She said she would; she’s unconquerable, after all.
She may be bludgeoned and bloodied, borrowing a line from Henley’s “Invictus”, but unbowed. She’s also the captain of her soul, an exception to John Stuart Mills’ fear that some politicians may suffer from low intellectual problem.
No way, she had an 80 per cent grade in the bar exam, higher than many lawyers, before and after her. No kidding, chided the Senate Presiding Judge, himself a lawyer, who was earlier paralyzed by the Constitutional command “forthwith”
He recovered in time, broke the gridlock partisanship and saved the day for the Senate— and the nation, perhaps. So the impeachment trial, which had been given up for dead because of legal semantics, is alive and well and kicking some butts. In the words of a high-caliber prosecution lawyer,” padayon ta”.
Sara still has to prove beyond reasonable doubt the other line of “Invictus”: I am the master of my fate. It’s one arrogance to which her senator-judge ally, Alan Peter Cayetano, may object, vehemently as usual
On the eigthth day of the 90 dqys or so hearing, the Senate has gained back the respect and trust of the people: it authorized the opening of the back accounts, AMLC records and tax returns of Sara and her husband. It also gave President Bongbong Marcos an opportunity to pick up his moribund trust rating and make bones about in it his forthcoming state-of-the-nation address. There would be other braggng rights, except the US-Iran war that keeps the poor whining about fuel prices. The upper middle income status of the country has yet to make sense to those unable to make both ends meet, notwithstanding the P20 per/kilo rice enjoyed by some .
The Senate nod to out the Duterte—Carpio financial records was a force majeure – or force manure, as one senator judge was quoted as saying- for Sara’s defense. It was acknowledged as a setback, whatever that means, The future will tell why it is being suppressed by those in Sara’s camp. Could it be the Pandora’s box? Note that five senator-judges have submitted their written objection to this surprise decision.
Unexplained hidden wealth is one of four reasons Sara is on the impeachment dock. Without the identified financial records available to the impeachment court, there’s no way for the court to find out how Sara and his hubby could have amassed wealth close to 7 billion pesos.
The hidden wealth is so huge and brain wracking that the defense has branded the move by the prosecution as a fishing expedition. Not since the day of Noah when such a fishing job created so much public furor. It’s either the size of the fish or what it swallowed. Otherwise, the upper middle income story is a parody or caricature.
Apparently, Sara is a literary savvy, given his “Invictus” quote. In the past, she had a fairy-tale like book project called “ Kaibigan” which eventually was given up because of political questions. At this time, team unity was already showing signs of falling apart at the seams.
The famous Lord Acton had once wrote that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It does other bad thing,too like losing empathy, among others, study shows. The past and ongoing political squabbles among local politicians have confirmed the first fear. The flood infrastructure mess and the ongoing impeachment trial have confirmed the second point.
At this point in the game, where Sara had expressed her rage and murderous utterances on television and other public platforms, the impeachment court should have cut the chase and spare the nation of gallery shows of how politicians have disgraced and unserved the people.
The point of the trial is to punish an his official for being unfit to serve the people, The permanent disqualification to do that is just punishment.The continuing trial is probably meant to show how absolute power corrupt absolutely in many ways. It is an eye=opener and educational in that way, and provides humor and wisdom on the side. We must have our cake and eat it, too.
In ancient time, the life of a certain Middle East people was said that they could not discern their right hand from the left hand. So a fishing expedition took place as a game- changer.
There was a time in the life of the Filipino people when the leader stood up to rebuke certain leaders and officials, public and private, for and not knowing their right from the left. So he warned them: mahiya naman kayo.
This time around,one year atter he shamed many and threatened to jail them, does PBBM have the same embarrassing message ?
Whether Sara will be convicted or acquitted in the ongoing impeachment, what should matter most now is that we should able to discern between our right and left hand. The lesson is as basic at that. The class has still a long way to go, given the dragging pace of the trial Maybe we are such a slow, even poor, learner of history. So we deserve break.
Our problem is not intellectual, it is said, it is moral. Paraphrasing a prosecution lawyer, we kill a mosquito with an atomic bomb, but the mosquito still bites. May be we need to drain the breeding swamp.
