The handwriting is on the wall.
A marquee event In Philippine political history will dramatically follow the midterm election in May like an anticlimactic sequel; from the get go, everything seemed to have been set in motion toward its predictable conclusion ; but it is shaping up to be a big surprise.
The visible hands are known, the invisible hand seems to be more sovereign and immovable.
How historic it ‘s going to be depends on what or who upsets the apple cart, so to speak. Right now, what has been predicted by political wisemen is shaping up to be a prophesy. The political fate of the presidential sister-senator appears sealed.
That is far from the idea of the incumbent brother-president who graciously put her – what are brother’s for— in the administration’ senator slate. But no, thanks, the independent minded said to her brother’s offer. :”I have the right choice to make even if it is wrong,” the Irish singer Gilbert O’ Sullivan wrote in a popular song in the 70s.
The senator -sister is, alone again, naturally.
The latest survey shows the willful and self-willed sister is still out of the Magic 12. A miracle is needed to get her into the winning circle with a few days to go before D Day. If that happens, it will be one woman down from the vice president slew of allies on impeachment day slated sometime in July.
The perceived delay in the impeachment, highly criticized by other senators, prominent lawyers, and . is supposed to have bolstered her chances in the upcoming trial . Unfortunately, the presidential sister is look lost , along with other allies languishing in the cellar.
Interestingly, here comes now a prominent woman lawyer who has burst the vice president’s bubble of confidence that she will win the impeachment. No way, the woman barrister said, on any of the counts – four or five of them– of culpability filed by the House of Representatives. The evidence is strong enough.
But the impeachment is a game of numbers. To be acquitted, the vice president needs the Senate two-thirds votes or 16 members of the new Senate. Does she have the required number? Maybe not,but politics is the art of possible,even the insane, given how the surveys results show how the voters’ mind is madly intractable.
A former Senate president and a lunchtime host has pledged six years of his salary will be given up if he’s reelected. The vice president may get a clue on how his allies will improve in their ranking in the senatorial race. It’s not yet cast on stone . Any offer like that is too good to be refused. It is said that it will take a billionaire to win a senatorial campaign today. Will the real oligarch please stand up?
Of course, the impeachment case is the preface to the 2028 derby which the vice president is keenly eyeing based on her previous statements. Didn’t she already have it in her palms in 2020 but gave way to a unity team that burned to ashes like ningas cogon? Revenge is best served cold but the vice president has defied cooler heads and burned the bridge between the president. As far as she and the presidential sister senator are concerned, the political motiff for the administration, and for the country as well, should be black. Can the vice president rise like the phoenix from the ashes?
In the meantime, the public pulse on the continued detention in The Netherlands of the former president has not been good or encouraging for the vice president and senator sister, who had been waging a Senate crusade hearing of sort. The latest poll pegs at 61 per cent the number of the people agreeing to the former strongman’s arrest, painstakingly described by local crusaders as kidnapping.
As if this problem isn’t enough, here comes a CCTV footage showing the vice president’s brother and congressman beating a helpless man. There is now a move to have the House impose a disciplinary action on the congressman. You don’t need a genius spinmeister to draw a perfect, consistent theme of a sitting mayor hitting a poor sherrif for implementing a court order, a former president accused of crime against humanity and a sitting son congressman inflicting body blows on somebody to come to a fair logical conclusion.
The lawyers who think the former president will be soon set free by an international criminal court and that the vice president will breeze through an impeachment trial may have to think twice. There is more than enough Exhibit As.
“ A long time ago,” the American criminal and cult leader ChARLES MANSON said, “ insanity meant something. Nowadays it’s different” The former president now in jail at the HAGUE can say that his occupation now is a jail mate not as a former president. It appears that the hiring of top international lawyers and the daily patriotic rally of Filipinos near his cell may not change this “current” occupation anytime soon.
Every Filipino politician who’s worth his salt, not to mention the electorate, knows who’s calling the shot, and has three more years to do his job. And he knows how to do his job as president, notwithstanding accusation to the contrary by his vice president. He should know a thing or two about impeachment.
The distinction between children and adults is a specious one” according to Machiavelli.” There are individual egos and crazy for love. The president has, years ago, admitted his great liking for this ancient Italian philosopher and kingmaker, and may have learned/copied a lesson or two for practical purposes.
Caveat emptor.
