How much is the vice president worth?
Not much, or not at all, according to the lord of the rings in the present dispensation.
The old school looked to the second highest post as merely a spare tire. The civics and the Constitution agree as much. Politics have changed and so is the perspective on what other roles the second best could be.
Not too long ago, the veep was designated as the chief educator in the land of the forgetful and naif. That was before when there was the so-called unity that proved to be short-lived owing to a permanent slogan: there are no permanent allies but permanent interest in politics.
Now , the top honcho of the political realm in the land of the trolls and vloggers, suggest, not commands in line with political politesse and correctness, to lawmakers not to impeach the second highest regardless of the reasons.
He, the president, thinks it /she—choose your pronoun– is not that important in the scheme of things. “It’s a waste of time”, he said, and – more importantly__ it will not benefit the life of a single “Filipino.”
Sticks and stones can break your bones, but words can’t kill you,
The leadership conversation among the best politicians—or worst- in the world has come down to what is silly, immature and unedifying in a nation which claims to be the first Christian community in Asia and boasts of having the longest Christmas season in the world.
The lawmakers, which some observers believe their intelligence can be measured by their grammar and syntax, are not convinced or persuaded by the president’s suggestion. Long ago, the British philosopher John Stuart Mills warned of the likely deficit in a representative government.
The shenanigans of the vice president and her office are plenty and serious as empathically conveyed during the wrap-up hearing of the famous Quadcom of the House of Representatives.
How can you pass up plunder, a heinous crime, when graft and corruption in government seems to be the order of the day? How can you ignore blatant perjury, broad daylight bribery and plain betrayal of public trust of a prominent public official who swore under oath against these?
How can the president easily forget that he just recently vowed of the rule of law, which means that no one should be above it, and acts as if someone can willfuly break it like nobody’s business and laugh all the way to the bank with millions in confidential moolah? It’s time to show the nation—and the world—that he meant what he said and said what he meant. There can be no two ways about it. It’s called credibility.
“The bold defiance of a woman is a certain sign of shame, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand said. “When she has ceased to blush, it is because she has much to blush for.”
The vice president or her staff must be blushing, let alone getting sick, at the lawmakers repeated confusion and consternation of alleged beneficiaries of public funds that are nowhere to be verified or certified as homo sapiens by the Philippine Statistics Authority. They might as well be the favorite street chichirias.
The vice president dares the House to bring the impeachment charges on. Two have been filed,another one is one the pipeline. No worry says her camp, there are enough skittish senators in waiting to scuttle it. Besides, there is a religious group ready and able to frustrated the candidacy of wistful congressmen and senators. So what the heck?
The vice president defiance grows by the day. At this point, she has made known her decision to make herself scarce in the second probe by the National Bureau of Investigation on her alleged death threat to the president, the First LAdy and the Speaker of the House. The threat had a caveat: it was a revenge after death, a legal gobbledygook.
She missed the first NBI probe. She didn’t know the House postpone a hearing where she was supposed to attend. She could not make it, so better luck next time. This time she has the same excuse: her sked would not permit it. Better luck next time again.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the NBI is willing to adjust to her availability, which is not certain or a red herring. Besides, the police have no reason to believe, based on their sleuthing, that the vice president has hired a killer to execute the murder plan. The veep is a lawyer who thrives on technicalities: she doesn’t remember saying the word “assassin”. She who runs way lives to fight another day, anyway.
The president’s massage or message on the House to stay its course on the impeachment could b e another of his political strategy. Never mind the dragon on the door way. She is harmless , anyway, Her tantrum would not amount to anything, much like a people gathering the scope and scare of the 1986 Edsa People’s Revolution that threw his dictator father’s kingdom in exile for decades out of the country. Look at what happen to the calls of trolls to occupy this time. The flies did come. NiLangaw.
They, the Marcoses, are back in revenge themselves, having been able to bury a beloved patriarch in a ground reserved for heroes and patriots. Wait a little time before history is rewritten completely and the price is back to P20 per kilo again. The law of supply and demand, not to mention the cartel, is making it difficult for the victors to rewrite the script.
And there is, mind you, the defiant vice president who is ready and able to rain,if not ruin, their parade. She has bluntly told her political nemesis they have not met an enemy of her audacity and bravado. No vice president had publicly shown her contempt to her opponent by showing how she imagine decapitating him and, ultimately, threatening them death if she is done in.
Ms. Defiant,however, is deftly shrugged off by Mr. Cool or Mr. Machiavelli.
