JUST WHEN you thought we’ve had enough embarrassment after that Leni Robredo videotape (no, she didn’t send a sex tape to Xtube), what moi meant was the one sent to the United Nations featuring her smiling as she falsely claims 7,000 dead bodies are littering the streets of the Philippines.
And include the recent selfies of Leni and her gang at the Holocaust Memorial.
The pronouncements and antics of Antonio Trillanes IV and Leila “frailties of a woman” de Lima does not qualify as embarrassing the nation as they only embarrass themselves.
By being themselves Trillanes and de Lima are jokes that are not even funny.
Quite recently a series of unfortunate events subjected the natives of these islands to another embarrassment or just plain colonial mentality.
So moi will just park these and let you guys discern …
Sovereignty – absolute, supreme and ultimate dominion and authority of a political state subject to no higher power, expressed within its territory in full self-government and in complete freedom from any outside influence.
And from the Articles of the United Nations Charter, Chapter 1 Article 2 number 7 states:
Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter.
From the April 18 GMA News Online story:
Lawyers’ groups ask UN Rapporteur to act on Duterte’s tirades vs Sereno
Lawyers’ groups led by a mandatory organization for all Filipino law practitioners want an investigator with the United Nations to take “urgent action” on President Rodrigo Duterte’s statements perceived as detrimental to the independence of judges and lawyers in the country.
On Wednesday, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), National Union of People’s Lawyers, Alternative Law Groups, Ateneo Human Rights Center, Free Legal Assistance Group, Manananggol Laban sa EJKs, and the International Pro Bono Alliance submitted a report to Diego Garcia Sayan, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers.
A primary concern among the group is about Duterte’s call for fast-tracking the impeachment process against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, in which he also tagged himself as an “enemy” of the embattled top magistrate.
Excerpts from the Editorial of the April 20 issue of the Manila Times:
Filipino lawyers petition for UN intervention in PH affairs
It is both embarrassing and astonishing to see Filipino lawyers petitioning for United Nations intervention in our national affairs on account of President Rodrigo Duterte’s statements against Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno, which they deem as threats to lawyers and judges.
Why, in a nation under the rule of law, would presumably sane lawyers and lawyers groups file a formal request seeking international intervention in our affairs? Not since the Partido Federalista of Trinidad Pardo de Tavera petitioned for the conversion of the Philippines into a state of the American union has this country seen an action more stupid and shameful.
Is the present initiative a case of colonial hangover, or a variant of Stockholm syndrome (wherein kidnapped victims collaborate with their kidnappers)? Where did these people study law or brush through political science? Have they ever read the UN Charter or about how the UN really works? Aren’t they aware that the UN is not a world government? If that were the intent, the UN treaty would never have been approved or ratified by a clear majority of nations.
The motley group consisted of individual lawyers and groups, among whom were the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), National Union of People’s Lawyers, Alternative Law Groups, Ateneo Human Rights Center, Free Legal Assistance Group, Manananggol Laban sa EJKs and the International Pro Bono Alliance. They collectively submitted a report and petition to UN special Rapporteur Diego Garcia Sayan.
Their key concern is Duterte’s call for fast-tracking the impeachment process against CJ Sereno, and his depiction of himself as an “enemy” of the top magistrate.
Listening to all this, we ask: By what authority will the UN intervene in Philippine affairs, supposing the world body would want to do so? Where does it say in the UN treaty and charter, and in what UN document is the world body authorized to meddle in our affairs?
The answer is simple: There is no such authority. Lady Margaret Thatcher, a lawyer and a former prime minister of the United Kingdom, summarized the matter succinctly when she wrote in her book Statecraft: “The UN Charter describes a system which assumes that sovereign states, not any international body, exercise power within their borders; in which the legitimate scope for interventions is extremely limited; and in which real control is exercised by a few great powers.”
What will Rapporteur Sayan do with the lawyers’ petition? He will throw it away.
Members of the group can console themselves with the thought that their initiative was featured in some TV newscast, and with all their posing before the cameras holding up a copy of the petition published on the front pages of some sympathetic newspapers.
In fact, we suspect that the entire initiative was about publicity. Without the media’s complicity, this thing would not have happened.
Colonial mentality is the internalized attitude of ethnic or cultural inferiority felt by a people as a result of colonization, i.e. them being colonized by another group. It corresponds with the belief that the cultural values of the colonizer are inherently superior to one’s own.
A case of another embarrassment or a manifestation of a severe case of colonial mentality, moi leaves it up to you guys we can always agree to disagree, so there. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)
