LAWYERS CONDEMN USE OF MOA AND FEDERALISM TO JUSTIFY CHARTER CHANGE: CALL ON OPPOSITION SENATORS TO WITHDRAW SUPPORT FOR FEDERALISM VIA CHARTER CHANGE

(Statement of the National Union of Peoples Lawyers in the Philippines)
Reference: Atty Neri Javier-Colmenares (09178350459)
NUPL Secretary-General

Now it is very clear. The Solicitor General's motion informing the Supreme Court of the Arroyo government's decision not to sign the MOA with the MILF "due to changed circumstances" is one more proof that Pres. Gloria Arroyo only used the MOA as a means to launch her campaign for charter change. Now that Pres. Arroyo has skillfully shifted to federalism in justifying the opening up of the Constitution for amendments, she can officially withdraw from signing the MOA. From "MOA to achieve peace" Pres. Arroyo has now called for "federalism to achieve peace". Achieving peace, however, was never the aim of Pres. Arroyo. Her intention has been mainly to prolong her stay in power after 2010 by deleting in the Constitution that provision in Article VII, Section 4 that limits her to only one term.

But the cost of Pres. Arroyo's current adventurism is the breakout of war in Mindanao causing death and destruction in the region. Without condoning the abuses of MILF Commanders Umbra Kato and Abdulah Macapaar alias Commander Bravo, Pres. Arroyo is primarily accountable for the deaths of civilians in Mindanao for having triggered the ongoing conflict. The indiscriminate aerial and artillery bombings of villages by government forces pose as threats, at the very least, on the lives of civilians and constitutes a violation of Article 13 (2) of Protocol II of the Geneva Conventions that "civilian population shall not be the object of attack". Military objectives are limited by the Geneva Convention to "those which are by their nature, location or use make an effective contribution to military action and whose total or partial destruction x x x offers a definite military advantage". Indiscriminate bombings of villages where MILF forces are possibly located cannot be clear military objectives. Since the AFP aerial and artillery bombings are indiscriminate it could cause death or injury on civilians who are forced to flee in fear.

Furthermore, the recent government action of arming civilians in barangays is not only an abdication of the government's duty to protect civilians, but will also open the civilians to attacks from well armed MILF forces. Arming civilians will take them out of the status of protected persons under international humanitarian law as specified in Article 13 of Protocol II of Geneva Conventions which states that: "Civilians shall enjoy the protection afforded by the (Conventions), unless and for such time as they take part in the hostilities.

The violations of international humanitarian law committed by the Arroyo government, however, does not justify the acts of atrocities committed by Commander Kato and Commander Bravo of the MILF. The killing of civilians and burning of villages are attacks on persons protected by the Geneva Conventions. Article 4 of Protocol II states that " persons who do not take a direct part in the hostilities x x x are entitled to respect for their person". Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions on the Protection of Civilians prohibit "violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture" of civilians. Commanders Kato and Bravo and others responsible for the violation of international humanitarian law must, therefore, be held accountable for their acts.

Now that Pres. Arroyo's objective, of using federalism as a means to take out constitutional restrictions to her term extension, is exposed, the battle against charter change must be fully engaged. Members of the legal profession must resist moves to amend the Constitution for the purpose of prolonging Pres. Arroyo in power. There will never be peace under Pres. Arroyo whose reign in office is marked by massive graft and corruption, human rights violations and electoral fraud. In fact, there will never be a federal government under Pres. Arroyo whose lust for power will in the end preempt any serious move to take away the powers of a powerful president in a unitary state. In the same way that she has withdrawn support for the MOA, Pres. Arroyo could withdraw support for federalism once she has achieved her aims. NUPL urges Sen. Aquilino Pimentel and other opposition senators to withdraw support for the Senate Resolution to amend the constitution to attain a federal state. The move of Rep. Rufus Rodriguez to withdraw his resolution calling for charter change is a good start and should be followed by all those who do not want to be used by Pres. Arroyo to perpetuate herself in power. We also call for an end to the ongoing hostilities between MILF forces and the AFP in Mindanao and the resumption of peace negotiations and the holding of all those who violated human rights and international humanitarian law to be held to account for their crimes.

x---------------------------------x

By calling yourselves the 'people's lawyer,' you have made a remarkable choice. You decided not to remain in the sidelines. Where human rights are assaulted, you have chosen to sacrifice the comfort of the fence for the dangers of the battlefield. But only those who choose to fight on the battlefield live beyond irrelevance." Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, in his message to the NUPL Founding Congress,Sept. 15, 2007

