As promised during the internment of the late BGLante yesterday morning in Baclayon, we shall continue our support to make the Bohol Sunday Post be a part of your Sunday life. So here we go again, we have to move on and continue our task in this column. We know that BG, somewhere out there, would be delighted to know that we help in one way or another, make his paper hit the streets every Sunday morning. All paid tribute to the late BG led by Bohol Gov. Edgar M. Chatto. City Mayor Baba Yap was also there yesterday at the Baclayon church. We were just touched to see our billiard buddy, Fred Araneta, shed tears as he delivered his eulogy for his broadcast partner over Inyong Alagad program of Station DYRD. Bingo Dejaresco, who sits as editor-in-chief of the Bohol Chronicle was likewise there yesterday for an in behalf of the Dejaresco family to pay tribute to the late BG. Well, BG ended his era in a fashion only BG could make. Goodbye BGLante!

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Tomorrow, Pres. Pnoy will deliver his State of the Nation Address (SONA) as Congress opens its session. Many expects that Pnoy will lambast the Supreme Court for its ruling against the DAP. At the same time, he has instructed the Solicitor General to file a motion for reconsideration on the SC ruling. If the expectation turns out right, how can we expect a favorable ruling where on one hand, the President continue to lambast the High Tribunal while his men file a motion for reconsideration? Can anybody just tell the President that he is fighting an equal branch of the government?

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The SC ruling in the nine petitions challenging the constitutionality of DAP in G.R. Nos. 209287, 209135, 209136, 209155, 209164, 209260, 209442, 209517 and 209569 is crystal clear, that DAP, whether it is spend in good faith, is unconstitutional. On the basis of such decision, impeach complaints were now filed in Congress against the President. The SC pointed that the Pnoy violated Section 29(1) of Article VI of the 1987 Constitution, a provision of the fundamental law that firmly ordains that “no money shall be paid out of the treasury except in pursuance of an appropriation made by law”. Thus, the impeachment complaint filed against Pnoy is for his culpable violation of the constitution,

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Let us just finish part of the SC ruling on DAP. The High Tribunal said that Pnoy, Abad and Ochoa's arguments and submissions on the procedural issue are bereft of merit. Section 1, Article VIII of the 1987 Constitution expressly provides: Section 1. The judicial power shall be vested in one Supreme Court and in such lower courts as may be established by law. Judicial power includes the duty of the courts of justice to settle actual controversies involving rights which are legally demandable and enforceable, and to determine whether or not there has been a grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of any branch or instrumentality of the Government”

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“Thus, the Constitution vests judicial power in the Court and in such lower courts as may be established by law. In creating a lower court, Congress concomitantly determines the jurisdiction of that court, and that court, upon its creation, becomes by operation of the Constitution one of the repositories of judicial power. However, only the Court is a constitutionally created court, the rest being created by Congress in its exercise of the legislative power.” In another point, the SC also held that “the present Rules of Court uses two special civil actions for determining and correcting grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction. These are the special civil actions for certiorari and prohibition, and both are governed by Rule 65. A similar remedy of certiorari exists under Rule 64, but the remedy is expressly applicable only to the judgments and final orders or resolutions of the Commission on Elections and the Commission on Audit”. Finally, the High Tribunal said that “an actual and justiciable controversy exists in these consolidated cases. The incompatibility of the perspectives of the parties on the constitutionality of the DAP and its relevant issuances satisfy the requirement for a conflict between legal rights. The issues being raised herein meet the requisite ripeness considering that the challenged executive acts were already being implemented by the DBM, and there are averments by the petitioners that such implementation was repugnant to the letter and spirit of the Constitution. (To be continued)

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POSTSCRIPT: We congratulate Iam Alastaire Painagan Palgan for passing the recent nursing exams, he is the daughter of our “tokayo”, Carmen Kag. Danilo Palgan and Arlen Palgan of the Powerhouse Review Center. We were also at the Bohol Plaza yesterday to attend the wedding of Arlen's younger sister, Joy, who got married to Gerard, an Indonesian but now a citizen of Netherlands....There's more when we come back.