THE contrast could not have been more striking — and telling! When then Senate president Tito Sotto was told that there were moves to unseat him, he very calmly told the public: “We serve at the pleasure of our peers.” When Alan Peter Cayetano caught wind of negotiations among his colleagues to replace him, he did everything a statesman should not do. Almost in tears, he asked the public to rally to his side.
He ordered air conditioning units and lights switched off in the session hall. And despite the fact that 12 of his colleagues had declared his position vacant — as against the 11 that included him supporting his pathetic bid to cling to power — he continued — and continues — to claim that he is Senate president.
Then with amazing hypocrisy, he tells the media that he is minded to quit, but is held back by his covenant with the people, and his fealty to the Constitution! Covenant with whom? Fealty to what? The sanctimoniousness would be hilarious were it not tragic for our country and the institution where once were heard the brilliant oratory and scintillating juridical insight of the likes of Claro Recto, Lorenzo Tañada, Ferdinand Marcos Sr., Jovito Salonga, Raul Roco, Miriam Defensor Santiago and Juan Ponce Enrile. One need not like their politics, but one would be a bigot to deny that they were formidable in legislative debates! Today, we have the burlesque with which an entire caboodle of clowns keeps the votaries of slapstick comedy in stitches and the civic-minded, horrified!
Only the pathetically obtuse will have failed to notice that the Cayetano siblings and the perennially annoying Rodante Marcoleta were desperate to hold their rump “blue ribbon committee” hearing because they wanted rehearsed actors to read out a poorly written script that named House prosecutors in the impeachment trial, an SVD priest who has been actively engaged in attending to marginalized groups, senators on the other side of the partisan divide and political foes tagged as recipients of the now-proverbial “maletas.”
But there is a marked — and exciting — difference now. Citizens are finally taking action. They are mobilizing, and that can only be good for a nation that has been betrayed by some of its most important institutions! Cardinal Pablo “Ambo” David inspired a group composed of former International Criminal Court judge Raul Pangalangan; Fr. Daniel Pilario, a Vincentian priest who is also a professor of moral theology and the president of Adamson University; Carlos Conde; Al Fuertes; and Dr. Raquel Fortun to constitute an independent “Truth Commission.” Its work will precede the trial of former president Rodrigo Duterte at The Hague and will presumably aid in the accurate and vetted fact-finding documentation of the murders and disappearances of a mind-boggling number of hapless Filipinos when the supposed “war on drugs” was waged with impunity! It will, we can expect, also point to the culpability of others who may now be in hiding, and those still entrenched in positions of power.
Then there is a group of academics, lawyers, civic organizations and civil society groups who have formed “Bantay Senado,” launched at De La Salle University, that claims the cooperation of 350 members and will devote itself to public education campaigns and, as its name suggests, to watch over the integrity of the impeachment trial of the vice president that has been put off for so long.
Recently, a group of law deans and professors of law from all over the country, canon lawyers and professors of political and legal theory issued statements urging the Senate to proceed posthaste with the trial and alerting the citizens to not-too-subtle attempts to delay if not derail it. Recently, this same group issued a widely cited paper on the Senate leadership in the wake of Cayetano’s refusal to budge and his really shameful grip on power. Having expressed their intention to provide legal information and enlightenment, as well as to oversee the impeachment trial, explain procedural and evidentiary matters, call attention to moral imperatives and then come up with an independent citizens’ verdict after the reception of evidence, the group was convened by Archbishop Socrates Villegas, who made clear that the deans and professors would remain an independent non-sectarian group of experts in juridical science and political and moral theory, driven only by conscience, the moral obligation to champion justice, the Constitution and the laws. This group includes retired justice Adolf Azcuna, former UP law dean Pacifico Agabin, former dean Tony La Viña of the Ateneo School of Governance; dean Jemy Gatdula of the University of Asia and the Pacific Law School; dean Ada Abad of Adamson University Law School; dean Sol Mawis of the Lyceum of the Philippines University School of Law; Monsignor Gary Formoso, and over 30 law deans and professors from all over the country. I am part of this group, and I proudly represent San Beda University’s Graduate School of Law.
These citizens’ initiatives make one thing clear: There are Filipinos who are no longer willing to be victimized by those who wield power, who use it without compunction to lie and perjure their way into holding on to it, who engage in every subterfuge to protect their friends and slur their enemies. There are Filipinos who will no longer stand by as the institutions of government and the guarantees of a regime of law are bastardized.
rannie_aquino@sanbeda.edu.ph
rannie_aquino@csu.edu.ph
