“Menage a trois demission”

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales will not resign, either in earnest, or just to humor President Duterte, who challenged her and Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno to join him in resigning their posts together, a sort of, in bastardized French, “menage a trois demission” minus the sex. By all indications, neither will Sereno, and for that matter, even Duterte himself.

If Carpio and Sereno are what Duterte accuses them of –being alleged stooges of unseen hands trying to undermine him and his government– then resigning will only defeat the purpose of their being what Duterte says they are. On the other hand, if they are innocent and Duterte is wrong, resigning only serves to reward foolishly a grievous wrong and a barefaced lie.

Duterte is not going to resign as well, especially if it only gives Antonio Trillanes the satisfaction of seeing his unsubstantiated allegations succeed. There is absolutely no reason for him to do so. There is nothing in all the allegations made against him so far that he cannot successfully defend. They only appear to be tough and troubling because of the consistency of the accompanying noise being generated.

But the truth of the matter is main accuser Trillanes has got all his goods in reverse. He accuses Duterte of amassing millions upon millions in unexplained wealth but can do nothing more than demand for Duterte to sign a bank waiver to incriminate himself. Since when has the burden of proof shifted to the accused? This guy truly hasn’t got all his marbles in the same pocket. Last I heard, the accused is still presumed innocent, and the burden of proof still remains with the accuser.

One cannot blame Trillanes, though. In the topsy-turvy world of a former coup plotter, any means is necessary to achieve an end. This is apparent in another attempt to get at another enemy, Richard Gordon, one of his own colleagues in the Senate. To get at Gordon, Trillanes threatened to move for the ouster of the Senate president, Koko Pimentel, who he believes is standing in his way. He is a scary guy, this Trillanes. He is even scarier than Duterte.

At least with Duterte, he is just an incendiary speaker, scary to listen to, but that is that. For all the threats he has made, he has acted on none of them. And it is still now safer to walk our neighborhoods, even at night. Sleep now comes and comes better than, say, as late as a year before. And despite all the noise from Trillanes, the report in last Wednesday’s papers was that the Philippine stock market posted historic highs on sustained investor confidence and optimism.

It would appear then that nobody is taking Trillanes seriously, even at the Senate. A video clip of him giving a privilege speech on Tuesday showed a lot of empty chairs where other senators normally would have been. The only other warm bodies seen were a few people in the gallery. A word of caution, though. I am not absolutely sure if no other senators were really there to listen. This observation is based solely on what the news footage showed on TV.

Thus I see no reason for Duterte to resign, or for Carpio and Sereno to take him seriously and resign as well. I am not saying they would, but it would be a great tragedy if the two ladies take Duterte at his word and resign, and then find out he himself won’t. That would be a big ha ha. Sure, Duterte has lately been quick to rant and rave, more than he usually would. But don’t tell me you have not encountered a 72-year-old. In the end, it’s not what he does, but what he doesn’t do.