REACTIONS TO GMA BRAZENLY INSENSITIVE IN A $3000 DRESS

In its August 4 issue, the Philippine Daily Inquirer published my letter criticizing The Queen for wearing a $3000 dollar dress while hordes of Filipinos queued up for a kilo of NFA rice. On that day, I was attending a human rights training in Nepal and could not read PDI. I only knew about the publication when I opened my mail this week and read a letter from Atty. James D. Lansang. He said to me:

Congrats on your pithy but seething Letter to the Editor published in the INQUIRER the other day. It was well-written and deservedly given prominence by the publisher. Am not sure if you are aware, but there were at least two (2) existing legal provisions which were brazenly disregarded/violated in the incident you adverted to, which, statutory mandates, sadly, are more honored in their breach than observance, to wit:

Art. 25, Civil Code:

“Thoughtless extravagance in expenses for pleasure or display during a period of acute public want or emergency may be stopped by order of the courts at the instance of the government or private charitable institutions.”

There is a similar legal standard mandated in a more recent legislation grandiosely known and referred to the “Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees” (Rep. Act No. 6713), otherwise known as “The Saguisag Law,” which inter alia declares that:

"Simple Living. – Public officials and employees shall lead lives appropriate to their positions and income.. They shall not indulge in extravagant or ostentatious display of wealth in any form.”

So I surfed the net. Jane Abao reproduced my letter in The Philippines Forum. It elicited a somewhat heated discussion among its readers abroad and in this country. Some deviated from the issue. One alleged that Jane Abao (who was assumed by the reactor to be the letter writer) is suffering from inferiority complex and jealousy. One said I suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder. I had fun reading the reactions, but at the same grew concerned that some people abroad who live in relative comfort could be so apathetic about what is happening here. It was also heartening to note that some overseas Filipinos are following the developments in their native land and are still very concerned with the prevailing situation. I also received via email reactions from various individuals.

Here are some of the unedited reactions published in The Philippines Forum:

RDT of Nottingham, MD: Inferiority Complex Jane is now jealous of GMA and Ruffa.

Go back 40 years before Marcos and the Philippines is the wealthiest Asian nation.

Accept it. The wealthy can afford the nicer things in life. The rest of the world just strives for tomorrow. That's life. Fair or not. Count ur blessings ur part of the wealthy and not worrying about tomorrow's meal.

Gloria Kawatan (Los Angeles, California): What blessing are you talking about while the rest of Filipino people are starving. Gloria Arroyo, Spend the taxespayer's money like water. She's wearing $3,000. Dollars worth of dress, Shame on her. Whats wrong with the dress she wear last year. She only wear it once! Oh, I forgot is not her money she spend on that dress but the taxespayer's money. How can she even slept at night knowing that most of filipino people are hungry while she spend the taxespayer's money on trips/dress among other things! What kind of a leader is she?! We don't need a leader who don't care about the Flipino people. We need a leader who do their job they suppose too. Not just to inrich themselves.

Oakland (San Francisco, California): Blessings to be breathing and eating 3 times a day for Filipinos.

Blessings for having Jane Abao calling the attention of the very unpopular President who wore $3,000.00 worth of dress. And to make them happy, she should have worn from the "ukay ukay" and use the money to feed the poor.

Definitely this topic would stir more controversies.

John Lee (Chicago, Illinois): We should go to next level, parang ang pakiramdam ko ay nasa isang cage tayong lahat at we are all screaming on top of our lungs at walang nakikiramdam.

Gloria Kawatan (Los Angeles, California): What next level are you talking about. The poor people can't even get out from the first level of hunger! I'll say, Kick the FAKE PRESIDENT OF CEBU GLORIA ARROYO, BECAUSE SHE'S THE PROBLEM. SHE DIDN'T STEAL HER TITLE TWICE FOR NOTHING.

Me: I was the one who wrote that letter to the Inquirer denouncing GMA for rubbing salt on the raw wound of a bleeding nation. RDT, when I wrote that letter, I was not driven by inferiority complex. I was just asking the unelected President to be sensitive to the situation of her people. The Philippine Civil Code itself provides that living an ostentatious lifestyle amidst a crisis is a ground for moral damages. Fortunately for GMA, she enjoys presidential immunity (assuming she was legitimately elected). Her wearing that dress demonstrates her utter lack of concern for the welfare of her people. She has worsened the situation of the poor. Must she add insult to the injury?

