Disoriented once again

Political maturity remains elusive for many Filipinos. This handicap is most visible among the influential and powerful personalities who are used to defining outcomes in this country.

Thus, on the issue of impeaching yet another public official, well-known faces now grace public rallies that seek to stall or, better still, abort processes mandated by the Constitution. Instead of allowing for due process to take its course in establishing the innocence or culpability of a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court charged with impeachable offenses, these personalities would substitute their personal assessments of the public official’s probity, trustworthiness and overall credibility. They would be judge and jury of any complaint against that public official, not the constitutional agencies specifically-mandated to undertake this critical task.

Instead of demanding a legal resolution of possible constitutional infirmities that might attend a House resolution to impeach a public official – this in view of the fact that an earlier attempt to impeach the Chief Justice and some of his judicial colleagues had not prospered and the current move to impeach the former occurs within an arguably legally prohibited period – critics concentrate on impugning the motivations of those who had voted to impeach the Chief Justice. Mercenary considerations and political partisanship. among others, are charged by these people in their willful attempt to abort the process of impeachment.

Additionally, there are those who argue that allowing for impeachment and the ensuing Senate trial of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court would provoke a constitutional crisis undermining the economic and political viability of this country in the eyes of foreign investors. This colonial orientation that puts a premium on how foreigners regard the Philippines ahead of how Filipinos themselves regard their country is used to justify why people must avoid confronting their seamier realities and possibly resolving their serious and long-standing difficulties. The full argument would have Filipinos believe that if foreigners were to believe in the Philippines, everything would be alright and this country’s crises – and crises-to-be – would be all that much more manageable.

The process of exacting accountability from any public official is deemed vital in any democratic or democratizing regime. Thus, a procedurally correct move to impeach an official has to be given due course by those tasked by the Constitution to look into his/her public accountability. Even as people might suspect that the motivations of those who vote to impeach are less than honorable – in this time of election fever, as being driven by partisan or "politicking" considerations – the impeachment process must not be derailed, stalled or aborted. Regardless of political and personal motivations, there remains an imperative need to ensure that legal and constitutional processes do operate and that these processes are not encumbered even by the best intentions of those who mistake themselves to be the only patriots in this benighted land.

Chief Justice Davide, properly concerned with the serious repercussions of a possible Senate impeachment trial on constitutional relations involving Congress and the judiciary in the present instance, nevertheless appears to understand two crucial truths. The first is political in nature and reflects on how democratic institutions and processes are strengthened, or weakened as the case may be. He seems to give credence to the idea that one does not strengthen the structures and processes of Philippine democracy by short-circuiting or aborting them. Due process is a most crucial element in institution-building, in fortifying the nation’s initially fragile structures so that over time they are transformed into enduring institutions.

While due process does not guarantee that the results would be to a nation’s long-term interests or to it’s short-run liking, it does increase the probability that it might eventually be governed by credibly performing institutions, those that effectively circumscribe the activities of its democratic authorities. More than anything else, due process makes it less likely for a nation to suffer structures of governance that are highly permeable to and readily manipulable by anti-democratic elites.

Chief Justice Davide also appears to acknowledge yet another truth, a highly personal one that people truly concerned with integrity cannot and will not waive. Without the full process of impeachment being served, minus a credible Senate trial that establishes his innocence beyond reasonable doubt, his personal integrity will forever harbor a question mark.

This is probably the reason why Chief Justice Davide has said he will not settle for so-called win-win solutions being crafted by resourceful politicians. For him, it is full vindication as the Supreme Court Chief Justice or nothing. For a man of his temperament, justice must be served though the heavens break.

Those who would deny him an impeachment trial does not do him a favor. Disoriented, they fail to see the extraordinary need of this extraordinary man.