Villar when it is clear in the Senate rules that it is now the Senate of the Whole who will release the final report on the C-5 controversy.

Wagging tongues cannot but say that maybe Resolution 1472 was an “exchange deal” between the Nacionalista and the Liberal Party, ahead of the expected filing of an ethics case against Liberal Party presidential bet Noynoy Aquino, this time, on another “C-5″-like road controversy involving of course, the conversion of hectares of land in Hacienda Luisita for SLEX.

Remember that it was Cong. Crispin Remulla, a Nacionalista, who “exposed” the supposed complicity of Senator Aquino in that alleged overpricing of Hacienda Luisita land used for SLEX.

Seems like the Nacionalistas used Remulla’s expose as a “bait” for the Liberals to enter into an “exchange deal”–tit for tat—your overpriced C-5 in exchange for my overpriced SLEX. Sounds logical right? And with a Liberal (PANGILINAN) leading the pencil pushing and lobbying, all the more suspicious.

And it seems like the Nacionalista got Loren Legarda not because the beautiful environmentalist shares a common goal with their presidential bet Villar. Legarda was one of Villar’s rabid commenter at the Senate. And Legarda admitted that it was “all for show”, part of the “daily grind” of “usual questions”, of “common parliamentary debates”.

Statements such as these can’t prevent one from asking—did Loren baited Villar to make her his VP in exchange for one signature in that Resolution? That signature might have cost Villar a hand and a limb. Such political prostitution extraordinaire, if you ask me.

The sad thing about this—that Reso 1472 was junked. And the obvious loser was of course, Manny Villar, who mobilize all his resources just to make that Reso happen. Poor Manny. He tried to sneak himself out of the C-5 mess only to learn that, in the end, he still stinks and worst, left holding an empty bag (of tricks?).

As they say, when it stinks, it stinks really bad.

Transparency International ranked the Philippines number 139 on its Corruption Perception Index.

As a corollary take a look at this screenshot I took of the Global Competitive Report 2009-2010:

Global Competitive Report Philippines 2009-2010

The next administration must focus on Corruption. That everything else must take a back seat. Education. Health Care. and anything else you can think about must play second fiddle to fighting and defeating Corruption. That everything the next administration must handle, at its core ought to be about fighting corruption no matter how indirect it is. The Philippines’ knack for pulling self out of the brink may run out. If the next administration somehow misses the boat to fix Corruption at this juncture, it is not inconceivable to find the Philippines in a much deeper spot than it already is. This is the challenge of the next president of the Philippines.

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my thanks to @Solstitial for transparency international link.

Pulse Asia just released its latest nationwide survey on the top choices for president. Noynoy Aquino is at 44 percent while Manuel Villar, Francis “Chiz” Escudero and Joseph Estrada are at 19, 13 and 11 percent, respectively. That makes the 2009 election a race for second place.

But that’s only true if honesty and an unblemished reputation remains the horse to ride.

Pulse Asia asked their respondents why they were voting for a particular candidate. The five top reasons cited were: “Hindi kurakot/malinis” (Does not steal/is clean) (21.2 percent); “May nagawa, may magagawa” (Has done a lot/can do a lot) (14 percent); “Para sa mahirap, galing sa mahirap” (Pro-poor/comes from the poor) (12.2 percent); “Tumutulong” (Helps a lot) (12 percent); “Reputasyon ng pamilya” (Family reputation) (4.2 percent).

Looking into the components of each of those five reasons will show why the election frame is still up for grabs.

The first and fifth reasons belong to Noynoy Aquino, obviously.

The second reason,“May nagawa, may magagawa,” belongs to padrino (patron) politicos—Disaster relief (2.7 percent); Other accomplishments (6.1 percent); Nagbigay ng pabahay (Provided housing) (4.9 percent) and one other at 0.4 percent.

The third reason, “Para sa mahirap, galing sa mahirap,” is also padrino (patronage) politics—“Matulungin sa mahirap” (Helpful to the poor) (7.8 percent); “Makamahirap/pagtingin sa mahirap” (Pro-poor) (3.7 percent) and “galing sa mahirap” (Came from poverty) (0.7 percent)

The fourth reason, “Tumutulong,” is still about padrino—“Tumutulong sa OFW” (Helps overseas Filipino workers) (6.6 percent) and “Matulungin” (Helpful) (5.4 percent).

So it seems that the way to defeat Noynoy is to change the election frame from a question of character to a contest of who is the best padrino, regardless of record and reputation.

I think the Villar and Estrada camps realize that. That’s why there is a concerted campaign to knock Noynoy off his white horse.

Estrada does not attack Noynoy directly but his campaign manager, writing an article in a newspaper closely associated with him, started a rumor that was picked up by the slimiest practitioners of jukebox journalism.

