More reason to impeach now

All eyes are naturally on Noynoy Aquino these days. But don't lose sight of little sister Kris as well. She has a history of springing sordid little surprises that distract public attention from big brother who must now be wishing he could simply disappear.

Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make crazy. Now, I would not go so far as to say Noynoy is going crazy. But anyone in his situation today would be at his wit's end figuring out how to extricate himself from the corner to which he has yellow-painted himself.

Ah, yellow. In yet another indication that Noynoy might be losing it, he has called on his fans to come out and wear yellow ribbons to manifest their undying love for him. Doesn't Noynoy read the news? Didn't anyone even tell him that the very day before, all surveys showed his ratings have plummeted precipitously?

To be sure, not all his fans will abandon him. There is still too much DAP to go around. In fact there must still be billions of it to dispense in good faith. But I worry about those who do not need to be bribed as it is no longer the safest of times to flaunt yellowness. There are too many hungry people betrayed into anger.

Calling out the yellow army was a big mistake, born either of cluelessness or desperation. Had Noynoy not made the call, he could have continued indulging the illusion that somehow they are still out there. But by making the call, he only succeeded in placing himself in a situation where he just might actually know.

And what he will know will surely erode his power further. Indeed, right after he made the call, netizens started changing their profile pics with Philippine flags, saying they feel much prouder displaying the flag than yellow ribbons that have now come to symbolize treachery and betrayal.

So let us wait and see if the yellow army emerges from shame. In the meantime, let us not make our own mistakes. For instance, almost everybody is calling for the resignation of budget secretary Butch Abad. That is wrong. Getting rid of Abad does not punish the one person who really made the DAP possible.

Abad can walk on bended knees till they bleed to the bone, but if Noynoy does not approve what he lays out before him, nothing will happen. Abad can cry buckets of tears or swear by the lives of his children, but if Noynoy does not check the "approved" box, as in the DAP proposal, and then sign it, it is just mere paper.

In other words, the buck stops with Noynoy. He ultimately bears responsibility for everything, the biggest heist in this nation's history among them. Letting a scapegoat take the fall does not do justice to the crime and sends the wrong message to future generations of leaders in this country.

It is shameful enough that Filipinos simply stood idly by while Noynoy did pretty much as he pleased with what is left of institutional integrity in this country. It is worse when we make the mistake of calling for the head of somebody over a responsibility that was never his to take.

We already made the same mistake once, by insisting on calling Janet Napoles the pork barrel brains when in fact it was Abad who drew up the plan. Surely you do not think Napoles, a commoner and an outsider, can summon the temerity to even suggest to any high and mighty senator or congressman a criminal plan.

That mistake made us focus on Napoles, who is just a mere facilitator and conduit, thereby allowing the real culprit, the real brains of it all, to escape. And now we are focusing once more on another wrong person in Abad, who may have planned the DAP, but did not have the authority and power to give it life.

That authority and power belongs to Noynoy. And he exercised it without the least hesitation, without the slightest compunction that he was placing the national interest in extreme jeopardy. If there is anyone whose head must fall, it is Noynoy.

I shudder to think that Noynoy's plain inability to consider the serious implications of his actions, actions that gnaw deep at the heart of our institutional foundations, can cause this country to collapse in a constitutional mess much earlier than his own two remaining years are up.

Noynoy must therefore be impeached, not so much with a mind toward his actual removal, as that may never happen with the DAP still alive and kicking after Noynoy thumbed his nose at the Supreme Court. Rather, he must be impeached to assert the fact that institutions are far stronger than people, be they justices. [email protected]