There's this old samba piece by Michael Franks. "Abandoned Garden". It's actually a tribute to his mentor and friend, Antônio Carlos Jobim, the legendary Brazilian Samba guitarist and proponent who fearlessly pushed that genre to mainstream jazz. One of my early influences in nylon guitar music study as well.
It's an absolutely beautiful song.. but for me all I can say about it now that I'm hearing it from my soundstream gadget again for the first time is 'Damn! what wonderful memories this song evokes'. I dunno it somehow brings you to the depth of a deep love, now lost but never gone. It's lingering. It's there but you cant do something about it.
The song talks about abandoning a garden not because of ones own caprice but because it's just one of life's undeniable facts.. that one day you will leave everything behind. You will simply cease to exist. The abandonment is involuntary and you just realize you're staring at an unkempt garden because the one who tends it is absent.
I remember my mother's gardens as they turn brown whenever she leaves for a considerable time staying in the other house. Talk about a lady having the most green thumb, mom is it. Geez would you believe that lady? whatever flower she dumps into the ground it grows. And I could even somehow really feel they will all sob and cry & damn go melodramatically miss her right from the moment she leaves. "Oh wag kakalimutan ang halaman ko, diligan nyo". "Yes Ma!". And then her rose garden will start to sing in chorus somethin' like "After you leave I start to cry.. hu hu hu" :)
But what's so beautiful about someone abandoning a garden like that is that.. sunlight still prevails. The rain may still come. Some of the plants and flowers may die as you leave, but it's inevitable.. some of the other plants will still be able to survive.
Wouldn't that be nice if someone asks you "How are you.. and her?" And for you to be able to say.. "I dunno.. somehow our love survives".
Let's get to the case.
It's an absolutely beautiful song.. but for me all I can say about it now that I'm hearing it from my soundstream gadget again for the first time is 'Damn! what wonderful memories this song evokes'. I dunno it somehow brings you to the depth of a deep love, now lost but never gone. It's lingering. It's there but you cant do something about it.
The song talks about abandoning a garden not because of ones own caprice but because it's just one of life's undeniable facts.. that one day you will leave everything behind. You will simply cease to exist. The abandonment is involuntary and you just realize you're staring at an unkempt garden because the one who tends it is absent.
I remember my mother's gardens as they turn brown whenever she leaves for a considerable time staying in the other house. Talk about a lady having the most green thumb, mom is it. Geez would you believe that lady? whatever flower she dumps into the ground it grows. And I could even somehow really feel they will all sob and cry & damn go melodramatically miss her right from the moment she leaves. "Oh wag kakalimutan ang halaman ko, diligan nyo". "Yes Ma!". And then her rose garden will start to sing in chorus somethin' like "After you leave I start to cry.. hu hu hu" :)
But what's so beautiful about someone abandoning a garden like that is that.. sunlight still prevails. The rain may still come. Some of the plants and flowers may die as you leave, but it's inevitable.. some of the other plants will still be able to survive.
Wouldn't that be nice if someone asks you "How are you.. and her?" And for you to be able to say.. "I dunno.. somehow our love survives".
Let's get to the case.
Here's the FACTS.. recit style.. bullet form:
1. (1949) RA 409- CONGRESS ACT – CHARTER of MANILA
2. (1951) EO 392 – Transferring Authority JAIALAI - LG to GAB (Local Govt – Games & Amusement Board)
3. (1971) MBM C.O. 7065 – Authorizing Mayor to establish & operate JAIALAI in MANILA . (Municipal Board of Manila)
4. (1975) PD 771 was issued by Marcos. REVOKING All Powers and Authority of LG to Grant Franchise, License or Permit to Regulate Horse and Dog Races, Jai-Alai or Pelota
5. (1988) ASSOCIATED DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION (ADC) tried to operate a Jai-Alai. Government thru GAB intervened and invoked PD 771
6. ADC assails the CONSTITUTIONALITY of P.D. No. 771.
ISSUE:
W/N P.D. No. 771 is violative of the EQUAL PROTECTION and NON-IMPAIRMENT clauses of the Constitution.
RULING:
NO.
P.D. No. 771 is VALID AND CONSTITUTIONAL.
P.D. No. 771 is VALID AND CONSTITUTIONAL.
RATIO:
Presumption against unconstitutionality. There is nothing on record to show or even suggest that PD No. 771 has been repealed, altered or amended by any subsequent law or presidential issuance (when the executive still exercised legislative powers).
Neither can it be tenably stated that the issue of the continued existence of ADC’s franchise by reason of the unconstitutionality of PD No. 771 was settled in G.R. No. 115044, for the decision of the Court’s First Division in said case, aside from not being final, cannot have the effect of nullifying PD No. 771 as unconstitutional, since only the Court En Banc has that power under Article VIII, Section 4(2) of the Constitution.
And on the question of whether or not the government is estopped from contesting ADC’s possession of a valid franchise, the well-settled rule is that the State cannot be put in estoppel by the mistakes or errors, if any, of its officials or agents. (Republic v. Intermediate Appellate Court, 209 SCRA 90)
