WOMEN INTHE IMPEACHMENT CASE

WOMEN IN THE IMPEACHMENT CASE

By Wilhelmina S. Orozco

How have the women fared in this impeachment case? Actually, I saw how knowledgeable women are of their positions like Ombudswoman Carpio-Morales and Secretary Leila de Lima. They have been able to stand their ground against all kinds of questions and with great finesse. They did not descend to use gutter language as the Chief Justice did when he took the stand. 

No, he did not mince words and was terribly harsh to the Ombudswoman. Actually it is quite unthinkable how a man could do that to a woman in public, to someone who is equally serving in government.

No, his behavior cannot be called being a statesman. Our national heroes had written and shown in their actions that women are to be respected and revered as they themselves had been borne and given life by a woman. Hence, they upheld chivalry to all ladies, girls, and most of all to elderly women. This was why, all the women during the 1898 revolution joined to raise the Philippine flag in our country, alone.

Thus, if the CJ could do that to a woman, his own former colleague, what other things could he do? He set a very bad example of being a man to all men, to all the people,  as if to say, “I will call anyone who crosses my path whatever I want.” Is that befitting of a CJ?

I think that the CJ had been given the wrong advice, or had not been given anything at all because he just released his tirades without thinking of the consequences.

Miriam

How about Sen. Miriam Defensor? I choose her maiden name because it was through that name I came to know of her in the sixties at the UP.

I remember then when Miriam was still a student of law at the UP. She gave the female students that example of being a woman intellectual who could parry arguments of male debaters with great aplomb. She was a guiding light to women students because her sharp ways of thinking were rare then and actually until now especially in the field of politics.

But as the decades have worn on, it seems that Miriam has become a traditional politician instead of one who would dent Philippine politics with a populist view of life, assert that men need to respect women and women need to aspire for lofty things in life.

Her life in politics seems to have become a case of pragmatic existence – keeping her party or patrons’ loyalty -- instead of a chance to combat the ills besetting the country, and keeping the majority of the people from reeling in poverty. Her harangues of the members of the prosecution and a witness do not speak well of someone who has an international stature as a judge.

And to whom is Miriam siding now, but with a CJ whose credentials are highly questionable.

Her objectivity as a judge is gone. Her chance to be etched in Philippine history as a rare woman with highest intellectual pursuits and deeds is getting eroded by her actuations.

If she goes by her actuations, her presence in the International Court of Justice will no longer be much appreciated as foreigners could say, “she is not a product of the People Power regime in the Philippines, just like GMA.” Her reputation as a judge, as a member of the judiciary would be tarnished by her unquestioning loyalty to her benefactor and her cohorts.  

What is being a product of PP but of turning our society from a life of decadent monopolistic and cartel economic systems to one where the people would be enjoying three square meals a day at the very least.

Characteristics of a chief justice

Maybe we have no set standards for a chief justice. The Constitution has only given us descriptions and the ethical requirements of positions in government. It is up to us, through enactment of laws, to show what kinds of persons must be holding on to them, what kinds of men and women including the third sex, should be sitting in them.

CJ characteristics

What are the characteristics of a chief justice? Chiefs of the justice system exercise restraint in speech, thought and emotions. Restraint in speech means that they speak with caution and take great care to use only appropriate language and not ad hominems. They shun arguments that are less than refined, speak in a grand manner, as said by some erudite professors. This means that every single speech they deliver makes the audience think, act, feel and speak of the more noble and greater aims in life.

Instead, when he sat down to deliver his monologue, he gave us an  ad misericordiam narration of his life coupled with a bashing of his political opponents and of the Ombudswoman. I was really shocked to hear those words from him. 

And when he tore down to pieces the deceased father of his in-laws, mostly women at that, I came to the conclusion that indeed to this man, he does not make any difference anymore between a male and a female opponent. He is just out to wield all the weapons at his disposal. No longer was he capable of thinking of the consequences of his actions, as judges ought to.

Flight stewardesses

Flight stewardesses constitute the majority of servers in the Philippine Air Lines. Their case has been pending at the Supreme Court due to his wishy-washy administration. First they were supposed to reinstated and then the decision was recalled.

