We are strongly calling out the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) to do something in our two telephone connections that have been DEAD for the last three months or more. The two landline connections that we have are the one at our residence at 82 Aries St., Pag-ibig Homes, Catalunan Grande, Davao City;’ and at our rural residence at Purok Lanzones, Talandang, Tugbok District, also in the city. Our number at our Catalunan Grande house is 296-0520, while that at our Talandang abode is 237-2169.
Since we have no signal for mobile phones at our rural residence we have no way of contacting the telephone firm to ask their repair crew to look into our busted landlines. Our daughter who works at an Aboitiz subsidiary has been trying to call PLDT but every time she told us she could not get through.
We do not know what is wrong with PLDT. Does it live to its name – Philippine LONG Distance Co.? We are starting to be convinced it is so. Somehow, it appears from our experience these days it takes too long to reach to the communications repair unit and even longer for the repairmen to come to the complaining customers.
And honestly since we had our connections hardly was there any instance that we were delinquent with our monthly dues. And who would not pay on before due date when the company is lightning quick in pushing the remote button to cut the connections?
Unfortunately for us we have no other option to get us connected especially with our editorial office where most of the time we send our daily column through e-mail courtesy of the PLDT’s internet facility.
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There are two major schools of thought on the convening of the Senate into a Court to try the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte. One is that being espoused by Senate President Francis Escudero; and the other by certain leading lawyers’ group and those in the camp of the Vice President who believe that with the present Senate membership the prosecutors cannot get their desired number – two thirds of the present Senate members or 16 voting yes to impeach the VP.
The legal group thinks that there is no need for Escudero to wait for the resumption of the Senate session which is on June 2, 2025 to convene and convert the Senate into an impeachment court. They point as unimpeachable reference the word “forthwith” in the Constitution governing impeachment trial. Meaning, once an impeachment case is forwarded to and accepted by the Senate the members of the Upper Chamber shall forthwith proceed in convening themselves into an impeachment court and immediately start the trial processes.
Meanwhile, our take on Senate President Escudero’s seeming dilly-dallying of the VP’s impeachment trial could be his belief that fast tracking the procedure might be considered by the Vice President and her supporters as giving way to the dictates of the President and his allies in the House, or even in the Senate.
And by scheduling the trial to a later date based on the dictates of his conscience and on his interpretation of the Senate rules on impeachment and of the provision of the Constitution, he may be able to avoid the consequences we’ve earlier mentioned here.
Anyhow, any which of the Duterte impeach trial schedule will the Senate chief adopt, he could only be positioning himself in safer grounds.
In other words, Escudero is taking a position that may not make him extremely vulnerable from criticisms coming from the accused’s and her followers’ side, as well as adopting a strategy that gives him a position that is less vulnerable from vicious suspicion of those who push the VP’s impeachment.
Meanwhile, are the House members who endorsed the VP’s impeachment subtly encouraging the trial delay? Perhaps they are, because they might have realized that prodding Senate chief Esudero to act with haste on Sara’s impeachment is a strategy by the anti-impeachment to have the trial conducted by the present Senate. They anti impeachment are possibly assured the pros cannot have the two thirds of the positive votes.
Or, are the pro-impeachment Congressmen aware of the individual Senator’s sentiment that they have to wait for the 20th Senate to assume? They may be hoping that it will be populated with a majority of pro-impeachment newly elected members.
We can only speculate.