RDT, take note that in the Philippines, poverty is not a choice. It is an imposition. It is callous for anyone to say that it is fair that "some have, some have not" in this country where wealth is controlled by a few, and always at the expense of the masses.

Working Girl from Brooklyn (Bethpage, New York):
Ms. Daytec, My niece just got married and she wore a $4,500 Vera Wang wedding dress. And her father-my brother- is not even a rich man. He's an average earning physician. And this is a typical price for a higher-than-average wedding. And here we are talking about the president of the republic. Come on, let's be fair. I do not want my president to look "losyang".

Where you trying to create a dramatic effect when you said poverty in the Philippines is an imposition?

I was in a conference in Seattle last month and I had a chance to have dinner with some Filipino attendees. As we talk about the situation in the Philippines, one said that Philippines is a nation of "borderlines". He was referring to a serious condition called Borderline Personality Disorder. Its first diagnostic criteria is "a pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationship characterized by alternating between the extremes of overidealization and devaluation". Simply stated, that person doesn't see gray area. It's either black or white, and in your case Arroyo will be totally bad forever. Until...("hi, cheryll. would you like to be my sss commissioner?")

If she committed a crime, then a lawyer that you are, should bring charges against her. Otherwise, it's all empty noise.

And BTW, BPD is a lot more difficult to treat than Inferiority Complex.

ChaCha (Manila, Philippines): Let's not argue whether it's appropriate or not for the president to wear an expensive dress like that. But does she have to boast in front of national press about the price of that dress? Isnt that insensitive?

Lapaz (San Francisco, CA): What I know is that Arroyo bragged about the dress as all materials came from local products. As economist, she has the ulterior motive of mass producing those materials that would ultimately help produce jobs and income for the local people.

The good news, she paid for this dress and not given for free.

Poverty is all over the world. To sensationalize poverty in PI that no President can wear expensive dress is ridiculuous. She was in the right occasion and everybody wore the best. For her to be different - wearing something from "ukay-Ukay" surely would had made her the laughing stock from those people who were against her wearing that expensive gown. Whatever GMA will do, she will never please everybody. As a president, popularity is not important, but making a tough decision that would not please everybody, but ultimately would bring positive results.

Some people in PI imposed on themselves to be poor. So many poor families have 6 or more children that they could not afford to sustain. Definitely not GMA imposed poverty to the Filipino people. She inhererited the economy crisis from the past presidents. That was the prediction that whoever will be the next President after Marcos would have a hard time. Aquino was not able to improve the economy; Ramos was able to stabilize the situation as there was no rally during his time; then followed by the ex felon Joseph Estrada. GMA would have a hard time eliminating corruption as almost everybody in her cabinet are corrupt, and now the Court of Appeals, who are supposed to protect the people; how about the Congress - they're all not doing their jobs to legislate bills that would help improve the lives of the poor.

So GMA is not only the root of evil but even you, ordinary citizen of PI. Try to question yourself too - how you can help even one hungry person. Instead of finger pointing, try doing your civic duty to help somebody from time to time. The good deeds you will do for your fellow men for sure -God will reward you.

Working Girl of Brooklyn (Bethpage, NY): Very sensible. Looks like a brain-drain of sensibly thinking men from PI to SF.

ChaCha (Manila, Philippines): Lol! We were talking about the dress and the taste with which it was shamelessly bragged about, then you came out screaming and smoking about corruption and poverty finger pointing at Marcos, Aquino, Ramos, Erap, Congress, Courts, and just about everybody except your idol Gloria, LOL!

You even ridiculed the lifestyle of the poor and the Filipinos in general, and said the everybody in her cabinet is corrupt except her?! LOL!

Funny but all the officials who have been involved in corruption were promoted, defended, and protected by GMA, the anti-corruptor, while the whistle-blowers are persecuted, and those who resisted corruption were removed from office by anti-corruption GMA.

Sorry I got distracted. Going back to the topic.

Expensive is expensive and bragging is bragging no matter what the materials are made of or where they came from. Wearing such expensive dress would have been fine and could not have been noticed if only she would have been not so shamelessly boastful bragging about its price in the midst of a serious crisis. Can you imagine watching the news depicting the sufferings of Filipinos from poor economic conditions and disasters, then all of a sudden a smiling Gloria brags about her expensive dress? Cant you get the picture?

