EDITORIAL - Pride comes before the fall

For no greater reason than pride, the justice committee of the House of Representatives defied a lawful Supreme Court order and, in so doing, succeeded in further undermining an already fragile constitutional order in the land.

Voting 33-14 with one abstention, the justice committee decided to proceed hearing two impeachment complaints against Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, defying a Supreme Court order temporarily stopping the proceedings while it heard a Gutierrez motion contesting the complaints.

The Constitution is clear: "No impeachment proceedings shall be initiated against the same official more than once within a period of one year." But Gutierrez faces two — one filed by Risa Baraquel, another by Bayan — although it is difficult to distinguish one from the other.

Gutierrez went to the Supreme Court for constitutional protection. But as the court tried to assess the merits of her case, Bayan leader Renato Reyes managed to convince most justice committee members that while there are two impeachment complaints, they are being heard as one.

Given the willingness of the committee to even hear such a limp and stupid argument, it would not be surprising if it actually hears a million impeachment complaints in one proceeding, thereby effectively reducing a critical constitutional process into a buy-one-take-one deal.

But why is the justice committee so willing to embark on something so patently wrong and dangerous? Because most of its members feel so important and self-righteous. The almighty cannot accept being told what to do. Their pride gets wounded so.

Yet this is not about Gutierrez. She is just one more unfortunate soul in a grim and sorry landscape. This is about respecting wise and time-honored processes that keep the fabric of society together and without which that society can quickly unravel into anarchy and disorder.

But you do not expect people whose concept of democracy is authority wielded directly by their hands, instead of through institutions whose fairness makes them unpredictable in that things can swing one way or the other depending on what the truth dictates.

Right from the start, the marching order has been to get Merceditas Gutierrez by whatever cost. If by whatever cost is meant sacrificing even the Constitution, the foot soldiers will have no qualms doing that, as the unfolding events have clearly shown.