Flight stewardesses are a unique type of employees. They work 20,000 to 50,000 miles up in the air. They balance the food and drinks they serve the customers. They also keep a smiling demeanor even if the flight gets bumpy, trying to calm the nerves of the passengers. When a passenger gets too drunk, they have to think of  ways to control him so as not to bother the other passengers in that very cramped plane. But worst of worse working conditions, they get pinched in the buttocks, get seductive glances and offers, and all sorts of sexual harassments.

So what has the CJ done to alleviate their problems?

Then a lowly woman employee of the Department of Justice was removed from office, and divested of all her benefits, for not having declared her owning a market stall in Davao in her Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Network or SALN. The CJ was a  signatory to that decision.

I had a labor case concerning my column in a newspaper, Feminist Reflections from 1989 to 1992. After working for two years and a half, regularly writing and submitting weekly articles at precise days so that they would come out on the designated day, my column was terminated. My basis for reinstatement was the Labor Code provision that when a worker is under the control of the management then he/she should be regularized. I wanted to keep my column because it was a way for me to help keep Cory’s administration, the first woman president’s, intact. 

For 14 years I spent lots of money for transportation, meals, Xeroxing briefs, for treating a lawyer to food and drinks as I could not afford to pay her fees, and had to plead to Senator Rene Saguisag of the MABINI to help me with my case as my lawyer had refused to continue working with me (although I was the one writing my briefs).

The Supreme Court, with the CJ as one of the signatories, denied my pleading for reinstatement.

Is this truly the guy that has been appointed to that highest post in the judicial system? Should he continue, what more ungracious treatment of women from the justice system can we expect?

By the way, to my mind, the woman president to whom he owes his appointment, does not represent Filipino womanhood. She is nothing but a wheeler-dealer of political and economic deals to gain power and wealth not just for a certain period but forever for herself, her family and her underlings. Her ascendancy to power was questionable. Her re-election was questionable. She used the military, the Church, and the people’s coffers, just so she could stay in power for 9 years.

How many media practitioners died during her regime? And now she is under arrest for electoral sabotage.

Is this the kind of woman that the CJ upholds as worthy of political positions in our government, the kind that would change our society to being more humane, egalitarian and democratic? No it is a dream.

By the way, her hospital arrest is abominable after all that she had done. She should be staying inside an ordinary city jail first and then in Muntinglupa in order to divest her of all those feelings of false grandeur. She should be with those of her kind some of whom could probably teach her how to be humble, kind and lead a new life.

But will the CJ be convicted? Will he step down from office? Women in the Senate must use their intuition, their maternal instincts to the fullest. They need to think and think hard what kind of society they are helping create with the continuance in office of this individual. 

And what could be the response of the Filipino people should he continue on as chief justice?

“Oy CJ, i-share mo naman ang dolyares mo.”

“Sobra-sobra ang dolyares mo. Aba, madadala mo ba yan sa libingan?”

“Kakarmahim ka rin”

“Kumusta ang amo mo? Buti hindi kayo parehong nakakulong.”

“Ang matarik lumipad, kung bumagsak ay lagapak.”

ON SIFTING THE TRUTH FROM PROPAGANDIC BARRAGE

By Wilhelmina S. Orozco

HOW DO WE DISCERN THE TRUTH FROM POLITICAL PROPAGANDA?

Being an accused official for not having declared his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Networth, the CJ took the seat yesterday to declare himself innocent of all the charges.

Are we convinced that he is innocent and that he had told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth yesterday at the Impeacement Court?

Summation

The greater portions of his narrative in front of the judges and the presiding judge as well as the public were fixed on portraying himself and his family as pristine victims of oppression, first by Jose Maria Basa, the original owner of the Manila property in question by the heirs themselves as to how the CJ’s wife had acquired full control of it, and which was transferred for a paltry sum to their daughter at a questionable public bidding. He also aggressively pointed at the President as the source of all the calumny being heaped upon him and his family, mentioning him as a “hacendero” out to take revenge because of the Supreme Court’s decision to award Hacienda Luisita to the tilling farmers. That the President is using the resources of the government to bring him down as chief justice, including asking officials, like Ombudswoman Conchita Carpio-Morales to testify against him, . he had mentioned as a case of attempt at the monopolistic power over the government. Lastly, he challenges all the 189 representatives who signed the impeachment case against him, including Senator Franklin Drilon, to sign a waiver, like he did at the end of his testimony to reveal all their peso and dollar accounts to the public; but he withheld the release of his waiver pending the acquiescence of the challenged officials to do the same.