Working Girl Of Brooklyn (Bethpage, NY): ChaCha must be another one of those multiple aliases. When someone overly emphasizes ethics, be watchful. You're talking to a socipathic mind.

Indeed, it's a nation of "borderlines".

ChaCha (Manila, Philippines): Let's stick with the issue and not the posters who discuss about the issue.

Wearing expensive dress is fine but to boast about the price in the face of the sufferings is shameless.

Working Girl of Brooklyn (Bethpage, NY): If the posters use too many aliases to make it appear that there are many who shares his ideas, then I have the right to question the integrity of the person I'm responding to. That's fair game. Don't set one-sided rules.

ChaCha (Manila, Philippines):Stick to the issue, not the poster about the issue. If you want, you can create a thread about multi-alias posters and criticize them there. Not here and not me.

Cheryl L. Daytec-Yangot, PDI via e-mail said: "The cost of her dress (P140,000.00) is nowhere near what most poor families make in a year!"

I say:

What?? That price is nowhere near what most families in an entire neighborhood combined wear in 5 years!

See? The issue became controversial because there was a boastful mention of the price. If Gloria wants to look good (perhaps she feels she doesnt look that good), she can wear an expensive dress, it may cost a million dollars for all i care, but she doesnt have to brag!(Hoy mga mare ko, tingnan niyo tong bago kong damit ohhh, made in the Philippine tohhhh, mura lang, ONE HUNDRED FORTY THOUSAND LANG!!!!) lol.

What can you say about my opinion that wearing expensive dress for GMA is fine, but not the bragging?

Lapaz (San Francisco, California): Thank you. You're getting emotional, better loosen up as your contradicting your concerns.

Me:To Working Girl of Brooklyn: I think I made it clear in my earlier post that you cannot sue a sitting President.(Hey, I am curious as to how you knew I am a lawyer. I hope it is not from GMA and her fans clubs' "intelligence" reports.)

You are a working girl from Brooklyn? Good for you. Here in the Philippines, many people cannot find jobs. The economic environment simply does not foster employment.That is why I say that poverty is an imposition. This imposition is responsible for the diaspora. I mean a lot of people leave the Philippines because they cannot find economic opportunities here. If there were, why leave the country? Of course, there are other reasons why people opt to settle or work abroad, but most do it in search for greener pastures. Probably, you are not one of the "most."

To Lapaz: Yes, the President wore the dress to campaign for land conversion. Virtually, her message was: "Convert those ricefields into pineapple plantations so we can harvest fibers to be made into expensive dresses like this one I am wearing." Land conversion is one culprit for the food shortage we are suffering from today. Is it sound to talk about land conversion when people are hungry? What should we produce first: staple for domestic consumption or produce for exports?

I do not know if GMA paid for the dress. I would feel less bad if it was a donation. I do not like to think of the head of state (elected or not) buying expensive dresses in times of want. And that dress is expensive, at least in the Philippines, where many families do not even earn $3000 dollars a year. The law demands that government officials observe austerity in their lifestyles. And whether or not a lifestyle is austere must be judged according to Philippine standards.

To ChaCha: I agree that GMA could wear an expensive dress but she did not have to announce its price. At least, not at a time of crisis.

So, there. What do you say? I stand to be corrected by ChaCha. He/She says that I was wrong when I said that $3000 is nowhere near what most Filipino families make in a year because that amount is nowhere near what most Filipino families in one block make in five years!

THE REAL STATE OF THE NATION

Just as we expected, The Queen delivered a canard about her Queendom. Life is dandy, the future is rosy, she is a brave Queen, she has been slaying dragons derailing the progress of her Queendom and still managed to make it a paradise for her subjects.

Hounded by a very low credibility problem, she presented to the Filipino nation a handful of people who used to be thirsty until their cups were filled from spouts coming from the spring she created. There were those people who found jobs after receiving training. There were peasants whose station in life rose a few inches higher with loans. If you ask me, dragging those people to the halls of Congress was a pathetic attempt at proving the popularity of her programs. It was too hard-sell. And it did not work because now the masses are asking why she chose to bestow food on the tables of only a few.

