Was the Philippines better off or worse off with Sara Duterte as vice president?
Was she better off or worse off in that position as the second highest, if not the second most powerful, official in the land?
There’s a palpable sense that most people want to know the answer and deserve so. The polls says so, not later when the cows come home.
Impliedly and unmistakably, the Constitution seems to reflect that clearly and unequivocally. Article Xl says so and means so. The Senate shall proceed with the impeachment trial forthwith. A sense of urgency is conveyed by its textual construct.
In “The Silv er Chair” by C.S. Lewis, Jill asked Aslan, the Lion, if he would eat her if she went to the river to drink. When she was told it was a possibility, Jill suggested she would take another way to get to the water. The lion said there was no other way, period.
Like Jill, Chiz Escudero appears to think or behave of a possibility in the pending impeachment of Duterte given his hemming and hawing of the trial as envisioned in the Constitution vis-à-vis his perspective.
Here’s the plan, with all respect, to the Senate President, the impeachment trial shall proceed after the President’s state-of-the nation address (SONA) `in June.
Where is the sense of urgency in Escudero’s timeline?
The impeachment of the vice president, whether she would be acquitted or convicted, will go far beyond and deeper into the continuing saga of Filipino voters in choosing their leaders, local or national, and consequently into the future of this country. So far, it’s not been so good and commendable. The lessons of the past have yet to be earned thoughtfully.
The impeachment, whatever it’s outcome, should be at least instructive if not compelling in that direction, considering even the midterm elections and how many patriots have cried rivers over the breed of senatorial candidates on both sides. Forget the 2028 electoral apparition which Escudero doesn’t have on his crystal ball.
Maybe it’s time to move the proverbial musical chair.
Did Sara breach the sacrosanct public trust apart from other audacious offense as charged in the impeachment article filed by the House of Representatives? Was she a victim of political machination by the current administration with a moist eye looking eagerly, if not greedily ,on the 2028 prospects? Is power the ultimate aphrodisiac?
The perceived victim and vanquisher rightfully deserve a trial. Justice delayed is justice denied, so oftenly quoted by those truly intimated by the sacred principle, especially lawyers.
Without that impeachment trial NOW, not later as planned, truth will be a potential casualty, even Escudero’s own political future.
Were the House quadcom hearings merely a farce meant to boost the reps political stock and provide a cover or pretext for feathering their nests? Was the 2025 budget worthy of the naysayers’ uproar?
National redemption is at stake here as it was 1986 when those in power needed a nasty kicked in the butt. There was no China in the background then hovering like a predator in the West Philippine Sea which one of their own recently pooh poohed as nonexistent? Sara’s trial will prove or disprove that.
This is a time to test the patriotic sense of those who worry or don’t at all about the possibility that the Philippines could just be another province of China. This critical test is frittered away by the so-called motive to make the impeachment trial work. For whom by the way?
How can Escudero be so nonchalantly naïve of the national issues, not just bread and butter things , to which many hunger to provide a final, definitive answer?
The impeachment trial will offer a much-need window into the mind and soul of the one who will be brave enough to face the music She will sink or swim on that basis. There will be ifs along with the buts. It will be a clinical show of some sorts. Spare the shrinks.
What have we lost or gained in the time of the most controversial or celebrated spare tire in our political landscape? Threats of imagine beheading of national leader and another threat of possible assassinatlon along with certain kin should matter and be publicly censured.
It’s time to celebrate the heroes of the contemporary, not partisan, enlightenment. The heels had their time and been impaled historically in the nation’s struggle for democracy and justice. The biblical Esther may not have come at a more crucial time as this. And, for all we know,it could be Inday Sara. We probably have been misled by those who wanted to rewrite history as the golden prize for the victors.
Maybe she meant well when she cried out for God to save the Philippines. Maybe we have been barking up the wrong tree all this time and picked the wrong enemy of the people. Imagine what an impeachment trial will do to fix this nation with a sense of urgency, even decency. A new mindset needs a new way of thinking.
Of course, it’s a concession to many that the impeachment trial will morph into a telenovela. The nation deserves a new series in lieu of a lackluster spate of shows on the TV screen that pass for entertainment. Politics is a better form of , if not the best, entertainment.
Besides, Sara can hold her candle against the best in showbiz. Her acting is not method; it’s natural. Her political enemies have yet to find a perfect match. At one time, there was the much-vaunted unity that eventually, like the blackhole, collapsed under the weight of its own political gravity. One too many potential tyrants.
Whodunnit? Escudero is not so amused by the sight of a fork on the road , and sounds like an uncooperative espouse complaining of a headache. Maybe later, not forthwith.