Method

So what makes of the CJ now: Is he really oppressed or is he just singing that song,  “you and me (Cristina, his wife) against the world.” “You and me against the world, when all the others turn their backs…you can count on me to stay…etc.” Hah! In terms of argumentation and debate, the CJ has used the ad misericordiam  method of arguing, portraying himself as “Poor me.”

But is he really poor – is he really a victim of circumstances? Funny how he did not mention at all that he was at the height of the most pleasurable moment of his life when he became a midnight appointee of that most corrupt president of the Philippines in 2010, as the chief justice of the country, the highest aspiration of all lawyers in this country.  His appointment has paved the way for his issuance of a hasty Temporary Restraining Order to allow his appointer to depart from the country in order to escape from the charges of electoral sabotage – twice actually, in 2000 and in 2004.

What am I saying here? Folks, we need to sift the truth through a veneer of facts which are highly open to scrutiny. (Why am I not moved at all even by the physical disability he showed after his testimony? Is it because of my belief that any illness is brought about, one half of it, by the person’s doings on his/her own body? I can only be sensitive to the illnesses of those who cannot afford to eat three times a day and therefore are deprived in a way of nutrition.)

As we are now on that stage of truly strengthening our democratic institutions, we need to see the actors and actresses in this impeachment case as truly demanding of our attention. Will they perform according to the functions vested in them by the Constitution, or will they use their seats as a source of power and resources to gain more and eventually achieve full control over the will of the people?

Outstanding moment

When Senate Presiding Judge JPE told the sergeant-at-arms to close all the doors of the Senate to prevent anyone from leaving, after the CJ said, “The CJ of the Philippines wishes to be excused” and left the chair, I thought, that was a true act of a statesman. He knew how to act in front of a recalcitrant witness, or accused, and he had full control of the situation, so unlike that CJ who allowed the destruction of our democratic institution in 2000 without a whimper and even joined the coup plotters to remove the president then. Was it his experience as secretary of national defense during the martial law regime that had prepared him to undertake this critical function at this time in our history?

By the way, Sister Flory Basa, related to Cristina, had likened him, in a replay of an interview with her by Ted Failon over his radio program, to Senators Recto and Tanada who brought stellar legislative achievements in the country. May I add that all the flaws in JPE’s connections with the martial law regime are being dissolved day by day as the hearing progresses.

Yesterday’s court hearing would go down in history as also that outstanding moment when the Filipino people watched with great interest and awe the way an impeachment case should be conducted. It also showed to us that this is the way to get rid of corrupt high officials in the country, that they will have to sit and reveal themselves as they are in full regalia to the public, and be answerable to the charges. This is the way to a peaceful exit of corrupt officials in a democratic country.

Hence, when the CJ mentioned that this country is being slowly controlled by leftists in the government, as evinced by the President’s closeness to certain factions led by Ronaldo Llamas and his “cohorts, ” I did not believe that it was so. And if it is happening now, I believe that the media in our country would be able to counter that very well – to show that everyone’s voices would be heard. But woe if what the CJ had said is true. President PNoy must rethink his political relationships very well if so.

(Come to think of it, my proposed socio-cultural and nationalistic projects to two institutions have suffered from discrimination of certain people incompetent to judge the significance of the subjects and whom I believe have channeled the cultural resources to their proponent-pals whether from the over or underground I cannot say now. But I would like to delve on this later on in another article.)

As a man of law, I think that the CJ did not conduct himself in an appropriate manner at the hearing. I expected him to show more objectivity and less emotionality over the case against him. But that “ad misericordiam” could have been a ploy, a ruse to get the sympathy of the audience which towards the end was already careening towards him, except when he said that he was withholding the release of his waiver over the revelation of his deposits unless the other legislators would agree to do the same.

