In the last three Senate hearings, the President’s senator- sister, Imee, has repeatedly argued her point: the former president has been planned all along by his predecessor to be surrendered to the International Criminal Court.
Countless facts and legal opinions by expert and pundits, objective or not, have confirmed this. The senator-sister wouldn’t relent like Don Quijote against the strong windmills. She wanted more: who was the invisible hand who was hiding in plain sight; she asked, begging or bullying for more detail.
The devil or her brother, however, was on the detail and was hiding behind executive privilege ,or his men who were send to the lioness’ den to test her wit or patience. Sorry, the privilege is its own reason. Next question, -please?
It has been said by the American author Eudora Welty that a plot is a thousand times more unsettling than the argument, which can be answered. Truly, truly you can say that, the President’s loyal choir echoed in unison, but our tongues are tied. Thanks to the Supreme Court but no thanks, In another time, another Filipino legislator bragged “what are we in power for”.
So far, nothing has changed or moved. The former president is still in custody, as suspect not as accused, thank you, he’s doing well while waiting for the day of reckoning which is six month from now. In fact, one resource person opined objectively that he is in a much better place than in any prison facility from his homeland or home city from where a notorious death squad reportedly sprung.
The senator-sister hasn’t moved a needle either in her dismal position outside the Magic 12 in the senatorial race. The DDS supporters appear not swayed or moved by her painstaking argument that their idol was kidnapped on the way to T he Hague. Not even the suspect’s common law wife can help but mock the Senate’s all=bleeding heart show. The Senate President has also chastised the senator to refrain from using the chamber of wise men for political gain. He is still muscling around to show who’s the boss, even freeing a special envoy who was earlier ordered jailed for contempt. He must have his back covered by someone more powerful. He must still finish an equally important assignment before his term will conceivably end.
So the vigil for the nation continues even as it observes a holy or pious time. Once upon a time, a righteous man was surrendered with a kiss by a betrayer that eventually brought Him to a historic trial. The mournful season might resonate with political comparison to some people, especially those who believed that he, the former president, was betrayed with all cameras, from cellphones and others, rolling. Attention , Exhibit A, ICC judges. A good snapshot, Welty wrote, keeps the moments from running away,
The plot thickens as anxiety mounts . Counsels for the thousands of victims of extrajudicial killings – from 6,000 officially to 30,000 unofficially lives allegedly lost in the war on drugs==foresee a long agonistes from 8 years to . even 30 years. Optimists believes the former president may need an effective cure for aging after he had reached 80. At The Hague, both pro and anti groups have displayed their contrasting values before the whole world. Who will the ICC affirm? Who’s the fairest of them all?
All the foreign defense team at the ICC of the former president has proposed certain restrictions on the participation of the so-called victims in the trial now dubbed as the trial of the century. It’s also a first for any Asian leader. The defense team wants a stringent ID system for the victims. Lawyers for the EJK victims called this out as double injustice to and gross ignorance on who the victims are—poorest of the poor in a country where passport is a luxury for the down and out.
Ironically, even the former president’s daughter, the current vice president, saw something positive in the alleged “kidnapping” of her father on the way to The Hague. It was blessing in disguise of some sort. Now the father and daughter are on a new bonding level, forgiving each other.
The vice president has yet to elaborate on their experience before the nation. The next Senate hearing led by Imee could be the theatrical venue in what promises to be a tear-duct challenging telenovela series in the Upper House as exemplifed by a senator actor.
For full cinematic effect, this must be well-rehearsed and scripted. The vice president, who has declared her desire to be a candidate in the 2028 presidential race, can optimize on he father- and -daughter post arrest bonding euphoria. It will be therapeutic to dynastic political families undergoing dysfunction because of politics.
Something as dramatic and entertaining must inoculate voters from the potential ill-effects of the impeachment trial already scheduled sometime in July by the Senate President, notwithstanding cry of unmitigated delay from Constitutionalists.
If she’s lucky, the trial could end up in her favor if 1) the new Senate will acquit her of betrayal of public trust and other criminal accusations by the House of Representatives 2) or the trial is overtaken by other political events or natural disaster and she is declared the survivor as a successor to her former lamented political partner and friend now enemy.
In a world of lies, according to George Orwel, author of 1984 , foreseeing the social media and other platforms for the untruth, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
The impending trial of the former president at The HAGUE and the expected impeachment trial of the vice president in the Senate will validate Orwel’s oracle..
