ON the surface, the brains behind the sinister plan of not only ousting Vice President Sara Zimmerman Duterte but also disqualifying her as a presidential contender in 2028 — which they mortally fear she is a cinch to win hands down — do not make it appear that their game plan does not include the continued stay in power of the present power holders beyond their term of office. Make no mistake about it, that is their end game. They are gaslighting the Filipino people. The only way to succeed in this devious political endeavor is to amend the Constitution. Convincing the members of Congress to convene both houses of Congress into a constituent assembly is an easy task. The lawmakers would easily embrace it because they will benefit in the extension of term limits. They will be glued into their present lucrative positions.
Let us recall that they tried that political adventure before, particularly at the start of the term of the incumbent president. They just couldn’t agree on how the two houses of Congress would vote on the amendments to the Constitution, whether to vote separately or jointly. They had to dump the idea when a smoldering strong opposition evolved from the various organized sectors of our society. They tried another constitutional alternative, which is the people’s initiative. That too was jettisoned because there was deception in getting the signatures of the people, accompanied by monetary consideration disguised as social aid to the barangay (villages).
The administration has no viable presidential candidate to defeat VP Sara in an honest election if she is acquitted. If Duterte is convicted — using foul means such as lowering the voting threshold for conviction, jailing senators who are certain to vote for exoneration, and threatening other senators to force them to vote for conviction — it still has no winning bet even if it coalesces with the yellows or with the leftists or with both. It has no winning bet against a substitute formidable candidate in the person of Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte or Sen. Robin Padilla or Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go.
And if the anti-Duterte forces who are ensconced in power succeed in jailing Mayor Baste and Senator Robin on trumped-up criminal charges, or throw Sen. Bong Go into the dungeons at The Hague, a surprise dark horse waiting in the wings will emerge, and will be swept to the presidency by a tidal wave of votes coming from millions of Duterte followers, and millions more from nonpartisan awakened citizens, angered by the conviction of VP Sara under an orchestrated illegal process, plus an equal number of overwhelming sympathy and protest votes from voters who are outraged by the political retribution heaped on the Dutertes and their Senate allies.
The political manipulators engineered the grand design. They commenced it by going after a close political ally of former president Rodrigo Duterte — Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, the influential religious leader. After assaulting the sacred grounds of his religious group with 3,000 fully armed police personnel to effect his arrest, intimidating the members of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC), damaging its property, and even causing the death of a member who suffered a heart attack because of the assault, Pastor Quiboloy was jailed after his surrender. Thereafter, the KOJC TV network, Sonshine Media Network (SMNI), was targeted. Some of its anchors were harassed in a congressional investigation, and libel cases were filed against them. Their allies in Congress, under the guise of investigation in aid of legislation, summoned the staff of VP Sara and subjected them to intimidation, leading to the incarceration of her chief of staff, lawyer Lyca Lopez, for imagined contemptuous acts. As a result, she ended up in a hospital with a nervous breakdown.
What followed was the filing of the first impeachment complaint against the vice president, which was unanimously invalidated by the Supreme Court for violating her constitutional rights. After the expiration of the one-year ban, a second impeachment complaint was filed. Subsequently, the sudden appearance in the Senate of Sen. Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa, who had made himself scarce to evade being served an unlawful warrant of arrest from the International Criminal Court (ICC), resulted in a brief change of Senate leadership, putting the chamber in disarray.
The turmoil that followed brought about another Senate shakeup. After the Senate convened itself as an impeachment court to hear the impeachment complaint against VP Sara, two senators, Jinggoy Estrada and Rodante Marcoleta, identified as allies of both Rodrigo and Sara Duterte, found themselves charged with plunder and are currently in jail. Meanwhile, Senator Bato, who continues to be in hiding, was promptly tagged as a fugitive from justice. Another senator, Loren Legarda, left for abroad, ostensibly to seek treatment for a medical condition, but the scuttlebutt is that she is avoiding possible arrest for alleged participation in the flood control funds scandal, in addition to her son, Rep. Leandro Leviste, facing a nonbailable offense.
Sen. Robin Padilla, meanwhile, is being subjected to an obstruction of justice suit for allegedly helping Senator Bato escape from the Senate. Last week, siblings Mark Villar and Camille Villar, together with their parents and other members of the family, were charged with a graft case that could put them in prison. Two senators, Francis “Chiz” Escudero, presiding officer of the impeachment court, and Joel Villanueva, are currently under investigation for participation in connection with the flood control anomaly. But the probe of the two senators appears to have been placed on hold, obviously to put them in check.
There could be others who have skeletons in their closets, which explains their current demeanor in the impeachment hearing.
The vice president is being steamrollered in the impeachment court with innuendos, character assassination, black propaganda and prosecution witnesses that do not prove the impeachment complaint but instead show her innocence. With the mangling of the conviction threshold and most of the senators under threat of losing their liberty, and with the Supreme Court dismissing the certiorari petitions questioning the constitutionality of the impeachment court’s voting ruling for prematurity and lack of standing of the petitioners, it seems that the outcome of the unlawful process unfavorable to VP Sara is almost a certainty.
Given the backlash on the power holders that could result, these scoundrel planners cannot afford to just obliterate VP Sara; they have to secure their principals and themselves from accountability and prosecution, hence the no-election scenario and the amendment of the Constitution to remove the term limits to continue with their reign of failed governance, plunder of the nation’s wealth and infamy.
Only a principled and courageous intervention by the Supreme Court can derail these frightening scenarios that will put the people on the brink of another political armageddon.
A united opposition of all the political forces that demand accountability and punishment of the plunderous politicians is imperative to halt the country’s ruin and the people’s suffering.
Until when will the Filipino nation be silenced and intimidated by the rascals before they exercise their sovereign authority?
Until when will the constitutionally mandated protector of the people stay unmoved by the blatant constitutional transgressions?
The clock is ticking.