Then and there he showed his fangs and how he views his position still – an equal to all the branches of government. His position true is equal but the impeachment court is not. The impeachment court towers over all other institutions in having been created to try all officials guilty or not guilty of corrupt practices by the Constitution. It is composed of elected officials of the country, unlike the CJ who is a mere appointee, and of a corrupt president at that. Hence, even if the position he holds is equal to all the rest of the government branches, his holding on to his position is up for scrutiny now. His credibility as CJ is in question.

Legal education

Hopefully this political exercise in the impeachment should make all legal schools review their curriculum from first to last years. Is the curriculum heavy on ethics? Are questions of morals imbedded and explicit at every turn of a “lawful” person? We need to question the legal education in this country because we tend to think that a good lawyer could always wriggle a criminal out of his case and even help him gain a reward from the courts with either freedom or just a simple fine.

In other words, the legal education in the country needs to be overhauled in the light of all what is happening now. Remember the husband of the ex-president is a lawyer; Marcos the martial law chief was a lawyer. Is there a pattern? Does knowledge of the law teach or encourage one to know how to twist the law in order to serve one’s selfish ends? What subjects in law teach that? Or what subjects in law are too liberal to allow the student to veer his sights from the true significance of being a legal servant?

Religious?

A certain ex-priest foresees chaos after this hearing. Instead of showing the way for the people to follow so that untoward incidents would not happen, he predicts disorder. Is this the way a priest, a former member of the religious should think and even make public his pronouncements? I hope that he is not a member of that group who received manna from the previous president in order to shut them up with regard to her “fake presidency.”

Well-meaning though he may have been, his words are adding fuel to the fire instead of extinguishing it. Maybe someone should tell him to be cautionary. We are not as well off as he is to be able to flee the country easily should anything grave happen after the resolution of this case.

Fortunately, another priest in Baclaran, I heard a radio report still yesterday, had praises over what is happening now, and who even castigated how some members of the religious had been used as pawns by corrupt officials. So there are still, after all, a true breed in the religious.

What to do

So what do we do now? We need to egg on the judges at the hearing to perform their functions in the interest of service to the people. We have suffered enough in the last administration, when even a little squeak we would make over shenanigans would result in harassment and worse,  to others the snuffing out of their lives. 

The age of “Bonnie and Clyde” in the Philippine is going and should be gone for good. The selves of public officials must be geared towards the interests of the people and not to their appointers or benefactors of manna as if they are the owners of the resources of the people.

We need to be vigilant more than ever. We need to cultivate – elect and allow to be appointed -- public officials who would truly serve because they want the people to experience prosperity, dignity, an ethical government service, righteous living and a truly democratic way of life. 

So help us Jesus, Allah, Buddha, Quan Yin, and all other Gods and Goddesses.

KNOWING WHO IS OURS

Tomorrow is D-Day -- where we will know how honest the answers of the CJ are with regard to all the accusations against him. Pointers for gauging if a person is honest:

1. Is he straightforward or does he go roundabout in answering questions?

2. Does he look at his counsel often to find out if his answers are ok or not?

3.  How many "palas" does he have? Did he gather many supporters in the room to give him moral support or is he brave enough to face the case alone?

4. What is the face of an honest man? Fill in the blanks, please.

Meanwhile, let us get ready with our list of senators' names. Write them down in two columns: the first for the names, and the second for their votes for impeachment or not. Let us remember deeply their answers so that come election time, we would know who are truly the people's senators.

Lastly, I presume it would rain tomorrow. So those who will demonstrate at the Senate  grounds, please bring umbrellas, coats and green salads. Don't get wet and don't get sick, definitely. The struggle is long and arduous. 

Mabuhay tayong lahat.

ON SHADOW GOVERNMENTS

by Wilhelmina S. Orozco


What is the purpose of a government? A GOVERNMENT EXISTS TO PROTECT
THE PEOPLE, THEIR HUMAN RIGHTS, AND EXISTING SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT.

The run of political events in our country shows that there are
several groups attempting to create their own worlds of power to run
their own principles for existence,.

The worst are the underground governments wanting to co-exist with the
existing administration of PNoy. They even have military power
challenging the capacity of the state to protect itself from sabotage
and political destabilization.

The Philippines is entering a new era after more than a decade of
manipulation of elite groups out to make an economic killing out of
being in positions of political power.