This is a country with more or less 89M people. If she improved the lives of half of the population, we would have given her a pat on the back. But if benefits from her harvests trickled down to only a minute segment of the masses, she ought to cover her face in shame. Her very poor neighbors in Malacanang did not have a share in the pie she claims to have cooked for the masses. If you cannot see the poverty right over your fence, how can you see poverty in the countryside? She is a failure and worse, she does not enjoy a shred of public trust as the latest surveys show. She inflicted her illegitimate reign on the masses for too long. It is way past the time to face the music. This is not Japan so it is too much to expect her to resort to "hara-kiri." She should start looking toward the direction of the exit instead of concocting the elixir that will extend her stay in Malacanang beyond 2010. That is what leaders with moral compunction do. But let us not forget that she commandeered her way to the most sought-after swivel chair in the country employing means way beyond Niccholo Machiavelli's imagination. Morality is not her cup of tea.

We do not need counter-statistics to show the real state of the nation. Simply pay a short visit to any field office of the National Statistics Office or the Department of Foreign Affairs. There you can witness unusually thick crowds of people queuing to obtain passports or copies of their birth certificates, a requirement for passport issuance. Before The Queen usurped the throne with a telephone call, crowds in those offices were not as multitudinous. The smell of despair was not as pungent. The atmosphere was not as funereal.

What do the queues tell us about the state of the nation? They tell us that more people are now pushed to the edge and are ready to embrace what family-oriented Filipinos would shun doing - leave their families, even infant children in so many cases, for jobs abroad. Otherwise, the alternative is hunger. And those people in the crowd are not even assured of jobs overseas. Their faces are those of desperation, hands clutching a delicate thread of hope.

You can also tell the state of the nation from the multitude that flocked during the most recent Feast of the Black Nazarene. This year's Quiapo horde was unprecedented. Obviously, the masses are already at their wits' end and they have to hang on to faith - faith in redemption from hunger via contact with a 400-year wood from Spain. Under The Queen's reign, not only votes in presidential elections and money from the public coffers are stolen. Even perspective has been robbed from the masses by the starvation she fostered.

Really, there is no need to go into statistics to have a deep grasp of the state of the nation. Numbers have a way of confusing the issues and eventually masking ineptitude, inequities, and the reality of poverty. But let me take The Queen on the economic growth she gloated about. Sure, there was an increase in the gross national product. But this is why she has more to account to the masses for. In spite of this growth, food became more inaccessible for them. Which means that the growth benefited only the usual ones- the feudal lords, the multinational companies, the national bourgeois- who make up a very small number but control the nation's wealth. The Queen's reign only widened the already wide gap between the wretched and the over-blest. In other words, she only exacerbated the root of poverty in the Queendom.

And who is she to profess a bleeding heart for the poor? She spent P300M in public money for a junket to America to have an audience with the frontrunners in the US presidential elections (Obama, realizing perhaps that he is just a presidential candidate, did not accommodate her into his hectic schedule) while the country was being ravaged by Typhoon Frank. By golly, she was already selling the Philippines even if she was not sure who the buyer should be. And when she came back, she did not spend P300M to aid the typhoon victims.

The state of the nation is that it is a nation mired in despair with an illegitimate Queen who is the errand girl of the oligarchs, the slave of the bourgeois, the clerk of neoliberalism. This country needs her like it needs a hole in the head. She reminds me of Scar who stole Simba's throne in the movie "The Lion King."

Fairy tales are fine but only innocent children and retards believe them.

But again, it was an innocent child who saw a naked emperor  in  his "new clothes."

ANTICIPATING THE SONA's CONTENT

On Monday, July 28, The Queen will deliver the State of the Nation Address (SONA) before Congress. I have not heard her yet, but I more or less know what she will say - that she has a bleeding heart for the poor, that life has become better in The Queendom under her reign, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

No comment yet. I will just share a poem I wrote in 2006 after The Queen delivered a SONA overflowing with promises , half truths and downright lies. So loaded yet so empty. (Remember her "I axe you. Now!" episode with Dep Ed Sec. Fe Hidalgo after the latter publicly revealed that the country lacked more than 6,000 classrooms, a direct repudiation of The Queen's SONA declaration that her administration solved the classroom shortage problem?)

