Is impeachment really a tool for subjugation?
The sovereign Filipino people, acting through their duly-elected representatives in Congress, can withdraw their confidence from the Comelec chairman, the chief justice, the ombudsman, or even the president, and other impeachable officials. And withdrawal of confidence is done through, among others, the constitutional process of impeachment. But the perennial obstructionists are pointing fingers at Malacañan. The biased media and the self-righteous critics, including the reds, the yellows and the other shades in the rainbow oppositionists are blaming the president for these upsurges of impeachment initiatives.
I beg to disagree. It is my firm determination that, if Congress impeaches the Comelec chairman or the chief justice and the ombudsman, it is not President Duterte who is subjugating other high public officials. It is the people acting through their own deputies in the Lower House. I am not naive or a paid apologist. But I have a feeling the president does not control Congress entirely. Five of his appointees were rejected by the Commission on Appointments. Perfecto Yasay of DFA, Gina Lopez of DENR, J. Taguiwalo of DSWD, R. Mariano of DAR, and J. Ubial of Health were rejected by the Commission on "Disappointments." And the CA is an institution within the two Houses of Congress.
As the head of PDP-Laban, the party of the Pimentels that adopted then Mayor Duterte, he has little control over the representatives. The party system in our country is a hasty and chaotic coalition of political opportunists, (where Erap, GMA, and the Marcoses are, for the heck of it, aligned for convenience) a ragtag tactical alliance of trapos, who are not united by ideology, much less by principle. The president cannot even order this guy, Bebot Alvarez, how much more a hundred or so members of Congress to vote and impeach some officials. The president cannot even make Alvarez kiss and make up with Congressman Floirendo and both presidential buddies and fellow kingpins from the glorious turfdom of Davao.
I don't believe that, given the psyche and the quality of our solons today, they can be made the rubber stamp of Malacañan. This is not, of course, a compliment to their independence, but a critique on their fixation only on one indubitable principle of opportunism: self-interest. There are few good men in Congress, yes, but there are no more Salongas, Tolentinos, Tañadas, Laurels, or Rectos (well, yes, there is a Recto in the Senate but he is not Claro). And so, don't humor me by saying that impeachment is Duterte's tool for subjugation. Not this Congress. Not this president. Not this time.
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