Chapter 7: G&B

• President Aquino repeatedly boasted during her term that she had at least restored democracy. True, if she was referring to the establishment of the usual tripartite framework of a Presidential System... she also boasted of a free press and the restoration of the bill of rights.
  
   For instance, freedom around the world 1992-1993 survey on political rights and civil liberties... the Philippines, "As the only example of illiberal democracy in East Asia."
   An  APT description of an illiberal democracy is a country that has become predatory, maintaining some kind of order but also arresting and incarcerating opponents, muzzling dissent, and controlling media.
  
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• When she assumed office, a number of media establishments were found to have been operating under Marcos rule as state enterprises. In line with principle that the press must be free from government control...
  
   But that was all devoid of substance and form, as President Aquino aborted the process by keeping a number of newspaper, TV and Radio Stations on a sequestered status:
  
                      1.)  Times Journal chain of publications
  
                      2.) The Philippine daily express
  
                      3.) Manila Chronicle
  
   Manila bulletin was also sequestered but the sequestration was lifted when it was discovered that only 20%... was owned by Marcos.
  
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• When Louie Beltran, wrote that she hid under a bed, the first commander in chief to do so, while the rebel soldiers were assaulting in Malacañang in August 1987... 
  
   She invited Malacañang reporters to her bedroom and had herself photographed while lifting the bedcovers  to show that there was no space to hide under the bed.
  
   Not content with that, she personally went to court, the first chief executive to do so, to sue the journalist...
  The legal fight that ensued was, of course, under the constitution , the President can sue but cannot be sued while in office. And, as admitted by the presiding judge himself during the trial of the libel case; He tendered his courtesy resignation early during Mrs. Aquino term but she subsequently reappointed him. 
  
   Predictability, the court convicted Beltran and Soliven.
  
   When Fidel V. Ramos assumed the presidency, the appellate court, where Soliven and Beltran appealed their case. Acquitted them on the recommendation of Solicitor General Raul Goco... (37 Phil. 731) 
  
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• President Aquino's brand of democracy had been besieged by military rebellion, and communist insurgency, on one hand, and by the spectacle of a weak and  ineffective government of the other.
  
   Sharply highlighted than during her term which began with so much popularity and good will and ended with so much hatred and despair.
  
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• Speaker Ramon V. Miltra Jr. unwittingly earned Mrs. Aquino's ire for putting the executive branch under microscopic scrutiny by the congressional oversight committee that discovered the rapid decline of the Aquino administration and caused political instability and anxiety among the people.
  
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• The Country natural resources were relatively more productive than others... In terms of  geography, it is a nation occupying a strategic position in the world. And its archipelago, Mitra added, secured its people from the troubles that usually bedeviled land locked states.
  
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• According to Mitra, President Marcos, in his frustration with trials of democratic politics and representative government, aborted democracy altogether and offered the people an alternative, something called "Constitutional Authoritarianism" many went along with his solution.
  
   The basic rationale of Marcos was that Authoritarianism was more efficient... Strongman rule would mobilize the nation to march as one... Mitra said.