By now, we know by heart, if not by brain, why we are the way we are as a nation: politics has got the better part of our institutions.
The sorry and pathetic sight the other day of a senator falling on all fours at the stairs ,while running away from pursuing law agents about to bring bad news ,turned out to be an inevitable truism about an English poet warning on a tricky deception.
“O what a tangle web we weave”, Sir Walter Scots warned,’’ when at first we try to deceive’ It wasn’t just about falling flat on your face, and bruising some fingers to boot. It is also embarrassing a TIME-HONORED Institution whose abrupt though anticipated change in leadership may unwittingly give away a dubious political agenda . The political outcme may or may not sit well with public taste or good, may even compromise history.
It is still a farce, if not a tragedy, in progress as Marx also foretold.
Like Jonah of the Bible, a celebrated prophet in time, our institutions have been gobbled up by a big fish, which is what a voracious and insatiable politics is. It is wrecking havoc in the country, while truth suffers inside a fishy nightmare and must be vomited out in the terra firm, sooner or later.
Otherwise, we’re doomed.
Notably, we see some encouraging , hopeful signs, including the fact that the fallen senator can no longer hide in plain sight anymore . The magic 13 of senators are up to something, and the public has been long forewarned about the chicanery.
First off, there’s the emerging modern -day Zaccheus from the messy murky flood water projects. A couple of public engineers had vowed to return illegally acquired assets The original Zacchaeus promised to give back as much as four fold what hr had defrauded others.Not millions but billions of stolen money from public infrastructure ,finished, unfinished or ghosts. No thanks to a second Marcos president who has scared some crooks by threatening them jail before Christmas which, by the way, has yet to happen. Blame. due process to the delay, or politics standing in the way.
This unconventional trend may be upset by the possibility of another political decision and its familiar ramification in 2028. Cross your fingers or curse your fate. At least, two or three senators may live another day in unresolved alleged corruption in floodwater corruption if the impending impeachment goes awry or kaput.
It’s no wonder that a change in leadership in the House of the Elders took place faster than one can say go or stop. Those who understand politics say that’s the raison d’etre the hiding senator surfaced anew after falling flat on the stairways. The new Senate president has loudly denied the overwhelming votes for the impeachment of the Lower House has something to do with it. Ditto a vice president chimed in fro m the Hague while visiting a father facing two charges of crime against humanity at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Another encouraging sign is the Supreme Court. The High Court latest decision involves reversing the ruling by the former president now languishing at The Hague of removing a high official of the Ombudsman for confirming a former senator’s finding about the family’s hidden wealth in the banks.
The billions stashed in several banks has been confirmed by the anti-money laundering council and now forms parts of the unexplained sensational(e di wow) wealth issue in the impeachment case. There are other issues that, at the very least, need the vice president’s fourh grade explanation. It must be a tough assignment considering that the vice president has assembled 16 topnotch lawyers to defend her.
No less than 255 congressmen, for the first time, have voted in favor of the impeachment, some of them grudgingly at first, but changed their minds for one reason or another. It’s hard to fight the quality and quantity of the evidence, they say. It’s a nuanced joke f.rom the gallow
“ Forthwith”, according to the Constitution and a former Senate president wholeheartedly agreed. So before forthwith became the next day, the SP lost his crown. Of course, the idea is to acquit the vice president and the change in leadership is the classic route. Someone said and is often whispered from the corner that the road to hell is paved with good intention.
Not so fast, expert lawyers said by way of a caveat. The Senate must still convene itself into an impeachment court and bear in mind two things: 1) political neutrality and 2) impartial justice must be observed. Leadership change cannot be the obvious means to justify the obvious end. Beware also of public opprobrium which could be apocalyptic. EDSA People Power 1986, borrowing from King Charles recent speech before the United States Congress, was just the other day. Remember history, Santana said.
The other day, the fallen senator asked the highest official of the land for mercy.He acknowledged that he and only he can change the course his principal now awaiting trial at The Hague has taken. Certainly, not voluntarily, forget about the earlier badmouthing. The appeal could be a cryptic message of concession or trade off. Negotiation comes from the position of strength, vulnerability from comes from weakness.
The siting president, unfortunately, doesn’t have the killer instinct, according to pundits, despite being the son of a former dictator who flaunted his admiration for Machiavelli. He, has a soft spot, people close to him note with pride or fear. Will the President fall for a pity party of a former co-perpetrator who must take account for the crime against 20,00Or or 30,000 people lost or wasted during the so called drug war? Or will he let the rule of law not the rule of men take its unhindered path to redemption?
The medium is the message: the leadership change in the Senate for which the hiding senator resurfaced is about politics, not to serve the country, Never has the old warning been truer:patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.`
We’ll see if Jonah has been finally, thankfully spat out of the big fish.
