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<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-8/mr-sharon-cuneta.webp" alt="Mr. Sharon Cuneta" />
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(Mr. and Mrs. Kiko Pangilinan)
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After serving a lackluster term as Quezon City councilor after the 1986 EDSA uprising, Pangilinan made an unsuccessful run for congressman. This was followed by a job under President Joseph Estrada, whom Pangilinan eventually abandoned at the height of EDSA II. Pangilinan then ran for senator under Estrada's successor, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.


After Arroyo was re-elected in 2004, Pangilinan, who was a member of the National Board of Canvassers, denied requests from the opposition camp to scrutinize the contested election returns. Because Pangilinan mechanically replied "noted" each time he denied those requests, he was given the moniker "Mr. Noted," an unflattering title he may secretly detest to this day.


In 2010, Pangilinan deserted Arroyo and joined his new political master, President Benigno Aquino III of the Liberal Party (LP). A year later, he demanded an investigation of electoral fraud allegedly committed by Arroyo in 2004. A dismayed Senator Vicente Sotto III criticized Pangilinan for his manifest duplicity.

Before Pangilinan became a senator, the law governing minors involved in crime distinguished between minors who acted with discernment and those who did not. Only those who acted with discernment could be held criminally liable.


That distinction on discernment was practical because minors in today's age of digital information technology know what acts are illegal and what acts are not.


Pangilinan altered all that by sponsoring a law exempting all minors from criminal liability. As a result, many drug syndicates today use minors in marketing narcotics, precisely because the minors cannot be criminally charged.


In the 2019 elections, Pangilinan was the campaign manager of the LP's Otso Diretso senatorial ticket. After all his eight senatorial candidates lost, Pangilinan claimed that the LP did not really plan to win, and that if the LP intended to win, it would have fielded a full slate of 12 candidates.


Being a lawyer, Pangilinan knows that the ABS-CBN broadcasting network is now off-the-air because its legislative franchise expired and Congress decided against enacting a new license for the network. He also knows that what happened to ABS-CBN does not involve press freedom because nobody has a vested right to the issuance of a legislative franchise.


Pangilinan likewise knows that if what happened to ABS-CBN is a violation of press freedom, the Supreme Court (SC) would have issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the government, as prayed for by ABS-CBN in its petition filed in the SC last May. As of this time, no TRO has been issued by the SC.


Despite all that, Pangilinan continuously instigates people to criticize President Rodrigo Roa Duterte for allegedly abridging the press freedom of ABS-CBN.


This senator has no delicadeza because he bashes President Duterte about ABS-CBN while keeping silent about the business ties his wife, veteran actress Sharon Cuneta, has with ABS-CBN.
Pangilinan also blames President Duterte for the unemployment faced by ABS-CBN workers now that ABS-CBN is off the air amidst the COVID-19 health crisis.


This populist politician knows he has nothing on President Duterte because job security is not a ground for the enactment of a legislative franchise, and that the failure of ABS-CBN to obtain a new franchise has nothing to do with the health crisis.


Pangilinan's recent statement that if President Duterte is serious about getting rid of the oligarchs in the Philippines, the President should implement the constitutional ban against political dynasties, further confirms the senator's utter lack of credibility.


Under the Constitution, Congress must first legislate what constitutes a political dynasty and ban the same, before the President can step in and enforce such legislation. Pangilinan should go back to law school for a refresher course on the Constitution.


More importantly, it's been 33 years since the Constitution took effect, and no anti-dynasty law has been enacted by Congress. During 17 of those 33 fruitless years, Pangilinan was a senator, and he did nothing about political dynasties. Now, he blames President Duterte. Good heavens!


It's obvious Pangilinan badly wants to be credible, because he is eyeing re-election in 2022. If Pangilinan thinks he can achieve credibility by making unfounded accusations against President Duterte, he is very much mistaken.


Source:

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Kiko Pangilinan badly wants to be credible, <a href="https://tribune.net.ph/" class="news_link" title="Source" target="_blank">Concept News Central</a>, July 29, 2020, The Daily Tribune
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Eyeing for re-election in 2022, Mr. Sharon Cuneta badly wants to be credible