Late roundup: FVR camp slams Malacanang mouthpieces

-- Drilon hits ‘deception’ in use of P20B Marcos funds

-- FVR camp slams Palace ‘mouthpieces’

THE camp of former President Fidel Ramos yesterday hit back at administration allies who accused him Sunday of "economic sabotage," saying he was just expressing his views on the state of the economy and that his statement about "artificial stability" was based on the continuing threats from military adventurers and extremists.

"It is wrong for Palace mouthpieces to accuse the former President of economic sabotage. The administration and its allies should in fact thank FVR for saying that what we have is an artificial stability since it is a wake-up call for everyone to start plugging the holes and leaks in our ship called the Philippines," said Ed Malay, Ramos’ media relations adviser.

Ramos on Thursday belittled Malacañang’s effort to remove the restiveness in the Armed Forces saying that what President Arroyo has done far was to impose "temporary and artificial stability" which he said could not withstand "extraordinary" pressures similar to the standoff at the Marines headquarters in Makati last month.

From Malaya: Economic sabotage?

We’re a little surprised that the crime of "economic sabotage" remains in the books. It’s a vestigial law from martial rule that should have been erased with the restoration of democracy. But we understand that the products of the infamous Amendment No. 6 to the 1973 Constitution could not have been simply struck down without messing up the legal system.

So we’re left with laws, including the one on economic sabotage, issued by President Ferdinand Marcos in his exercise of legislative powers during the interim Batasang Pambansa, with such laws remaining in force unless expressly repealed by the legislature.

As we understand it, economic sabotage covers profiteering, hoarding, smuggling and similar acts that tend to harm the economy. Never has it entered our mind that saying something like "the political situation is so bad that foreign businessmen are likely to pass the Philippines as an investment site" could conceivably be construed as economic sabotage.

Read the whole thing.

-- From De Quiros:

I SAW Raul Gonzalez on TV scoffing at Dinky Soliman et al.’s explanation that they were just taking a stroll at the Baywalk promenade while clad in black shirts. Government, he said, was not naïve. Dinky et al. were well-known political figures wearing shirts, the color of which was identified with their group, the Black and White Movement. The writing on their shirts demanded the ouster of someone, but given that Dinky et al. had been advocating the ouster of her former patron, Arroyo, it was clear whom they were referring to. And Dinky et al. were a group of 30 chanting slogans while they walked, which made it an illegal rally.

One is tempted to reduce this to absurdity, even if it is hard to add to Gonzalez’s already abundant talents there. One can always wonder, for example, if Dinky and company would be guilty of illegal assembly if they went to a movie house and watched George Clooney’s “Good Night and Good Luck” and applauded loudly the part where David Strathairn, playing the great Ed Murrow, defends journalists abandoning their neutral pretensions in a black-and-white battle between good and evil.

We know that Dinky et al. belong to a movement called Black and White. We know that the movie “Good Night and Good Luck” is in black and white. We know that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s witch-hunt is not unlike the one Joseph McCarthy mounted in the United States, and therefore Dinky et al. must be applauding a position against Arroyo. Ergo, they are guilty of illegal assembly and inciting to sedition.

Heh. Kung ipapalabas lang sana ang "Good Night and Good Luck" sa Pinas, kasi napapanahon na ang pelikula eh.