“WHERE is the country going” is the meaning of the above Latin sentence, Quo haec patria tendit. That seems to be the question of every Filipino citizen watching the gravely disconcerting political development unfolding in the country.
It looks like the brains behind the ouster of Vice President Sara Zimmerman Duterte and her disqualification from the 2028 presidential elections are on track in their devious plan of convicting her in the impeachment trial.
The political bullet train carrying the judgment of conviction, if one is to believe the spokesman of the impeachment court, is arriving at its designated place on Dec. 16 of this year.
All the forced circumstances that will bring to fruition such devilish design have transpired, to wit: the arrest, detention and rendition of her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague; the overwhelming vote by the members of the House of Representatives to impeach VP Sara; the filing of nonbailable charges of plunder against identified allies of VP Sara and their incarceration; the service of an ICC warrant on Sen. Ronald “ Bato” de la Rosa that forced the embattled lawmaker to go into hiding to evade an unlawful arrest; the shake-up at the Senate that resulted in the ouster of Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano from the Senate leadership following the somersaulting of two senators who are facing capital offenses in connection with the flood-control project corruption, forcing them to abandon their colleagues in the majority resulting in the Cayetano bloc’s loss of control of the upper chamber; the threatened filing of criminal charges against a female senator and her lawmaker-son and the issuance of a warrant of arrest against the latter; and the filing of graft and corruption criminal complaints against sibling senators Camille and Mark Villar and their parents, former senator Manuel “Manny” Villar and former senator Cynthia Villar, as well as another member of the Villar family, that forced Senator Mark Villar to leave the minority and vote with the majority to unlawfully reduce the constitutional threshold of conviction in the Senate impeachment vote.
The scuttlebutt is that there are three more senators who are to join the majority to secure their liberty. If that probability happens, and the highest court of the land does not intervene to derail the unconstitutional amendment of reducing the required number of senators for conviction, then such circumstances will seal the political coffin of the impeached official.
The social media is abuzz with the bashing of Sen. Mark Villar for not only abandoning the minority but also voting to reduce the voting threshold for conviction. It is, however, easy to render rash judgment on him, to unmask him as a traitor to the cause of justice and truth, and for betraying his colleagues. But we must remember that a person under coercive and threatening circumstances where his or her liberty or life or both are at stake, especially when the members of his/her family are also at perilous risk, succumbing to a repulsive act against his will is inevitable.
Most of the members of both the majority and the minority are hostage to the power holders owing to their alleged involvement in some anomalies related to the release and use of the national budget. They have to toe the line, obey as ordered. Should they defy the command, the guillotine will swiftly fall on them. That will explain why, like dominoes, one by one of them is falling to the ground.
Rather than crucify them, the powers-that-be should be exposed and prosecuted to the fullest when the time of reckoning comes and they face the unforgiving wrath of the people and the law of retribution.
For now, they appear to control the three branches of government, weaponizing the law against those whom they perceive to be roadblocks to their unquestionable lust for power and ill-gotten wealth.
They rule their fiefdom with absolute authority and impunity. They wallow in luxury, ransacking the natural resources and wealth of the nation as the people suffer in silence. Those who resist are subjected to black propaganda and dishonored, or worse, those who challenge their authority are thrown in jail.
The people are in despair even as they are disgusted and angry. They are waiting for the constitutionally designated protectors to fulfill their task, but they seem to be not forthcoming, waiting for a trigger that is either still in the making or has not taken shape. The last bulwark of democracy on Padre Faura appears to be vacillating or in a state of suspended animation.
The country is on the precipice. The seething outrage and desolation are percolating and near boiling point. There must be an end to this political insanity, but how and when?
Que sera, sera; what will be, will be.
