lawmaker is for pushing the immediate passage of a bill that will penalize children

who abandon their parents no longer able to fend for themselves.

Cavite Rep. Roy Loyola said House Bill 5336, to be known as the Parents Welfare Act of 2014, requires children to provide their old and sick parents support for sustenance, clothing, residence, medical attendance and other amenities that would enable them to lead a normal life.

The Bill imposes the penalty of imprisonment of one month to six months or a fine of not more than P100, 000 if the respondent continues to fail to give support for three consecutive months without justifiable cause.

“Whoever, having the care of protection of a parent in need of support, leaves

such parent in any place with the intention of wholly abandoning the latter shall be punished with imprisonment of six years to 10 years and a fine of not less than P300, 000”, the bill states.

In filling the bill, Loyola said the elderly abandoned in the streets have become a common sight because fail to provide the necessary support for their old and sick parents.

“This happens despite our moral and natural obligation to support our parents who are in need of our help. In the same vain, our Family Code imposes on us the legal obligation to support our elderly”, he said.

Loyola said while the government is doing it’s best to provide support in the form of food and shelter as well as enacting legislation like the Senior Citizens Act, taking care of the elderly is a shared responsibility of the

government and the children of these elderly.

~ Paolo Romero

Terrorist have the grandiose dream of sowing fear, toppling governments and ultimate destroying the very fabric that binds a nation together. In death, Zulkifli bin Hir aka Marwan, may be able to accomplish these goals, thanks to the various sectors in our country calling for the resignation of President Benigno Aquino.

The present Mamasapano disaster reveals the immaturity of our democracy. There are two reasons why we are enmeshed in the current controversy:

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1. The misinterpretation of the Constitutional provision naming the President as the Commander- in- Chief of the armed forces, and

2. The wrong application of the doctrine of the command responsibility.The provision in

Article VII, Section 18 of the Constitution stating that “The President shall be the Commander- in- Chief of all the armed forces of the Philippines x x x,” is wrongly interpreted to include all military operations. The correct interpretation of this phrase is that a President should be held accountable for blunders in military matters only at the policy level. He cannot be held accountable for the blunders of the military at the strategic, tactical or operational level.

The way we are applying the article, will lead to absurd results. If democratic leaders are held accountable for military blunders below the policy level, then no democratic leader will approve a special operation. He will lose his job if the special operations fail. Or put in another way, there will be a constant change of leaders.

Rodriguez said the five BBL provisions that his panel consider as unconstitutional are those authorizing the envisioned Bangsamoro region to have it’s own version of the Commission on Elections, Commission on Audit, Civil Service Commission, Office of the Ombudsman and Human Rights Commission.

Aside form these, there are sections that require the President to coordinate with the planned new region whenever the Armed Forces of the Philippines or the Philippine National Police conducts operation there, he said.

He said such requirement would dilute the powers of the presidency.

Responding to questions, Gonzales and Rodriguez did not blame the government panel for the MILF’s insistence on congressional approval of the BBL as drafted, and the rebel’s belief that Aquino could bind Congress and the Supreme Court.

“Lets just say the MILF has it’s views on these things, and we have a different view,” Rodriguez said.

At the Senate, Recto reiterated the BBL cannot be passed in it’s present form.

“It has to undergo revision and improvements and the bills must be cured of it’s perceived constitutional defects,” Recto said.

It must pass the constitutional litmus test here. Its better for the legislature to make its constitutionally compliant than for the Supreme Court to strike it down later,” Recto said.

He said that BBL is basically about “financing the peace,” referring to the annual appropriations for the proposed Bangsamoro government.

“On the first year alone of the Bangsamoro establishments, the projected minimum cost is P75 billion,” Recto said, citing official estimates on the fiscal impacts of the creation of the so-called Bangsamoro.

A big chunk of the amount is in the form of a “ block grant,” which in 2016- according to testimonies of government officials- will be around P27 billion, Recto explained.

The BBL also provides for a “Special Development Fund” to be remitted by Manila to the Bangsamoro administration.

“This is P10 billion, an amount that is bigger than the combined budget of the tourism and trade industry

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departments, or the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority”, he said.

“The block grant, the SDF and other entitlements are over and above present spending levels,” Recto pointed out.

In a hearing on the Mamasapano clash last week, Recto also revealed the amount being readied for the Bangsamoro is even bigger than the P70- billion budgets for the cash conditional transfer program.

The Philippine National Police (PNP)’s annual budget is pegged at P70 billion. ~With Cristina Mendez

Rowell L. BandongGrade IX- Iodine

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