Double Talk

In the public plaza
Every child I meet
Looks like an orphan
Every mother looks
Like a widow
Every man looks
Stripped of pride
All naked, but for the
Threadbare clothing
On their emaciated bodies
All blind but for their eyes
That see their way to the plaza
All deaf but for the ears
That will hear promises
To lift them
from the pit of wretchedness

In the public plaza
You cry over the misery
Of the orphan
The widow
The man without self-esteem
You declare war
Against hunger
Against greed
The crack in your voice as
you condemn inequity
is so clear
it conquers doubts

You shower honey as you speak
With your unusually long hands,
You wave to the crowd
Of orphans, of widows
Of men stripped of dignity
Whose faces beam with hope
They have to hope.
What else comes free for them?

Soon, you will return
to the security of your edifice
Where you can be yourself again
I can see you – as in years past
I see you as you sit on the rocking chair
You unclasp your brassiere
And resume breastfeeding
The greed of the few

I heard you say, “I’m sorry” when
nothing was left to be said
You struggled against tears
Why did not the hair
At the back of my neck
Stand on their end
As they often do
When I am touched
By the hand of sincerity?

I walk away from the public plaza
Feeling heavier
than before I went
Wondering why I went there
In the first place
When I knew I would just witness
The funeral of truth again.

EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE AND THE CULTURE OF IMPUNITY

It was another bad week for the Philippines. The Supreme Court
just strengthened the culture of impunity pervading The Queendom by expanding the scope of executive privilege.

This is in relation to the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) signed in 2006 but still awaiting ratification by the Philippine Senate. The long and short of this agreement is this: It will make the Philippines the trash can of Japan. OK, let us grant that there are perks for the Philippines. But still, a trash can is a trash can. No Japan-made perfume can annihilate the stench of garbage. No Japan-made chemical can purify polluted air. No Japanese technology can reverse death from cancer or other illnesses that come from garbage. Jobs are good but we need life first. And hey, here in Baguio City, our garbage problem has reached unmanageable proportions and we are panicking. How can this country host Japanese garbage?

Now, the Supreme Court dominated by The Queen's political appointees said that the Filipino people need not know what transpired during the treaty negotiations. Senators should wonder about how they will ratify a treaty the full import of which eludes them.

The Queen must be grinning from ear to ear. And why not? She has a blanket she can use at will to block the public's vision range.

We are still smarting from disappointment over the March 2008 Supreme Court decision upholding Romulo "The Poodle" Neri's right to invoke executive privilege, a shield to dodge questions from the Senators investigating the mega-anomalous ZTE Broadband Deal. It is a really shocking deal not only for the overprice and bribes, but more because The Queen knew about them all along and because the First Gentleman appears to be the head of the syndicate to rob the Filipinos big time! With the Neri decision, The Queen can fill her hamper to the brim with very, very soiled laundry, wash it within walls immured from the public eye and come out clean as though her hands did not touch dirt. With this decision on the JPEPA, she can cook a recipe laced with poison without having to divulge the ingredients to the forced eaters. Barraged with queries, she can just shrug her shoulders and say, "Secret of the trade, folks!"

Let me summarize in blunt terms what the Supreme Court said in its Neri and JPEPA decisons: "The Queen and the queensmen do not owe anyone the truth!" Not even if the truth will set us free from tyranny.

During the dark years of Martial Law, the Supreme Court remained a bastion of truth and justice, although there were intermittent confused intervals. Now, it is an instrument of the reign of terror. I have never been disappointed in The Queen because she never had my trust and confidence to begin with. But the Supreme Court, having arrogated unto itself the role of sentinel of The Queen's dirty little secrets, is breaking my heart into tiny pieces.

Quo vadis, Philippines?

xx---------xx

Here is a poem I wrote a few years ago about justice.

Sun and Truth

The sun we know is always up
When day is day and night is out
Progress, on its power depends
Life to the grass and bees, it lends
It makes the flowers bloom so fair
The earth looks like true beauty’s lair
Behold the orange euphorbia
And the bright pink bougainvillea

But sometimes I get disillusioned
Even the day loses vision
When the thick clouds spread their white doom
The sun retreats to its dark room

Just as the truth is its own power,
Under its watch the kings quiver
Truth they say always sets us free
It protects, leaves innocence be
But when gold throws some confusion
Truth projects the face of fiction
Just as the clouds cover the sun
The weight of gold can push truth down

The courts of justice can be tools
To make truth lovers look like fools
Falsehood becomes justice’s anchor
Truth weeps slowly and leaves the door

Do not fully trust the absolute
Like the sun’s power and the truth.