Weekly Brief
The dishonesty and utter waste of time and money inherent to "confessional inquiries"
In review and in prospect
If you want a process where there will likely be that “right balance” you seek, a Congressional inquiry is not where you will find it. There actually is a venue within which a more rigorous and a more structured process to zero in on the truth is applied; and that is a proper court of law.
Anything Congress spews is driven by political agendas. Indeed, you do not even need to be a trained thinker to be a member of Congress. You just need to be popular enough to attract the votes.
An institution of the judiciary, however, is a different matter. A court of law is governed by procedure that more closely aligns with a systematic approach to arriving at the truth via a structured debate where the quality of arguments and counterarguments is competently vetted, the standards of what constitutes evidence are clear, and the representatives of both sides formally trained in the field of logic and its application.
Sadly, in the Philippines’ showbiz culture, Congressional hearings are a lot more entertaining and the agents to whom we have entrusted mass dissemination of important information — corporate mainstream media — make lots of money off the “bread-and-circus type of entertainment” that Congressional inquiries are guaranteed to deliver.
Last week's blog posts
Is the Ninoy Aquino assassination of 1983 still a significant part of our history?
August 18, 2024 by Ramon Ortoll
"Marcos wouldn’t have been toppled if he didn’t give in to the Americans and called a snap election. The hubris that came with thinking that he was still in control ultimately led to his downfall."
Philippine Senate inquiries are dishonest circuses, not conducted in aid of legislation
August 18, 2024 by Ramon Ortoll
"There isn’t any reason to vote for Senators in the midterm election. Each of them cost taxpayers about P400M a year. Their new building’s cost is at P23B and counting. While we’re at it, the house of representathieves should be abolished as well."