Our people have grown politically mature by the strong and fierce
debates on many issues which have a bearing on our ability to choose
our own leaders electorally, on the women’s right to decide on when to
get pregnant, on when to allow the elctions to occur in Mindanao ARMM,
and even minor issues like texting taxes and increase of toll fees in
super highways.

The existing administration cannot ignore the people’s demand now to
hear the call for the clearing of the real issues on what happened in
the 2004 and 2007 ewlections. It is saddled with the responsibility to
look after the past, the present and the future of the country. It is
not true that it should only concern itself with creating jobs,
increasing the taxes collected, and making the peso rise in purchasing
power. It has that larger role to show to the people that past errors
and manipulation to capture electoral powers are unpardonable crimes
that have to be rectified. This is the only way for the country to
move forward.

However, we need to be vigilant against shadow governments that seek
to return to or maintain the power of ill elements in our society.
They are out to destabilize the present administration and eventually
install or reinstall their corrupt leaders.

HACKERS HAVE JUST ERASED MY ARTICLE ON PACKING METROMANILA LIKE SARDINES. HELP. PNP INTEL CANNOT BE TRUSTED

LIVING LIKE SARDINES

A lot of road-widening projects are going on in MetroManila. From San Juan to Quezon and Manila cities. The projects should not be welcomed at all. 


Why do I opposed this? For every road-widening the government does, then the narrower the space becomes for pedestrian sidewalks and trees to be standing up. The streets become simply pro-vehicles, and no longer pro-people and pro-trees which means hotter days of walking through them. Actually you will see traces of how wide the pedestrian sidewalks used to be and which have now been taken over by roads. 


What is the purpose of road-widening except to allow more vehicles to wheel in and out of the streets? That would mean also more and more people being conveyed from one point to the other. 


Is this not a rather narrow view of development? That in order to solve traffic, you widen the roads so more vehicles can have access (daw). Absurd is it not? More vehicles means more traffic, not  less at all. 


Why do floods occur? There is already inept waste management. Too much garbage is being off loaded from MMla which the trucks could no longer finish in a day. Zero-waste management is a total failure in MMla. And many are uneducated about not throwing plastics, styrofoam and other non-biodegradable objects but wrapping them up and throwing them properly in the waste cans. 


Then every five o-clock in the afternoon, have you seen air-conditioned buses being packed to the brim? Oxygen is such an expensive commodity around here already. 


The number one project of the government should be to look for spaces outside of MetroManila where schools and businesses can be located instead of lumping them altogether here. The best idea is to create, as one activist said, satellite cities outside of MMla, so that people would not have to commute to Manila to work, or even to experience recreation in the cool malls. 


I hope that when the MMla cities' officials think of road-widening, they could also view how much resources will be needed to support the people -- water, shelter, etc. Moving people requires making them breathe normally in the spaces where they are located, and not packing them up like sardines in one lot. 


Maybe to drive home our point, all media especially TV, since it is a very visual medium and our government functionaries seem to be missing a lot on graphics, could carry a segment on how overcrowded MMla already is. 


To have decent spaces for living is to breathe well and to live well. 

                                        GAIA PAINTING by EMMA S. OROZCO 

DE-CROWNING CORONA

The grip of CJ Corona on the Supreme Court is so tight that he no
longer looks at his status from a historical viewpoint. All he is
thinking of is the power that he thinks he should not relinquish. How
sad.

After all these years that we in the NGO movement have been
conscientizing the public about good governance, we now have in one of
the highest echelons a man who refuses to submit to public demand to
resign. Gracefully.

Come Tuesday, we should expect real and figurative fireworks.

It seems that these past few months, we have had our share of untoward
incidents: murders of prominent broadcasters in the provinces, of an
education official, of a government official, and "arsonic" fires at
urban poor areas. Maybe we have grown numb and so have developed that
tendency to skip looking at things from a macro viewpoint; should we
do, all things now seem to point to a graver resolution of this case.
We should be doubly alert as Tuesday nears, when the CJ will be
sitting at the Senate Impeachment Sala.

