Sen. Escudero decries India made cars for PNP

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY – Senator Francis Escudero assailed and promised to investigate the procurement of defective and questionable made in India cars the government bought for the national police.

CONTROVERSIAL PATROL CAR. The India made

 CAC Mahindra’s Enforcer Patrol Cars like this one 

in photo is being questioned by Senator Francis “Chiz” 

Escudero to be defective and dangerous because it was a

 conversion of a right hand  drive vehicle to a left drive car. 

(Photo Credit: Manila 

Times) 

Escudero said the 1,470 units of CAC Mahindra’s Enforcer Patrol Cars that have been converted from right hand drive to left hand could endanger their passengers.

“India is a right hand drive vehicles’ country, ”he quipped to media men here Thursday.

The Department of Budget and Management approved the P1.3 billion budget for their procurement.

He cited that when the driver manoeuvre the driving wheel to the right, the right front wheel did not jibe to the desired location of the driver.

“Because it is converted, it is easy to manoeuvre the driving wheel of this car to the left side compared to the right side. When you do u-turn it should always be in the left otherwise it would be risky if you make a u-turn at the right side,” he stressed.

Escudero deplored that the government should not to put into peril the lives of police men or soldiers by providing them substandard vehicles like Mahindra.

“Sisilipin namin iyan, lalo na sa (Senate) budget deliberation na ito”

He questions also the signal lights of the vehicle. He cited a case in his province Sorsogon where the signal light of the car blinks on the right side despite the driver turning on the left button.

The author (in akimbo), a resident of Brgy. Inas, M'lang, Cotabato
posed for posterity with Senator Chiz Escudero

Bigotry behind Poe disqualification case

By Dean Tony La Viña

47

Let me be clear that I am not Senator Grace Poe’s lawyer, nor am I formally affiliated with her campaign (if ever that is already being organized). I feel strongly, however, as a lawyer, as a professor of constitutional law in five universities, and as a human being about the issues involved in the disqualification petition that is being filed against her as a senator.

If you are a parent who cares about vulnerable children, if you are an adopted child or belongs to a family with adoptive children, if you are an overseas Filipino worker or have been part of our diaspora, or have loved ones who are living or have worked and lived aboard, if you are a Filipino Chinese or a Filipino with mixed ancestry whose citizenship and love of country are being questioned -- then you should watch carefully how this case unfolds.

The petition of course has no legal basis. The Senate Electoral Tribunal  should immediately dismiss it on both procedural and substantive grounds. The facts are wrong as we will soon know when Senator Poe presents her defenses. The interpretation of the law is distorted. While some have complained why Poe has not released details, including documents, of her legal defense, this is the right strategy given what was done to her father where documents were falsified when he was unfairly ambushed with a disqualification case in 2004.  The daughter has learned from that unfortunate episode and has long prepared for this case.

On procedural grounds, a quo warranto proceeding under the SET rules must be immediately filed within ten days of the proclamation of the senator. True, there is an exception with respect to issues related to qualifications but that is not applicable here because nothing has changed with respect to the status of Grace Poe since the 2013 elections. If the SET wants to resolve this early, it could dismiss the case simply on this ground alone.

As for the substantive grounds, one must start with the basic rule that a person cannot be stripped of her citizenship without due process of law. The jurisprudence is solid: the one impugning the citizenship of another must prove with strong and indisputable evidence that the person is in fact not a citizen. In the case of Grace Poe, it is not enough to say that she is a foundling or that we do now know her parents but the accuser must prove that Grace Poe’s parents are in fact foreigners and therefore the child is not a citizen. That is an impossible thing to prove here because of the fact that Grace Poe is in fact a foundling. In subsequent columns, I will write about the relevant national and international law that supports the inevitable conclusion that Poe is a natural-born citizen.