Foolish (nay, devious) ideas from idle minds

For the purpose of writing this column today, I researched for an explanation of the popular saying “an idle mind is the devil's workshop". The internet says that “When someone is not engaged in constructive activities, he is more likely to entertain unproductive, negative, or harmful thoughts”. However, a variation to this proverb reads “the idle mind is a forest of foolish ideas".

I prefer to use the variation to apply to what our honorable senators have done to the articles of impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte Carpio. Let me first tackle the “idle mind” part of the quotation. The senators themselves made their minds idle. Let us consider that according to Section 15, Article VI of our constitution, “The Congress shall convene once every year on the fourth Monday of July for its regular session, xxx and shall continue to be in session xxx until thirty days before the opening of its next regular session xxx”.

This provision is as clear as the sky is blue or as my college buddy, Gil Rosario, (may his soul now rest) once said “as clear as my mother is a woman.” No interpretation of this constitutional provision is needed. We just have to apply it. The senators are commanded by our fundamental law “to continue to be in session xx until thirty days before the opening of its next regular session xx”. We may then ask when is the next regular session? Our constitution itself provides the answer --the fourth Monday of July and this should be July 28, 2025. I manually counted 30 days before July 28, and I hit June 29, a Sunday, which is not a working day. So, we may consider June 27, a Friday or June 28, a Saturday to be the 30 days before July 28, 2025.

What did the Senate do at 7 P.M. of February 5, 2025? Upon motion of Senator Joel Villanueva, our honorable senators decided to dishonor and violate the constitutional commandment “to continue to be in session” as they shamelessly agreed to go on vacation until June 2, 2025. For refusing to do their legislative work for about four months, our senators’ minds were idle even if they continued to receive their salaries and other undisclosed perks.

Had not the Senate decided to violate the constitutional mandate for them “to continue to be in session”, in all probability they would not have made themselves idle and their minds probably would not have become the devil’s workshop. Why so?

At 3 P.M. of February 5, 2025, the House of Representatives transmitted the impeachment articles to Senate. According to Section 3, paragraph number 4 of Article XI of our Constitution “In case the verified complaint or resolution of impeachment is filed by at least one-third of all the Members of the House, the same shall constitute the Articles of Impeachment, and trial by the Senate shall forthwith proceed.” On one hand, we have read our scholars on the Constitution, leading jurists and acknowledged academicians assert that the word forthwith means immediate. The seeming majority of our countrymen agree with that position. In other words, the constitution commands upon the Senate to commence the trial upon receiving the impeachment articles.

On the other hand, I have not heard from any of the intellectuals in our midst or for that matter from anyone claiming that forthwith is synonymous with delay. Only the devil will have the audacity to argue that black is white or if we have to transpose this last statement we can say only the devil can claim that forthwith means to delay.

With the success of the senators getting idle, their minds subsequently developed such foolish if not devious ideas as remanding to the Lower House the articles of impeachment and in considering the articles as de facto dismissed as if they are not judges but defense lawyers themselves. Grabeha!