Only last November, after many, many years, Batasan Assemblyman Tolits Puyat, called me (Spar, he called all of us), on nothing particular. Reconnected, we agreed to meet, and I did see him, the other night, in his wake.

He is gone, a brave soul who came openly against Macoy and ran and won convincingly as a Batasan Assemblyman in 1984. Whenever I ask someone who tells me he wants to be Prez, “of what country?” - I steal from Tolits. Goodbye and thanks for the many things you’ve done for the Motherland. Not to honor him in the Batasan is sad, indicating amnesia (but not when it comes to arguably unconstitutional additional compensation, as in the Senate. No ethical stamina?). Burial is this morning. Manila North.

Also gone the other morning, in Malaybalay, was Fr. Anscar Chupungco of San Beda. I owe him more than he’ll ever know. He was scheduled to receive a pro ecclesia et pontifice award on Jan. 26, as requested by Cardinal Tagle. To the Puyats and Chupungcos, condolences.

Showing moral stamina, Korea and China have yet to forgive Japan for World War II. Any Japanese premier visiting its war shrines would trigger outraged protests in Korea and China. We’ve long forgiven Japan. Which is the better stance, forgiving or unforgiving? Do we agree that he who is merely just is severe (Voltaire)? And to distrust anyone in whom the instinct to punish is powerful (Nietzsche)?

Should we now dismantle the PCGG and move to the DOJ the task of going after the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses - and pay the human rights victims? The PCGG and the victims, who suffered in particularly intense ways, on top of collective duress, are often at loggerheads.

The first PCGG had recoveries and changed the Swiss bank secrecy law forever, thanks to Uncle Jovy Salonga (who would only authorize Sunflower biscuits for merienda, matching Prez Cory-Pot’s tipid), Sedfrey Ordonez and Pete Yap as the whole world then tried to help Prez Cory who the Loyalists and RAM tried to shoot down however. (Many of the fiscal agents were said to have improved their finances, to indulge in vice, leading to the quip that PCGG meant Puro Chick Gabi Gabi.)

When the Marcoses were found to be “ill-gotteners” on July 15, 2003 by the Supreme Court (SC) which ordered the forfeiture of close to $700M, it seems to me it should have ordered the “ill-gotteners” probed and prosecuted, if the evidence warranted. Congress should have passed a law disqualifying ill-gotteners of humongous sums from public office (done now with some convicts) to avoid the spectacle that ill-gotteners Imelda, Imee and Bongbong are where they are today. Would that the system enact a declaring as disqualified from government one made to restore even P1M by final judgment.

The SC directed a Count in Austria (Disini) and a former NBI head (Bugarin) prosecuted. Why not the Marcoses, given the recovered sums? Nearly $700M. Huuuuge. Humongous.

Among the sins of Macoy was saddling us with the Bataan nuke plant, which is beyond economic repair, apart from the site issue, and our readiness to deal with accidents in our laid-back puede-na culture. Its upkeep in the proposed budget is another hefty P50M. PDI, Jan. 7, 2013, p. B3, col. 1. We agree with ex-Rep.Mark Cojuango: time to stop the pakendeng-kendeng; have an up-or-down vote.

But, I can be patient. I still don’t know what to tell my studes how to answer Multiple Choice Question No. 52 in the last bar exam in Poli-Law. I have written twice to the Supreme Court, which promised to get back to me but has not done so in violation of Sec. 4 of R.A. No. 6713. (No one is immune from suit, as we have seen in the cases of Jefferson, JFK, Nixon and Clinton. Immunity relates to what was done, not to the office. If a Prez with raging hormones rapes, he cannot claim that ravishing is among his official duties.)

Is my human right to know violated and therefore of those who I try to teach? Might it be tested in this litigious, eristic community?

I am now in the midst of a heated email debate on theism versus atheism. Today’s sermonette I filch from Fuller: “It should be remarked at this point that it is chiefly in Roman Catholic writings that the theory of natural law is considered, not simply as a search for those principles that will enable men to live together successfully, but as a quest for something that can be called `a higher law.’ This identification of natural law with a law that is above human laws seems in fact to be demanded by any doctrine that asserts the possibility of an authoritative pronouncement of the demands of natural law. In those areas affected by such pronouncements as have so far been issued, the conflict between Roman Catholic doctrine and opposing views seems to me to be a conflict between two forms of positivism. Fortunately, over most of the area with which lawyers are concerned, no such pronouncements exist. In these areas, I think those of us who are not adherents of its faith can be grateful to the Catholic Church for having kept alive the rationalistic tradition of ethics.”

A long way to restate that I am against RH. The state cannot intrude into the privacy of the bedroom. A “higher” law is superior to positive law, as shown by Antigone, St. Thomas More, Thoreau, Gandhi, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Peshawataro, the Brothers Berrigan, Muhammad Ali, et al. (Populations drop in Japan, Singapore and much of Europe. Canada is severely underpopulated and welcomes immigrants, say in Quebec, and elsewhere in Canada, where four children are encouraged per family. China, India and the Philippines - the land of beauty queens, and therefore, of babies - may yet dominate the world.) Speaking of Ali, we would not want what happened to him to happen to Manny Pacquiao, who should give up his supposed plan to run for Prez and be fondly remembered like Muhammad Ali.

Ali had a good word of sorts for lawyers in his TV appearance with Dick Cavett as host prior to his second fight with Joe Frazier (not the ’75 “Thrilla”). Asked whether he would go advise a kid to go into the so-called Manly Art of Modified Murder, he said something like Listen, man, the chances of making it are a million to one: it’s too dangerous; go to school; be a doctuh, be a lawyuh, be a mechanic, etc., and he savored the deserved applause. Another Ali gem, before the Ali-Foreman fight; he answered when host David Frost asked how he’d like to be remembered. His reply rolled trippingly from the tongue: “I’d like for them to say, he took a few cups of love. He took one tablespoon of patience. One teaspoon of generosity. One pint of kindness. He took one quart of laughter, one piece of concern, and then he mixed willingness with happiness. He added lots of faith, and he stirred it up well. Then he spread it over a span of a lifetime and he served it to each and every deserving person he met.”

Credible Manny Pangilinan’s group has given more than P100M to the Pablo victims. Did Manny Pacquiao ACTUALLY give his publicly-promised millions like FPJ, unadvertised. Proof, please. Remember he’s a congressman, who wants to be joined by a brother in the Bigger House in his hobby. In the Better One, Sen. Bong Revilla, another presidential wannabe, plots with GMA 7, against the people, in a new teleserye. We deserve better than this arguably unethical arrangement of treating “Senatoring” a hobby.