As for the ethically challenged Villar, his statement that all candidates were the same was followed with an exposé by one of his loyal lieutenants.

Rep. Crispin “Boying” Remulla alleged that Noynoy Aquino got the SCTEx (Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway) rerouted for his family’s benefit. He added that Noynoy’s family overpriced their land. In short, Noynoy was no different from Villar.

SCTEx was a road project between Estrada and the Japanese government. It started during Estrada’s term and was completed under the Arroyo administration. Noynoy had no hand in it.

The difference between the non-role of Noynoy in SCTEx and Villar’s hand in the cookie jar in C-5 is black and white.

The rerouting of C-5 and the overpricing of Villar’s landholdings happened while Villar was chairman of the Senate finance committee. Note that in fairness to Villar, I used “while” instead of “because.”

Noynoy neither had the political power nor the gall to do to SCTEx what Villar did to C5.

Most important of all, Noynoy, unlike Villar, will not run away from an ethics investigation. He is not afraid to testify under oath. He has nothing to hide, nothing to lie about.

The strategy of those lagging behind Noynoy is to run gimmicks and political ads selling themselves as the patron saints of the poor while spreading black lies about Noynoy, his mother and their relatives.

The American journalist Jimmy Breslin once described political campaigns as a season of “speeches and slander, of lies and libel, of life without a conscience.”

The laggards have oodles of money to finance the sort of propaganda that would do Joseph Goebbels proud.

So the question is, what will win the people’s trust and confidence this time around: the politics of honesty and cleanliness, or the politics of patronage and slander?

The bill is enjoying tremendous support in the Lower Chamber, and great is the possibility that legislators will pass it. Now, if the elections fail, according to the bill, it would be Loren Legarda who will assume the post.

Since Legarda will be running as vice presidential bet of Nacionalista party Manny Villar, and definitely public sentiments will go against her assuming the presidency, the onus transfers to Chiz Escudero.

Escudero got the second highest number of votes last 2007 elections. Hi term ends in 2013. If he elects not to run for any elective post in 2010, Escudero would just have to wait for the elections to fail and he would assume the presidency.

Now, if Escudero do decides to run, then, it would have to be Senator Edgardo Angara who will act as transition president. Angara’s term ends in 2013.

One major stumbling block—Norberto Gonzales, the defense secretary cum ideologue cum GMA stooge.

Gonzales is there to protect the interests of the Arroyo mafia. He’s there to provide ideological muscle. In the future, Gonzales role will be very important, first as Gloria’s Rasputin in case this administration declares an emergency and converts itself into a dictatorial regime or as a catalyst for the military to shift allegiance.

Gonzales, obviously, would do what his principal orders him to do. Escudero’s alignment with the Magdalo does not sit well for Gonzales, who, as a clerico-fascist, positions himself at the extreme of the political spectrum. Gonzales is there to preserve the gains of the Arroyo mafia insofar as the military is concerned.

Clearly, what is to be expected come 2010 is the clash between Gonzales and Escudero’s group. Their clash will obviously create a push and pull effect which will eventually split the country’s military in half. If this happens, a power vacuum is likely to happen.

What are the chances the Puerto Rican superstar will spoil what appears to be inevitable? Slim.

Here’s why. It would be an accolade for Cotto to be considered as good a fighter as Oscar “The Golden Boy” De La Hoya or the erstwhile 140-pound king Ricky Hatton, Manny’s victims in his last two famous encounters. Without more but his size, Cotto is similarly bound for destruction by the most talented student of boxing today.

One critical key to easy victory for Pacquiao is his punching accuracy honed of late to near perfection by the “master” himself, Freddie Roach, something that was not consistent or absent from Zab Judah, Ricardo Torres and Shane Mosely, elite world champions whose boxing styles are being compared to Manny Pacquiao’s but who all succumbed to Cotto’s vaunted true grit. The comparison is farfetched.

Cotto is obviously the bigger guy but he is not necessarily the stronger fighter and so if he plans to slug it out early with Manny, he will go down as loudly and early as Hatton.

While many expect the hand and foot speed of the Filipino boxer to neutralize Cotto’s (planned) strategic attack to the rib cage (or perhaps the groin), it is Manny’s precise delivery of his punches and counterpunches and superb ring intelligence which will earn him a secure place in sports history in just another memorably stunning fashion.

My prediction: the Pacman will heartily consume Miguel Cotto within four to five rounds to take home not only Cotto’s WBO welterweight title but Mohammad Ali’s, “The Greatest.”

The COMELEC Second Division however I believe became more Catholic than the Pope.  By denying Ang Ladlad’s petition for accreditation it used the “protection of morality argument”. The question is should the COMELEC be in the business of protecting people’s morals or should they be more in the protection of ballots? Also the decision even to a non-lawyer is violative of the non-Establishment of Religion clause in our Bill of Rights.  The decision clearly favours Christianity and Islam and is protective of the belief system of the two faiths. Even if these two faiths consist the majority of the electorate’s religious affiliation, the State by virtue of the Constitution is required to be neutral with respect to religion.

