We’re probably in greater trouble or danger than we realize, now and in the foreseeable future.
The ABS-CBN issue has been laid to rest. So is the network itself. In a vote of 70-11, the House committee on franchise voted down the network’s franchise renewal. For all intents and purposes, as lawyers would say, the Philippine media giant is kaput for now. At least, it has to wait for two more years until its nemesis’ real term runs out in 2022, and a new, authentic window of opportunity comes along.
By the way, the decision was arrived at by the House of Alan through a conscience vote, which basically means voting on the basis of what is right, not what Philippine politics and its leading patron saint dictate in the land of political patronage.
To admit that was so is blatant naivete. Or there’s serious problem with the idea of conscience in the House. To be fair, on the day of voting, nobody shouted ‘it’s on the house’. That’s beyond the pale already, assuming it’s not said in whisper.
Things don’t add up, however. If the magnificent eleven, who voted in favor of renewing ABS’ franchise, did it with their conscience, how did the mob of 70 made theirs? Or vice versa?
Evidently, the conscience is a malleable animal.
“More important than your obligation to follow your conscience, at least prior to it, is your obligation to form your conscience correctly,” advised former U.S. Supreme Court justice Antonio Scalia.
Did Scalia have leaders of public offices like the House of Alan in mind?
Let’s cite one example.
When Senate version of the anti-terror bill, which is now an act, was sent to the House for concurrence or approval, the lower house members from top to bottom swallowed it hook, line and sinker. Correction: some withdrew their support after voting without thinking. That was, of course, after wide cross section of Philippine society raised a howl of protest over its unconstutionality and danger to human rights.
The relevant question is: shouldn’t every vote in Congress, whether it’s House of Alan and the Senate, supposed to be based on one’s conscience? The Polish has a saying that conscience, after all, is the moral compass.
Shakespeare throws some light in Richard III. “Conscience is but a word that cowards use, at first to keep the strong in awe, our stro ng arms be our conscience, swords our law”.
If that were so, how many cowards do we have now in the House of Alan and the Senate? If you go by Shakespeare definition, taking the anti-terror law and the ABS-CBN debacle into account, we have more than 70. In our beloved province of Pampanga, “the batis ning katalauran”, we have four, to be exact.
Wittingly or unwittingly, the conscience vote was a mousetrap, if you listen to Vice President Leni Robredo who lamented that the congressmen didn’t even bother to consult their constituencies when survey showed 3 of 4 Pinoys favored the franchise renewal of ABS. They apparently forgot why they were there in the House of Alan in the first place.
Mark those who thumbed down ABS, Robredo reminds the electorate. The reckoning is coming in 2022.
That resonates well with an earlier advice from retired Supreme Court justice Antonio Carpio who suggested strongly that the West Philippine Sea should be part of the political debate during the campaign. So should the anti-terror and ABS issues be.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s wait and see how the Supreme Court rules on the several petitions filed before it against the anti-terror law. The Philippine will swim or sink with the Court’ verdict.
Senate President Tito Sotto, who has come up a with a hubristic stance against the petitioners, all better adversaries and not comedians, with apologies to some comedians, with his pathetic line: be my guest. Apparently disdainful and disrespectful of other people’s contrary opinion, not to say civil rights.
At this perilous juncture in our history, the Court is our best hope — hope against hope, a fellow journalist said — to save us from the abyss of authoritarianism. Again, conscience should work on the men in robes.
“The Supreme Court.” former U.S Justice Felix Frankfurter once said, ” is the conscience of society, to uphold the basic norms of society and defend he fundamental rights of people nothwithstanding the best-intentioned and ill-informed crusaders”.
Will the High Court rise to the occasion, or will a mouse trap be unearthed from the archives after the mountains labor?
