VICE President Sara Duterte cannot force the Senate to end her impeachment trial — a process mandated by the Constitution — even if the chamber is packed with unapologetic Duterte die-hard supporters. But if she does one big move, she can render the whole trial irrelevant. All she has to do is to appear before the senator-judges and deliver the message of a lifetime. A compelling message of powerful oratory and legal brilliance arguing that the House of Representatives and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration have conspired to launch a witch hunt against her based on trumped-up charges, on evidence so farcical that it won’t stand in a true court of law.
That platform, which the senator-judges will grant to her as the accused, will give her the prime-time opportunity to argue for her defense by citing the ghastly precedents from time immemorial: political persecution of rising political stars by the sclerotic and flailing establishment to prevent their ascension and stave off the collapse of the moribund leaders. She can summon episodes in history where deeply unpopular leaders would cling to power at any cost, and the first step to realize that is to remove from the scene the popular and deeply loved challenger. Even without proof, she can lay claim to the younger Marcos’ administration as a deeply unpopular one, and claim that she is the deeply loved challenger and president in waiting.
But there is a precondition for that. Duterte, at least for 30 minutes, has to put herself in the shoes of Michelle Obama in delivering that message of a lifetime. A message whose powerful delivery, mastery of legal details, magisterial jurisprudence and breadth of literacy will be heard across all the nooks and crannies of our archipelago. A powerful message that will be the shining moment of her political career and help in the nullification — figuratively — of her impeachment trial. A powerful, well-articulated message that will resonate with her political base and beyond.
We all know what would come in the aftermath of that powerful defense. And that priceless optic of Duterte facing the senator-judges alone, carrying a few sheafs of typed paper, simultaneously articulate, somber and defiant. She will win the hearts and minds of a nation, one ready to vote for her as the next president in 2028.
Here lies the rub. Even if her spirit is willing, even if she desperately wants to impress the nation with a superbly argued and legally grounded statement — an impressive rendering of her own defense — her intellectual reach and breadth may be inadequate to carry out a task that Michelle Obama routinely does at a moment’s notice. Shorter version: the spirit is willing, but the intellect is weak. That is probably the reason she has opted out of the surest way to impress upon the Filipino people the message that her defense has been saying all along: the impeachment case against her is much ado about nothing.
That is probably the reason she hides behind a phalanx of lawyers and a retinue of gofers, and issues boilerplate statements from time to time about the impeachment trial. Boilerplate statements in lieu of facing and answering questions from the media scrum. Those boilerplate statements, irony of all ironies, often speak of “bloodbaths” and quote lines from the late 19th-century poem “Invictus.”
Written by the English poet William Ernest Henley in 1875, “Invictus” was a staple in high school oratorical contests in the past century. I don’t know if it is still being taught in high school literature classes now. Back then, every high school student had to take a pound of Henley and Invictus. And it is exactly the wrong piece of literature to sum up Sara Duterte’s line of defense. While she is shielded by lawyers and apologists and flunkies who have been delegated the task of defending her, the vice president often likens her situation to the central character in “Invictus” bloodied but unbowed.
The title means “unconquerable” and “invincible” in Latin. A person with the indomitable will to conquer and fight all odds. Delegating your legal defense to lawyers and allowing press flunkies to answer questions from the media are not at all signs of a person with an “unconquerable” spirit.
During a recent visit to the Senate, Sara Duterte, surrounded by flunkies, told the media: one statement, no questions. That is the opposite of the “indomitable will” to conquer all odds and fight.
Sara Duterte is wont to chicken out from personally confronting issues and challenges related to her top government positions — including the impeachment trial — brings to mind the acronym SACO, or Sara Always Chickens Out.
Even with the available opportunity to make the case for her defense via appearing before the senator-judges, the vice president picks the worst option of chickening out and delegating everything to lawyers.
Even with the available opportunity of answering questions from the media scrum, Sara Duterte picks the worst option of telling the media: one statement, no questions.
Even with the chance of directly telling the Filipino people her views, sentiments and candid take on the impeachment process, she prefers the shield of her flunkies, then quotes from “Invictus.”
A member of the House prosecution panel has aptly put it: No “bloodbath” for a principal fighting through proxies.
