I smell the scent of rain.
The sun shone for a while but it is getting dark again. A low pressure area is forming in the north that might bring more rain to Metro Manila. We always dread monsoon rains here because of flash flooding. The coming months of August and September are usually the heavy rain months that extend sometime to the month of October and some strong typhoons still happen until December. Gosh I always have that hidden fear during the rainy months. I am actually afraid when it rains non-stop and I am alone in the house. I am praying there won’t be flooding here this season.
Senate and Congress are presently on interpellations on the merits of extending Martial Law in Mindanao for another five months as desired by Duterte. The 1987 Constitution states that a president is only given 60 days to have Martial law in any place and beyond that, it needs the approval of Congress and the Senate. This is a critical issue that they have to vote on. Knowing that there are mostly pro-Duterte groups both in the Senate and Congress, they might vote for an extension although opposition groups are questioning the proposed rules of the special joint session. My gosh, they can’t even assure if they will be able to contain the rebellious groups in Mindanao after five months. Will Martial Law extension ends the conflict there or would it just be one of Duterte’s means to stay in control as they rightly believe? There are thousands of civilians who have fled their homes in Marawi City because of the conflict and some of the evacuees died of various diseases like dehydration. Talk of human rights violation and extra judicial killing and there you’ll see how this government works. Do we really need to extend Martial Law? So sad.
The Philippine peso is now at its weakest performance this year. Prices of basic commodities have significantly gone up. Even those we buy at the wet market are sky-high.
I am not really looking forward to the State of the Nation Address come Monday. I don’t want to hear more lies and cursing. Where are we going?
P. S. 5:25pm
This came an hour ago. Breaking news: Joint House-Senate vote: 261 affirmative, 18 negative. Martial Law extension wins.
Gosh, I don’t know what to say of our lawmakers.
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