Re: Proclamation 1017

It is a nice cut and paste of the original. Everybody
loves modern computing.

Yep. I'll confess that I had not read PP1017 until it appeared here --
conveniently readable.

Let me cut&paste portions of a couple of op-ed pieces on it...

by Alvin Capino in the Manila Standard
---
At this time when an agitated media is debating the threats to press
freedom as a result of Proclamation 1017 which declared a state of
national emergency it would be good to recall two quotations on freedom
of the press.

To put the issue in perspective it should also be pointed out that
Philippine media-being allowed to publish and air the criticisms on
the threats to press freedom and to give free and full coverage of the
standoff at the Marine Headquarters at Fort Bonifacio- shows that for
now the perceived threat is more imagined than real.

It should also be stressed that there are indeed "certain sectors"
in media that may have, in the words of Proclamation 1017 "recklessly
magnified" the "claims" of the "conspirators" who "have
repeatedly tried to bring down the President." One would have to
review the news reports of the anti-Arroyo media to see that there is
some truth to this assertion made by the President's proclamation.

The first quote is the classic made by Thomas Jefferson in 1802 where
he said: "The basis of our governments being the opinion of the
people, the first object should be to keep that right; and were it left
to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers
or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate to prefer the
latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers
and be capable of reading them."

The second quote is from Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. He said: "Why should
freedom of speech and freedom of the press be allowed? Why should a
government, which is doing what it believes to be right, allow itself
to be criticized? It would not allow opposition by lethal weapons.
Ideas are much more fatal things than guns. Why should any man be
allowed to buy a printing press and disseminate pernicious opinion
calculated to embarrass the government?"
<remaindier snipped>
---

see http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=alvinCapino_feb28_2006

by Connie Veneracion, also in the Manila Standard
---
When I finally got to read the full text of Proclamation 1017, and
connected it with earlier pronouncements of Mike Defensor, the arrest
of Randy David et al, I was stupefied. The first thing that formed in
my mind was that there was no relation between the title of
Proclamation 1017 and its text. That automatically generated a
Statutory Construction principle that where there is a discrepancy
between title and body, the substance of the body determines the
meaning of the document.

The manner of construction of Proclamation 1017 was neither an accident
nor an oversight. Such an important document passes through a battalion
of lawyers before it reaches its final form. The obvious reason is to
allow the Executive to carry on its intentions without interference
from the Legislature. To declare a state of national emergency means
Congress has the option of granting emergency powers to the President
without the power to reverse the declaration. Placing the country under
martial law obliges the President to present before Congress a factual
basis for the declaration and Congress has the discretion to accept or
reject the President's position.

It was pure genius. Congress cannot reverse a declaration of a state of
national emergency while, at the same time, it cannot unilaterally
construe Proclamation 1017 as anything other than a declaration of a
state of national emergency and oblige the President to support it with
factual basis. It is not within its powers to interpret Proclamation
1017. That is a power vested in the Judiciary. The logical move is to
file a petition with the Supreme Court to challenge the
constitutionality of Proclamation 1017, the move that lawyer groups
seem wont to take. The real stroke of genius, and the final irony, is
in the fact that by the time the Supreme Court finally resolves the
issue, Malacañang would have accomplished everything it seeks to
do-neutralize what it perceives to threaten the administration,
rendering the whole thing a mere academic exercise.
<remaindier snipped, but worth reading>
---

see
http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=connieVeneracion_feb28_2006

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