I passed the Bar!

Literally.

Ever wonder why they're called the bar exams? The part of the courtroom from the seats for the legal counsels up to the judge's bench is separated from the rest of the room by a partition called the bar. Only lawyers are allowed to pass the bar from the seating area for spectating citizens, thus the term.

It's not every day you get a chance to cross the bar in a normal courtroom, much less the en banc session hall of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. So when my Journalism class went there on Wednesday to learn about court reporting, I jumped at the chance.

We also got to ask Midas Marquez, spokesperson of the Supreme Court, a few questions. Apparently the Philippines is one of the few highest courts in the world that have a public information arm. Unlike the two other branches of government, the judiciary is supposed to be very reclusive and silent, perhaps to prevent accusations of prejudice and bias.

Photos of me at the podium that counsels use during hearings:

For as long as I remember I've always wanted to become a lawyer, and that's what my dad wants for me, too. Is it weird to be what your father wants you to be? I reckon it is, but then again, my knowledge of the matter is informed mostly by Hollywood movies and TV series whose plots revolve around the son struggling to succeed in life as his dad hounds him by saying, "You should have listened to me and gone into this or that; you would have been better off then."

One day, middle seat, one day.

Flex our WHAT?

A WWII-era warship originally commissioned in 1943 being sent into contested (and arbitrarily named) waters = Philippines flexing naval muscle.

Finally, new money.

My MLQ is prettier than yours. Thanks to Katz and the UP Cashier's Office.

I'm Dean and I am for an intellectual Reproductive Health debate.

I really don't care anymore if you're for or against the Reproductive Health bill. The debate has rotten to such a level that I'm willing to talk to anyone about the bill so long as they don't drag "moral" or religious arguments into the discussion. So long as you don't quote the Bible, the Koran or Oprah Magazine on me or invoke your favorite saint or the friendly creature that lives in the tree in your backyard, we're good.

On the Senate Hearing on the Kho-Halili Controversy

(Originally posted on my main blog.)

I am, like many other Filipinos, disappointed at the Senate hearing on the Haydn Kho - Katrina Halili scandal. Disappointed, not so much because it couldn't have aided legislation in the least, not so much because it was, more than anything, an attempt to pander to women's rights groups, not so much because it reduced the Senate to bull dung, but because it shouldn't have taken place at all.

See, the Kho-Halili video is a non-issue. The Senate is in no position to thumb its nose in this mess. Halili's already filed cases with the proper government agencies. The Senate does not need to hold hearings on it. How simpler can one put it?

And don't give me any of that "in aid of legislation" shit, either. Bong, I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how your "anong nararamdaman mo ngayon? (How do you feel right now?)", "alam mo ba kung ilang buhay ang sinira mo? (Do you know how many lives you've destroyed?)", and "anong camera at software ang ginamit mo? (What camera and software did you use?)" questions would aid you or your colleagues in lawmaking. This, to me, was your attempt to paint Kho as the evil criminal, Katrina as the damsel in distress, and yourself as the Captain Barbel, the knight in shining armor. I'm not sure why you're pandering to women's rights groups so much (my guess is that you're trying to gain the trust (and thus the votes) of a sizeable demographic). What I am sure of is that what you're doing is absolute jack shit and is unbecoming of a supposedly "honorable" senator such as yourself.

I don't know if you realize this, Senators Madrigal, Estrada and Revilla, but while you make chismis (gossip) in your airconditioned conference room in the Senate, people are starving to death in the streets. Workers are losing jobs. Government officials are robbing the shit out of our nation's coffers. Our children aren't getting the proper education guaranteed them by the Constitution. In short, THERE'S A WHOLE SHITLOAD OF THINGS MORE PRESSING, MORE IMPORTANT, MORE RELEVANT TO PUBLIC INTEREST THAN A PLASTIC SURGEON AND A YOUNG ACTRESS'S INTIMATE MOMENTS CAUGHT ON CAMERA.

Marocharim rightfully shames the apes in the monkey suits for the utter absurdity of this mess:

Shame on the Senate for scandalizing the people. The outcry for better social services, the outrage against corruption, the outpouring of hatred against incompetence at the expense of empty stomachs and empty pockets, have been replaced by outcries, outrage, and an outpouring hatred for someone whose crime is a sex video. Good Senators, the adultery, fornication, and pornography that really takes place here is not a fuzzy sex video. Pardon my language, but what takes place is the violation of justice; and on this day, at the very least, your refusal to elevate the living conditions of the very people whom you must serve because you chose to investigate a man’s videotaped sexual escapades with other women.

So please, dear senators. Don't try to pull this crap on us again. Get back to work. Stop kibitzing in other people's business. We didn't elect you to talk about sex tapes. We don't pay you to meddle in showbusiness. Get off this issue and on to more pressing matters (like, say, the Book Blockade, which by the way you haven't called for a hearing about yet?). Stop screwing Juan dela Cruz over.

You have long since reduced the Senate to an incredulous, humiliating circus, and the carnival has overstayed its welcome.

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Pardon the egregious prose. I hope it was tolerable enough to get my point across. -dean.