If gays want to destroy the constitutional system of government, then COMELEC should not accredit it. If gays have in their platform a plan for liquidating straights in order to rule the planet, then COMELEC should not accredit it. But if gays want to participate in the electoral system and promote children’s rights, women’s rights and the right to an education (which is Ladlad’s platform) then they should not be a threat to anyone in our society at all. I recall Danton Remoto’s quip on  gay marriage. Danton said “No, magagalit si Jesus!” Our gay rights advocates seem to know their limits.

But if just being gay is a threat to society and the morals of the youth, then this is indeed disturbing. Because it implies that gays if only shut in their beauty parlor ghettos will be harmless to the rest of society.

Now back to the real morality argument. The Roman Church believes that homosexual orientation doesn’t violate any of the Ten Commandments. But it does believe that cheating in elections is a violation of 8th Commandment “Thou shalt not bear false witness on thy neighbour”

Since all the political parties in the Philippines trade allegations of cheating every election time and the COMELEC knows its morals, then it should not accredit all POLITICAL PARTIES.

I like Hillary Clinton’s description of corruption as ‘corrosive”. The United States electorate does take seriously allegations of poll cheating because it undermines the basis of their democracy which is based on a Judaeo-Christian  understanding of morality. However they to a large extent uphold a Secular understanding of this morality. An interpretation based on a religious viewpoint in the courts and government authorities is bound to generate a lot of freedom of religion suits.

The ruling elite in our society must be so oxidized by now!

So which is more corrosive to the youth? Being gay or cheating? I believe it is the latter. As for the former and since I teach in college, I know many of the youth are gay anyway. So why the need to protect them from gays? Let them be gay as long they don’t hurt anyone, or violate the law.

COMELEC denied the petition because in its mind, Ang Ladlad is an advocate of immoral values and pose serious risks to the children because it is an organization of homosexuals. COMELEC cited the Book of Romans from the Christian Bible and a passage from the Qur’an as bases of its Decision.

No surprise there. In his article Oppose COMELEC, Support the Ang Ladlad Movement, fellow FV contributor Ryan Tani lists the following members of the Second Division with their backgrounds, to wit –

1. Nicodemo Ferrer – Extraordinary Eucharistic Minister, Our Lady of the Purification Parish, Binmaley, Pangasinan

2. Lucenito Tagle – Past president of Christ the King Parish Pastoral Council in Greenmeadows, Quezon City

3. Elias Yusoph – an Imam or Muslim leader who has been linked to former commissioner Virgilio Garcillano

Akbayan Partylist Representative Risa Hontiveros is absolutely correct in asserting that the COMELEC’s duty is to implement the party-list law. “If Ang Ladlad was able to fulfill the requirements for accreditation, then the group should be accredited. The views of the COMELEC officials on homosexuality is (sic) absolutely immaterial, and their religious beliefs do not supersede our laws and our Constitution.”

Under Republic Act No. 7941 (Partylist Law), COMELEC can accept or deny an organization’s petition for accreditation based on any of the following grounds –

(1) It is a religious sect or denomination, organization or association, organized for religious purposes;

(2) It advocates violence or unlawful means to seek its goal;

(3) It is a foreign party or organization;

(4) It is receiving support from any foreign government, foreign political party, foundation, organization, whether directly or through any of its officers or members or indirectly through third parties for partisan election purposes;

(5) It violates or fails to comply with laws, rules or regulations relating to elections;

(6) It declares untruthful statements in its petition;

(7) It has ceased to exist for at least one (1) year; or

(8) It fails to participate in the last two (2) preceding elections or fails to obtain at least two per centum (2%) of the votes cast under the party-list system in the two (2) preceding elections for the constituency in which it has registered.

Failing to prove that Ang Ladlad committed any of the infractions cited in the law, COMELEC’s role to accredit it should therefore be purely ministerial.

But no! The old fogeys of the Commission’s Second Division chose to follow their medieval and outdated beliefs. In so doing, these Commissioners committed palpable violations of the Constitution. Let me count the ways how –

Article II, Section 6: The separation of Church and State shall be inviolable.

Article II, Section 11: The State values the dignity of every human person and guarantees full respect for human rights.

Article II, Section 26: The State shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service   x   x   x

Article III, Section 5:   x   x   x   No religious test shall be required for the exercise of civil or political rights.

Article XIII, Sec 16: The right of the people and their organizations to effective and reasonable participation at all levels of social, political, and economic decision-making shall not be abridged.

How can we trust these people to bring us to the 21st century of modernized elections if they insist on their outdated, outmoded, and medieval prejudices?