If I were PNoy, I would not leave the country so easily at this time
when things could get more rotten later on. The CJ is using the
intellect of former radicals to free him from charges of dishonesty in
not declaring his SALN. By the way this brings to mind, how a
particular ex-radical writer would really use his worst epithets just
to justify corrupt practices. It makes  me cringe with horror, how
un-nationalistic he could get in his writings. Is this what you call
somersault writing? From being an ultra-nationalist to ultra-rightist
writer?

The bankers are right: the question should be how the CJ acquired
those dollar accounts. How much Philippine money did he use to buy the
dollars? Where did he get the Philippine money? Who gave it to him?
How did he acquire it? Who are the signatories in the deposits? Where
are the duplicate papers of the deposits? Who are the bank officials
who accepted the deposits? Can they corroborate the accounts? What are
the names of the bank branches that received the deposits? On a
monthly basis, how much did the deposits earn in terms of interests?


The amount of dollars in question is mind-boggling to say the least.
It could already finance the social and cultural needs of the
Philippine government on to 2016. And where should the money come from
but from the pockets of the toiling masses of the country? De-crowning
Corona should include the image of the people all the time, watching
intently how this drama will end. We are part and parcel of the total
picture -- how we have been shortchanged by officials who had and have
only been thinking of their own welfare.

SOUND OF MUSIC REVIEW: IMPORTED NOSTALGIA

By Wilhelmina S. Orozco 

What accounts for an outstanding musical production? Number one of course is the originality of the songs. Next is the acting, followed by musical performance of the actors, of the orchestra, and then lastly, over-all direction.

I had the chance to catch one of the last presentations of the Sound of Music at the Resorts World in Pasay City, and I got entertained. I had to suspend a lot of my criteria for a good musical production lest I would not get the benefits of that P700 ++ ticket.

Sure, the music, which I first heard while watching the film Sound of Music in the 60’s, threw me into nostalgia over the good old days when a lot of film musicals were still being done then, like Camelot and West Side Story. The songs were very familiar as I have been able to memorize some of them due to my repetitious playing of the LP (long playing pa noon, hindi cd’s) and of course, due to my joining choirs that had the songs in the play as part of the repertoire, like “Climb Every Mountain,” and “Edelweiss.”

The scenery of Vienna, the setting, was all there in great realism – the mountains, the greenery, the opulent courtyards of the aristocratic family. That was a feat really, transporting the audience to Vienna, no matter how vicarious.

Let me tell you the plot first, dear Readers. The setting is before the occupation of Vienna by the Nazis. Maria, a postulant is sent by the nuns from the convent to the house of Capt. Von Trapp to be the governess to his 7 children for a few months. She develops rapport with his kids to his consternation. He has reared them to a life of rigidity and formality and he now is appalled how Maria could turn them into jolly and happy singers.

Maria returns to the convent as she has begun to feel something more romantic towards him.

Meanwhile Von Trapp however proposes to another woman, Ella, played by Pinky Amador who visits him, together with Max, the uncle. Pinky has a fantastic voice, except that she did not pronounce her consonants much; hence I could not understand the lyrics at all. Max, the uncle, and she wander around the yard estimating how much worth Von Trapp’s property is.

However, the Nazis arrive and want Von Trapp to join the navy as his stint in it was exemplary in the past.

A ruse is created to make the Von Trapp family join a singing contest. The family sing together and Von Trapp sings a nationalistic song, “Edelweiss,” at the end.They win the contest but when they are called, they do not appear anymore. So the Nazis order their arrest.

But the family has retreated to the convent to hide from them. The Mother Superior , afraid of the safety of the convent, instead advices them to go up the mountains;  then the song, Climb Every Mountain becomes very apropos to the scene.

The story is not Filipino, but we could empathize with the topic – that of the invasion of the Nazis of what is otherwise a very quiet setting. It recalls to our mind the martial law days when the military really controlled the lives of the people.

Acting-wise, Maria, played by a woman with dyed blond hair ( the top of her head was brownish) sounded very much like Julie Andrews in every scene. On the other hand, the oher actors had different accents – Filipino, American English, and Germanic. However, the acting was very professional and engaging. You would not sleep at any part at all.

The orchestra was shown in between scenes on video projected on screen placed on the left and right sides of the stage. That was a good recognition of its role as an equal member of the production, so unlike the usual way, where the orchestra is placed in the pit, below the stage of hidden backstage.

