This article is refurbished not re-cycled. Computer laptops and other i-gadgets are resold as refurbished items; so also had I seen waste papers and plastics reprocessed as re-cycled paper and plastic bags. I leave it to the readers to be the judge as to its currency and relevance to the very disturbing tumult shaking the citadels of the Office of the Vice President and a sub-committee of the Senate Blue Ribbon. Anyway I wrote (and perhaps failed to submit) this piece for the May 16 -31, 2012 (two years ago) of this newspaper. Below is its rewind in toto.
Not so unlike the common cold or the flu or deadly dengue, Chief Justice Renato C. Corona and his impeachment trial went viral all over the country and even overseas. Blame the frenzy not on the media or other vested interests but trace it to the Philippines Constitution which mandated the privilege of who among the very few celebrity power holders are entitled by their own behaviour—to a disgraceful limelight of attention. The President, the Vice President, members of the Supreme Court, members of the Constitutional Commissions (Commission on Elections, Civil Service Commission and the Commission on Audit), and the Ombudsman who are at the very apex of power and authority were the chosen ones for this unwanted and improbable privilege.
Who wants it to happen? Certainly not the people or the constitution, that’s why impeachment when it does take place are fewer and farther between. And not so also for the chosen impeachable few who are so clueless about it until it happens to them. Impeachment is not about peanuts. There are dire reasons for starting it. There are enormous harm to society already done and are likely to continue if impeachment is not invoked. An example is large scale bribery or thievery of public funds which comes in very legalese terms.
Although impeachment is a sure sign that big bad things had already happened, impeachment is not only for lawyers. It is not solely about the law and its violation. It is about doing things right and doing the right thing by the very few high and mighty in the society whose thoughts and actions can inflict enormous harm and damage to society’s multitudes of the low and the weak. To the man in the street, impeachment is as simple as get the man or woman out of the pedestal of power pronto before more harm is done and make doubly sure he/she can’t come back. No wishy-washy reasoning on seriousness or gravity of the crime. No waste of time on the application of the majesty of the law. JUST GET THE OFFICIAL OUT OF THERE. FIRE THE OFFICIAL. Kick the rascal out.
And that is where the man in the street is wrong. To think it is easier said than done. It is showing excusable ignorance of the dynamics of reciprocity among the powerholders’ various vested interests. But it can be done, it can happen even in theory. In fact it might already had happened in practice. The point of this article is that any ordinary non-lawyer citizen interested in what is happening to his day-to-day environment and who is a moviegoer can offer a more effective impeachment process.
Consider this scenario teeming with positive assumptions. The country after a century of independence had already attained a modicum of political maturity. Most decisions and acts of political institutions are deemed acceptable, politically correct and honourable. The House of Representatives deliberated and voted for impeachment. The Senate activated the process of impeachment to determine the fitness of the high official to continue in office. It was not a trial to determine guilt or innocence of a crime but about the performance and adherence to his sworn duties to the constitution. The impeached official is not accused of any crime and is therefore not being prosecuted. Strictly speaking prosecutors and defense counsels as understood now may not be required to perform as in the litigation process. They may be referred to as the prosecution team and the impeached defense team.
The Senators shall seat as jury members or as collegial judges who will publicly and not in caucus vote for retention or removal of the impeached official. The first witness for the defense is the impeached official. Congressional defense counsels should lead the impeached official to the facts and reasons for his acquittal. Congressional prosecutors shall prove with sufficiency of evidence it is in the sovereign public interest that the impeached official be summarily dismissed and perpetually barred from holding any public office and denied of all retirement and other benefits for services rendered.
Impeachment protocol starting from the House of Representatives to the actual proceedings in the Senate should be televised nationwide and made available to the internet because any impeachment assumes the dramatic character of a blockbuster of the decade or even longer. Moreover, the qualitative implications and quantitative losses to the society’s sinew and resources could be incalculable. There should be in impeachment an application of absolutism primarily found in the Ten Commandments. One last minor point is that any citizen willing, need not be a lawyer as to express his views on impeachment. ****