Pre-Semester Non-Lecture Analysis 33 - Baguio-Benguet consumers are slowly waking up

rdinary people of good conscience are beginning to react to the BENECO crisis. I think it's because the COVID19 Delta Variant reminds them of it everyday. The NEA variant behaves uncanningly similar. It did not kill the host right away. It struck a very healthy coop. It did not even make everyone sick at first. It did raise the community's temperature slightly. But many still believe it's one of those things that will just go away. After all, all organs of the body are still functioning well. Flip a switch and the power still comes on. Then the virus began to rampage through the system. It mimicked the cells of the body, its socmed accounts, etc. It has gone to the bank. It needs to clone more viruses. Set up a sattellite office, entry point for more NEA viruses to come in. They have arrived already. It knocked out a few cells first. 7 directors and 1 officer. To prevent other cells from communicating, it stopped all assemblies, big or small. The biggest thing going for the virus it is you can't observe these things except by peeking into a microscope. People are just too busy. They flip the switch everyday to "monitor" the crisis. Power still comes on. So this crisis/disease will be protracted. If--when--power starts to falter, maybe after the virus has knocked down a couple of vital supply lines, and some busted transformers go unreplaced, then the business community will begin to suffer. Next, the whole city will start to feel the effect as the body's temperature breaks into a proper fever. Someone asked, "what do you think will happen then?" I said maybe that's when our antibodies will really kick into play. "But there's the case before the CA. You're a lawyer, when do you think can we expect to hear from that?" I vascillated between two answers. I should have said "I'm a lawyer, not a prophet" but I decided to just go with "how old are you now?"

Pre-Semester Frontier Post 32 - Of the 19 powers given to NEA by RA 10531, the power to appoint a GM is NOT one of them

he rulemaking power is inherent in every administrative agency, it does not come from any Republic Act. Administrative bodies do not fall under any of the 3 branches of government (executive, judicial, legislative). They are "mestizo." They exercise both quasi-judicial (adjudicating) power and quasi-legislative (rulemaking) power. What RA 10531--the law they are citing--gives NEA are exactly nineteen (19) specific powers. Appointing a GM is NOT one of them. When the law enumerates, it excludes. So NEA cannot just add to its own power by mere resolution. A resolution cannot have the force and effect of law because they were not properly promulgated like all other laws. For one thing, NEA does not publish its resolutions in the Official Gazette. That's why I cant wait for this to reach the Supreme Court. In the lower courts, the "fog of debate" and emotions tend to obscure the real issue. But in the quietude of SC deliberations, that's when real academicians and legal scholars can carefully bring the correct perspective into play. Trading emotional blows based on nothing but "stock knowledge" and natural law (when your statements begin with, "it's only natural that x x x), nothing will be accomplished.

Pre-Semester Frontier Post 31 - If one is unqualified, no amount of legal acrobatics can change that

t the heart of the power to appoint, if it is provided, is the doctrine of qualified appointnent. It's in one of the most beautiful decisions ever rendered by the Supreme Court, when it said "we cannot afford to become a nation of square pegs in round holes." Fortunately, the matter of qualification is not a subjective thing. It is not dicretionary. If there is a set of objective/ empirical criteria in the law, it has to be followed. If an applicant fails the criteria, no amount of legal acrobatics can permit the appointer to bypass the criteria.

Pre-Semester Frontier Post 30 - Disclosure: I am NOT a lawyer of BENECO. But I'm still on the side of BENECO.

ince I posted four brief remarks about the ongoing leadership crisis at BENECO, all four have been shared, reposted and embedded in hundreds of Facebook pages, approaching 1,500 in my last count. So I deem it only proper to make the following disclosure: I am not the lawyer of any party involved in this dispute. I am not under retainer by any company or agency involved. In my humble opinion, the way NEA has allowed this situation to spiral into this present perfect storm has all the potential to escalate the conflict into open violence if public grievance is left to pressurize to dangerous levels. On the other hand, if people start discussing the law, and not the personal saga of either GM, this community can elevate the level of discourse back to the more intelligent and safer realm of principled debate. NEA has time on its side, it doesn't have to rush this. Most of all, NEA should demonstrate utmost public sensitivity in this season of resurrection of ugly memories of martial law. NEA, after all, is a martial law creation. But the draconian strokes used by Ferdinand Marcos did not yield any true success for him ultimately. NEA should not delude itself into thinking they can do BETTER than Marcos.

Pre-Semester Frontie Post 29 - NEA is a regulatory body. It's power is to supervise, but not control or directly operate

et's talk analogy. The NEA is a regulatory body, just like the LTO, NTC, LWUA and BSP. These bodies regulate private entities which is why their power over them is limited. There are no public funds invested in private entities. So government regulators can only ensure these private entities follow the law only on matters directly affecting public interest, like service rates, etc. But these regulators do not participate in the daily operations of these private companies. Power to supervise is not power to control. The supervisor cannot substitute his own wisdom to that of the boards of directors of private entities. That would amount to nationalizing these companies, which is not the intention of Congress in ANY of the laws that created these bodies. Sometimes, administrative bodies like to expand the law beyond the intent of Congress. They have rulemaking powers, but no authority to legislate. Unless, you draw the line, abuse will proliferate--and we will end up with a situation even worse than martial law. LTO would appoint the GM of Victory Liner, Philippine Rabbit, etc. NTC would appoint the station manager of KLite-FM, Star FM, etc. and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas would appoint the GM of every bank...I think NEA realizes the enormity of its mistake, but is too proud to retreat. When this reaches the Supreme Court, however long that takes, NEA will lose. And it will lose huge. 

Pre-Semester Frontier Post 28 - NEA Appointing a Project Supervisor is just a Face-saving Move

nalyze the situation well. NEA abuses its power to supervise and appoints a BENECO GM. They totally underestimated the enormous public opinion backlash. So now NEA wants to redeem itself by pretending to suspend all conflicting parties, including the GM they appointed, in lieu of whom they will appoint a "Project Supervisor." That move in itself is a tacit admission of error. But it makes their error worse. A project supervisor is nowhere contemplated in the law. Even if you grant the best intentions on the part of NEA, you only place a cooperative under receivership--which is really what appointing a project supervisor amounts to--if it has become insolvent. But there is a lengthy process of determining the existence of insolvency, and its limited purpose is to protect any state equity in the cooperative's capital and assets. A company doesn't cease to be private even if it becomes insolvent. It is not that difficult to realize the limit of one's authority. Not even President Duterte can appoint a BENECO GM--if he could, he would have done so already. It's not a matter of rank on the part of the appointer. It's a matter of law.

When you are putting on a polo shirt, and you made a mistake of putting on the wrong button first, no matter how you try to correct it in the middle buttons, you will still run out of button holes at the end. It will still be askew. You have no choice but to undo the first wrong button.