The maid was okay but she had the tendency to overdo her scenes. It seemed as if she was exerting too much effort at being funny. In the beginning it was but later on, it became a bit too unrestrained, and no longer funny.

But as my understanding of any European drama tends to be rational, I was confounded by the very Filipino interpretation of John Joven’s role, that of the Captain Von Trapp. What is being Filipino but having those qualities of tender and nurturing bent despite the lines that would have required him to be more imposing and strict, as that scene with his kids.

Then Leo Martinez’s role was very Filipino in his attempt at making his character, that of uncle to the kids, comical. He did not exhibit that Germanic or Austrian qualities at all. Not even the roles of the German officers made me feel the restrictive atmosphere their presence should have made. They just appeared in the scene in Nazi uniform, and voila, with a few lines, should have induced the audience to be afraid of what could happen to the Von Trapp family. Yet, I did not feel that fear. What could have made those scenes more militaristic? Perhaps some sound effects?

What I don’t quite understand is how Von Trapp could break up with his girl friend, Ella, and in a matter of minutes, propose to Maria who had returned from the convent.

In such a short while, he had changed his mind and heart.  By the way, he had to break off with her because they did not see eye to eye on how to deal with the Germans. He refused to be a member of the Nazi navy whereas, Ella and Max egged him on to play with the music.

But then maybe in a war setting everything is possible.

Let me say something about the orchestra playing the music in between scenes. Again, the orchestra must have been taken in more by the romantic attachment between Von Trapp and Maria, rather than the over-all story setting in a war-torn country.

Each scene was full of drama – the kids and Maria playing with each other; Von Trapp and Ella kissing; Von Trapp and Maria kissing also.

However, towards the latter part of the play, I felt something amiss – originality of the whole production itself. It was a western play being presented and therefore, the similarity of the film with what was onstage became too apparent.

Lastly, I have been thinking, why couldn’t we present western musical as adaptations? It is difficult watching a play that is exerting effort at imitating how the westerners had presented it and the attempt is very obvious by the way lines were delivered in heavy. British accent by the leading actress. That’s it, she was the only one with that British accent whereas the others had their own entirely different from hers starting from her dialogues  with the Mother Superior until her meeting with Von Trapp. She spoke in a diction highly different from the Mother Superior. She sounded like a British pauperish girl talking to a nun schooled in English the Filipino way.

Anyway, if we would use adaptations instead of original scripts, many more people would come to watch the play, I suppose. Even songs, when translated into Pilipino, would become more meaningful to the audience and make them appreciate the significance of the theme of the play – that of love for human beings and for music towering over political matters.

This is nothing new/ Even the French, by the way, when presenting classics onstage, not only put them up in their language but also work it out so that it becomes a “French adaptation,” say of Fernando Garcia Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba which I had the chance to watch in 1981 in Paris.

Imported materials, though related to our lives in an indirect way and bring about nostalgia, could be rendered more significance if these were adapted into our own experiences and history as a people.

DRAMATIC IMPEACHMENT HEARING

by Wilhelmina S. Orozco 

The drama attendant to the declaration of the impending presence of the CJ at the Impeachment hearing is now unfolding. We must expect more drama to come up -- not necessarily in tears.

Don't we recall when Erap appeared at the Davide impeachment hearing and later on a group of officials walked out to give power to those who were at EDSA and to make them unseat him?

I have become suspicious of any move coming from the camp of the CJ and his patroness. For 9 years we were always on the look out for any of their political antics which ranged from simple acts to the most bizarre -- that of media people losing their lives for being critical.

Hence, our vigilance should be double now that the heat in the impeachment hearing is getting too hot to handle. The people must be cautious of any move to make it appear that they are following judicial processes.

GMA learned the ropes too well on how to twist the legal processes to make her on top year in and year out, bribing the highest officials so that they would not turn their backs on her.

And why was she so industrious in attending to her presidential duties then? I was told that she was examining all the papers that she was made to sign in order to check if any of those would be putting her in hot waters later on.

What makes us so edgy about this impeachment case is that so long as the cohorts of the last administration are still in power, then we would not expect any clean judgment on any political case whatsoever. The CJ was one of those who sat on two of my cases at the Supreme Court which were turned down. Need I say more?